This pretty yric was taken a long time since from one of the American magazines. It is supposed to be addressed by an American lady to her brother in London.

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CHRISTMAS AND EASTER CARDS.

And

IS an invalid, surrounded by loving friends, I am year by year the recipient of kindly gifts and greetings. The first snowdrops, the earliest violets, the finest grapes-all, in their turn, come to me, to cheer eye and heart. though the festal seasons of our Church find me each year still lying on my couch, unable to share in outward rejoicing, yet is it strewn with many a thoughtful reminder—with messages of hope and cɔmfort, with holly wreaths and Easter flowers. And of all these tokens of love the Christmas cards hold, perhaps, the warmest place in my heart. They come from so many different sources from grave clergymen and laughing children, from wealthy homes and humble cottages, where the penny spent was really missed, all echoing the same note of peace and joy. But-don't think me fastidious-there is always a but, and my but is here a big one: some of the cards are tasteful, appropriate, clever; others—well! I have wondered how they can find purchasers. The fault is quite as much with those who

buy as with those who sell. Many people spoil their gift for want of a little thought. They go to a shop in a great hurry, find it crowded, turn over the cards on the counter, select at random, and send off, may be, ten or twenty, perhaps many more, and often such as are not suited to those who receive them. Even in this trifling matter we suffer from the over-haste and want of thoughtfulness which are so general, and from a good custom being overdone. In the selection of the cards we should individualise our friends in our mind's eye, and choose what shall be an appropriate message to each. One is laid on a sick-bed that may be the bed of death, do not send him the greeting of a Merry Christmas;' the prettily decorated card with a text may help to call his thoughts from his own to the far greater sufferings borne willingly for all. Another has lost in this past year all that made life bright; his home is desolate, his little ones motherless. Get some pretty, quaint device, with words that are in harmony. But to that merry girl, looking forward to the dance, to skating with brothers or riding with father, I should send my favourite lines,

'A merry, merry Christmas:
A happy, glad New Year.'

And get Robin Redbreast for your small nephew, to whom Christmas is just the day in all the year. Merry Christmas is quite the term for the young, but it a little jars upon the car as life goes on, and we know more of its troubles and sorrows. For myself, I confess that I much prefer the Happy Christmas.' It speaks to all of the birthday of our King.

I dislike extremely the cross on Christmas cards. It is out of place, and out of taste, and out of time. Indeed, to me personally, the symbol of our faith is apt to lose its teaching by its too common use, and when employed as a mere personal ornament or decoration of a book it grates upon my sense of fitness, even if it does not seem positively irreverent. Over the Altar, surely, is its right place, and it would, I believe, teach more if restricted to it.

But I am straying from my subject; let us go back to our cards. Some object altogether to texts on them. I do not agree with them; indeed I hold that the text, the Word of our common Father, has a special message of love, more cheering than any uninspired poet can weave, but let it be appropriate. Glory to God in the highest,' on a card with lilies delicately drawn on a golden ground, was the motto of one of the prettiest cards of last year; but a tawdry angel blowing a trumpet, with the Holy Infant out of all drawing, can give no pleasure when coupled with such words. Nor do I like the fhion of sending cards which are deemed suitable to the recipient but which have no reference to the season. Faint, yet pursuing,' is a kindly hint for the New Year. Thy will be done!' is a prayer on many feeble, way-worn lips, but sufferers are reminded of them full often. Now we need to forget ourselves, our burdens, our struggles, and we catch eagerly the echoes of the glorious Christmas Anthem. Some of the Christmas carols, traced on pretty cards, are very charming; and they bring back the old, old days, so bright, so beautiful, so far away.' The heart can hardly be too sad to be cheered by Hark! the herald angels sing!'

So far for the words. The designs of many are most exquisite ; but why send summer flowers at Christmas? Is not the Christmas rose (fitting emblem of the Christ-child) more fitting? And then there is the holly, with its bright berries and glistening leaves. And do not forget our friend the robin, with his bold breast, for the little ones. And yet and yet I do love the flowers, and like to see them painted on our Christmas cards.

Sometimes one is pained by vulgar representations of the Scripture history of the Nativity, borrowed from foreign prints, and producing anything but a feeling of reverence. At times, indeed, it is not so: some of the picture cards' are graceful, and please the tiny child who, at its mother's knee, listens entranced to the old story, while he gazes at the picture and spells the text beneath. The quaint designs of Marcus Ward and some other publishers are, to my thinking, quite charming; and none the less so because the words are full of fun. May I give a little hint, and say a word on behalf of the poor letter-carriers and overworked Post officials? Post most of your cards in good time; it will do quite as well if many of your friends get them on Christmas Eve.

But Christmastide by no means exhausts the energy of the cardsender. A happy new year must be wished-a pleasant, time-honoured custom; by no means let us lose it: but let it have a true ring. Let it be, indeed, a kind token of remembrance to the suffering or poor, a message of comfort to the sorrowful, and of sympathising joy to the gay and light-hearted. To Easter cards there seems to me to be just one objection, which, however, may with a little care be lessened-it entails much Sunday work for the Post Office. On all other accounts I love them dearly. While Christmas too often recalls the empty chair, the bright days, the merry times, which will never come back. to us, Easter tells us of the strife that's o'er,' the battle won, of joy for ever in the future. People are, I think, more careful in the selection of their Easter than of their Christmas cards; their choice. is not usually such hasty, haphazard work.

One word I must say on behalf of Birthday cards; their greetings are pleasant. As we go on, the birthday means another year gone in our march; another year of mercies, of failings, of struggles, of victories; another year, we humbly hope, nearer the goal: and so I love the little birthday gifts and birthday greetings.

Is this all much ado about nothing?' But is not our life made up of little things? I have sometimes thought that the Christmasor Easter card is like the cup of cold water; but then the said cup must be offered in the name of a disciple, not carelessly, or as a mere matter of fashion, but because as fellow-pilgrims we would help each other along the way. Send your pretty greetings, having carefully selected them, with a thought, maybe a prayer, and who knows but. the bread cast on the waters shall be found after many days, in lonely hearts cheered, sad hearts gladdened, bright hearts made brighter still, by the word of sympathy?

BY G. CECIL WHITE, M.A., VICAR OF ST. PAUL'S, SOUTHAMPTON.

CHRISTIAN COURTESY.

1 St. Peter, iii. 8.-' Be courteous.'

WELL remember being advised by a student of science at Cambridge not to put too much trust in popular scientific publications, because they are not always strictly accurate, although the information they convey is, in the main, true. And so far as Theology is a science, popular theology is liable to be inaccurate in some of its details, even when perfectly sound in its chief points. In somewhat the same way popular sayings contain great and important truths, although they are occasionally onesided; and even if not so, their full meaning is not always perceived or rightly understood. When, for example, we say that Cleanliness is next to godliness,' we should realise what is meant by godliness. Thoughtful and practical people think very highly of cleanliness; and they are quite right in doing so, for its opposite-dirtiness of house or person-is often the prelude or the result of drunkenness, and the prolific parent of vermin and disease. The danger is of cleanliness being more thought of than godliness. The meaning of the proverb is, that cleanliness is almost a virtue. Godliness is made up of virtues, cleanliness comes next to those virtues which make up godliness.

Now one of the virtues comprised in the term 'godliness' is Courtesy, which, rightly understood and practised, takes precedence even of cleanliness. It is, of course, no less obvious that courtesy, as commonly understood, is only one of the many virtues which go to make up godliness. The polite brigand and the smooth slanderer are far from godly persons in spite of their bland manners: although, if the real principle of courtesy be understood to be the Christian rule of doing as we would be done by, it would exclude alike all theft and all slander, and include the whole of the law which regulates the dealings of men with their fellows.

At a meeting of Sunday-school teachers in London in 1878 the question was asked, 'Is it expedient to bring before children in every lesson the Gospel plan of salvation?' Mr. Eugene Stock in reply said, that if by the Gospel plan were meant that a child should be reminded in every lesson that he had a sinful heart, and that there is a Saviour who died for him and lives to help him, he would say that it should come into every lesson. By way of an extreme illustration he instanced the subject of courtesy, which he thought seemed more than any other to exclude the Gospel plan. But when it could be shown that acts of courtesy adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, whilst acts of discourtesy spring from a selfish and uncharitable heart, it was obvious that sins against courtesy were included in the confession, 'We have left undone those things which we ought to have done;' and that as forgiveness for them could only be obtained through Jesus Christ, the Gospel plan had a place, even in a lesson on that subject.

But those who can read their New Testaments in the original may say (and very truly) that the Greek word used in our text does

not mean courteous,' but rather lowly-minded.' This, however, is the very essence of courtesy, as many passages of Holy Scripture teach us. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another' (Rom. xii. 10). In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves' (Philip. ii. 3). Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly' (1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5). Such are some of the Apostolic precepts bearing on courtesy, which are, one and all, illustrative of the golden rule, 'Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you.' This is the rule by which every true Christian and every true gentleman regulates his conduct; regarding himself as a member of the great brotherhood of mankind; not valuing himself by the outward circumstances with which God has surrounded him, but by his own selfknowledge, which must always tend to make a man lowly in his own eyes. A Christian,' it has been said, 'is God Almighty's gentleman; a gentleman in the vulgar, superficial way of understanding the word, is the Devil's Christian the real gentleman should be gentle in everything—at least in everything that depends on himself—in carriage, temper, constructions, aims, and desires.-(Guesses at Truth.) In a word, a gentleman is simply a charitable Christian, who knows he has many faults and imperfections himself, and, therefore, does not rate himself better than others. This leads him to do as he would be done by, and to show to others the civility, the kindness, and the courtesy, which he would like others to show to him.

God be praised there are many true gentlemen in every rank of life; and yet I am much afraid that Christian courtesy is hardly understood as generally as could be wished to be a part of godliness, a Christian duty; and to have a very direct bearing on the social life of the nation, as well as on the eternal welfare of individual souls.

In the upper ranks of society there has been, of late years, some relaxation of the rules of courtesy; and what used to be great safeguards to social intercourse have given place to a certain free-andeasiness which is full of danger, and by which a man is encouraged to do what he likes without considering the company he is in, or paying any real respect to the comfort or welfare of others. I am quite sure that in whatever degree conventionalism tends to make people thoughtful and considerate to the wishes and tastes of others, so far any relaxation of conventional courtesy is an unmitigated evil. In the lower ranks of life there is, of course, the natural tendency to selfishness; and in the case of some we notice a growing hesitation to recognise those of a higher social grade by any respectful or friendly greeting. This, I conceive, is mainly grounded on the mistaken idea that by showing courtesy a man is lowering himself, whereas by so doing he is surely raising himself, for manners makyth man:' a man without manners being no better than a savage, and little better than a beast.

The cultivation of a friendly, not forced or formal, or too familiar courtesy between persons, either of the same or of different ranks, is not only a Christian duty, but in no way does away with the differences of social or official position. The honour in which we are to prefer one another is neither more nor less than the respect and consideration which each man owes his neighbour and his neighbour