MERRY CHRISTMAS. 
443 
tions of the festival, as it is celebrated in solemn, public worship, 
and kept by the hearts of believing Christians. 
The festival is very generally remembered now in this country, 
though more as a social than a religious holiday, by all those who 
are opposed to such observances on principle. In large towns it is 
almost universally kept. In the villages, however, but few 
shops are closed, and only one or two of the half dozen places of 
worship are opened for service. Still, everybody recollects that 
it is Christmas ; presents are made in all families ; the children go 
from house to house wishing Men-y Christmas ; and probably few 
who call themselves Christians allow the day to pass without 
giving a thought to the sacred event it commemorates, as they 
wish their friends a “ Merry Christmas.” 
klerry Christmas ! Some people have found fault with the 
phrase, they consider the epithet of merry as ill-judged, when 
applied to this great holiday ; but that is a notion that can only 
arise from a false conception of its meaning ; to quarrel with it, 
they must suppose it to convey the idea of disorder, and riot, 
and folly. It is, however, in fact, a good Saxon adjective, used 
by some of the oldest and best writers in the language, as a 
synonyme for sweet, pleasant, cheerful, gladsome ; Chaucer and 
others apply it in this sense. Hundreds of years ago our English 
forefathers talked afiiectionately of their native land as “ merrie 
Englande,” and we cannot suppose that they intended to giv'e the 
idea of a country of confusion and riot, but claimed for their isl- 
and-home a cheerful character. Again, the poets sung the 
“ merrie month of May,” a delightful, joyous season, assuredly ; 
but who shall dare to see disorder and folly in the hannony and 
sweetness of that beautiful period of the jmar ? 
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