Everyman’s Hut

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 154, 23 December 1942, Page 4

Everyman’s Hut

BELLS ACROSS THE SNOW. O Christmas, merry Christmas, Is it really come again With its memories and greetings, With its joy and with its pain! There’s a minor in the carol And a shadow in the light, And a spray of cypress twining With the holly wreath to-night. And the hush is never broken By laughter light and low, As we listen in the starlight To the “bells across the snow.” O Christmas, merry Christmas, ’Tis not so very long Since other voices blended With the carol and the song! If we could but hear them singing As they are ‘singing now,. If we could but see the radiance Of the crown on each dear brow, There would be no sigh to smother, No hidden tear to flow, As we listen in the starlight, To the “belsl across the snow.” O Christmas, merry Christmas, This never more can be; We cannot bring again the days Of our unshadowed glee, But Christmas, happy Christmas, Sweet herald of good will, With holy songs of glory, Brings holy gladness still, For peace and hope may brighten, And patient love may glow, As we listen in the starlight To the “bells across the snow.” —Frances Ridley Haverga

Christmas should be season of happy gatherings, when scattered families hope to meet together for a short while before going out again to their individual tasks and responsibilities, when the cares and anxieties of everyday life are cast aside and their place taken by the goodwill and cheer linked with Christmas. But again Christmas will look upon many vacant chairs and smiling faces will hide many sorrowing hearts. Loved ones far away facing the hard-

ships and dangers of war — never to return-that we in this favoured land may celebrate the Christ Mass in peace and safety. Others have loved ones returned broken in body or mind constant reminders of the horrors from which we have been spared. To all of these, we, of Everyman’s Hut, desire to express our gratitude and sympathy for sacrifices made and being made, and to offer our sincere prayer that, in the mercy of God, the time may not be far distant when He can cause this war to cease, and our loved ones will be able to return home. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards men” was the message of that first Christmas. hTe world had wandered far from these ideas, but God is still offering the greatest Christmas gift of all time for “. . . unto us a Child is born,” “unto us a Son is given” At the close of this another year, we extend to all our best wishes for a brighter year to come and a speedy return of peace.