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Composed of the President, Vice-Presidents, General Secretary, Literature Secretary, Treasurer, and the following members:

Hon. E. F. EILERT (Chairman), 318 W. 39th St., New York City, N. Y.

I. S. RUNYON, 502 W. 136th St., New York City, N. Y.

Rev. G. F. Gehr, D. D., 521 N. High St., Bethlehem, Pa.

Rev. M. J. BIEBER, D. D., 1316 W. 251⁄2 St., Minneapolis, Minn.

O. C. C. FETTA, 511 K. of P. Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind. Rev. LUTHER M. KUHNS, Litt. D., 458 Saunders-Kennedy Bldg., Omaha, Neb.

Rev. H. C. ROEHNER, D. D., 30 Mulberry St., Mansfield, Ohio.

WILLIAM C. STOEVER, Esq., 524 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.

All communications should be addressed to the General Secretary, Harry Hodges, 427 Drexel Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.

Literature Committee HARRY HODGES, Chairman.

Hon. E. F. EILERT, New York City.

I. S. RUNYON, New York City.

Rev. J. S. ALBERT, Oshkosh, Wis.

Rev. C. P. HARRY, Philadelphia, Pa.

Mrs. R. S. SEASE, Newark, N. J.

Rev. H. C. ROEHNER, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Finance Committee

P. WALTER BANKER, Chairman (address above).
H. CAEMMERER, Washington, D. C.
RAYMOND LUTZ, Akron, Ohio.

A. ELFERS, Detroit, Mich.

Intermediate Committee

Rev C. TEUFEL, Chairman, 126 Orchard St., Woodlawn, Pa.

Rev. A. T. MICHLER, Philadelphia, Pa.

Rev. C. P. HARRY, Philadelphia, Pa.

O. C. ROHDE, Toledo, Ohio.

Miss ZOE I. HIRT, Erie, Pa.

Junior Committee

CHAS. W. FUHR, 333 S. Lang Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa., Chairman.

Miss BRENDA L. MEHLHOUSE, 427 Drexel Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.

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Miss LAURA WADE RICE, Baltimore, Md. Miss DOROTHEA BANG, Emporia, Kan.

Mrs. E. C. CRONK, New York City.

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Of the Church - By the Church - For the Church'

Luther League Review

In the Light of Bethlehem's Star

D

By MRS. E. C. CRONK

O you sigh to have been with the shepherds on that first Christmas night? Do you wish your eyes might have seen the glory light of Bethlehem's star? Do you think with wondering pity of the keeper of that inn, which had "no room" for the Great Guest it might have entertained?

Do you wish you might have had the opportunity to publish throughout sleeping, uncomprehending Bethlehem, the glad tidings of great joy?

Do you covet the opportunity of the Wise Men, privileged to lay gold, frankincense and myrrh, right at the feet of the infant Jesus?

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Know, then, that no shepherd of Bethlehem's plain ever witnessed the Christmas vision which might be yours;

That the brightness of Bethlehem's star shines greater now by two thousand years of glory;

That your own heart is in danger, in its empty fullness of things, of offering "no room" to the Great Guest, who would dwell therein;

That, alongside Bethlehem, lies a world in darkness, a thousand millions of souls who have never seen the light of the star, nor heard the message of the angels;

That the Saviour hath more need today, than then, of your gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

Look into your heart this day and see that He is enthroned there over all. Then look out with Him upon the world of men, full of suffering and sin, crying out for help and love and light and catch the commission, which comes to you in the angel's message, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."

"The happy Christmas comes once more, The heavenly guest is at the door."

A

GAIN Christmas will be celebrated all over the world. Christmas! that beautiful-that wonderful day on which thousands and millions of trees are lighted to celebrate the birthday of the Christ-child. "The Christ-child," we say, not "Santa Claus"-a gnome, a myth, which I am sorry to say, many Americans are substituting in place of the "Kris Kringle" (Christ-child).

How and where the custom of the Christmas tree originated is still a mystery, although many problematical stories have been published about it. The only fact known seems to be, that the custom came from Germany. The most beautiful legend we have yet seen was published in a December number of the Canada Lutheran. As it is worth preserving for future generations, whether history or legend, we herewith publish it:

"Once upon a time, long ago, Winifred, an English prince, left Wessex with a train of followers to take the gospel to his heathen kinsmen in Thuringia and Hesse. On Christmas Eve they arrived at their destination. They found the people gathered around the Oak of Giesman, sacred to Thor. Old Hunrad, priest of Thor, proclaimed the night to be the 'death night of the Sun-God Baldur the Beautiful.' Thor was angry with his people, and demanded the most precious thing in the kingdom as a sacrifice, to stay the calamities which otherwise must come.' The people obeyed with fear and trembling. Asulf, the son of Duke Alvold, and the darling of the people, was chosen. The boy consented. Armed like a soldier, he knelt before the great stone altar to receive the fatal stroke. Hunrad's hammer was raised. He was about to strike the fatal blow, when suddenly it was arrested by Winifred, who, from behind, turned it off with his staff. The great axe fell on the stone altar, shattering it, but Asulf was safe. Then Winifred preached Christ to the astonished crowd, and proclaimed the birthright of the Saviour, 'fairer than Baldur, kinder than Freye the Good, greater than Odin the Wise.' When the crowd was quieted, and still wondering at his words, he hewed down the blood tree of Thor. Behind it, unharmed by the ruin, stood a young fir, pointing to the stars.

"The old priest raged. The people seeing their god was powerless, listened. Pointing to the fir tree Winifred spoke again: "This little tree shall be your holy tree to-night. Its wood is the wood of

peace, for your homes are built of fir. It is the type of everlasting life, for its leaves are ever green; and see, its finger points to heaven. Let this be hailed the tree of the Christ-child. Gather about it in your homes, not in the wild forests. There it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.'

"They took it home. In the great hall of Duke Alvold's dwelling Winifred told the story of Bethlehem and the angel's song. All listened intently. They were charmed to stillness. The boy Asulf, on his mother's knee, whispered into her ear: 'Mother! listen now! I hear those angels singing again behind the tree.' Some say it was true. Others say it was Prince Gregory, with his companions at the lower end of the hall, softly chanting their Christmas hymn: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'

"So runs the most beautiful of the legends of the Christmas tree. Whether true or not, it gives new meaning to the trees which decorate our homes and churches at Christmas time. It picks out the most precious lessons of the Christmas-tide, and weaves them into a never-to-be-forgotten picture, both beautiful and real.”

Besides the stories of the shepherds, the birth of the Christ-child, the song of the angels and the Wise Men of the Orient, which must always have the first place in a Christian home, the mothers should relate to the children this legend of the Christmas tree, certainly more appropriate for the day we celebrate than the heathen legend of a Santa Claus coming down the chimney. And the next Christmas is the time for mothers to commence with it.

A CHRISTMAS PRAYER
MARGARET SLATTERY.

"O God, my Father, looking up at the shining stars of the December sky, I remember the patient mother and the rockhewn manger in lowly Bethlehem where lay cradled Thy love for the world. In the shadows of the silent stall I stand by the Child. Speak to my soul as I wait, I pray Thee. Let the trusting, loving spirit of the Child steal into my life until it calms all anxious fears and soothes all bitterness and pain.

"In willing surrender and passionate longing let me take the Christ Child to my heart, that henceforth I may live as He lived, love as He loved, and, following in His footsteps, bring help to the needy, courage to the weak, comfort to the sorrowing, and hope to the lost. Amen."

Three Christmas Eves in the Life of

I.

Martin Luther

HRISTMAS Eve of the year of our

C Lord, 1498, was a cold day. The CH north wind was blowing fiercely through the streets and alleys of the Thuringian town of Eisenach as if it wanted to drive home again the few people from the stalls on the market-place. Those who hurried away could see the front rooms of the house decorated. with evergreens from the nearby forest by the light of the colored candles or the flaming logs in the large fireplace.

The silence of the streets was broken in upon from time to time by the voices of a band of schoolboys who were singing Christmas carols before the doors of the houses of well-to-do citizens in order to be rewarded by some gift by means of which they could buy something to eat and to drink and perhaps to cover in a better way their shivering bodies.

The lads stopped before the house of Master Cotta, a much-respected citizen. They knew of the kindheartedness of the household and were sure of another proof of it this evening. They intoned their sweetest carol, the leading voice was that of a fifteen-year-old boy whom his fellows called Martin. He looked pale and hollow eyed, nevertheless his thin face and his large black eyes shone as if he were not in the bitterly cold street, but in the courts of the temple of the Lord.

Master Cotta's wife had opened the door, as soon as the lads had started on their singing. As they finished their amen, they were invited into the house to warm and refresh themselves before stepping out again into the cold. Mistress Cotta had her eye on the boy with the beautiful voice and the pure face; she recognized him as the lad whom she had often seen praying and heard singing in the church, and whose devotional behavior she had not failed to notice with favor. She took him aside and managed to get into his confidence. She learned of his poverty, his hunger and scant clothing, but also of his burning desire for knowledge and understanding and of his love of God and the Church. The lad answered to the good woman's questions in a modest manner, by which he won her heart's affection. She knew something about the poverty of Martin's Uncle Lindemann, with whom he was lodging, and she invited him to come daily to her house at dinner time and eat with the family. Mar

tin was so much taken aback that for a while he could not find words to give utterance to his thankfulness. At last he stam

mered, "In what way can I thank you for your kindness?" "By singing to me one and another of those Latin hymns you know so well," was the answer. "Oh, I wish I could sing to you every day a hymn of praise of Almighty God," said Martin. Mistress Cotta arose and went to her husband who was sitting at the fireplace talking with the other boys. She whispered to him; at first he shook his head, but after a short while he nodded and looked pleased. The good woman returned to her seat near Martin and told him softly that she and her husband offered him bed and board in their house for as long as he would stay at Eisenach, promising to treat him as one of their children. They fulfilled their promise. Mistress Ursula Cotta was a mother to Martin Luther during his sojourn at Eisenach.

II.

Seven years later, on Christmas Eve, the Father Superior of the Augustinian Monks in their monastery at Erfurt, had said and sung the evening mass. The monks assembled in the refectory and partook of a sumptuous repast in honor of the festive day. They all enjoyed the banquet, for once forgetting their vow of perpetual poverty and total abstinence from sensual pleasure. Only one, and he the youngest of them all, was absent from the feast. Some of the older ones were rather glad of it, for reasons of their own.

Brother Martin, the novice, had returned to his cell right after the mass. There he went down upon his knees and wrung his hands in fervent prayer, seeking peace for his tortured soul and not finding it in spite of all his striving for perfect holiness which would make him a sinless saint before God and men. He was in dead earnest about it. This Christmas Eve, staying away from the vanities of the world in which his fellow-monks were indulging, he scourged his body, weakened by long fasting, so severely that he fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Some of the monks did not like the absence of Brother Martin from the festive board. They thought a good deal of him. During the six months he was with them he had endeared himself to them by his earnestness, his zeal and his great humbleness. He had won their respect by his

modesty and the pains he took to refrain from any remark which might betray his superiority in matters of learning and religious knowledge. At a given signal they arose from the table and went to see him.

They knocked at the door, but there was no answer; they called his name in vain. Thoroughly frightened, they forced the lock, and on entering. they found Brother Martin stretched out on the cold stone floor looking like a corpse. One of them sobbed, "He is dead!" But another, who had quickly gone down upon the floor and had placed Brother Martin's head in his lap, replied, "No, no, he is still living, I feel it; he has only swooned." The brethren, still alarmed, tried the ordinary means to bring him back to life, but their endeavors seemed to be fruitless. Martin's soul seemed to be absent from his body. Brother Augustinus said, "Let us bring him back to us by means of the gentle art he loves so much." He took Martin's lute down from the wall and struck a chord. The brethren began to sing very softly, and then raised their voices gradually to a harmonious chant, accompanied by the lute. A tremor ran through Martin's body, his eyelids were still heavy, and he mumbled, "I hear heavenly music; has the Lord God in His grace and mercy taken me up to Himself in this holy night?" His friends, now glad at heart, kept on singing until he lifted his head and recognized them. He thanked them warmly for their kindness and then sought his hard cot. Illness set in, but it worked for good in him, for an aged monk often came to see him and poured balm upon his wounded soul by explaining to him the true meaning of the precious words of the Christian Creed, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." And he found that peace which passeth all understanding through faith.

III.

On Christmas Eve, A. D. 1534, Dr. Martin Luther was meditating about his sermon for the next day in the stillness of his study-room when Mistress Kate, his beloved wife, suddenly opened the door looking overheated and almost out of breath, and addressed her husband, "Doctor, I cannot get done with my work in the kitchen for tomorrow, if I have to look after the children. Please go for a while into the nursery and take a seat near the cradle of little Paul. If he cries, sing to him and rock him to sleep again. I cannot attend to the baby and to my baking at the same time." Dr. Luther took his Bible, and went to the nursery and sat down at the cradle. His thoughts about the Holy Child come down from heaven to save and bless mankind, which he had so beautifully

.

expressed in his great hymn, "All Praise, Lord Jesus Christ, to Thee," ten years ago, held his eyes fixed upwards toward heaven. And now the same thoughts swept downwards to the earth, the abode of sinful mankind, and his eyes were fixed upon the little child in the cradle, a small weak, helpless creature-and yet the very image of the Holy Infant, the Son of God and Son of Mary. How it came about we do not know, but we are told that Dr. Luther's hymn, "Good News from Heaven the Angels Bring," was generated in his heart and mind while he was watching his baby in its cradle on Christmas Eve. While little Paul was slumbering, his father went on tip-toe to his room to fetch paper and pen and inkstand, to write as the Spirit moved him. The hymn originally had fifteen stanzas, which he surely read that very evening to his large household assembled in the refectory of the house, which formerly had been the Augustinian monastery. There were always a number of poor students enjoying free board and bed in Luther's house. From that Christmas on the hymn, "Good News," had the first place on the program. One of the students clothed in white, like an angel, entered the hall and sang the first seven (3) stanzas of the hymn. He was made welcome by the houeshold intoning the eighth (fourth) stanza and continuing to the end. (The English hymn has only seven stanzas.)

We may

be sure that Dr. Luther led in singing and enjoyed it with his whole heart.

On this Christmas Eve Luther was reminded of the Christmas Eve of A. D. 1498. by a Latin Christmas carol of Notker, the poet, of "In Media Vitae," sung by poor school boys before the door. He quickly led them in and Mistress Kate readily regaled with good things to eat and drink. Luther entertained with encouraging words, Mistress Kate filled a basket for them, and their tender daughter, Magdalena, took the red-cheeked apples her mother had given her and put them on the sly into the pockets of the smaller boys. That hymn of Notker Martin Luther had sung himself on the wintry streets of Eisenach thirty-six years ago. It was a hymn of praise.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

God has never had anything but good will toward men. "Whosoever will may take of the water of life freely."

Angels proclaimed God's will, but could not make known His love. None but Jesus could do that.

The king could seek the life of the Child, but he could not save his own.

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