The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1926. CHRISTMAS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 24 December 1926, Page 4

The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1926. CHRISTMAS.

Once more we have arrived on i the threshold of Christmas —that > great season of reconciliation, when enmities are forgotten, when the Christian peoples of the world, banishing the animosities and diff--5 erences which may have driven them asunder during the preceding twelve months, give expression by words r and deeds to those finer sentiments which should always be characteristics of the great human family, but I which unfortunately are not. The , softening and forgiving influences which it brings every successive twelve months are invaluable, making mankind distinctly more happy, and giving us a glimpse of what the world would be were the same spirit, of goodwill not transitory, but a permanent attribute of the human race under all conditions. Would that the Christmas atmosphere were to extend throughout the whole year! Then indeed would this be a glad world. At the Christmas season the usual indifference to the welfare, of others gives way to genuine solicitude. It produces a spirit of real brotherliness to be found at no other season. But it must be allowed that the effect of discarding gloom and looking at the bright side of things which is ever incidental of the Christmas season does not cease with the passing of the festive season. Although perhaps the intensity of the spirit of real brotherhood weakens nercep tibly as the Christmas season recedes into the distance, it cannot be said that its softening and humanising influences are ever entirely eradicated; even when the following Christmas arrives there still remains in our composition certain beneficial effects of the spirit engendered by the previous one. Thus through the ages the attitude of man towards his fellows is unconsciously influenced by the season oi goodwill, when the human race draws closer, when bitterness and uncharitableness are eschewed—when man meets man as brothers. We believe if the people of the world were to make an earnest effort to continue the true Christmas spirit throughout the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, the world would be infinitely better than it is to-day. We would be well on , the way to the millennium, which ■ is the goal of the idealist. But human nature appears to be an insoluble problem. We should, however, j be thankful for the annual inter- j vention of the new spirit, which / ever marks the Christmas season. It. is a foretaste of the better world ] that may yet evolve from that of r to-day. Sb, in the spirit of the sea- g son, we extend to our readers, our correspondents and our advertisers our best wishes for A Merry Christ- ( mas and A Happy and Prosperous c New Year.