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This Yuletide. 1 We have reached a season of the year when, by custom and tradition, everyone wishes his friends and neighbours all eorts (ü good, sentimental, material, and otherwise. In ordinary circumstances we should be doing the same to-day as! we have done on many previous occasions, from one end of the country to the other, and both city and village would be ring- ing with the joyful sounds of peace and goodwill. Alas! this year sees us plunged into a tifa of trouble the results of which will be as far-reaching as the experience Is poignant. The unhappy war thrust upon so many nations by the wilfulness of one ambitious man, has sent the angel of grief to accompany the heralds of joy. Prom the picture of a group of shepherds who watched their flocks by night we turn to th" grim panorama of warring tamps, serried ranks of armed soldiers, flevastated villages, shell-smitten churches, bavonetted babies, slaughtered old men and women, violation of the helpless, long rows of crowded graves, mangled bodies of men and beasts, and the pleasant fruits of husbandry shadowed by the smoke of destroying fires. In truth, it is a sorry Yulelide through which we arc passing, one that will bp remembered for life by all who are passing through such a novel experience. Probably many of the preachers v ho Rpeak to their congregations on this Christmas morn will be dwelling upon the lessons of the moment. A large por- tion of their remarks may be devoted to the advisability of looking on the bright side. They will be confronted by the fact that the stress of the times must have its effect upon the work of the churches, in that so much of what is happening is so contrary to the chief tenets of the Christian religion. Indeed the greatest mystery of the war- is the fact that a nation with its monarch who have professed Christianity so loudly. and fostered the arts of culture and civilisation that have so marked the Christian era, is now so entirely subvert- ing everything that those I;rofessionF; mean when applied to co net .if material welfare is the ambition to which a nation should aspire, then Ger- many would, less than a year ago. have been accounted one of the most successful of the world's empires. Why 1H1 pro- fessions are thus thrown to the winds, why all the material good of the nation should be subjected to disruption and destruction, why the lives of linndreds of thousands of men and women should be destroyed without a qualm will remain a mystery to human intelligence. It can be accounted for by no reasons that show the probability of gain, it bears no test of either right or necessity.. However, sad as the moment may be. it is no time to be depressed. To the people of the British Empire there is one duty. and that is to hope for the best. We must realise that the war is upon tis, that, much against our will as a people, we are in it," and that the one task in front of us is to see the thing through. At a season like this, a thought that must press itself upon us is that the war we have to wage is not merely against, an enemy at the gates who must be defeated if we are not to be over- thrown. It is something more than that, for wa are called upon to see to it that -one result of the struggle shall be an end of aggressive militarism, a greater recog- nition of the right of humanity to live by the arts of peace, a truer idea of the practice of truths that have been taught by religion and philosophy, a greater exercise of care for the aged and afflicted, and a more sure application of what are known as the rights due to human com- munities under the name of liberty. If he war leads to more security against hvrannv. and a greater recognition of men's right to the truest joys of life, then the war will not have been in yam. ior will the sacrifice entailed be waste.

LOCAL NOTES.j !

AMMANFORD.

MAN, WIFE, AND THREE CHILDREN…

THE OLD GUARD.

CANTON (OHIO) AND THE WAR.

THE SHORTEST DAY.

WHEN CHReST CAME--AND -NOW.-

IA DEFINITE POLICY.

! GERMAN THEOLOGY. I--

I WILL OF CAPT. C. METHUEN,…

I AUCTION SALES SUMMARY.

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i ,WAR NOTES.

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