iour of the world. He came to banish the moral
darkness which covered the whole earth.

Not only the time of the year, but also the character of the Christmas
tree suggests something. With the long nights comes also the cold
winter. The earth is wrapped in snow. The trees, which a few months ago
were green and beautiful and in the fall all laden with fruit, are now
all naked and bare, and if you were to go out into the orchard or forest
you could not tell the difference between a dead tree, and all the
others which seem to be dead. Among all the trees you would only find
such as the pine, the hemlock, the fir and other varieties, such as are
known as evergreen trees, that would be green and give evidence of life.
So you will see again how the Christmas tree fittingly represents
Christ, because these evergreens, in the field and in the forest, seem
to be the only things that have greenness and life, while all else
around them seems to be dead and laid in a shroud of white snow.

[Illustration: The Christmas Tree

Copyrighted 1911 by Sylvanus Stall]

The custom of setting up a tree at Christmas time and loading it with
fruit and gifts seems to have originated in Germany, and the thought
of these people in introducing this custom centuries ago, was that they
might teach their children this very lesson to which I have referred.

Now, I desire to call your attention also to the fruit which is so often
hung on the Christmas tree. The Bible tells us that a tree is known by
its fruit. If you go into the orchard you could tell the apple tree from
the pear tree, and you could tell the plum tree from the peach tree. If
you did not know them by their leaves, you would at least know them by
their fruit. But when you come to look at this tree you find oranges
upon it. Now, this is not an orange tree. You find dolls upon it, but it
is not a doll tree. Here are a pair of skates, but it is not a skate
tree. Here are some candies, but it is not a candy tree. Neither can it
be known by the name of any one of these various things which hang upon
the tree. But it is a Christmas tree. And all these various kinds of
things are properly hung upon the Christmas tree to represent the
fulfillment of that promise that, with His Son Jesus Christ, God would
also give us all things richly to enjoy.

The gifts hung on Christmas trees are usually presents from one person
to another--often not only from parents to children, but from teachers
to sc