that a man's life consisteth not in the things that he possesseth, but
rather in the thoughts that he thinks, in the motives that sway his
action; in the ideals towards which he presses; in the God whom he
worships and makes his own. How great a revolution He made. That one
hour in the manger has changed the world. Every time I sit down to
write a letter and head it 1922 I bear witness to the truth--that the
world I know began when a Child laid in the manger brought to earth the
realisation that all the great and noble things in life can be
mine--though my raiment be shabby and though my banker never thinks it
worth his while to throw me even a word when I reluctantly pass in
through his swing door. What a wonderful new wine He brought, and how
generously does He pour it into our bottles. Still new--after nineteen
centuries! Still bursting the old bottles on all sides! I can be
quite patient. There is no need for passionately tearing them in
pieces. Nineteen centuries! What are they in the arithmetic of
eternity! Give the Child time--and all the bottles of Mammon and
vulgarity will at last be burst.

III

No wonder Christmas sends a glow of warmth round the heart, and causes
joy bells to ring in the souls of even the drooping. It is to-day as
it was of old, when the disciples--poor, dull, purblind men--were
disputing even near the end as to which of them would have the greater
position and the greater wealth and honour. And Jesus placed a little
child in the midst and said, 'Except ye be converted, and become as a
little child, ye cannot enter the kingdom.' And in a world weary of
disputing, sated with strife as to who is to have the higher place and
the greater portion, Christmas places the Child in the midst and says,
'Except ye be converted...' What men need is not the sharing of a
booty, but the regenerating of a Spirit. The faith, the trust, the
purity, the love of the childlike spirit--that's what we need. What we
do or what we get matters nought, if only that spirit be in the heart.
One man may whirl past in a Rolls-Royce, befurred, bejewelled, and may
be the most pauperised soul on earth; while the stone-breaker at the
roadside may be the inheritor of all things and rich beyond all dreams.
Christmas is the surety of that. That was the wisdom of 'Stonecracker
John,' who sang:--

'The good Lord made the earth and sky,
The river and the sea--and me!
He made no roads, but here am I