The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1912-12-23
The True Christmas Spirit.

0AOWS OACS SSSiy yCol. A6oih eAS
flood tide has come. In the beauti-
fu.. words of Margaret E. Sangster,
let every heart sing:
Forget the hurt of the ancient
grudge,
And the dark, depressing mood;
In the Christmas realm let love be
judge,
In the world be only good"
The true Christian spirit is the
spirit of giving. forgiving and
Thanksgiving. without Gods giving
and forgiving love the world would
never have had a Christmas. With
out the spirit OF giving, forgiving
and thanksgiving in our hearts we
can never have real Christmas.
Jesus: The, First Place.
We must give Jesus the first
place in our hearts. In the day of
his exaltation he seeks place in
every human heart, just as in the
day of his humiliation he sought a
place in the Inn at Bethlehem. The
sad, sad fact is that too many shut
him out of their lives now, as he
was shut out of the Inn ON the day
of his nativity. To give the Only
Begotten Son such a place in our
lives Is to give "Glory to God in
the Highest"
Good Will Toward Men.
We must give the second place
In our hearts to others. The angels
who sang "Glory to God in the
Highest sang in the same breath,
Good will towards Men," 1t Is
not enough for God to love us and
for us to love Him. We must love
others. 1t is not enough for us to
be saved and made to rejoice. We
must help save others, and make
them rejoice. 1t is not enough for
Jesus to give Himself for us. We
must give ourselves for others.
We can give good will to men by
cultivating good will in ourselves.
If you think that an easy task,you
are badly mistaken. 1t means self
mastery, and the man who masters
himself has an all-round-year job on
his hands. He must master his
thoughts. One cannot act we'll to-
wards another If he thinks ill of
him. He must master his speech.
One cannot do good to his neighbor
while he speaks evil of him. He
must master his feelings. One can
not syn.pathize with his brother
when he is all the time harshly
criticisirg him.
We render good will towards men
when we cultivate kindness towards
those who irritate US. 1t is an easy
task to love those who love us,but
true to the Christmas spirit,we must
love those who provoke US. That
Ia what God did for us. Increasingly
we provoked Him, but "He common
ded His love toward us.in that while
We were sinners. Christ died for u.s.,
..eU-lds7easg your s00u will Tor
Fellow creature" says Arnold Ben
nett, at is necessary to imagine that
you are he. and nothing else is nee
essary." Here is really where the
spirit of forgiving comes in.
The Manner of Giving.
= We must show the true spirit of
Christmas in the manner of our CIV
ing. Not all giving at Christmas by
q good deal Is Christmas giving.
Much of it is mere barter in giving
swapping gifts. when you get the
worst end Of the bargain.
Real Christmas giving must be
free giving-made out right, with
no thought of receiving anything in
dts stead. Such was Gods first
Christmas gift to the world. "The
free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord" God gave
out of love and at sacrifice. So
must we give. The swapping of
Christmas presents often becomes
very brain racking and WEAKNESS to
the flesh. True giving is never a
burden.
True Christmas giving must be
giving to meet a real need. God
gave the world his best gift of sal
walton, because the world needed
saving. A fancy bag cannot salts
fy for bread; an embroidered jabot
cannot take the place of warm
clothing; little fancies cannot fill
the place of fuel; money can never
satisfy for love; patronage cannot
take the place of sympathy. We
must give bread, clothing, fuel love,
and sympathy where bread and
colthing and fuel and love and SYM
pathy are needed.
Real Christmas giving must be in
the coin of our own selves. We
must give what we have and not
desire to give what someone else
has. If our coin is love, we must
give love. If our coin Is bread,
meat and clothing, we must give
bread, meat and clothing. If our
coin Is gold, God and those whom
God must help through us will not
dispise it because it also has the
stamp of the United States mint
on It. The only difference Is. God
will not value it in the same de-
nominations by which Uncle Sam
has valued it. God will place his
own stamp of value on it.
at Is worth remembering" says
DR.. Chas. E. jefferson, "that Christ
mas is the birthday of Jesus, the
man who never gave the world
dollar. He bestowed upon mankind
not a solitary material gift. He
carved TO statute, painted no pic
ture, wrote no poems, composed no