Page:Our American Holidays - Christmas.djvu/175

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rection. The personal contact of self sacrificing benevolence with darkness, filth and misery — that is the only remedy. Heart must touch heart. Benevolence also cannot be confined to calendars. Those good people will exhibit the most of the spirit of our Blessed Master who practice Christmas-giving and cheerful, unselfish and zealous Christmas-living through all the circling year.


CHRISTMAS BELLS

anon

There are sounds in the sky when the year grows old,
  And the winds of the winter blow —
When night and the moon are clear and cold,
  And the stars shine on the snow,
Or wild is the blast and the bitter sleet
  That beats on the window-pane;
But blest on the frosty hills are the feet
  Of the Christmas time again!
    Chiming sweet when the night wind swells,
    Blest is the sound of the Christmas Bells!

Dear are the sounds of the Christmas chimes
  In the land of the ivied towers,
And they welcome the dearest of festival times
  In this Western world of ours!