A VILLAGE CHURCH ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 699, 25 December 1852, Page 4

A VILLAGE CHURCH ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

By Washington Irving.

While we were talking we heard the distant toll of the village bell, and 1 was told that the Squire was a little particular in having his household at Church on a Christmas morning, considering it a day of pouring out of thanks and rejoicing; for, as old Tusser observed, li At Cbrstmaa be merry, and thankful withal, Ami feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small. 1 '

" If you are disposed to go to church," said Frank Bracebridge, " I can promise you a specimen of my cousin Simon's musical achievements. As the church is destitute of an organ, he has formed a band from the village amateurs, and established a musical club for tlieir improvement; he has also sorted a cho.ir, as he sorted my father's pack of hounds, according to the directions of Jervaise Markham, in his Country Contentments; for the bass he has sought out all the ' deep, solemn mouths,' and for the tenor the -loud, ringing mouths,' among the country bumpkins ; and, for ' sweet mouths,' he has culled with curious taste among the prettiest lasses in the neighbourhood : though these last, he affirms, are the most difficult to keep in tune ; your pretty female singer being exceedingly wayward and capricious, and very Jiable to accident." On reaching the church-porch, we found the parson rebuking the grey-headed sexton for having used misletoe among the greens with which the church was decorated. It was, he observed, an unholy plant, profaned by having been used by the Druids in their mystic ceremonies ; and though it might be innocently employed in the festive ornamenting of halls and kitchens, yet it had been deemed by theFathersof the Church as unhallowed, and totally unfit forsacredpurposes. So tenacious was he on this point, that the poor sexton was obliged to strip down a great part of the humble trophies of his taste, before the parson would consent to enter upon the service of the day. The usual services of the choir were managed tolerably well, the vocal parts generally lagging a little behind the instrumental, and some loitering fiddler now and then making up for lost time by travelling over a passage with prodigious celerity, and clearing more bars than the keenest foxhunter, to be in at the death. But the great trial was an anthem that had been prepared and arranged by Master Simon, and on which he had founded great expectation. Unluckily there was a blunder at the very outset ; the musicians became flurried ; Master Simon was in a fever i everything went on lamely and irregularly until they came to a chorus beginning "Now let us sing with one accord," which seemed to be a signal for parting company ; all became discord and confusion ; each shifted for himself, and got to the end as well, or rather as soon, as he could, excepting one old chorister in a pair of horn spectacles, bestriding and pinching a long sonorous nose, who, happening to stand a little apart, and being wrapped up in his own melody, kept on a quavering course, wriggling his head, ogling his book, and winding all up by a nasal solo of at least three bars' duration. The parson gave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and ceremonies of Christmas, and the propriety of observing it not merely as a day of thanksgiving, but of rejoicing; supporting the correctness of his opinions by the earliest usuages of the Church, and enforcing them by the authorities of Theophilus of Cesarea, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and a cloud more of Saints and Fathers, from whom he made copious quotations. I was a little at a loss to perceive the necessity of such a mighty array of forces to maintain a point which no one present seemed inclined to dispute ; but I soon found that the good man had a legion of ideal adversaries to contend with ; having in the course of his researches on the subject of Christmas, got completely embroiled in the sectarian controversies of the Revolution, when the Puritans made such a fierce assault upon the ceremonies of the Church and poor old Christmas was driven out of the land by proclamation of Parliament-* The worthy parson lived but with times past, and knew but a little of the present. Shut up among worm-eaten tomes in the retirement of his antiquated little study, the pages of old times Avere to him as the gazettes of the day : while the era of the Revolution was mere modern history. He forgot that nearly two centuries had elapsed since the fiery persecution of poor mincepie throughout the land; when plum-porridge was denounced as " mere popery," and roast beef as anti-christian ; and that Christmas had been brought in again triumphantly with the merry court of King Charles at the Restoration. He kindled into warmth with the ardour of his contest, and the host of imaginary foes with whom he had to combat ; had a stubborn conflict with old Prynne and two or three other forgotten champions of the Roundheads on the subject of Christmas festivity : and concluded by urging his hearei s, in the most solemn and affecting manner, to stand to the traditionary customs of their fathers, and feast and make merry on this joyful anniversary of the Church. I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with more -immediate effects ; for on leaving the church the congregation seemed one and all possessed with the gaiety of spirit so earnestly enjoined by theirpastor. Theelder folks gathered, in knots in the churchyard, greeting and shaking hands ; and the children ran about crying, Ule ! Ule ! and repeating some uncouth rhymes,t ■which the parson, who iad joined us, informed me had been handed down from days of yore. The villagers doffed their hats to the Squire as he passed, giving him the good wishes of the season with every appearance of heartfelt sincerity, and were.invited by him to the hall, to take something to keep out the cold of the weather ; and I heard blessings uttered by several of the poor, which convinced me that in the midst of his enjoyments, the worthy old cavalier had not forgotten the true Christmas virtue of charity.