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THE VOICES OF YOUTH “IX.
The End of Play Time.
It is seldom, until the days of our pleasuring are
well over with, that we feel the fullest enjoyment
of our time of relaxation and amusement, so it is
only now that our young people can begin
to truly appreciate all the many joys which came
to them at the holiday season.
We hope each one is now back at work and doing
with a will the manifold duties which we all have
to meet. Worktime should be welcome after the
playtime that has been and the memory of the
great annual holiday should serve as an inspira
tion throughout all the working months to come.
We believe this will be so to those who have spent
the days of leisure with profit to thetaselves by
making it a time of pleasure for others. And this
brings us to our Christmas Prize offer.
Awards Next Week.
We do not feel that we have yet had all the re
sponses that are due us in reply to our Christmas
Prize offer and so we mean to fix the date for the
awarding of such prizes to January 9, and all let
ters telling of good work done at Christmas and
meaning to compete for our Prize must be in our
hands by that date—January 9.
Address to Young People’s Department.
We wish to again call attention to a request
made some time ago, that all letters intended for
this department be addressed to our Editor and
should bear the words, “Young People’s Depart
ment,” in the lower left hand corner. This ena
bles us to handle our large mail with much more
ease and we feel sure our young readers will be
glad to help us this much.
This Week’s Letters.
We have some fine letters to publish this week
and we feel that each one will give as much gen
uine pleasure to our readers as it did to us. The
first one is more a story than a letter, being writ
ten by a friend of the young girl who made the
Christmastide a veritable season of joy for all the
many friends who touched her life. The record is
one well worthy of preservation and we are glad
to give it as follows:
Rendering Beautiful Service.
My dear Editor: The following are some ways in
which one of our young .people of Georgia gave
Christmas cheer—“ Peace on earth, good will to
men.” It shows the very best one can do, who
has little money, and less strength. For this
young girl was unable to go outside her room.
The little savings bank held all the money that
friends had given her during the year, which was
only a minimum sum indeed. And with it she
purchased and sent out more than fifty beautiful
and appropriate post cards to her friends, rela
tives, neighbors, pastor. A number of Christmas
letters were written, among them one to the
beloved ex-Sunday school class. Also quite a num
ber of Christmas booklets were made in acrostic
style, using Scripture verses in spelling “Merry
Christmas,” “New Year Greeting,” or the name
of a friend. Next, she gave of that same small
amount, a dozen or more of those sweet and help
ful books of the “New Sabbath Library,” and the
“Moody Colportage Library.” These were sent
to different persons, each book meeting the needs
of the recipient. And when these were exhausted,
more books were made by conbining a number of
“The Golden Age,” or the “Christian Index,” or
children’s magazines and Sunday school quarter
lies, pictures, etc. These were sent to homes in
which little or no reading matter ever came, and
where children never go to Sunday school. Then
came the Christmas dinner, which was also a dou
ble birthday dinner. For she was always proud
to know that her birthday was the same as that
of her Savior.
This dinner was divided with every sick one in
reach, and in an extreme ease' of need, a few
comforts in the way of a garment or picture was
added.
But the last and greatest joy of the season came
The Golden Age for January 10, 1907.
through the beloved ex-Sunday school class who,
byway of expressing their sympathy and love,
sent her a peculiarly beautiful and precious sum.
And after praying about it, 'God reminded her that
she had been wishing for mission money that she
might give her annual sum, with the class, for the
support of little Kwan Ho, a Chinese orphan girl,
of whom Mrs. R. H. Graves is teacher. All the
other Christmas gifts had been given easily, free
ly, gladly, and could this last one be given in like
spirit ?
Yes, thanks to Him “who is born unto you this
day—a Savior,” the victory was won. And the
sacrificial gift brought more joy to the giver than
all the other gifts combined.
Thus the glad climax of Christmas giving.
L. M.
Dispensing Christmas Sunshine.
Dear Editor:
I hope you and all of the young Southerners have
had a very happy Christmas, not only in receiving
gifts, but in giving, and trying to make others hap
py whom we think are in need. It matters not how
many or how costly our gifts are, but it is the spir
it in which they are given that counts. For Paul
says, “Though I give all of my goods to feed the
poor and have not love, it profits me nothing.”
Before you offered the prize to the boy or girl
who endeavored to do the most good at the Christ
mas tide, we had promised mother that we would
give our fireworks money to be used in different
ways that would dispense sunshine in some home.
Several days before Christmas we visited an old
couple and carried them fruits, candies, nuts and
other things we knew they would enjoy. They seem
ed delighted to receive so many.
While we were there, we saw a widow with two
little children, and we saw that, we could give
pleasure to each, .by giving the little girl a dress,
and the little boy a pair of pants.
On Christmas eve we retired early, hoping the
night would pass quickly; so we could get up and
see what old Santa Claus had brought to us. We
were happy over our things. We thought that
some people might have been slighted; so we gath
ered some of our fruits, nuts and candiefe and crept
around to a certain house on the edge of town,
where lived a poor family. We laid them on their
front porch and crept away. We hope they got
them and were pleased with them.
On Wednesday night one of our Sunday school
teachers had a Christmas tree, and each one of the
children carried something for somebody. We took
several nice things for another needy family.
We went with the teacher to deliver them Thurs
day morning, and they seemed to appreciate all
of them.
I am very proud for Brother Upshaw to say that
I am the first to take interest in the offer which he
made.
A happy New Year to you all.
Your friend,
Bartlett Kelly.
Cordele, Ga.
We knew from Bartlett Kelly’s former letter that
he and his brothers had some splendid plans on
hand for the holiday season, and we feel that our
expectations have been fully gratified by this fine
account of what they did at Christmas. The day
must have been doubly joyful to these young peo
ple because of the knowledge of what they had
done to make it bright for others.
Trying to Make Sad Hearts Glad.
Dear Golden Age:—
I read in your last issue that you wanted the
boys and girls to write you how many sad hearts
. they had made happy this Christmas. I packed a
small box of toys for a little girl four years old,
who lives in the country. Her father sells us but
ter. Her mother died last summmer. I carried a
pretty doll to Sunday school for the orphans.
Christmas day I went out to the Ilbspital to see
a dear old mall) and inadq him happy by giving
him some fruit and presents. A poor old colored
woman came in and said she had not had any
Christmas. I gave her some candy, cake and other
things. I helped mother pack a box for a big’
girl that lives in the country. Good-by.
Your little friend,
Louise Horsey. Age 11.
We wish we could show our young readers the
neat and careful way in which this letter is written,
for we appreciated this feature ourselves, even be
fore we found our interest and admiration turned
from the appearance of the letter to the subject
of it. We feel that Louisq has done wonderfully
well, and we are glad to tell her so. Bhe has truly
understood the spirit of our Christmas offer, and
we are sure the doing of hen? little acts of kindness
to the little country girl, as well as to the old man
and the orphans, brought a full measure of reward
to her own generous little self.
The Pledge.
I hereby make application for membership in
“The American Order of The Golden Age,” and I
promise to do whatever I can whenever I have op
portunity toward making the world better and hap
pier. I will try always to speak kindly to and of
others, and I will always be kind to dumb ani
mals.
I will try to acquire all I can of useful knowledge,
and will, so far as I can, encourage my asssociates
to do likewise.
In my sports and recreations, as well as in my
work and studies, I will try always to be agreeable,
just and honorable, and will engage only in such as
tend to health of body, mind and morals.
For the sake of those who may not have already
seen it, we reprint the Pledge this week, and we
wish to make this offer to our young readers. If
there is any friend, young or old, who may not know
of The Golden Age and the work it is trying to do
for every one, we will he glad to send sample copies
of the paper to any list of names (not exceeding
ten each) which may be furnished us by our young
readers. This is a very liberal offer as you will
realize, but we make it because we want The Golden
Age to reach such persons as may be truly interested
in it. We hope to hear from some of you veiry
soon with a list of your friends.
As we said last week, we hope to have some pledge
cards printed soon, and will furnish thdm on ap
plication to those who wish to sign them or have
their friends sign them. May our circle of earnest
workers steadily increase.
Boy Wisdom.
Bad habits grow without cultivation.
A good purpose leads to !a good .position in life..
Live each hour as though there were only thirty
minutes in it.
The word “can’t” sounds all right when it re
fers to telling a lie.
The fellow who does nothing always gets tired',
the quickest.
The cock crows early in the morning because he
goes to roost early.
Every boy should post himself—but not against
a street corner.
Practice makes perfect, except the practice of
sin, which makes imperfect.
A boy is never too young to begin to think of
what he will do when a man.
The telling of one lie is all that is necessary to
make you a liar. Likewise the stealing of one ap
ple will make you a thief.—Exchange.
Rufus Jackson—Huh! Yer mudder takes in
washin ’.
Esmeralda—’Cose she takes it in! She wouldn’t
leab it out wif yo’ and yo’ fadfler loafin’ ’round
here!