589
December 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frank incense, and myrrh.” The first Christmas gifts: That is what they were. “Gold and frankincense, and myrrh!” And a picture be gan to form itself, as pictures will, in the glowing heart of a fire. There was no storm on that night, for “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” Yes, the night was all clear, and there was starlight, for the shepherds were not in their shelter. It was mild, for they were abiding—re- maining—in the field; drawn, it may be, by the calm beauty of the night to stay and talk a little—softly, per haps, because there was a curious hush over the world, as of something strangely quiet descending upon the hearts of men! They may have whispered together of the men and their families who had come into their country because of the great decree from Rome that “all the world should be taxed.” And the little town of Bethlehem was not far away. And there was a crowded inn where the pale tired face of the maiden, who was a mother, found no pillow to rest upon. And there had been a hasty threading of the thronging courtyard by this grave silent couple, and per haps a grateful sigh from weary Mary as she sank upon the husks or the hay in some corner. Closed eyes, and a thankfulness for escape from the crowd! Soon enough it was to be upon her and her holy Child. A short thirty- three years or so and the crowd would have massed them selves against them—swept cruelly over them and left her at the cross. But now, in the midst of her pain there was glory! The very walls of the dingy manger seemed alight with the radiance, and instead of a cry there echoed a Hallelu jah ! The long bitter months were over, when Mary had paid the penalty of being in God’s confidence and of not betraying it. Months of loneliness, they must have been, except for the time with Elizabeth, until God’s strong angel had given her back her husband. How sweet those words: “Fear not to take unto, the^e Mo-ry thy wife: fo r that which is conceived in her '¿Uw rife Holy Ghpst,” Sl|( Strange mysterious words! Did she rea%rtunderstand| them herself? At least she knew that relief and protec tion had come when Joseph “took unto him his wife.” Surrounded by the barrier of that strong arm her silent lips had held their secret. God knows whom to choose to take into the counsels of the Almighty. “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” • And now, with the marvelous, miraculous Babe in her arms, for a little time, through her suffering it might be said: “Behold, the tabernacle o f God is with men, and He will dwell with them.” “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born o f thee shall be called the Son o f God,” the angel had told her. In the quiet that followed the great coming of the Child, as she lay at rest, was it not with the wonder at. her heart that she had become the mother of a heavenly K ing! “He shall be great and shall be called the Son o f the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.”
H e a r t to H e a r t W i t h Our Young Readers Now When Jesus was Born in Bethlehem of Judaea B y F lorence N ye W h itwell “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being inter preted is, God with us.”- —Matthew 1:23. f HR ISTMAS! Uncle Alan sat gazing into the red-gold embers of a wood fire in the wide stone chimney place. Christmas! Or if not quite Christmas, a day or two before it, and within seventy-two hours there was to be a special candle-light illumination all the world around, from the North Pole to the far southern icefields, from tropical zone to the polar snow storms! Little pin-points of jewel like lights were to star the dusky shadows of the Great Eve, the sacred twilight hour, the Holy Night; when, if ever, angel songs seemed to hover above the noise of earth, so that the finer ear might almost tune in to hear them, and the keener spiritual eye could almost glimpse the glory of the angelic throng. Christmas, the blessed time of gifts—of giving! Of thinking of someone else besides one’s se lf! The time when the most selfish old curmudgeon in the neighbor hood was suspected of loosening up enough to hang a little net stocking full of candy, from the five-cent store, on the outer door-knob for Little Sister. The time when the old world seemed a-tune like a chime of silver sleigh bells. In England the rosy children and their families would be gathered around the Yule log. In France the wooden shoes of the peasant little ones were to be filled with good ies. In Germany, the home of the candle-lit tree, “Heilige Nachf’ .would be played on the violin by some fair-haired son’, as tn e ,r^st sang, or accompanied him on piano or harp or ’cello. His mind traveled on around the world until an es pecially severe blast of wind rattled the French windows threatening to let in one of the worst storms that ever blew down from the Northern Pacific, and Uncle Alan won dered dreamily what all the shoppers were doing in the great floods of water that were descending from the sky. He rather liked the isolation the storm gave him. It was good to sit before the golden glow of the fire and hear the elements rage outside, while Little Sister moved in and out of the room bent on several mysterious errands into which, he was aware, he emphatically must not inquire. What song was she singing to herself? “O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by; Yes! That was i t ! “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, Christmas! And the rain outside poured down, while the wind blew faster than at sundown. Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light.............. .”
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