THE DAILY «| throughout the world, For many centuries the 26th o December has been observed as Christmas. It is supposed to com- memorate the day of the birth of Jesus Christ, At first the day was observed only by Christian people, in touch with the early church. It iater grew into . favor with other Tr eRe, Ea RAS 'now TOY DE recognized as a universal Christmas festival. To-day it is celebrated in pagan lands as well as in Christian lands, It comes nearer to being a universal holiday than any other day observed by mankind. There is a spirit and an atmosphere about the day that is contagious. While vast multitudes of people may observe the day with- lout any serious thought as to what Hes back of it, there are still great multitudes to whom It has signi- ficance because it marks the day of wd, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Rdition) canntesae hr by mall, poh y ASE ie ater fen't the rattling sword that the world now, but rattle i odamennls her time when the punish- fits the crime is when thier used oar. © "y "to | reported as being ed, and the soviet may try ply a coat; also. 'a world of waste one' may at ; for the general ny of eis bes be | bas of the old- in which some- Ld majority? ries to be dignfied with a 8g on his chin, 8 office grouch remarks that always comes to the top he "| minion premiers. Gift of God to a lost world. We may not thing much of what lies back of the gifts which pass among us, but every one of them is related to the "Unspepkable Gift," which sprang from the love of God. It God had not so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, there would be no Christmas and no Christmas gifts. Every token of love that passes from one person to another is but a reflection of that great love that expressed itself in the site of God. The angels which came over Bethlehem's fleld and the shepherds who gathered in the hum- ible manger in Bethlehem have had their songs re-echoed and We gifts duplicated In all ages since. God's gift was an interpretation of the universal heart of mankind, and throughout the centuries that heart has responded in its innumerable gifts at Yuletide, ~ v It will be well for us as individu- als if we recognize the source from which our Christmas cheer has sprung. While we thank" the loved ones from whom we have réceived Christmas gifts, let us not forget to thank the Heavenly Father from whom has come the Gift that has been the inspiration of all gifts. It was a wise man of old who spoke of God as one "in whom we live and move and have our being." There is cause for daily gratitude to the author of our being, who showers upon us daily blessings and who ministers unto us in countless ways for our comfort and our joy. But it is when we p boning what God has done for our salvation, what He has wrought for our re- demption, what He has given for our enrichment in spiritual "well-being, that there is awakened in us a deep and true thankfulness. When peo- ple think of their Christmas obliga- tions as duties they find them hard ot fulfilment, but when they think of them as a return of gratitude to God for His *'Unspeaksble Gift," they become a pleasure. It will be well for us in fhe midst of our Christmas festivities to take time to reflect upon the supreme Gift, for it is out of the realization of what it means that there will come not on- ly gratitude to God, but that inspi- retion to obedience in which we shall find life everlasing. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. IMPERIAL PREFERENCES. During the period which has elapsed since the general election fn Britain found the Baldwin minis- try defeated and discredited, the chief subject of comment, outside of the problem of how the government of the country was to be earried on, has been the status of the agree- ments made at the Imperial Confer. ence, between the representatives of the British government and the Do- Many of the Bri- tish newspapers have openly de- clared that these agreements cannot be carried out now that the govern- ment which made them has been de- feated, and these same newspapers base this statement on the assertion issues in the election campaign, and that the electors had expressed their disapproval of them. Tho whole question of Whether or not the agreements made by the CHRISTMAS. a that the preferences were prominent | W | days he could complete the list by which made these agreements has been defeated should not be made an excuse for refusing to honour them. The government which was in power in 1914 was not the gov- ernment which brought the Euntente Cordiale into existence, nor was it the government which signed the agreement guaranteeing the negfra- FE Bae re thers wel ony hesitation in carrying out these agreements. It would have been to the everlasting disgrace of Great Britain had she failed to homour| them. The same principle is at| stake in the question of the Imperial | preferences, and the people of the Dominions will have their faith in the mother country and its govern- ments rudely shaken should they be thrown overboard simply because the government which made them is no longer im power. The principle of continuity of government is at stake, and the Liberal and Labour parties of Britain should step warily before breaking it. WHERE ARE SCOFFERS NOW? With little .ceremony and little more.comment, the world a few days ago remembered the twentieth anni- versary of the invention of the aero- plane as heavier-than-air flying ma- chine. Only twenty short years ago two dreamers (?), the Wright brothers, built a machine which would fly. Theirs was the stupendous achievement and a success and ser- vice which cannot be over-shadowed by any improvement or perfection since or hereafter attained. The "Wright brothers were the originals, and thelr successors are only imita- tors. It is easy to improve upon an. other's fundamental invention or dis- covery. Befere the Wrights demonstrated that it "could be done," and surviv- ed the demonstration, the world was full of scoffers, The twentieth an- niversary of that demonstration finds the practicability of the aeroplane in almost universal acceptation and the aeroplane itself in wide and varied use. The inventor is traditionally twenty Years ahead of his time, and the inventors of the aeroplane were no exception to the tradition. But who can tell but what that scoffing twenty years ago was mutual? It has ever been that the scofférs have been held in profound contempt by the scoffed-at, and the case of the aeroplane was probably no excep- tion. It fs dangerous to one's self- respect to ridicule the inventor or inventions in the making. Too often it has been demonstrated by men that whatever he can create in mind or imagination he can create in re- ality. ' Civilization is indebted to the Wright brothers and is repaying that debt by accepting the aeroplane as a blessing to mankind. CHURCH Fellow Royal Geographical Society, London, England © " ty The other day a judge sentenced a man to attend church every Sunday for a year. His honor did not specify that the man should attend the ser- vices of any particular church. He did not sentence him to be an In- dividual unit of the congregation in St. Mary's, the Virgin, or the Main Street Presbyterian, or the First Uni- tarian, or the Church of Christ, Beientist, or a Quaker Meeting House, or an Adventist, or a True Seed in the Spirit, or any other of the 302 officially recognized kinds of churches in North America, For fifty-two consecutive Sundays the man must attend church or saf- fer tha consequences, Which will be incarceration in the county jail. If the man goes to the house of wor- ship of a different sect each Sunday, he will visit but a sixth of all the kinds on the official lists. There will still be 250 kinds of church that have had no chance to welcome him. afford each church opportunity to guide his footsteps along life's pathway, it would be necessary for him to attend six services each Lord's Day, ting the fifty-first and the fifty. In fifty weeks he could make Sunday visits to three different kinds of houses of worship, and on the remaining Sun- one attendance each. | substitute attendance "group. - { ple once a week, and at a time when but he must' live out the year ac- cording to instructions. It will not do for him to try to at a lodge meeting. The Benevolent Order of Inside Tube Repairers is an aggre- gation of good citizens, but is not re- liglous. The men assemble for other purposes than worship. They have not even a chaplain. No, lodges will not-for will suered-coneerte- hyws ever edifying they may be. The men must go to churéh. What is a church? Is it the build. ing? Would the man be acting ac- cording to the orders of the court if he went into the chureh early in the morning before anyone else arrived, and sat there alone for an hour? No, the judge said "'attend." Merely sitting in an empty church, a church where service is not going on, does not meet the implications of the word "attend," which means be there in time for the opening and remain until the close. Merely going into a church building and occupying | a seat is not attending. Moreover, is the building itself the | church? Some will reply that the people are the church, not the build- ing. They say that the people could , come together for worship in the open fields If they chose, and that 50 | associated together for a religious ! purpose they are a church, though | there may be nothing over them but | the sky, nor anything round about them but the atmosphere. Probably his honor would be satisfied if the man attached himself to such a Yet some will say that a group o individual men and women, be they never so pious, cannot by itself be a church, because as they see it, a church cannot exist without author- ity. Without authority there is no such entity as a church. Authority comes from long ago. It is thousands of years old. It is a matter of his- tory and dates from the foundation. There must be a continuous line leading back to this foundation. There must not be a single break. The genealogy must be complete and the evidence must bt conclusive. A good many, perhaps two hun- | dred, church congregations, all dif- ferent, declare for authority of this sort, and each of them claims to have it. Probably all of them have it, though none of them admits that any of the others has it. "Each declares that ome hundred and ninety-nine are wrong. But the accusation does not hinder any of these in the work of a regular authoritatively estab- lished church. Each carrtes on its work. The 102 other organizatioms claim pot 80 much historical authority as the authority of inspiration. They do not worry about their gene- ologies. They are concerned with their special messages. They bear these messages to mankind for the healing of the mations. All the na- tions need do is listen and then heed. Now the judge who sentenced the man to attend church displayed no interest In the controversies as to what constitutes authority, or even as to whether suthority is essential. He wished to i the man to change his habits, to treat his wife and the children decently, and de cided that a course of church going would help. It would at least insure the man of meeting respectable peo. they are o nthreir best behavior. This weekly contact should be bene- ficial: It should have a tonic effect. His honor's viewpoint is different to that of those who criticize the church as'an outworn institution, and say that regular attendance bores a thinking man. These critics would have those who listen to them believe that thought as it finds ex- pression in pulpits is chained to days that have passed forever, that there pulpit thoughts attached to an an- clent era, as they are, are not vital to-day, and have no bearing on the problems of life as men NOW see them. Men are keen to know how to grapple with the perplexities of to- day; how to solve to-day's problems that are immediately at hand. They wish to make this world better now, This for them means hard and con- tinuous work, and the full use of all the intelligence théy can command. All their thoughts are concentrating on the work right at hand. "One rid at a time" ig their motto. "We'll see sbout another, when we are in another, but we are not in ans other yet." | -- : To Meet Criticism. _ This criticism has reached the ears of some who may be the actual lead- ers in congregations, and they have sought to meet it. Each that has list. ened has met It in its own way. Some | have said "Thank you!" to their critics, and some have exp themselves differently. Some have, decided that churches should go to the must t Overcoat Sale! . BIBBY'S Twenty-five nobby Ulsters. Sizes 34 to 42. At $1950 OVERCOAT SPECIAL No. 2. 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There are halls - for dancing, swimming pools, a stage for theatrieals, pool and billiard tables, gymnasiums, ten- nis courts, running tracks and even golf courses. There are classes in Boxing and wrestling for men. In swimming for both men and women; motor clubs; boy scouts; campfire girls; a Hbrary with the latest books on evolution; and the standard novels. There are hikes and summer camps, and tours. A considerable change from the old idea, but those who support it with their dollars do not begrudge the cost. OUR SHIRT SPECIALS 50 dozem Men's Fine Shirts ~Lang Tooke and Arrow make -- new Stripes and Checks --= sizes 14 to 17--to go at '1.95 -SEE OUR $2.50 SHIRTS Genuine Potter Engtish Prints stripes, oto. Some with sep. NECKWEAR |™4e soft collars. Sizes SPECIAL WATH £ 3.90 finished--rich colorings-- neat Regular $2.00 anu TOBRALCO SHIRTS patterns. $2.50 values. Hilk finish, new patterns. OUR SPECIAL $18.00 SUITS Sizes 34 to 44. 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