Loving hearts at home will not forget your temporal needs this Christmastime. Many a scene similar to the one in our picture, will be realized in the homeland. Packing the parcel for the soldier-daddy will be a great joy to wife and children, and lover and friend.
The picture on our cover shows what the reception of the parcel may be like. Here we see the parcel opened in the French farmhouse, away from the firing line, where the British soldiers are billeted. The French peasant woman is holding up her hands with astonishment and delight―and the letters from home are read and cherished. Oh! the joy that earthly love and care can give. And in our next picture we see
A French Sentry’s Christmas Gift from Home
He holds it proudly in his hands for all to see―his Christmas gift from home.
These gifts from earthly homes are valued highly, and rightly so, but alas! when a gift is offered to us from the heavenly home how little it is regarded. “The gift of God is eternal life,” and yet men often will not have God’s gift. God’s gifts are not for one season, but for all time and for all eternity―the blessing the gift of God brings me today, will last forever. “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Oh! may we all this Christmas time accept God’s proffered gift, and in the face of men on earth and angels in heaven, say, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”
We trust workers from everywhere will send to us for parcels. We have sent more than eight thousand to various centers, and will gladly send to any Chaplain, or worker, or soldier who wants to distribute the Word of God to English, French, Italian or Belgian soldiers, or civilians.
Any soldier or sailor who wants a Testament to fit his pocket, can have one by writing to Dr. Heyman Wreford, The Firs, Denmark Road, Exeter.
I wish you “Good-bye,” dear friends for 1918. I thank all the dear friends who have helped and cheered us through the year. It has been a year of much blessing and encouragement. If the Lord does not come we shall face the New Year, we trust, with a greater determination to win souls for Christ.
Yours for Christ’s sake,
Heyman Wreford.