THE COLONIST PUBLISHED DAILY-(MORNINGS). NELSON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1889. CHRISTMAS.

Colonist, Volume XXXII, Issue 5685, 24 December 1889, Page 3

THE COLONIST PUBLISHED DAILY-(MORNINGS). NELSON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1889. CHRISTMAS.

Song and story and picture combine to impress on our minds a conception of Christmas sadly at variance with the rude truths of life, indeed, wnat is still more open: to reproof, calculated to suggest doubifnl morality, and assuredly not in harmony with the life and teaching of him after whom this season is called. The praise of the wassail bowl; the gloating descriptions of savory meats in endless v, *iety and boundless profusion; the ex Station in animal delight ; the gl« rifioation of youth, and e'vength, and beauty; in short, submission to the pagan iojuntion i-r- v Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow ye die." Sach is an unprejudiced summary ot | the bulk of Orietmas literature, and of the practice of multitudes of those olaimI ing to be Christians. The herald augels, I who proclaimed the advent of the Prince of Peace, announced no sash doctrine. The Man of Borrows, the meek and lowly, might not disdain the society of publicans and sinners, nor the use of those gifts bountifully bestowed by the Almighty Father, but he never uttered a word to encourage, or to palliate the wrong of even one hour of riotous living. If we desire to model our lives on his precepts, and so to prove our right to rank among his followers, our longings must be foe something that the festive gathering, "the halls of dazzling light" cannot famish, do not teach. lastead of eagerness to partake with the gay and rich in scenes of joy, remembrance of what be did would send us among those bowad down with care, the mourners, the poor, the sick. The Advent of him whose entrance on the trials of this mortal life is celebrated to-morrow, was never meant to be the beginning of delights to the individual. Nay. it was to be the end of selfishness, for which was to be substituted sacrifice for others Differing in this from every other religious system that has for a time, less or greater, enthralled the minds of men, this was to produce, not selfrenunciation for the benefit, here or hereafter, of the disciple, but of the stranger, the wrong-doer, of all snfferiag from ill 3 produced by themselves, as well as from those inflicted by others or commonly deemed unavoidable. The Advent celebrated at this season, is the death of egoism, the birth of altruism. Forgetfulness of self in uare for others. The fleeting pleasures of sense are under a multitude of names and disguises exalted in ordinary speech and writing, and the sacred name of Christmas is taken in pain to cloak the odious imposture. There are potentialities of delight in ministering to the wants of the less fortunate children of the Universal Father that all the joys wealth can buy, age, even with health and youth added, can never rival. Though he after whom this season is named, never taught his .followers to go mourning all their days, nor to refuse modest participation in what might oomfort the animal part of their nature, he never oeaseJ to show them how vain it is to hope for permanent peace if our fellow-creatures are left uacared for ia sickness, unfed iv poverty, undefended in oppression. Unconsciously the human race as a whola sooner or latter avenges the w.ongs of the individual, foremost among those wrongs being neglect—the withholding of personal sympathy. In all ages Christmas has brought with it some striking lesson, though hardly ever since the Advent of its founder anything so promising, so threatening as it does this year., The gods of the heathen may be no more worshipped under their ancient names, yet the powers that underlie the former myths dominate as many a3 ev?r. Self sacrifice, a pure-minded devotion to the welfare of others averted not long since a break-down in our boasted civilization. Mammon waa subdued by the exercise of the virtues characteristic of this season. - In many lands the deliveranoa of similar victims depends on the same forces coming into the field. The future,of the woild awaits the realisation of the teaohiog of this time, and there is the sole possibility that all may have, as is our ardent and peculiar wish for friends and readers A MERRY CHRISTMAS,