(Methodist Times, London, Eng.)

Christmas is the festival of Peace. Peace is truly the meaning of Christ's coming. Christmas is the birthday of the Prince of Peace. He brought. in those far- off days, Peace to the seeking shepherds, to the Magi, and to His tired Mother. He brings, at this Christmas, Peace to tired one. and to all seekers. He gives us Peace,

- because He comes as a little child.

calling us away from ' our strifes and enmlties, and making us all one as we bow before the manger. W. B- Yeats has sung to us of the Isle of Innisfree, where “Peace comes dropping slow." It is that isle we yearn to find. We can find it as Bethlehem, whither we are all wending at this time.

But the journey is so long, and it is so perplexing to find the way. We are in the midst of great commercial depression. There are more than two million unem- ployed. There are heart-breaking anxieties in countless homes, and the burden of life is ior a great number, almost intolerable. Many men and women are at the break- ing-polnt. There are private griefs which are as tragic as public ones. Pleat has invaded so many lives. and brought with it its train oi tenors. Many who are drawing near to this Christmas feel as if they were standing shivering in the cold outside the lighted hall of life. It is to such that Christmas may mean most, for it is the festi- val of the One who was not want- ed. "There was no room for Him in the inn." Christmas is not the high-day of the prosperous, but rather of the dislnherlted; it is the festival of the lonely and the de- splsed.

Thomas Hardy tells us in his poem. “The Oxen," if someone told him that on Christmas Eve, at twelve o'clock, the oxen in the barton were on their knees,

“I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so."

The Christmas message tells us not of a hope. but of a certainty. We can travel through the gloom to the stable lit with the heavenly light. We can see not only the oxen kneeling, but also the Heav- enly Child who gives to all who find Him the gift of Peace. Wil- liam Watson, that truly great "poet-who is rich, even in his penury-—sings oi Wordsworth-

Rest! ’twas the gift he gave; and Peace! the shade He spread. for spirits fevered with the sun.

That was, indeed the gift of Jesus. We hear the refrain of it in the angel's song, and the very air this Christmas will vibrate to that message. The faces will tell us oi it,- Christmas will sing of it; the red pillar boxes loaded with letters will smile on us, and warm our hearts with the message of Peace; the very Christmas cards on the mantelplece will chant the same song. There will be the melody oi Peace in our lovely carols; our voices will lose their stridency and speak tenderly of Peace; the news- papers and the wireless will call to us to leave our quarrels and be at peace one with another. We shall all conspire together to hush the din and noise oi human strife, and to hear the music of the white birds oi Peace.

When we are tempted to speak the unseasonable word, some Bob Cratchit within us will force back the harsh speech by saying the

magic words Christmas Day. Christmas, will bring to us greet- ings, merry messages, gifts. and we shall feel peaceful-but even then may be strangers to true Peace. We cannot escape the charm of Christmas. but we may not hear its deepest music. If we merely push down our enmities into for- getfulness, when we have passed Christmas they will return with greater fury than before. We must not repress them, but sublimate them. It is not enough to drive out the remembrance g from our thoughts of those with whom we have quarrelled; we must givo our enemies a place in our love. It is only thus that we find the Manger \ and the Child- Iet us drop our dignity, it is worth nothing, and let us seek to be reconciled to our foes. Let us take the first step to reconcili- ,ation, pay the first visit, writer the first letter. It is thus that. we draw near to Bethlehem. Christ- mas then will nct speak oi a pass- ing emotion, but of a change in our dispositions. Then the bells of Peace will rock and ring in our_ hearts. Iet us think oi those we know who have passed through the fires of sorrow, and let us show our remembrance by some act oi iove. There are the needy, the hungry, the lonely. By our service to them we reach the Bethlehem oi Peace. We need something beyond holly and mistletoe crackers, and the gay Christmas meal. These all speak of Christmas; but not in these alone do we find the Christmas Peace, Let us get out of ourselves, and our little round oi selfishness, and let us give ourselves to those who need us most. The Child oi Bethlehem calls to us and says:

Who gives himself with his aims feeds three, l Himself, his hungering neighbour,

and Me.

There are many forces inlmicai to peace in the world today. There ' are those who love to create sus- piclons and misunderstandings; who set class against class, na- tion against nation. There arc those who, by demanding security (the polite word for dominance). help to bind the nations to the blood-stained chariots of war- In this way they can keep the bal- ance of power, but not the balance of love-_ We need to find the better way, the Peace of the Child who was born in a manger. We have too long token the human way. It is human to fight, says the world, so wars must be. It is human to hate, so let us hate. It is human to demand security, so let each nation look to its own safety and think in terms of itself. Our hu- man passiom still plead for the old Pecksniffian hypocrlsies. That way madness liesl The Bethlehem way is the divine and true way to Peace. It tells of strength wrap- ping itself in weakness; it speaks of a. child-like humility, and of a love that knows no limits. “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich." That is the meaning of ‘Christmas. Let us gaze at the Child, and kneel down and adore Him. There, and there only, shall we truly learn that the Love oi the Child can

" heal the broken-hearted and teach us tha-t:

Rest! ‘Twas the gift He gave; and Peace! the shade

He spread, for spirits fevered with the sun.

—-W. BARDSLEY BRASH.

'A Recipe for Wassail

IN OLDEN days a wassall bowl was always served on Christmas Eve, being brought into the ban- queting hall with great pomp and ceremony.

The more expensive wassalls were made with wine and eggs, but the following recipe makes an es- pecially nice drlnk:--

Put 4 oz. of castor sugar into a bowl. pour over half a pint of warm beer, add half a grated nut- meg and half a teaspoonful of ground ginger. two wine glassfuls of sherry and two to three more pints of beer. Stir well and, if ne- cessary, add more sugar.

Cover for three hours, then add three slices of lemon and two slices oi thin toast.

sans cup:

Father Christmas, Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas, to give him some of his names, who is sup- poszd to come down the chimney and fill the children's stockings, is well-known in every country. The name Santa Claus is really s cor- ruption of St. Nicholas, the guard- ian and patron saint of children, who gave secret presents to needy youngsters.

Just a S wile or Two

"And how are you and your hus- band going to spend your Christ- mas holiday?" the old lady asked.

"Our plans so far are tentative."

"What! You're surely not camp- ing out in this wintry weather?"

"There, darling, look what a nice Christmas present I've bought for you-the latest type of radiogram. Cheap, too, only a pound a month."

"Really. How many months?"

"Gracious! I forgot to ask."

Corporation ernployee--"Merry Christmas,‘ sir. I'm the man wot empties yer dustbin!"

Houscholder-"Merry Christmas to you, too. I'm the man that fills it for you."

"Christians, Awake," was being sung as a. carol, when a window was raised and a. voice said-"Go away. Ve vas not Christians, and ve vas not asleep."

Mother-"Which would you like for Christmas, Effie-a little girl doll or a little boy doll?" Effie- "Please, can I have twins?"

“The butcher offered me his hand this morning, daddy." "The scoundrell How dare he " "He tried to sell it to me with the turkey, but I made him take it off the scales."

Slow Waiter-Have you ordered anything, sir?

Disgusted Dlner-Well. I asked for Christmas, pudding. but that was so long ago you'd better bring me a hot-cross bun!

Farmer Giles and his wife were travelling in a tramcar on their first visit to London. The farmer's wife soon complained that she was feeling sick.

"For goodness sake, woman," said the farmer, "don't ‘ee be slek ‘ere. The notice says they fine ‘ee forty shillin's if ‘ee spits."

Rich little girl, on seeing some poorly clothed children pass-Poor little things. I don't suppose they can afford s nurse-only a mother.

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The Christmas shopping days oi the ’90's—they fell in an age, as some wise-crack has remarked. "of more bustle than hustle," and we did our Christmas shopping later than we have been taught to do it now, quite close to Christ- mas day itself, in fact.

That is, we may have ~indulged our leisure and waited until the last minute to tardily and frant- ically load up on our actual gift- buying, but there was a certain portion of the shopping that had to do with our Christmas prepar- ations that had to be doneearly —quite early. '

These were the day when, by early October the lamps were lit and supper done and well out of the way by six o'clock. and when the family settled itself down to a long evening oi varied occu- pation. The boys and girls dis- posed themselves around the din- ing room table, cleared oi its long white cloth and bare of covering. and beneath the hanging lamp or under the brand new electric chandelier busled themselves with lessons. Father took the news- paper and retreated to an easy rocking-chair and a quiet corner of the sitting room and was soon lost to all but the doings oi the

‘day in the world without.

Mother Starts Early

But Mother, who customarily concentrated 0n the perpetual pile of stockings with their per- petual need 0i darning, began by this season of the year to side track so prosaic a task. and Oc- tober would find her sitting of an evening in her low armless rocker beside her work table, surrounded by a gay conglomeration of bits of colored silks and satins and vel- vets, lengths of bright ribbons, skelns of embroidery silk and balls of yarn, wooden embroidery hoops, steel and wooden knitting needles. spools oi Barboufs lace thread and "crochet cotton," reels oi lace braid and steel crochet hooks and her tatting shuttles. For most of the Christmas presents were made at home and by hand four decades ago. and as the great day itself came nearer, even the children caught the contagious frenzy for gift-making. hurried the school work through, and then set to work with wax and wishbone and bits ‘of colored felt to fashion a few pen-wipers intended to thrill one's aunts and teachers Christ- mas morning, and to grace their desks the new year through. Then next year's model in pen-wipers, perhaps a miniature glove or mit- fen of felt, would replace the wish- bone dol! of this season whose voluminous skirts supplied pro- vision for keeping clean the pens of steel or gold which penned the letters of the period which were of frequent writing and always hand-penned.

Conversion of Yarns

Mother's pile of bright materials took on size and increased in var- iety as November stretched into December. and, when many skeins oi yam had been converted into fascinators or shoulder capes, af- ghans or “nice thick wool socks" for Father and Grandfather and the uncles, when the last of the mittens had been knitted and mysteriously whisked out of sight right under the noses of the very boys and girls for whom they were intended, when all the baht; of the family and neighborhood had been re-booted, re-sacqucd and provided with knitted dollies, then the winter evening industry took the more frivolous turn.

Then came into play the silks and the satins, the fragrance of sachet powder (for everything was daintily scented in those days). the fine linens and laces, and there were evolved such stock oi cases for gloves and handkerchlefs, fine lace kerchiefs themselves. hand-hemstitohed and full-ruffled with lace, dainty aprons of ldwn and organdy, or dimlty. 11111011 cloths, doilies, pillow slips, towels, fine dainty dresses for dolls. deli- cate baby garmentings and. the like as would delight ‘the heart 0! today's gift shop proprietor, To- do the gift shop dealing in these ar oles of hand work is substitute for. the’ labor the home and the ubiquitous church bazaar that ev- ery Christmas season demanded in the days of the '90's.

pour Dressed at Home

"Dolls, to be quite satisfyinl W particular little’ girls, were alwai‘! dressed at home; but dolls fine enough to suit the young ladies could never be made at home. of course, so dolls were one of the important items of 1 tmfl! shopping that went down on the preparations list early in the aut- umn. In was a common practice, too, for and the to visit' otoirlphfl lbw the time of the yes!‘- that I'M-he!‘ might be with s. new photo of his family among his

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Christmas Joys. And Mother might drop in at the Jewelers and select a watch charm, a locket or little ring, napkin rings of silver- things that would have to be aa- graved before their giving; and this meant early shopping.

_ But the great item of the real shopping, left until the last days close to Christmas day itself. was the toys. These we're the bulk of sessonable stock brought out for the holiday displays both in the small towns and the cities, large and small- The thrill that came once in a lifetime had its first in- spiratlon every winter when the city papers carried their first an- nouncements that Santa Claus had come into the stores, and offered in evidence their advertisements of toys—dolls, drums, horns, black- boards, rocking horses. magic lan- terns, steam engines, furniture for children and for dolls. and such delights that set aclamci- the household with the scribbling of letters and lists for Santa Claus. and the eagerness to visit him and see for ones self all these alluring things.

So, some time in December. af- ter Thanksgiving was over, there would come a Saturday when Mother and an aunt would get s. little group of youngsters together

Christmas Carolers Welcome Everywhere

ERE COME the Carolers.

So it used to be. Young faces pressed against the windowpane ‘straining to hear the cheerful car- ols outside. Perhaps it was the story of the Christ child put to tune or a ballad of love and cheer. When the singers were done the householder invited them in for a bite and a sup or gave them a coin or two for their. song.

Then on to the next house to sing again under the stars or veil- ed ‘Jehnd sifted snow.

And then in the early morning. home again to their own firesides-

It was s. good old custom, this midnight minstrelsy in the season of peace and goodwill. "With the beginning of Yuletide twelve days before Christmas day as Percival Chubb tells us in the standard published in New York by the Am- erican Ethical Union, "small bands of musicians went the rounds and in the mire or on the road or on the steps, played the old folk tunes as a lyrical prelude to the great day. To some of the antique ballad airs, like “Good King Wen- ceslaus," says Mr. Chubb, the sing- ers would add a hymn tune or two-“Once in David's Royal City," or “Hark, the Herald Angels sing." “Punctuating the bustle of domes- tic prcparation for the coming feast these ministrations in the still night gave a, breath of poetry that touched the spirit of Christ- mas with an endearing beauty. Day by day the tide of joyous an- ticipation rose, until the crescendo broke into a. forte of exuberance."

Those simple days of the folk are gone, says Mr. Chubb; the glory is departed. ‘

But the custom of making the rounds on Christmas eve to sing carols of peace and good will on earth still prevails here and there. —Literary Digest.

saflifi. Saint Nicholas And Christ's Birthday

HOIJVER SAYS there is no ' Santa Claus is mistaken.

Santa Claus, like Christ, walked this earth.

He was a man of great kindness and generosity, with a deep love for children.

Such was his hold on the hearts of the people that after he died, December 6, about 1.600 years ago, the date was set aside as a feast and gift day, in commemoration of iris life. "

His name was Nicholas. After his death folks called him Saint Nicholas.

As the feast and gift-giving day of St. Nicholas spread, the Dutch took it up. The nearest they could come to saying St. Nicholas was Santa Claus-

As time rolled on. December d. the feast day of Santa Claus. giver of gifts. and December 35. the feast (lay of Christ. giver of life. became confused in the minds of the people, and eventually the two festivals were combined. ' ‘

Thus the idea became estab- lished that on the eva of the birth .oi the Christ Child there comes out of the froaen North, sleigh and reindeeixgenisl Santa Claus, with gifts.

when persons tell children "Santa Claus brought you this." they are speaking the truth. For the spirit of Santa Claus that still

OIICO

and leave in the darkness of a cold morning for the village sta- tion and take the train to the city to “see the toys." And oh, the rap- ture merely of the trip itself! The elang and clamor of the noisy streets, the brightness of the lights along the way if the‘ day was a dark one and foggy, the glit- ter of the window's and the rap- ture of the aisles and coun where Toylsnd lay exposed to little eyes almost uncompreha ' e of such magnificence! Pew little Jaded or apathetic interests there were to deal with then, for “boughten" toys were an item sacred to the Christmas season and seldom seen in between the holidays. The ten cent store had not come into being to make toy- buying an expected item of every trip downtown.

The early ‘M's scarcely knew the mechanical toy, for electricity was only beginning to be commonly employed and the first house wir- lngs came about this time. Moth- er's ingenuity could evolve a gentleman from a stiff white cuff and bits of black velvet, and place a large marble inside him and give him impetus to send him somer- saulting down an incline, or Santa Claus could deliver a ladder of tacks and a. wooden Humpty- Dumpty that scuttled from tack to tack down the length of the ladder, but that was as near mechm‘ a! motion as the great bulk c‘ Christmas toys had ar- rived. liLt'e girls were lost to the world wh21 they surveyed the long rows cf dolls of every size and sort. and every little boy wondered Just which drum or Jack knife Santa Claus would select for llim.

Everybody Joins In

There were games. too. Games were so natural an accompani- ment to long winter evenings after the ho‘idsys that every household had a store of them, and oldars and youngsters Joined in play with them. The younger generation of that day learned its first liter- ary concepts from the game of Authors; it learned quick-think- ing with its Lotto; its geography, much of it, was easier because one frequently put together a dissect- ed map of the United States. Ev- erybody had aparcheesl board and checkers, tiddle-dee-winks and a. fish pond, its game of Old Maid and Peter coddle, and its crokinole board.

Then there were books-always a part of the children's Christmas- Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Prince and the Pauper, the Plve Little Peppers, Elsie Dinsmore, the Hor- atio Alger stories, The Wide, Wide World, a new Mother Cgose every Christmas, so long as there were little folks in the family. and the current annual issue of Chatter- box. A subscripilon to St. Nicholas always appeared at this ‘season of the year. and one to The Youthb Companion.