The Spirit of Christmas | Page 6

herbs, where
love is."
The gifts of healing which he conferred upon many different kinds of
sufferers were, in every case, evidences that Jesus was willing to give
something of himself, his thought, his sympathy, his vital power, to the
men and women among whom he lived. Once, when a paralytic was
brought to Jesus on a bed, he surprised everybody, and offended many,
by giving the poor wretch the pardon of his sins, before he gave new
life to his body. That was just because Jesus thought before he gave;
because he desired to satisfy the deepest need; because in fact he gave
something of himself in every gift. All true Christmas-giving ought to
be after this pattern.
Not that it must all be solemn and serious. For the most part it deals
with little wants, little joys, little tokens of friendly feeling. But the
feeling must be more than the token; else the gift does not really belong
to Christmas.
It takes time and effort and unselfish expenditure of strength to make
gifts in this way. But it is the only way that fits the season.
The finest Christmas gift is not the one that costs the most money, but
the one that carries the most love.
II
But how seldom Christmas comes--only once a year; and how soon it is
over--a night and a day! If that is the whole of it, it seems not much
more durable than the little toys that one buys of a fakir on the
street-corner. They run for an hour, and then the spring breaks, and the
legs come off, and nothing remains but a contribution to the dust heap.
But surely that need not and ought not to be the whole of
Christmas--only a single day of generosity, ransomed from the dull
servitude of a selfish year,--only a single night of merry-making,
celebrated in the slave-quarters of a selfish race! If every gift is the

token of a personal thought, a friendly feeling, an unselfish interest in
the joy of others, then the thought, the feeling, the interest, may remain
after the gift is made.
The little present, or the rare and long-wished-for gift (it matters not
whether the vessel be of gold, or silver, or iron, or wood, or clay, or just
a small bit of birch bark folded into a cup), may carry a message
something like this:
"I am thinking of you to-day, because it is Christmas, and I wish you
happiness. And to-morrow, because it will be the day after Christmas, I
shall still wish you happiness; and so on, clear through the year. I may
not be able to tell you about it every day, because I may be far away; or
because both of us may be very busy; or perhaps because I cannot even
afford to pay the postage on so many letters, or find the time to write
them. But that makes no difference. The thought and the wish will be
here just the same. In my work and in the business of life, I mean to try
not to be unfair to you or injure you in any way. In my pleasure, if we
can be together, I would like to share the fun with you. Whatever joy or
success comes to you will make me glad. Without pretense, and in
plain words, good-will to you is what I mean, in the Spirit of
Christmas."
It is not necessary to put a message like this into high-flown language,
to swear absolute devotion and deathless consecration. In love and
friendship, small, steady payments on a gold basis are better than
immense promissory notes. Nor, indeed, is it always necessary to put
the message into words at all, nor even to convey it by a tangible token.
To feel it and to act it out--that is the main thing.
There are a great many people in the world whom we know more or
less, but to whom for various reasons we cannot very well send a
Christmas gift. But there is hardly one, in all the circles of our
acquaintance, with whom we may not exchange the touch of Christmas
life.
In the outer circles, cheerful greetings, courtesy, consideration; in the
inner circles, sympathetic interest, hearty congratulations, honest
encouragement; in the inmost circle, comradeship, helpfulness,
tenderness,--
"_Beautiful friendship tried by sun and wind Durable from the daily
dust of life._"

After all, Christmas-living is the best kind of Christmas-giving.
* * * * *

A SHORT CHRISTMAS SERMON

KEEPING CHRISTMAS
ROMANS, xiv, 6: _He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the
Lord._
It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times
and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is
a wise and