northward, and the life forces within the earth feel the thrill of his radiant beams. The waiting energies of growth push out and upward, and beneath the cold and the snow, unheralded save to the heart of man, the spring is born.

All tribes and nations of earth have their legends concerning a Christmastide. In the fullness of time the dim impulse that reached out and up, groping its way to the light, found its fulfillment in the Christ-man. What wonder that heaven and earth were stirred to anthems of joy at the coming of man into his own!

Would it not be well for us to consider individually and collectively the question of how we can observe Christmas in the spirit of its true idea? We have enslaved ourselves with the burden of giving at Christmas. We have lost sight of the real spirit of giving when we spend ourselves and deplete our purses for the sake of conforming to the almost universal custom of exchanging gifts with our friends. It would be much more in conformity with the Christ Spirit to use the time in sending out to our friends the joyful thoughts that come spontaneously from the Christ love. The gift is but the symbol of what we desire for our friends.

When we identify ourselves with the outside things, the giving is empty and hollow; our friends do not receive much from such