The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-09

 DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
BY THE REV. FRANK rE WIT rALMAcE. D. D.
os ANGELES, Cal. December 2.-In

forward To the JOYS pl tie "P
 preaching holidays, the preacher draws practical lesson concerning gifts, which applies to all classes. The text is John xiv. 13, .Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do."
 Many years ago the beautiful custom was started of giving Christmas pres ents May it never become obsolete! This custom dates as far back as the first Christmas day. when the three wise men came journeying from the east and brought their presents of gold and frank Incense and myrrh and laid them at the Sayiour's feet
 This beautiful custom of Christmas glV- ing is practiced not only in the homes of the rich, but also in the cottages of the poor, It is practiced not only among the young, but among the middle aged and those in the twilight of life. But, though Christmas giving means much to all classes of people in Christian lands. I believe it means the most to those homes where there are lot of children and where money is not over-plentiful, as was the case in the homes of our fa- thers and mothers, where our brothers and sisters and ourselves grew up side
 by side.
 When I mention the Christmas of our
 youthful homes the vivid scenes come
 back to us. They flood the minds and hea with grateful memories. First we
 think of the preparations for those
 Chrstmases Our fathers income was not
 very large. The daily demands made upon his wages reduced that income to
 the utmost The shoes and the stockings had to be bought for many little feet INnIr hxr nf1 loaf or two loaves, but by the dozen loaves. The healthy appetites of your fathers growing family were simply enormous Medicine had to be bought and the doctors bills met for the care Of your sick sister. The wood and the coal had to be put into the bin to drive the cold out in those bitter January and February nights. No wonder your father and mother had to figure very close how to make the income meet the necessary outgo. Thus there was not very much money to spend for the Christmas pres ents A little money had to be made to go a great way. Now, how did your mothers bridge over the difficulties! rms was the way they did it:
 A fsw weeks, or, rather a couple of months, before Christmas our mother would call all the children together. Then she would give to each percll ana paper Then she would say: NOW, my son, I want you to write upon that paper a list of all the things that you would like for Christmas Do not make your de- sires too great. Then, if your father and mother can afford it, from among those lists we will make our selections and give you what you want Otherwise we may buy you something you may not desire. Then our mother would take the lists that our brothers and sisters and we
 had made. Every day after the work at
 f mother would
 shopping My how tired she used to look
 when she returned! She would be too
 tired to eat. Then those mysterious
 bundles would come home from the store and be piled away in the closet,
 which would be locked as tight as the
 one in which the fabled Bluebeard kept
 the decapitated heads of his murdered 1.ives. We remember how, as boys, we used to try to peek through the keyhole
 of that door and hold a lighted match just under the knob to try to see what was behind that unturnable lock. The | longer and the more often we looked the slower that Christmas day crawled l around.
 On Christmas Eve.
 Then that going to bed on Christmas | eVe-why it did seem as though we never 1 could get to sleep. When we lay awake l we could hear the strange bustling down | stairs and the rumblng of the delivery l wagons coming and going. And when we | got out of bed just to look over the ban | isters to see what was going on our
 mother would catch sight of our little nightgowns every time and cry: Frank, is that you? Are you out of bed?' Then we would be so frightened that we could
 not answer her. All that she could hear was pattering of little feet as we scur- ried back to the bed nest. But after long time after it seemed as though we l,od nj a tlirtV-gfX l hor-3 we awoke. It was Christmas | morning-then the stockings by the bed | post filled with candy and few toys, l which We grabbed: then the hurried dressing and the hurried breakfast. l Mother and father never let us have our l toys until after breakfast and Christmas | prayers Then the family formed into l line, the youngest at the head and our l brothers and sisters going up In steps | until the line ended, with mother and | father last Then the door of the back | parlor swung open.
 Then the Christmas tree-the different I chairs filled with bundles each with the | owners name marked upon them and | the name of the giver attached. Then l from every part of the room can be 1 heard the same cries of delight as the different bundles are opened, then the l kisses and the hugs. But after the pres- l ents have all been examined and we have
 
 | the most part the presents we received were selected from the lists we gave to | mother weeks or perhaps two months I ago Ah, yes, that list was very im- | portant one which we gave to our par
 ents It made our Christmas day happy | and blessed.
 1 An, those were happy days, when toy l that cost 50 cents could fill our hearts l with joy, when boy was made happy | with a pair of skates and his sister with
 a dolls house. What would it take now, I my brother, my sister. to cause you so I much joy? I suppose the deed of house | and lot or a beaver sack and a diamond | ring might cause some elation. But 1t | would not be such whole souled joy as 1 that you felt over the little gift of those | Christmas days of old. The gifts now | must be commensurate with our larger | ideas What would really make you hap 1 py now? Could any gift In the world do | it? I doubt it, Well then, I want to draw your attention to another world, | where one sits who, better than your mother in the old days. knows your needs and the gifts that will satisfy 1 them.
 A List of Gifts.
 l What our mothers demanded from us | when we were little children many years | ago Jesus Christ is demanding from us now As the Christmas holiday ap- | breaches, God wants us to make out a list of all the gifts we should like from him for the day which commemorates
 the birth of Jesus Christ. Furthermore,
 God does not limit us in the sense that
 our mothers had to limit us, because their incomes were meagre and the out