The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1913. CHRISTMASTIDE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 97, 24 December 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1913. CHRISTMASTIDE.

Once more wo stand on the eve of ' the anniversary of the Nativity of the (treat Master, and are here—as in all other Christian lands—preparing to fittingly celebrate that characteristically Christian festival. Jt has been not inaptly said that there exists a common supposition, as the old world waxes older in knowledge and wisdom and the completer unravelling of the mysteries of life and naIture, that the sentimental color ofj our lives tends to fade, because the I strong white light of materialism appears to dim and deaden it. 'Many! old forms and ceremonies which had their origin in delusions; many old beliefs, charming enough in them-! selves hut now proved by cold, calculating science to ho without foundation ; and tunny old and beautiful courtesies which belonged to the gallants of other days, have passed out of the knowledge almost of tin* gen- ' oration of our time. Into this oblivion of the past other customs, beliefs and mayoe courtesies, will pass, I' hut. the world will he a duller place wiu'ii sentiment is altogether cast j aside to make room for tilings purely!* material. We have yet our Christ-

mas: and with it much of the grand j>iril of true goodwill remains. For near two thousand years it lias been he great day upon which—if only ’or the day—that spirit of Christianty hursts forth which moves all men o wish well to (heir fellows, in ii rim ary human fellowship, without I lionght of creed or parly. Fpder

such benign influence the hardest gives way somewhat ant! the coldest hearted thaws sufficiently under the genial atmosphere to allow perhaps just a little of the milk of human kindness to flow freely as it ought. Happily Christmas i- still unchanged in its potency for the uplifting of mankind from the pure selfishness of mere materialism, and so it remains the great and typical festival of all Christendom.

“Though times may alter and the world may change, “There’s one old custom we shall still observe in spite of all—- “ That of at this glad time remembering absent friends.”

And to them all we say: “Peace am Goodwill, ami a flight Merry Christ mastide.”