Show NO STAR TO GUIDE THE POSSIBILITY THAT ESCAPED THE WOMEN OF BETHLEHEM Some Name Might Have Rang Through All Agee Had She But Known the Spirit of Christmas Christ-mas Hospitality HE child born in tho Ir stable of Bethlehem I because there was no I room for them in tho inn was heralded by angels to the shepherds and by a star to the W wlso men but no voice told the mothers of BeUuunein of tho wonder which was happening In their town that night Suppose some gentle woman bad met Joseph and Mary on that Wonderful Won-derful Day as they entered the town and had said to them Our streets aro full of homeless strangers Como you and bide with me I By that simple sim-ple act of hospitality her name would have been written high high among the names of earths happiest folk Blessed is she wo should have cried to whose home the Christmas joy first came But the women of the Judcan town did not know to throw wide their doors and bring In the worlds gratltudo and love says the Youths Companion So tho Child was laid In a manger and oblivion holds the names of all the women In Bethlehem who slept that night beneath tho wings of wondering angels Had they but known Year by year for 19 centuries the story of tho night at Bethlehem has been told and retold Today no household house-hold In Christendom In town or village vil-lage or on distant prairie can plead the Ignorance In which Bethlehem then lay If tho door Is shut on the Christchild today it Is not from lack of knowledge but from churlishness churlish-ness or Indifference The Christmas spirit speaks In many voices The sprig of holly or tho plum pudding tho tree laden with gifts or the cheer for the lonely these are all the worlds way of sayIng say-Ing to the Mother and tho Holy Child Abide with us Barred out alike from cottage and palace and Inn in Palestine the Hope of the World renews his appeal each Christmastide to our modern Christian Chris-tian world By the very pathos of the first Christmas tho heart Is softened and prepared to glvo him welcome Today there is no heralding angel or guiding star No ear may hear Ills coming Hut In this world of sin Vliero meek souls will receive Him still I The dear Christ enters In |