CHRISTMAS ALL THE YEAR Truth

NZ Truth, Issue 943, 22 December 1923, Page 4

CHRISTMAS ALL THE YEAR

Truth

NEW ZBAJUAND

WELLINGTON. LUKE'S LJLNH

BRANCH OFFICES—AUCKLAND: 3 Customs-street Eaat. CH&IBTCHURCH: 103 Gloucester-Street. DUNEDIN: 111 Stuart-street. AUSTRALIA—SYDNEY: 112 King-street. NEWCASTLE: Scott-street. MELBOURNE: 244-0* Little Lonsdale-Street BRISBANE: 215-217 Adelaide-street. PERTH: 39-41 King-street. ADELAIDE: King William-street. j TASMANIA: Hobart ! SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1923. .

Why not the Christmas spirit all the round year? Was man made to mourn, or does he make himself a mourner? :: :: :: Early last century .Washington Irving visited England and gathered material for his sketch book, Tho most entertaining essays of the volume that resulted are those which deal with Christmas, and whioh possess a thorough tang of Mince P'es, Plum Pudding, Roast Beef, Wassail Bowl and Boar's Head. Here is really a first cousin to the feudal Christmas of Sir Roger 'do Coverley and Sir Walter. Scott, lt was Christmas as It used to be before Charles Dickens took it m hand and knocked it into shape. The humor of the Christmas morning Church service was not lost upon Irving for he recorded m his notes: "There were two or three pretty faces among the female singers, to which the frosty morning had given a bright tint; but the gentlemen choristers had been evidently chosen, Hke the Cremona fiddles, more for tone than looks; and ns several had to sing from the same book, there were clusterings of odd physiogno- , m les, not unlike those groups of cherubs we sometimes see on country tombstones. The usual services of tho choir were managed tolerably well, the vocal parts usually hanging a little behind the Instrumental, and some loitering fiddler now and then making up for lost time by travelling over a pago with prodigious celerltv, and clearing more bars than the keenest fox hunter to bo, m at the death." Tho Christmas of Dickens was something quite different. He cared nothing for the dignity and splendour of country gentlemen. But he did believe m democracy of the fireside, and the republicanism of the home. Dickens did not caro for Christmas because it was old. Had he written of its dawn and early development he would surely havo said something naßty about the mingling of Christianity and Pagan, ism. and. perhaps, something about superstition. Dickens, all his life, specialised m happiness and that is why Christmas meant so much to him. He saw that Christmas made people happy. i: «• :: "Truth" welcomes tho return of Christmas for the same reason. :: • • •• ' This paper believes that there Is as much reward coming to those who make people happy as to those who mako them holy. Few con create tholr own happiness. Constitution, station m life, frionds. enemlOH, theso things are practically thrust upon us. And we want cheerfulness not gloom. The religion of the real wowser is not religion at all. lt Is dyspepsia. If God loves a cheerful giver he must be terribly worried about those Individuals whose religion consists of wheezy harmoniums and long faces. : : : • • « Joy, cheerfulness, and gentleness, the companions of Christmas, come bofore all morality. At least wo have Robert Loulh Stevenson's word for it. None, the name writer mentions, were more moral than tho Pharisees, and yet Christ had no time for them. The moralists are a mournful lot. Christ's morality is all sympathy, theirs Is all n.igremUon. all commercialism. Christ •mvo rijj much to the beggar who had j been In the vineyard In tho cool of the ' evrnlng ax to thoac who had been then*

toiling all.day. Some Christians won't give a beggar a meal until he has chopped a cord of wood. "Truth" ponders at times over the saying of Oscar. Wilde's, that though there were Christians before Christ, unfortunately, with the exception of Francis of Assisi, there have been, none since. : '. :: :: It is iri relation to Christmas that we realise the force of Chesterton's remark that happiness Is not a state but a crisis. . The joy of th'e festive season is built on anticipation. No one saw this more forcibly than Dickens. He noticed that m each home at Christmas there was Just that joy which fills a home when a child is actually •born into it. He watched the vigils they kept, watched how expectantly they waited until midnight, when the bells rang. Then It was really Christmas. If anyone wants to prove this let him read "The Christmas Carol," "The Chimes," and "The Cricket on the Henrth." Christmas is our best legacy from days of old. It has long been the gathering time for family connections, which, since the days of childhood, have grown fewer and fewer. The family hearts feel sure of one another again. Mother is to the fore with just the sort of gravy, baked potatoes and apple pie that Norman and Peroy loved so dearly In days gone by. Father is at the top of the festive board once more and still carves with the same studied deliberation. It is one of the things worth living for. In thia country the highways are thronged each year with travellers rushing homo to enjoy Christmas under the paternal roof, and to hold the annual discussion with the Christmas dinner. At country stations citytailored men and women step -down from the trains and aro whirled away to the old homestead In buggy or "tin Lizzie." Then there is the opening of parcels, the sorting out of presents, and the thousand and one things incidental to tho Jovial season. !! :: ; s Here the dreariness and desolation of a snow -covered landscape is unknown. . To the conviviality of Christmas is added tho splendid pomp of summer, long sunny beaches, singing birds and running streams. We have no need to bring bay and holly within to decorate tho home, when the gardens are flagrant with flowers, nor Christmas carols to lllumlnato a pitchy gloom, when nights are bright and starry. :: :t '•'* This is tho season when Christ man camaraderie Is given a fair inninga, Just long enough In fact to show what a fine thing it would be were It po«---sibte for it to run tight through the year without being bowled out. Restraint is thrown aside and hospltallty is strong enough to break through tho frosts of selfishness. Politics are forgotten, and tho politicians, thank heaven, are silent. :: •: •' , That turkey bought by Scrooge was so Immense that it could not have stood upright. !• Jl ll These times more than turkeys experience that sensation at Christmas. :.* ii i» But nre not wine, wassail, and good fellowship foremost among the things which constitute the charm of a Merry Ohrtntmof?