Published weekly. Price $1.50 a year, or 5 cents single copy Entered at the Post-office, Boston, Mass., as second-class mail matter. MR. SAVAGE'S BOOKS. SERMONS AND ESSAYS. 191 pages. 1880 1881 Christianity the Science of Manhood. 187 pages. 1882 1883 1873 $1.00 1.50 1 00 1 00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Religious Reconstruction. 246 pages. Four Great Questions concerning God. 86 pp. The Evolution of Christianity. 178 pages. 1892 .25 1.00 .25 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.50 .50 -75 Sacred Songs for Public Worship. A Hymn and Tune Dow. Cloth 1.00 Leather 1.50 Unitarian Catechism. With an Introduction by E. A. Horton. Price, Paper, per copy, 20 cents. Per dozen 1.50 Price, Cloth, per copy, so cents. Per dozen 2.50 Mr. Savage's weekly sermons are regularly printed in pamphlet form in Unity Pulpit." Subscription price, for the season, $1.50; single copy, 5 cents. GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. WHAT SHALL "And he said to him also that had bidden him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest haply they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But, when thou makest a feast, bid the poor, the halt, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; because they have not wherewith to recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just."— LUKE xiv. 12, 13, 14. THESE Words I have chosen as my text for the principle that they embody and illustrate. I know full well that I shall be in danger of saying things this morning which I have said before, and said more than once. I shall not, however, be daunted by this danger, but shall speak very simply and frankly concerning the principles underlying this question, which seems to me to be the secret of all true life. It is not yet Christmas time, but the Christmas suggestion, the Christmas spirit, are in the air; and all of us are looking forward with anticipation toward the Christmas day. I wish, in passing, merely to call attention to one peculiarity of this anticipation, one thing, very simple, yet so weighty in suggestion that I marvel that people forget it so easily, and that it has so little influence over our lives. I take it that I may say, to the credit of the nature of all those persons to whom I speak, that the one thing which makes the blessedness of their anticipation of the Christmas season is the thought that they are going to make somebody else happy. I do not believe that the most of us are specially interested over the thought of what we are to get. We are anticipating the pleasure of giving something and of seeing the happiness of those to whom we are to give. The essence of the Christmas season is right here; and I know you will bear me witness that I speak the truth when I say that, in this fact of making others happy, we ourselves are finding the deepest, purest happiness of our lives. Why, then, I wonder sometimes, cannot people see the meaning of this, and extend the spirit and principle of Christmas beyond the holidays? For generally, although we have found that we have been happier in making other people happy than we ever are in merely seeking happiness for ourselves, the minute the holidays are over this spirit is put behind us, and we are engaged all the rest of the year in the selfish striving to get. So much by way of hint as to the essential lesson of the Christmas time. Perhaps you will not thank me for any hints as to what you shall give to your friends or to the children; but I am going to take the liberty of making one or two commonplace. suggestions in regard to the matter. The one thing, and this is in accordance with the statement which I have just made, the one thing that is capable of spoiling the Christmas season, if it betray itself in any marked degree, is the selfish, the calculating, the commercial spirit. And that it does manifest itself more or less is, I think, often clear to us. Only the other day, for example,— and that, perhaps, has put it into my mind,—I stepped into the store of a friend, and the keeper of the store said to me: "It seems to me that the Christmas season is in danger of being spoiled. From things that I see I judge that people are calculating as to how much they ought to give to this person or that, and as to how much they are likely to receive in return,- whether there is to be a balance of the giving and the getting." It seems to me that, whether we have any influence beyond our own families in this thing, we ought, at any rate, in dealing with our children to jealously guard this whole matter of the commercial side of the giving and the receiving. Train the children to think that there is something deeper, higher, sweeter, in a gift than the money cost, whether it is a gift that is made or a gift that is received. The whole signifi cance, if it is to have any at all, lies in the fact that it means something in the way of friendship. Its value is in the sentiment, and not in what it cost at the store. Then let us, in giving this year, remember that there are special needs, special calls, as there are not every year, for our means; and let us cut off, if we must cut off, in the matter of giving to those whom we have been accustomed to remember, that we may have something left for the great needs that are crying out to us on every hand. There is something else that we can give the children which is of more value than any present they may receive. Let us give them, not alone at the Christmas time, but all the year round, the memory of happy homes. I speak of this now, because the idea of giving and what to give are in the minds of you all. And I wish this morning to broaden this topic out beyond any money consideration, although what I say will include money. Let us give the children and all the inmates of our homes happy, blessed memories, as the richest inheritance that they can receive at our hands. And let those of us who have children give them the kind of training springing peculiarly out of the Christmas season. Let us give them the idea that the one great thing which they are to do in the world is to become dispensers in some direction, and that their entire value to the world is in the fact that they shall be dispensers. They are of worth only through what they radiate as they go through life. The man who simply becomes the centre of the eddy round which everything circles, and by which everything that comes within its reach is sucked down, is not a help to the world: he is an injury. It is only those characters who are centres of radiating influences, who are givers, that make the world happy, make it richer and better. Let us give to our children these happy memories, and this kind of training as to the significance of life. Before I deal more directly with the practical aspects of my theme, I wish to ask you to go with me a little more deeply into the principle that underlies the matter of giving. |
