But that makes no difference. The thought and the
wish will be here just the same. In my work and in the business of
life, I mean to try not to be unfair to you or injure you in any way.
In my pleasure, if we can be together, I would like to share the fun
with you. Whatever joy or success comes to you will make me glad.
Without pretense, and in plain words, good-will to you is what I mean,
in the Spirit of Christmas."

It is not necessary to put a message like this into high-flown
language, to swear absolute devotion and deathless consecration. In
love and friendship, small, steady payments on a gold basis are better
than immense promissory notes. Nor, indeed, is it always necessary to
put the message into words at all, nor even to convey it by a tangible
token. To feel it and to act it out--that is the main thing.

There are a great many people in the world whom we know more or less,
but to whom for various reasons we cannot very well send a Christmas
gift. But there is hardly one, in all the circles of our acquaintance,
with whom we may not exchange the touch of Christmas life.

In the outer circles, cheerful greetings, courtesy, consideration;
in the inner circles, sympathetic interest, hearty congratulations,
honest encouragement; in the inmost circle, comradeship, helpfulness,
tenderness,--

"_Beautiful friendship tried by sun and wind
Durable from the daily dust of life._"

After all, Christmas-living is the best kind of Christmas-giving.

* * * * *

A SHORT CHRISTMAS SERMON

KEEPING CHRISTMAS

ROMANS, xiv, 6: _He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto
the Lord._

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times
and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is
a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the
common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own
little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs
on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and
that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to
remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world
owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights
in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your
chances to do a little more than your duty in the for