Article December 22, 1923 Issue

Gifts

MABEL REED HYZER

The commemoration of certain days in the year by material gift-giving has been more or less general in certain countries; but sometimes this pleasant custom exceeds wisdom by creating a dependence upon a form of pleasure in which it may not be always possible to participate. We may appreciate that the greater joy is in giving; and yet we may almost unconsciously wrongly look for satisfaction in the gifts which our friends may bestow as the expressions of their affection and thoughtfulness.

Moses wrote, "A gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous." May it not be to-day that sometimes our eyes are blinded and our words perverted by a wrong sense of gift-giving and receiving; and may we not thereby be made to disregard those greater gifts to which James referred when he said, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning"?

One who is a student of Christian Science, and who had been accustomed to extensive planning and preparations preceding the Christmas season, found herself one Christmas Eve alone in a strange city. Some thought had been given to the approaching Christmas season, but always with the conviction that there would be no sense of loneliness and no looking back. The student had, however, underestimated her dependence upon the pleasure of the home festivities.

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