Show A MERRY CHRISTMAS f of all seasons of the year when jollity and good fellowship is mada manifest christmas takes the lead soon the bells will ring out and the greeting A merry christmas fall upon our ear it seems only a short time since last christmas but exactly twelve calendar months leave rolled around since tho beus proclaimed the message aa a commemoration me that christ has risen winter spring summer and autumn have come and gone and with them countless changes christmas would not appear like christmas unless we awk a lung look back and in bontem elation of the months gone by bestow some thought at least to what has taken place in the whirl of time births marriages and deaths have all taken place andich have carried with them a group of changes which are working other changes and will do so to the end of time all festivals carry with them certain associations the new year makes on think of good resolutions and better lack spring of the coming flowers and it is then that the thoughts of youth turn lightly to love midsummer mid summer means holidays commencements rambles by sua or among the mountains and autumn the harvest long evenings ind casy fi resides christmas means much more it means a proclamation of glad tidings peace and good will towards men A gathering of friends good cheer which includes BO much tle interchange of drifts rifts and reunion of uld associations is essentially a christian festival as its names implies and wherever the name of the name of the redeemer of mankind is recognized there christ mas is kept that means wherever there is the highest civilization there is christinas in our northern homes christmas is always associated with cold weather frost and snow and ice and the emblems of christmas after the crop are the holly and the mistletoe in the jungles of india the brush of australia the sandy wastes of africa and in the southern portions of our own land christmas is kept though with different surroundings everybody likes to be at home on christmas day but everybody cannot yet they can think of those at home and wish them thema a merry christmas though miles of land and sea intervene they can think of the christmas days that have gone by never to be recalled and sot to be recalled if it were possible but still like a pleasant dream the memory retains the picture growing more misty year by year yet never fading ill the curtain is rung down in the last act vast numbers of the graat human family have little to loot forward to at christmas want and misery and wretchedness are their only portion struggles to do right met with coldness and rebuffs too often and a strong sense that the worlds goods are ill divided yet while all cannot be made happy many can and one of the brightest tea anres of the merrie christmas time is to help others to be iberry too to give gifts to the poor to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and to feel as we gather around the festive board and join in the jovial song that we have raised up one poor heart and made it exclaim merry christmas |