there is always a reason for Joy: to find it will refresh the spirit to face again the Future WEEK hence the second great feast of the Christian Church will be celebrated, It can never rank first because of the greater significance of Easter, but it can be looked upon as the commencement of that tragic journey the culmination of which has meant so much to so large a portion of the inhabitants of this globe. There will be those who will regard the day as one of happy solemnity, other, perhaps more worldly minded, who will indulge in high wassail, casting aside for a brief spell the anxieties.of the year, manufacturing a temporary brightness in what appears to be the encircling gloom.
Shanghai, and indeed the whole of China where there are Christians, will be celebrating this great feast in circumstances which have only been paralleled by those of a twelvemqpth ago, and to many it will be somewhat of an effort to throw dull care aside for a if it was with feasting and jollity it would have been well within the possibilities, It is but natural that Christmas should be so much of a children's festival, which makes its connection with its English predecessor all the more appropriate.
Today week there will be much early stirring in the house, long before young people are generally awake, to investigate the contents of stockings that Santa Claus has filled in the stilly hours: That venerable saint will probably never die so long as there are any children, 0000006000006 660026 6666
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.