Page 10 - 1914 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 123

THE SPIRIT OF "AFTER-CHRISTMAS"

How much we hear of the spirit of Christmas! I t is taken as a
subject for sermons preached in every Christian church at Christ-
mas time. In the newspapers there are editorials, in the Christmas
number of almost every magazine there are articles that have for
their titles "The Spirit of Christmas." And a wonderful subject it
is. Yet there is one other that is almost as beautiful, and about
which we hear little. Is there nothing to be said about the spirit
of "after-Christmas"? A feeling of love and goodwill that seems
to sweep over everything and to enter into everybody's heart, takes
hold of almost all of us at Christmas, even of those people who
are so unfortunate as to have lost most of their enthusiasm. I t is
this feeling that makes us speak a kind word to everyone we
meet and that makes us feel like emptying our pockets and giving
all we have to those who have not quite as much as we have. We
fill stockings and trim Christmas trees for the children of the slums,
we take our baskets to the almshouses, we send fuel and clothing
to the poor. We go away smiling as we think of the happiness
we have given and we go to sleep still smiling at the thought.
Yes, we have given help, and it is this joy of service that makes
us happy. The spirit of unselfish giving is the most beautiful
part of our celebration of our Lord's birth. I would not take away
anything from the nobleness of this Christmas giving, but this
in itself is not enough for us to do to keep the day that we Christians
hold closest to our hearts. We give our goods to feed the poor
during Christmas week, but what are they going to do the rest of
the year? We speak words of kindness and encouragement to our
neighbors at Christmas, but are we going to let them starve for
kind words all the other time? Shouldn't we rather keep the Christ-
mas spirit with us all year long and have Christmas as the end we
begin to work for at the beginning of the new year? I think
this thought might be our guiding-star to lead us through the year,
and then, like the other wise man in the story of Dr. Van Dyke, after
we had given our gifts of love and kindness as well as of material
things to those in need whom we met all along the roadside, we
should get a more perfect glimpse of the Master at the end of our
journey. The Spirit of Christmas means much now, but it would
mean infinitely more i f we kept our faces turned to this thought
throughout the year, as the wise men of old did to the Star of Beth-
lehem.

K A T H A R I N E GORDON. Kappa.