s of an otherwise not unpleasant
childhood are those connected with attendance at chapel on the evenings
of Christmas Days. On such occasions there were circumstances, needless
to explain, and in which the reader would take no interest were they
explained, which compelled the writer to leave the pleasant fire and the
games and mirth of the season, and, putting on his coat, trudge manfully
in the dark and through the snow to shiver for an hour and a half at
least at meeting. Other people the writer well knew were enjoying
themselves. Father Christmas was not the rage then that he is now;
Christmas-trees were a later invention, and so were Christmas tales; but
still even in those far-away and benighted times there were cakes and
ale, and homely Christmas carols and a little fun on a Christmas night,
when blind-man's-buff was in fashion, and snapdragon was to the little
ones a wonder and a joy. The writer felt, as he sat in the comfortless
square box of green baize and deal, and surveyed the scattered
congregation, how much more agreeable it would have been had the old
meeting been shut up on such a night, had the old minister saved his
sermon, had the old ladies and gentlemen who formed the congregation
dozed comfortably in their old arm-chairs at home. He arrived at the
conclusion then which he has ever since retained--a conclusion the
correctness of which no subsequent consideration has induced him to
modify--that services at church or chapel on Christmas nights are an
immense mistake. Christmas morning special services, however, are quite
a different thing, and especially where children are concerned. They at
any rate realize Christmas more fully than their elders, and assuredly it
is by them the religious aspect of the day may be most vividly felt.

This is not a question for argument. More than forty years ago the late
Dr. Fletcher, of Finsbury Chapel, instituted a special morning service at
his own place of worship for Sunday-school children from the
Sunday-schools of the district. The avowed object of that service was
the benefit of the young. In time past it has been found to have had a
salutary effect. It has been continued by Dr. Fletcher's successor, the
Rev. A. M'Auslane, a minister whose manner, and personal appearance, and
mode of speaking qualify him especially for so delicate and difficult a
task. Mr. M'Auslane hails from the land where Christmas is unknown. He
was a student under Dr. Wardlaw a