Spencer Heath Archive

Item 136

Carbon of a Christmas story by Heath for his three little daughters, Marguerite, Beatrice and Lucile, at Christmas in Washington DC.

December 25, 1910

Dear Children:

     This is the Christmas day when the dear little Christ Child was born in a manger away across the sea. He came to bring love into the world and to teach people how to love one another. And that was such a beautiful and wonderful thing that the night he was born the Angels in Heaven sang a song of kindness and joy to all the world.

     Do you know who it was that heard the Angel’s song? Do you think it was the people in the fine houses in the cities or in the streets and offices? I think you know already that it was the lowly shepherds in the fields who heard the song — the men who slept out under the stars and took kind care of the animals all the night long. Why do you think the Angels’ song of love and kindness came to the poor shepherds out of doors? I think it must have been because they had already learned to love the beautiful world, the stars and clouds, the mountains and streams, and they had learned to love the poor animals that needed someone to care for them; and they had suffered hunger and cold and danger to help one another and had learned the joy of doing things and even suffering for the ones who loved them. I think it was the shepherds who heard the Angels’ song because they had learned to understand kindliness and love. So I think if you little girls are always kind and helpful to each other and to everybody and everything, you also may hear the Angels’ song of love. But the song will be deep down in your dear little hearts and not in the sky as it was to the shepherds in the olden time.

     You know the story of the wise men who followed the guiding star and took their gifts to the little love child where he lay upon the straw. And even until now some men would give all the gold and costly things they have for love and a little child.

     When the Christ Child grew up he was so wise and kind that all the people who were sad or sick or with hungry or broken hearts gathered round him to hear his words and feel his love for them. To the rich young man who was unhappy he said, “Sell all that you have and give to the poor.” To the doctors and lawyers he said, “I bring you a new commandment, that ye love one another.” To the wife who had been unkind to her husband so that all the people wanted to punish her he said, “Go thou and sin no more.” And when the little children gathered about him and some of the people wanted to take them away he said, “Let the little children come to me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

     So this great, kind and good man loved all the little children and all the lame and sick and sinful and helped them. But there were many selfish and unkind people and they said many wrong and wicked things about him that were not true until many people believed that he was a bad man. So his friends went away and left him lonely and sad, wish­ing to love and help the whole world but having no one at all, not even the little children to love him. At last some soldiers took him away and beat him and killed him, but he forgave them and blessed them before he died.

     After Jesus was dead the people saw what an awful thing had been done. They remembered how pure and unselfish his whole life had been and they wrote down all the beautiful things he had done and the wise and loving things he had said so that the story of his life could never be forgotten. He did so much good that all the world has been brighter and all the people kinder and happier since the Christmas night when the Angels sang their happy song to the shepherds and the shining star led the wise men to the manger where the Christ Child lay.

     And so every year when Christmas comes it is the special time of kindness and gladness for all the world, the time to forgive and forget all unkindness and remember only what is good. So nearly all the little children at Christmas time receive gifts, just as, long ago, the Wise Men gave to the Babe of Bethlehem.

     And this is the end of a Christmas story for his three little girls, from your loving

Papa

 

Washington, D.C., December 25, 1910.