Christ Child from the lips of some grey old
father, so other children listen and we ourselves perchance are fathers
or mothers too. Other groups come to us for the deathless story. Little
heads which recall vanished halcyon days of youth bend around another
younger mother. Smaller hands than ours write letters to Santa Claus and
hear the story, the sweetest story ever told, of the Baby who came to
Mary and through her to all the daughters and sons of women on that
winter night on the Bethlehem hills.

And we thank God for the children who take us out of the past, out of
ourselves, away from recollections that weigh us down; the children that
weave in the woof and warp of life when our own youth has passed, some
of the buoyancy, the joy, the happiness of the present; the children in
whose opening lives we turn hopefully to the future. We thank God at
this Christmas season that it pleased Him to send His beloved Son to
come to us as a little child, like any other child. We thank God that in
the lesser sense we may see in every child who comes to-day another
incarnation of divinity. We thank God for the portion of His Spirit with
which He dowers every child of man, just as we thank Him for pouring it
all upon the Infant in the Manger.

There is no age that has not had its prophet. No country, no people, but
that has produced its leader. But did any of them ever before come as a
little child? Did any of them begin to lead while yet in arms? Lodges
there upon any other baby brow "the round and top of sovereignty?" What
distinguished Christ and His Christian followers from all the world?
Behold! no mighty monarch, but "a little child shall lead them!"

You may see through the glass darkly, you may not know or understand
the blessedness of faith in Him as He would have you know it, but there
is nothing that can dim the light that radiates from that birth in the
rude cave back of the inn. Ah, it pierces through the darkness of that
shrouding night. It shines to-day. Still sparkles the Star in the East.
He is that Star.

There is nothing that can take from mankind--even doubting mankind--the
spirit of Christ and the Christmas season. Our celebrations do not rest
upon the conclusions of logic, or the demonstrations of philosophy; I
would not even argue that they depend inevitably or absolutely upon the
possession of a certain faith in Jesus, but we accept Christmas,
nevertheless; we endeavour to apply the Christmas spirit, fo