Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: in Advent A picture of Santa Claus and one of Christ, adult. SANTA CLAUS AND JESUS " It i more blessed to give than to receive." Acts xx, 35. Christmas is almost here. We are all eager to get to it, aren't we? Have you sometimes seen railroad crossings where a great wooden arm swoops down and stops those on the road for a moment until the danger of the train is over? Well, I want to be like a railroad-crossing-arm that comes down just for a minute, making you stop and think until the danger is past, as you go down the road to Christmas. For there is danger. Not to your bodies but to your characters. Even on the road to Christmas, " Stop, look and listen," then, just a moment or so. Christmas is what day? . . . Yes, the birthday of Christ. But there is another figure that Christmas suggests: — good, jolly old Santa Claus. May I ask you to ask yourselves a very careful question and to answer it honestly? The question is, " Which do you think most of at Christmas-time, Christ or Santa Claus ?" There is the danger, dear youngsters ! Do you think moreabout Santa Claus or about Jesus Christ at present? Santa Claus is only a kind of a fairy, of course; and Jesus was real; but so far as your thoughts go, hasn't the fairy-saint more interest than the Christ-child? Perhaps there is no danger with you at all. I may be all wrong with you; but I've known many, many boys and girls who were thinking more about Christmas presents than they were of the Christ-child. Perhaps you can see how dangerous the danger is, as I go on. We don't want Christmas to get wrong end round. It is all right to believe in Santa Claus if you find out his heart. The happy fairy-grandfather who loves to make children happy, who just can't help giving presents to carry his love, who is glad onl...