450 
RURAL HOURS. 
are sitting about the heartli-stone on the shores of arctic Iceland, 
others are singing in the shady verandahs of Hindostan ; some 
within the bounds of our own broad land, are playing with ever- 
blooming flowers of a tropical climate, and others, like the little 
flocks of this highland neighborhood, are looking abroad over the 
pure white snows. Scarce a child of them all, in every land 
where Christmas Hymns are sung, whose heart is not merrier 
than upon most days of the year. It is indeed a very beautiful 
part of Christmas customs that children come in for a share of 
our joys to-day ; the blessing and approbation of our gracious 
Lord were so very remarkably bestOAved on them, that we do 
well especially to remember their claims in celebrating the Nativ- 
ity ; at other festivals they are forgotten, but their unfeigned, un- 
alloyed gayety help, indeed, to make Christmas merry ; and their 
simple, true-hearted devotions, their guileless Hosannas, must as- 
suredly form an acceptable off'ering to Ilim who Himself conde- 
scended to become a little child, and who has said, " Suff"er the 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of heaven." Other religions have scarcely 
heeded children ; Christianity bestows on them an especial bless- 
ing ; it is well, indeed, that they rejoice with us to-day. 
Merry Christmas ! The words fall idly, perhaps, from too many 
careless lips ; they are uttered by those who give them no deeper 
meaning than a passing friendly salutation of the moment ; and 
yet every tongue that repeats the phrase, bears unconscious wit- 
ness to the power of the Gospel — those good-tidings of great joy 
to all mankind. From the lips of the most indifferent, these 
words seem to carry at least some acknowledgment of the many 
temporal benefits which Christianity has shed over the earth, 
