A Christmas Club by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 20, 1883

A Christmas Club.

By Editor

We clip from last December's St. Nicholas, the following account of the formation at Portland, Me., of a Children's Christmas Club, which gave last year a Christmas tree and dinner to six hundred poor children of that city:—

A number of notes were written, asking two or more girls and boys from every Sunday-school in the city to meet at a certain house at five o'clock on the following Thursday afternoon.

Did they come?

Come! They did not know what the call was for, save for a whisper about Christmas work; but they came; came in pairs, in trios, in quartets, and quintets—a whole squad from the Butler School; big boys with big hearts, wee tots only four years old from the kindergarten—one hundred children, ready for anything.

Oh, I wish you could have been there at the forming of the club!

A lady came forward to speak to them, and their voices were hushed in expectation. I can't tell you just what she said, but her words were beautiful. She spoke of their Christmas festivities every year, of their presents and their friends; then of unfortunate children who had fewer, some none.

When she asked, "Does any one here want to do anything for these others?" the thought that they could do anything was new to almost all—to many of them even the wish was new; but like one great heart-throb came their answer:—

"Yes! I! I! I! I want to do something!"

"Children, what can you do?"

A pause, and then one little voice cried:—

"Div'em a cent!"

That was the first offer, but it was followed by many another: "Give'em candy!" "Giv'em a turkey!" "Giv'em a coat!"—each beginning with that grand word, "Give."

The result of that meeting was this:—

To form a club which should last "forever;" to call it "The Children's Christmas Club;" to have for its motto: "Freely ye have received, freely give;" to place the membership fee at ten cents, so that no child should be prevented from joining because he was not "rich;" to make no distinction in regard to sect or nationality; to permit to join the club any girl or boy under eighteen years of age who accepted its principles, which were: To be ready at all times with kind words to assist children less fortunate than themselves; to make every year, in Christmas week, a festival of some kind for them; to save through the year toys, books, and games, instead of carelessly destroying them; to save and, whenever practicable, put in good repair all outgrown clothing; to beg nothing from any source, but to keep as the keystone of the club the word "Give;" to pay every year a tax of ten cents; and to make their first festival in the City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 28, 1882.