THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1929. A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10487, 24 December 1929, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1929. A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Once again the time has come when Christian peoples of the world celebrate the birthday of our Saviour. It is a far back cry to that first birthday 1929 years a.go, when Jesus was born in the humblest of surroundings. There is reason to be merry at Christmas, but with or without reason,

I it is the right and duty of everyI one io he merry. The outstandI ing feature of the Christmas festival is the desire on the part of everyone to do or say something to make someone else happy. Even the thrifty and the cautious person is inclined to open his j heart and purse strings as the I Christmas season draws near, | and what a perplexing business if is to suit the presents to the individual tastes. The more generous the Christmak gift, the greater Hu 1 delight of the shopkeepers, to whom a brisk busi- ' uess at Christmas goes far to i atom 1 for . the disappointments i and losses of Ihe whole year. But above and beyond all else, Christmas is the festival of the happy children who, released from the restrictions and repressions of school, fairly run riot as the Christmas holidays begin. The modern child is indeed a favoured individual, ami his privilege and (••pportunities fon enjoyment today are exceeding great and widespread. All the Christmas legends cluster round a season of snow and ice—of roaring fires and a blazing Yule log—but in New Zealand there is slowly but surely growing up Ihe new tradition of an open-air Christmas spent by fhe sea, in the bush, on the lake, or breathing the bracing mountain air. Only one thing is needed to make the Christmas of 1929 one of the merriest on record, and that is a week of fine, warm, sunshiny weather. In the thirty-three years that Christ was on earth, by His mode of life he taught the people the great doctrine of love and unselfishness. Since this doctrine was taught, the world has advanced wondrously. But one cannot but think in these days, that this doctrine has not spread in proportion to the advances civilisation has made. Still, the comparison of conditions in those days, and the conditions of today. show what love and unselfishness have done towards bringing peace and goodwill to men, and Christmas Day is, therefore, a season for greater rejoicing as the years go by. It is by linking .science with religion only, that good will result, and if these two great forces pull together they will make this world of ours what the Lord died to make it.

In the true spirit of Christmas we wLh all our readers a happy time, and may this Christinas be to one and all a period of grateful remembrance.