NEWS OF THE WEEK.
CHRISTMAS has come to us this year with his old-fashioned face and garb. We have had a truly Christmas week : intense cold, a sprinkling of snow and rime ; ice for the skaters and sliders ; 'a tolerably clear atmosphere, or at least a bracing air, for pe- 4estrians. If Christmas has been keen and hoar outside' he has been glowing and cheerful within doors ; and seldom have we 'had a better season for merry-making since the days of our ,grandfathers. Accordingly all public action has ceased, and we have given ourselves up.to the mid-winter festival.
But Christmas has his dark as well as his bright side. It is a weary time for the poor, and more weary for the homeless. Dis- tress, even in rich England, is but too abundant. Not only in famine-stricken Coventry are there families starving with cold and hunger. We need not at Christmas-time send our surplus to Syria. Charity opens wide her hand, and' flings forth the silver and golden shower, ostentatiously or in secret ; let the blessed drops fall first in our own land. This is the season when we feel in our hearts as well :s see with our eyes that the poor are with us ; and the gay festivities so acceptable to high- spirited youth, and so suggestive to quiet old age, should only 'make all the more mindful of those who cannot spare them. In the main, we are considerate for all at Christmas-time ; but we can hardly do too much to make less heavy the burden of poverty, misfortune, and helplessness. .
