Do they have Christmas out West?  Well, they have it in their hearts if no place else, and, after all, that is the place above all others where it should be.

A CHRISTMAS WISH

For Everybody, Everywhere

MAY peace and goodwill, prosperity and plenty, joy and satisfaction abound in your homes and in your hearts this day and all days.  May opportunities for good work be many, and may you avail yourselves of them all.  May your sorrows be lightened, may your griefs be assuaged.  May your souls be fitted for what they must endure; may your backs be strengthened for your burdens; may your responsibilities be met; may your obligations be discharged; may your duties be performed.  May love abound more and more until the perfect day breaks in your lives.  In short, every wish that would be helpful, uplifting, and comforting, I wish you at this hour and in all hours.

In the words of Tiny Tim.

“God Bless us every one!”

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  These loving and appealing verses were written by Harriet F. Blodgett, of whom unfortunately I know absolutely nothing but her name.  I am sure, however, that if they had been written today another verse, even more touching than those I have quoted, would have been inspired by present conditions.  And we should have seen “The Little Christ” coming down between the lines in Flanders, on the Balkan Frontier, amid the snows of Russia and the deserts of Mesopotamia, and perhaps, as of old, even walking on the waters in the midst of the sea.]

[Footnote 2:  This bit of personal history is reprinted from my book Recollections of a Missionary in the Great West by the courtesy of Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, the publishers thereof.  Incidentally the reader will find much interesting matter in the way of reminiscence and anecdote in that little volume, should he chance upon it.

There are some amusing things connected with the publication in serial form of these episodes.  The great magazine in which it appeared has very strong views on certain subjects.  Following out a policy which has deservedly won them perhaps the largest circulation of any magazine in the world it seemed to the editors necessary and desirable to make some changes in the story as originally written and as it appears hereafter.

For instance the revised serial version made the cowboy lift the flask of whiskey to his lips and then it declared that after a long look at the sleeping children he put it down!  I was quite agreeable to the change.  I remember remarking that the cowboy certainly did “put it down.”  It was a way cowboys had in those bygone days; so the editor and the author were both satisfied.