liamentarians, certain changes came in the
ruling manners of the age; but

THE ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH CHRISTMAS DAY

was, of course, a signal failure. The event commemorated made it
impossible for the commemoration to cease. Men may differ as to the
mode of celebration, but the Christ must and will be celebrated.

"In 1642," says Sandys, "the first ordinances were issued to suppress
the performance of plays, and hesitation was expressed as to the
manner of keeping Christmas. Some shops in London were even opened on
Christmas Day, 1643, part of the people being fearful of a Popish
observance of the day. The Puritans gradually prevailed, and in 1647
some parish officers were committed for permitting ministers to preach
upon Christmas Day, and for adorning the church. On the 3rd of June in
the same year, it was ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament
that the feast of the Nativity of Christ, with other holidays, should
be no longer observed, and that all scholars, apprentices, and other
servants, with the leave and approbation of their masters, should have
such relaxation from labour on the second Tuesday in every month as
they used to have from such festivals and holy days; and in
Canterbury, on the 22nd of December following, the crier went round by
direction of the Mayor, and proclaimed that Christmas Day and all
other superstitious festivals should be put down, and a market kept
upon that day."

In describing "The First Christmas under the Puritan Directory," the
_Saturday Review_ (December 27, 1884) says:--"It must have been taken
as a piece of good luck by the Parliamentary and Puritanical masters
of England, or, as they would have said, as 'a providence,' that the
Christmas Day of 1645 fell upon a week-day. It was the first Christmas
Day after the legislative abolition of the Anglican Prayer-book and
the establishment of 'the Directory' in its stead; and, if it had
fallen upon a Sunday, the Churches must have been opened. A 'Sabbath'
could not be ignored, even though it chanced to be the 25th of
December. There can be small doubt that, if the Presbyterian and
Independent preachers who held all the English parishes subject to the
Parliament had been obliged to go into the pulpits on the 25th of
December 1645, they would again have irritated the masses of the
people by ferociously 'improving the occasion.' The Parliament had not
the courage to repeat the brutal experiment of the previous year. It
was easy t