Show 5CnRISTMAS LJ 1 L V N l IILy CnRISTMASI 1P + tLo I HRISTMAS ii not only a mile mark of another year movirg us to thoughts of selfexamination it is a season from all Its associations whether domestic or religious suggesting thoughts of joy A man dissatisfied with his endeavors is a man tempted to sadness And in the midst of winter when his life runs lowest and he is reminded of the empty chairs of his beloved it is well he should be condemned to the fashion of the smiling faceRobert Louis Stevenson it it it many old recollections and how HOW dormant sympathies does the Christmas time awakenl Happy happy Christmas that can win us back to the delusions cf our childish days that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth that can transport trans-port the sailor and the traveler thousands of miles way back to his own fireside and his quiet home Fill your glass again with a merry face and contented heart Our life on it but your Christmas shall be merry and your New Year a happy one Charles Dickens it X 1 it EMEMBER that as surely as in that baby life at Bethlehem there lay the power which has run through all the world thepower which makes Judea burn like a star forever the power which has transfigured history the power which has made millions of men its joyous servants the power of the millenniums yet to be 10 surely in the humblest souls humble certainty that it does love Christ there lies enfolded all the possibility of the most perfect sainthood Phillips Brooks it it it TIT IS a good thing to observe Christmas Day DT The mere marking of times and seasons when men agree to stop work and make merry together is a wise and wholesome custom It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life It reminds a man to set his own little watch now and then by the great dock of humanity which runs on sun timeHenry Van Dyke it it itS UPPOSE a note came on Christmas Day S > saying not I send my love and best A wishes with thisspool box but I want you to know that your patience or courage or tenderness during this last year will help me to live more bravely and courageously this year What a Christmas present the receipt of such a letter would be to any one of us What a gift for any one of us to send to the human heart that has given us courage for the burden and heat of the day Margaret Deland j Kftft season of regenerated feeling the THE of kindling not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall but the genial flame of charity in the heart He who can turn churlishly away from contemplating the felicity of his fellow beings and can sit down darkling and repining in his loneliness when all around is joyful may hare his moments of selfish grad ficalion but he wants the genial and social sympathies which constitute the chum of a Merry Christmas Washington Irving iC j it Y CHRISTMAS wish for all is that My they may taste the sweetness of loveS love-S enter into the joys of friendship and know the divine beneficence of helping someone at present less fortunate than themselves In these words are we to find the living spirit of tile human and eternal Christmas TIle universal uni-versal gladness of Christmas is proportioned to the extent of its unselfishness People are happy not in what they get so much as in what they veMinot J Savage j it j ND there were in the same country shep HND abiding in the field keeping welch l 1 J over their flock by night And > o ta t sVTQti of the Land came upon them and le fcl ory of the Lord shoes around about them and they were sore afraid And the angel said unto them Fear not for behold bring 1 you good tidings of great joy which shall be td all people For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the LordFrom the Gospel of St Luke Lukeit it j itS > ANTA CLAUS remains by virtue of S > a common understanding that childhood shall not be despoiled of one of its most cherished beliefs either by the mythologist with his sun myth theory or the scientist with his heartless diatribe against superstitions He who does not see in the legend of Santa Claus a beautiful faith on the one side and the native embodiment of a divine fact on the other is not fit to have a place at the Christmas board Hamilton Wright Mabie i |