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| Painting by Sigismud De Ivanowski and decorative border by Edward Edwards. |
The whole life of Christ overflowed with love, and yet there never was a time in His thirty-three years on earth when He did not see the Cross. In His baby eyes was the shadow of Golgotha: His curls were tangled in a ghostly crown of thorns. The "way of the cross" certainly seemed to lead from the stable-door in Bethlehem.
But the Divinity within Christ magnified and glorified Him, and fortified Him to bear up under the tortures that were meted out to Him.
This Christ-child of the manger is the image of thousands of children of today born to suffering and poverty as was He. With this difference: they are human and have not the Divine fortitude to carry the burdens on their little shoulders as did He. And today while we are celebrating the birth of the Babe thousands upon thousands of His little blood-brethren are suffering because of cold and hunger. And other thousands of little ones will survive the rigors of the winter only to wither under the fearful assault of the seething summer. In every community today-close to our homes wherein we have warmth and light and plenty-these little brethren of Christ wear their thorns and the shadows of dark on their little hearts.
What, then, can we all do that is more in the truest spirit of Christmas than to reach out our hands to these little brethren of Christ: to let a little warmth into their cold bodies: a little light into their dark souls: to bring light of happiness into their sad eyes: the smile, and the laugh, into their stern little faces?
What greater honor can we pay to Christ than to see to it that every little soul is given a decent environment into which to be born and in which to life his little life? Is this to give too much?
To begin to do this on Christmas Day and then to continue doing it all through the year: that is indeed Christlike, for as we do it unto the least of His little ones, so surely we do it unto Him.
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