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Christmas.

ERE we are, mamma! We have decorated the nursery and school-room, but we have kept the prettiest pieces for you. See the lovely wreath

we have made for dear papa's picture!-such glossy leaves and bright berries!" Thus exclaimed a group of merry children, eager to display their treasures to their mother on their first Christmas Eve in England.

Mrs. Villiers met the children with a bright smile of welcome and sympathy, that banished the cloud that had gathered on her brow as she sat alone that afternoon, and remembered the loved and absent.

"We never liked any of the bright Indian flowers half so well as this beautiful holly and ivy! If you had only seen them this morning, mother, when the soft white snow lay on them! Certainly England is much nicer than India. Don't you like them, mamma ?"

"Truly, dears, I never remember a time when I did not love them-more for the Christmas thoughts they bring than even for their exceeding beauty." As she spoke, she placed their wreath round her husband's picture, repressing even the sigh that might have damped their joy. She arranged the holly as they all thought best, till they were satisfied. there never had been a room so beautifully ornamented before.

Then they gathered round the fire, and the eldest of the children, a little girl of ten, said:

"Mamma, we have finished every one of our Christmas preparations; our little parcels are all tied up and directed; we have kept our secret so well, that no one even guesses what is in them, and we are quite ready for our Christmas talks." The words recalled their last Christmas, when none had been absent, and she added, sadly, "Oh, if dear papa were only here!" And seeing how quickly her mother's eyes filled, she burst into tears, saying, "Mother, dear, I could wish that Christmas did not come at all, it makes you so sad!"

"Don't think so, even for a moment, darling; I never felt so thankful that the blessed Christmas time has come; it just brings what I most need. I do rejoice in it for myself, besides delighting to see your happiness; but sorrow I must feel while he whom I love best on earth is separated from me by such a distance--is exposed not only to the dangers of an Indian climate, but also to the greater dangers of war ; but I know that He who guards us here watches over him there, and that, though we are separated now, there is a home in heaven with God, where war, or sickness, or parting, or care, or sorrow shall never, never come."

"I remember, mamma, St. Paul says somewhere that, though sorrowful, he was always rejoicing. Now I understand what he meant ; it often puzzled me. I used to think that joy and sorrow must drive each other away, as night and day seem to chase each other."

"They are almost always mixed here, dear, though in different proportions, as you may see a cloud even on the brightest summer day, and a gleam of light in the darkest night. But let us find out why Christmas should be such a happy time. My little Willie will tell me why every heart should welcome Christmas."

"It is kept as the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour," reverently answered the chubby, curly-headed boy.

"Yes; on that day, in remembrance of which this is kept the most wonderful day in the world's long history, except that still more wonderful one on which He died for our sins-God gave us His greatest and best gift, His only Son."

“Then, mamma, I suppose that is the reason why it is so usual for people to give each other presents on that day."

"I think so. The presents we give each other, and which we have so much pleasure in preparing, are just proofs and tokens of our love. When dear papa opens the box, that I hope may reach him about this time, he will see how his children have been thinking of and loving him: and though

at every moment of our lives God is giving us good gifts -and all because, sinful though we are, He loves us so much—yet the greatest proof of love He ever gave was the gift of His only begotten Son. Can my little ones tell me a verse that says so?"

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.'

"Very good, dear Lizzie; you will say the next verse." "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."" "Little Willie has a verse, too, on God's love in sending His Son ?"

Too young to speak plainly, mother and sister understood as he lisped, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'"

"Those are precious verses, dear children; may God the Holy Spirit Himself teach you how precious!

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So when, to-morrow, those little gifts kept so secretly are opened, however much we may admire and value them for the sake of the love that planned and the skill that made them, and because they are so pretty and useful, let your first thoughts be not of them, but of Jesus, whom God gave us on that day—who was then born a little helpless Infant, the Son of a poor woman.

"I wonder if I could make my darlings understand and share in some of my Christmas thoughts?"

"Please do tell them to us, dearest mother; we always like your thoughts so much."

"As I sat here alone, I was thinking how Christmas, placed as it is at the close of one year and the beginning of another, is just like a lighthouse, which casts its bright light on the waters over which the traveller has already passed, and forwards on the unknown waters still before him."

How, mamma ?"

"The Christian's life is often compared to a voyage, of

which the end is the better land, even heaven: and, as for those who travel over the great sea, lights are placed to guide to a harbour, or to warn off a dangerous rock, so God has given us many lights for our guidance and comfort and warning; and Christmas seems to me one of these lights, to help us in our voyage over the waters of time to the great shore of eternity: for as I thought of my past life just now, many sins and much sorrow rose up before me, and the thought was very sad; but I remembered the event we are now commemorating-remembered that Jesus was born as at this time, that He might live, and die, and rise again for us, that He might wash away those very sins I had been thinking of the thought was cheering, as light seen in darkness.

"Then, when I looked back on the sorrows I had gone through-father, mother, sister, all gone, and that sad, sad parting with dear papa-I remembered that Jesus was born to be 'a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief'—grief and sorrow so different from mine! This, with that other thought, that He who loved me so well as to give His only Son for me, surely loved me too well to send sorrow except for my good; and as those Christmas thoughts fell on my sorrow, it grew quite bright.

"But I had joy and happiness too to think over and to thank God for; and I know that every gleam of happiness and hope that has ever shone on earth since man sinned is a consequence of that wonderful plan devised by God Himself, that the Son of God should come to earth and die in our stead, and make a way for the Father's good gifts to come down on us, as well as a way in which we might come to Him.

"Now, young as you all are, you have both sins and sorrows. Will you not take them both to Jesus, asking Him to forgive the sins, and to bless, and in His own good time take away the sorrow? And will you not thank Him for your many joys, and love Him with all your hearts, as you remember that, but for His great love in dying for

you, not

one of them would be yours? He died that you might live ; He was sorrowful that you might rejoice; He became poor that you might be rich. Was I not right when I said Christmas had a bright light for the past?"

"Yes, indeed. It will make Christmas so happy to think of all that. And now for the future: you said it had a light for that too."

"You and I, dears, know not what may happen in the future-not even in the next day or hour-and we might often be afraid, not knowing what may lie before us, could we not trust God to arrange it all for us. That God who has displayed such wisdom, and power, and love in the great work of our redemption, which Jesus began to accomplish that night when the angels sang that heavenly song, 'Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace, goodwill toward men.' Could I have one moment's happiness or peace, knowing the dangers to which your beloved father is exposed, if I could not trust him to the care of our Father which is in heaven?

"Then God has given-or rather lent-to me four precious little ones, to train for Him. My heart would fail under the anxiety did I not remember that Jesus, the Son of God, was Himself once a little Child; that He knows the wants, and weaknesses, and temptations of my children, for He has felt them Himself, and when He grew to be a man He took the little ones in His arms and blessed them.

"But the happiest thought Christmas brought me was of the second coming in glory of Him who came then in lowliness and poverty. For that coming is the 'blessed hope' set before us-the time when sin, and sorrow, and parting shall be over for ever; the meeting-time for those who have been scattered here; the meeting-time, above all, with Him who came first in suffering and shame, that He might bring us with Him the second time in great glory; the time when we shall be with Him for ever-and not only with Him, but like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. As I thought that, even before another year comes round, He may fulfil His