The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea" SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1922. THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18666, 23 December 1922, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea" SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1922. THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE.

It has been well said that if Christmas had never existed something like it would have had to have been invented. There must be a time to rejoice as well as a time to mourn-; and the heart, if not the head, rejects the theory of life which does not acknowledge it, or supposes a callousness to other people’s troubles to be revealed by any display of readiness to rejoice in one’s own blessings. The aim of the sane teacher is to persuade men to laugh rightly, with a heart tuned to the real Christmas spirit. But while that spirit is essentially joyous, while centuries of happy domestic traditions, for the most part transported from the old Home Land, invite us at this season to rejoice and be glad and not unmindful of our fraternal

obligations, it is well to remember also the vital message of this worldwide Christian festival. With the coming of every Christmas, Christendom celebrates, with a sincerity instinctive, perhaps, rather than conscious, the New Hope that was born into the world well nigh two thousand years ago. Only a few short years back it seemed to many of us that the ideals which had their origin on the first Christmas night were destined to be drowned in blood. Gradually the battlefields are receding, and the wider perspective reveals with greater distinctness the havoc, social and economic, wrought by the war. Even now, though in our own fair land the clouds of depression are lifting and we are beginning to see a brighter prospect, the salutation of a “Happy Christmas!” must, in its deeper sense, be voiced rather as a prayer for the future we all desire than as a confident aspiration for the still clouded present. Real peace, at home and abroad, is still the world's most urgent need, but the happiest thought to-day is that the Great Nations are earnestly striving to make an end of strife. And that, surely, is the noblest form of international strife the mutual struggle for the attainment of universal peace. True, there is still a threatening cloud in the East. Greek and Turk and Russian Bolshevik have not yet .ceased to occasion apprehension. Yet, confident in the strength of the Christian Powers and in the sincerity of their pacific aspirations, we are to hope that we have reached the eve of the coming of peace on earth. We cannot believe that the world will retrace the steps it has taken towards the coveted goal. Although we know that great and in some cases vital problems have not yet been finally solved, the progress that has been made, and the knowledge that the desire for peace is extant among the

nations to an extent never known before, warrants the hope that the ultimate accomplishment of the grand ideal is assured. And. so, fortified by this high hope, we can hail the coming Christmas with something of our old-time enthusiasm. More than a hundred years ago Washington Irving wrote that of all the old festivals “that of Christmas awakens the strongest, the most heartfelt associations.” But it is to our own Dickens, rather than to the gifted American that we turn for a realistic pen picture of what Christmas means, and always lias meant, to British men, women and children:

Numerous indeed are the hearts to-which Christmas brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far aud wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then re-united, and meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight! How many old recollections, and how many dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken! We write these words How, many miles distant from the spot at, which, year after year, we meet on that day, a merry and joyous circle. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped have grown cold; the eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest, the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each recurrence of the seasons, as if the last assemblage had been but yesterday! Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, .thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his suiet home! Yes, to us, as to our brethren in the Motherland, Christmas remains our real “home” festival. We celebrate it 'neath summer skies, in climatic conditions which render quite unnecessary the piling up of the Yuletide logs; but its hallowed message to heart and mind and spirit remains unchanged: “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men.” Inspired by the spirit of that angelic message, it is our privilege once more to wish you all a Merry, or if you would rather have it so, a Happy Christmas.