A MERRY CHRISTMAS

There may be something ironical about wishing a Merry Christmas to a nation just started in the first stage of a terrible war. Too many of our homes will find it difficult to be merry at this time; too many of us will feel the loss of friends too keenly to enter into the usual Yuletide spirit. For whether the war has directly affected our family or not, the thought of its existence is enough to make Christian enthusiasm wane a little. This will be Christmas when we can and must get away from thoughtless amusement, from that kind of jollity which is concerned only with personal pleasures. It will be more like that first Holiday nearly 20 centuries ago, when a small group of a great race rejoiced that the Messiah had come to lead them out of their troubles. We at this season will pray that our soldiers may be granted victory in this cause which is right, that peace may be with us again before another Christmas. And it can never be the same peace, an era of materialism, which we had so fondly thought blessed. If such a Christmas is not merry in itself, it will be one which looks forward to future Merry Christmases. It is one which has its spiritual side more clearly shown to us than any we have known before.