CHRISTMAS. 
445 
is given as a token of general affliction. In Jeremiah the term 
occurs repeatedly as applied to rejoicing : the voice of mirth, 
and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride, and the voice 
of the bridegroom." And again, in another chapter, in a most 
beautiful passage, giving a prophetic picture of a land in vitter 
desolation : " I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the 
voice of gladness ; the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of 
the bride ; the sound of the millstones, and the light of the can- 
dle." None but a very gloomy, or a very presumptuous mind, 
would take upon itself to say, that in either of these instances, 
anything unbecoming, or evil, is implied by the words mirth and 
merry ; to most persons the impression would be of an opposite 
character ; seemly gayety and cheerfulness would be the idea sug- 
gested. In the translation of the Psalms as contained in the 
Prayer Book, the word merry is used on one occasion in a very 
exalted connection ; the 47th Psalm is held to have been written 
either on the removal of the ark to Mount Zion, by King David, 
or a few years later, on its final progress from the Tabernacle to 
the Temple of Solomon. The fifth verse is thus translated : " God 
is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of 
the trump." Here we have the word applied to religious joy 
upon a signal occasion. It is also remarkable that this Psalm is 
one of those appointed for pubhc worship on Ascension-Day, from 
the application of this same verse to the Ascension of our Lord ; 
and shall we, then, object to employing the same word in connec- 
tion with the Nativity ? In the translation of the Holy Bible, 
made a century later, the same verse is rendered as follows : 
" God is gone up with a shout ; the Lord uith the sound of a 
trumpet." 
