The first selection was rendered when, according to the one who narrated the incident in an English periodical (Mrs. Lyndon Hill), a bedroom window was lifted, and two little girls leaned out and asked them to sing the carol they most loved, “Away in a Manger.” Soon the Christmas callers were singing: “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where He lay, The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” “In all our singing it had never occurred to us to sing this seemingly childish carol,” said the one who related the story; “but we did sing it, and the beauty and simplicity of the words and tune struck me as never before, as the two little voices joined with us. They seemed to be the expression of all the wonder of God’s gift of the Christ child in the humility of His manger bed, and our singing took on new life as we caught a vision of the utter simplicity of the Christmas message.... And I never fail to receive inspiration from the mental picture of two little sleepy girls at a bedroom window singing ‘Away in a Manger.’” And what an especially appropriate prayer it must have been for the little girls when they closed the song with the words: “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, Close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.” CHAPTER XIII THE CROSS AND THE CHURCH A large group of Christian men gathered in Chicago early in 1938 for a convention. Said one who was present: “The mood and point of view were indicated by the opening hymn: “‘Ask ye what great thing I know That delights and stirs me so? What the high regard I win? Whose the name I glory in? Jesus Christ, the crucified.’” The great and inspiring gathering closed with the same hymn, and thus before they separated these same men sang: “This is that great thing I know; This delights and stirs me so: Faith in Him who died to save, Him who triumphed o’er the grave, Jesus Christ the crucified.” “But His lone cross and crown of thorns Endure when crowns and empires fall. The might of His undying love In dying conquered all.” —_John Oxenham._ Building Gone, but Hymn Remains “Above the hills of time the cross is gleaming, Fair as the sun when night has turned to day; And from it love’s pure light is richly streaming, To cleanse the heart and banish sin away.”