But a child has in it the possibility of growth and of imparting regenerating ideas and a new life to the world.  Sir Isaac Newton did not give any money or material gift to the world, but he gave it scientific ideas and a scientific spirit, and in giving it this he raised the intellectual level of the world and gave it the power of making millions of money.  Shakespeare gave the world no new machine, but he opened the eyes of men to see heavenly visions and thus enriched them with treasures above all the gold of the world.  Martin Luther invented no steam engine or sewing machine, but he taught men the rights of conscience and created our modern liberties.  No material thing, however powerful and splendid, can make a better world:  this work calls for better men.  Therefore when God brings into the world a child endowed with superior intellectual and moral power, though his gift is only a babe and seems insignificant and hardly worth counting among so many, yet he has sent one of the greatest gifts of which his omnipotence is capable.  An old German schoolmaster always took his hat off to each new boy that came into his school, never knowing what elements of genius might have been mixed in his newly molded brain.  When Erasmus came out of that school his prophetic instinct was justified.  Never despise a child, for in it sleeps some of the omnipotence and worth of God.

But the Child which God gave the world as its Christmas gift was no merely human child however richly endowed.  This Child was human and was born in time, but he was also divine and came forth from eternity.  The possibilities that were sleeping in this Child were foreseen by the prophet Isaiah in the names that were prophetically given him, every name being a window through which we can look in upon his personality and power, every title being one of his crowns:  “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  All these powers and possibilities are incarnated in this Child, and he is working them out in a redeemed world.  God made no mistake, then, he gave us no small and common gift, but he did his best and gave the world the greatest possible Christmas Gift when this Child was born.  All the grass in the world came from one seed, all the roses from one root, and all the redeemed that shall at last populate heaven and fill it with praise throughout eternity shall be saved by the grace and clad in the beauty of this Child.

XIX.  A World Without Christmas

What would be the effect of blotting Christmas out of the calendar of the world?  Imagination would have to explore wide and deep in order to trace all the consequences.  The gladdest holiday of the year would fade into a common day.  The weeks that precede it would lose all their interest of preparation and expectation and would sink into dull days.  The stores would not blossom out into brilliant bazars,