he shepherds said one to
another: "Let us now go, even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which
is come to pass."

So I said within myself that I also would go with the shepherds, even
to Bethlehem. And I heard a great and sweet voice, as of a bell, which
said, "Come!" And when the bell had sounded twelve times, I awoke; and
it was Christmas morn; and I knew that I had been in a dream.

Yet it seemed to me that the things which I had heard were true.

* * * * *

A LITTLE ESSAY

CHRISTMAS-GIVING AND CHRISTMAS-LIVING

I

The custom of exchanging presents on a certain day in the year is very
much older than Christmas, and means very much less. It has obtained
in almost all ages of the world, and among many different nations.
It is a fine thing or a foolish thing, as the case may be; an
encouragement to friendliness, or a tribute to fashion; an expression
of good nature, or a bid for favour; an outgoing of generosity, or
a disguise of greed; a cheerful old custom, or a futile old farce,
according to the spirit which animates it and the form which it takes.

But when this ancient and variously interpreted tradition of a day
of gifts was transferred to the Christmas season, it was brought
into vital contact with an idea which must transform it, and with an
example which must lift it up to a higher plane. The example is the
life of Jesus. The idea is unselfish interest in the happiness of
others.

The great gift of Jesus to the world was himself. He lived with and
for men. He kept back nothing. In every particular and personal gift
that he made to certain people there was something of himself that
made it precious.

For example, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, it was his thought for
the feelings of the giver of the feast, and his wish that every guest
should find due entertainment, that lent the flavour of a heavenly
hospitality to the wine which he provided.

When he gave bread and fish to the hungry multitude who had followed
him out among the hills by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were
refreshed and strengthened by the sense of the personal care of Jesus
for their welfare, as much as by the food which he bestowed upon them.
It was another illustration of the sweetness of "a dinner of herbs,
where love is."

The gifts of healing which he conferred upon many different kinds of
sufferers were, in every case, evidences that Jesus was willing to
give something o