Evening star., 1924-12-21
Christmas Spirit a Miracle
To Make All Mankind Wonder

hearted man finds his sympathies
gushing out in kindly deeds toward
these little ones. The laughter upon
their lips brings ripples upon the
seas of life. which before were
troubled or too calm.
The saddest event In all human
history was not the NaZarene upon
His cross. Sadder far was the oc-
casion when He looked down upon
the beloved city Of His people and
exclaimed: 20. Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gath
cred thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her children under
her wing, and ye would notP
The blind had received their sight.
the dumb their speech, the deaf their
hearing. and the gospel had been
preached unto the poor, but all these
things availed Him naught in His
contest with the ponp, the pride, the
arrogance Of place and prefernaent.
They were willing to receive but not
to give. Like Himself they were
out of the cradle and in the arena;
but, unlike Himself, they were will
ing to take what they could get and
yet were unwilling to give in re-
turn. Is 1t any wonder that He wept
over Jerusalem? Is II at all strange
that He limited the admission into
the Kingdom of Heaven to such as
were little children?
The strange thing about Christmas
Is that on this day we bow in adora-
tion before many whom in the days
to come we are to forget were little
children, and treat them as antago-
nists in the battle of life. We stop
our love for childhood with the years,
yet II we would just reason a bit we
would realize that childhood is not
altogether a question. OF age. In part,
at least, 1t Is a question of life and
conduct. We have no trouble which
we cannot easily adjust with these
little ones in these holy days. Love
and compassion toward them are the
moving impulses of our lives. We
all are wise enough to know that in
this particular, however foolish we
may be in other ways, we have en-
riched ourselves. 1t takes week, a
month. sometimes longer, for the
glory of the Christmastide TO vanish
from our view. 1t finally dies the
death. of course, but 1t dies more
slowly than any other human ex-
perience.
For more than nineteen centuries,
now, year after year. in these good
days we have been glorifying child
hood. 1t Is the richest and sweetest
experience of our lives. 1t is the
greatest tonic Of tho year. How much
OF wrong and sin and selfishness 1t
keeps US from cannot say, but moth
ing good ever touched the human
heart without leaving 1t little bet
ter for the days to come. 1t Is a
beautiful thing to have this Christ
mas time. with love and charity and
forgiveness pouring out into the
world for little while. But, neither
the kingdom of God nor the king
dom OF democracy ever can come to
pass until we broaden childhood to
include all children of the King. until
we stretch the Christmastide across
the entire year, until love permanent
ly shall take the place of hate and
confidence Is substituted for mistrust.
Then mutual helpfulness rather than
strength will be the rule of survival
in a world filled full of persons who
need our kindly caro- as much as
though they lay helpless in a manger.
Copyright. 1924, by 2lst Century Press.l