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T h e K i n g ' s B u s i n e s s upon all the “Saints” to spare her babe. Then from the crowded pavement ran a young girl. Straight in front of the trampling horses she sprang and like lightning snatched the babe and leaped back to safety. A moment later and the mother with* baby once- more safely in her arms was volubly thanking her child’s deliverer. The girl smiled as she answer ed, “That is all right. Here, baby—here’s a merry Christmas to you, dear,” and she stooped and kissed the dirty cheek of the little one, as she did so pressing a bright, silver dollar into the child’s hand. As she turned away there was a warm glow in her heart, for had she not inter preted the spirit of Christmas in its fullest sense? Did not the kind Saviour whose birthday it was, intervene for us in similar manner* regardless of the. dan ger to His own material body? He gave Himself to be crucified to save from our sm; neither did He shrink from the filth of our ignorance, but sacrificed Him self tp make us, clean. .“Inasmuch, as ye do it unto one of the least of these—ye do it unto me.”—Imogene S. Garman. “ ’Tis not enough that Christ was born Beneath the star that shone, And earth was set that blessed morn Within a golden, zone. He must be born within the heart Before He finds His throne, And brings the day of love, and good— The reign of Christlike brotherhood.”. Christmas is a day of joy, but joy should not be allowed to die out of our lives next morning. It should stay with us ever after. We should sing the Christ mas songs all the new year. We should carry the peace of God in our hearts continually thereafter. We should learn from this time to find the beauty and the good in all things, and to show the world that we believe what we say we believe— that since God loves us and Jesus Christ is our Friend, “all’s well with the world.” —Herald and Presbyter. A miser must have a wretched time at Christmas, for Christmas is preeminently a time of generosity. God set the ex ample when he gave his own Son; the wise men followed it, when they gave their gold to the Christ-child; and in proportion to our share of the Christmas spirit, we are walking in their footsteps today.— Rev. J. T. Farris, D.D. —o— December 16, 1928 God’s Christmas Gift to the World Lk. 2 :1-16. Daily Scripture Reading Dec. 10 The unspeakable gift. 2 Cor. 9: 15. Dec. 11 The motive behind the gift. John 3:16. Dec. 12 The object of the gift. John 10: 10 . Dec. 13 God in the gift. 2 Cor. 5 :19-21. Dec. 14 Included in the gift. Rom. 8:32. Dec. .15 Receiving the gift. John 1:12,13. When an artist’s pupil was asked to try to paint a sunset, she replied, “I can not paint glory.” How can we ever paint in words God’s gift to mankind? Even His only begotten Son. “Who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person,” left His home in glory and came down to this sinful earth that we, poor lost sinners, might become sons of God. What a gift! “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” Approaching the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of man
December 1928
kind, we are to consider Him as God’s gift to the world, in our lesson today. Where there is a gift there must be a recipient as well as a giver. When we make, a gift to someone it is prompted by love and is usually made to one who loves us:; God’s love as expressed in the gift of His Son, goes beyond all human love. What would we think of a friend to whom we made a gift, and possibly at a great sacrifice on our part, if such a friend failed to say “thank you” ? We certainly would consider that friend most ungrateful and would most likely never make that friend another gift. God loved the unlovely. He loved us when we were »dead in trespasses and sins.” Instead of friends, by our sins we were enemies of God, alienated from Him. BUT— thank. God for the “buts”, of His Word—“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wlierewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved).” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved wr, and sent His Son to be?,the propitiation for our sins.” ; “And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” The great motive behind the gift was God’s love for lost sinners. A gift is something to be received. Salvation is received by the acceptance of Christ, God’s Son, as our Saviour (John 1:12). Salvation i 9 a free gift in order to re move every excuse from men. (Rev. 22: 17; Isa. 55:1). What more appropriate time of the year could there be for young people to give their lives to God, than at Christ mas time when we remember His gift to us? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). May many young people of C. E. throughout the world, who have not as yet accepted Christ as Saviour, God’s love gift, do so at this joyful season and say “Thank you, God, for Jesus Christ MY Saviour.” —o— C hoice N uggets Christ is the Christmas Giver. Many of the richest and sweetest joys human hearts can experience were born into the world when Christ was born. Let us name a few from among the many. One is the joy of knowing the nature of God. Christ was Immanuel—God with u s; so near that we could see and understand and know Him. Before the coming of Christ men’s ideas of God were hazy and indistinct, sometimes even crude. In a true sense “Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine, Love was born at Christmas, Star and angels gave the sign.” The incarnation is simply a great ob- • ject-lesson of God’s love. He loved be fore, but the incarnation taught men that He loved and how much He loved. Christ has elevated the ideals of man kind from the earthly to the heavenly, from selfishness to self-sacrifice, from sinfulness to holiness, from war to peace. He changed the date of the world’s his tory, beginning a new reckoning of years.
December 9, 1928 How Should a Christian’s Christmas Be Different?
. Lk. 2 : 1 5 2 Cor. 9:15. Daily Scripture Reading
Dec. 3 Christ reborn in us. Gal. 4:19. Dec. 4 Looking at Christ, not at gifts. Luke 2:15-17. Dec. 5 Different in motives. 2 Cor. 8 :5,9. Dec. 6 Different in manifestations. Rom. 13:11-14. Dec. 7 Abundant in kindness. Job. 29: 11-16. Dec. 8 An unselfish spirit. 1 Cor. 10:32, 33. “In His name, my brother, Lift the fallen one; Do the Master’s bidding, As in heav’n ’tis done; Cheer the faint and drooping, Help the weak to stand. Forward, brother, forward! ... Lending a helping hand.” The monument of Christ on the cor dillera of the Andes has a grand signifi cance. Fourteen thousand feet above the sea, upon a pinnacle it stands, surrounded by peaks of perpetual snow. Chile and Argentina lifted it as a tangible witness of international brotherhood! On this colossal monument of the Christ is the inscription on its granite pedestal: “Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust than Argentines and Chileans break the peace which, at the feet of Christ, the Redeemer, they have sworn to maintain,” and on the opposite side of the base, the angel song of Beth lehem : “Peace on earth, good will to all men!” The statue cost about a hundred thousand dollars and was paid for by subscription from the people, the working classes contributing liberally. The older the Christian era the farther out and the farther up reaches the influence of the Man of Galilee. It was Christmas Eve. The busy shops were gay and hosts of busy shoppers hurried in and out, their arms full of interesting-looking packages. Without, the streets were filled with traffic of every description. Clanging trolley-cars, ele gant cars and delivery trucks of every description threaded their way among the busy throng of pedestrians. Suddenly a scream, shrill and terror- stricken, sounded high above all the other street sounds. It was from an Italian woman, poorly dressed, whose babe had freed itself from her hand and run direct ly beneath the feet of a pair of big heavy horses drawing a delivery truck. In her excitable Latin way the poor woman called frantically in her natural tongue,
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