Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1892 — MERRY CHRISTMAS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

May It Ever Continue to Be • Season of Joy. Mrs. Jordan.

ERRY CHRISTmas!” cries the shivering urchin at your door, as he rubs his chilled hands to keep them from freezing. “Merry Christmasl" says your smiling and opulent friend, as he buttons his

comfortable cloak more clos.ly about his form; Will it ever cea.e to be the most musical key of greeting te unlock the door of affection and generosity? Shall we ever cea>e to associate it with warmth and comfort and blazing fires in broad chimneys and merry groups of children, and somewhere the branch of green in memory of the never dying love of Him whose natal day we celebrate?

How beautiful it is that the sweet faith u year by year renewed in our children as they look forward with love and trust to the joyful tim How the wonderful spirit of the time has touche! the hearts of great writers and glorified the literature that deals with it Christmas story telling has become one of the lovely arts o? modern writer s, and to Dickens we owe very much of the Christmas sentiment. Of all the minstrels of the day bis songs have left most music in our hearts. How could any one harbor selfish and narrow feelings after reading those shining pages through which we seem to hear the chim sos bells, th? Christmas carols, the song of the steaming kettle and the pleasant chirp of the cricket; over wnose pages we see so many kindly faces and hear such loving words. We do not care to cut the kindly and simple cheer of these Christmas friends for the brave and knightly romance of King Arthur in his baronial halls, keeping watch besjde the yule log beneath the shadow of the mistletoe. The old yule log has burn d to ash s long ago and has become only a tradition, butthank God,for the love which never goes out ot fashion; the swe tness of Christmas tim; is just as bright as in those olden days.