THE CHRISTMAS DOLL

GOD'S GIFTS ALWAYS FIND PLACE 63-1222 107 Oh, I read a story, come to my mind not long ago of something on that order. There'd been a great city here in this nation, and... New York. And it was on Christmas eve. And there was a poor family, little old daddy, he had TB, and he was--and his wife had TB. They had been underprivileged, and he--he was kinda... He was weakly and so nobody would hire him. He had no education, and he--he... People didn't want him. He just was an outcast, become a tramp. Just... You know what a tramp is, just go by and--and pick up something, and peddle it and get what you can; what little royalty they make on it, they try to live by it. Just a, like a peddler or something, on the street; go buy some pins and needles and thimbles, and whatever they can. And--and take it, and--and maybe buy for a penny a pack, and sell them for a nickel; and make four cents on the pack, and maybe in the run of a day. You say, "That's--that's a great commission." But just think, all he'd sell in a day. Maybe he made twenty, thirty cents a day, and he had a family.

110 And the--the little wife, being weakly, she--she died. And it was coming Christmas time. And the little girl, she had developed, from malnutrition, not having the right food and thing; she took TB, also. And she was a little fellow, and about eight, nine years old, ten. And she'd never had a doll for Christmas. And that's what she wanted for a gift, was a doll. And the father, not able to give her medical attention and so forth, and he--he seen the little girl was going fast, and he tried his best to--to--to--to get enough money together to get her a doll for Christmas; if he could just get enough to buy her a little doll. And so the Christmas time was coming on; the bad weather set in; the little girl developed some kind of a pneumonia; and--and, my, just a few weeks before Christmas. And the father, of course, broken-hearted, he went to his little tin can and got the money out. And he thought of his little girl, and she wanted a--a doll like little girls. See, it's a little mother coming on.

112 You notice how a little girl, she goes to a doll, because she... That's her nature, she's a--she's a coming mother. She will be mother someday if she lives and everything. You know, her nature. That's the reason a little girl likes a little doll, she wants to take care of it; 'cause after all, she--she's a little, potentially, a--a--a little mother. And she wanted a little doll, and she'd never had one. And Daddy had saved everything he could to--to get her a little doll. And, so, she died. And the father kind a had a lapse of mind. His wife had been taken, his little girl, and his mind kind a got to a place till he --he... Still he'd--he'd go to bed every night and talk to this little girl, though she was--been buried. But he thought he was--he was talking to her, and telling her, "Now, honey, it won't be long, and daddy's going to get you this dolly for Christmas. And--and daddy's promised you the dolly, and I--I'm--I'm going to get it."

115 Finally, Christmas arrived. And, 'course, you know how it is. The rich had their--their big parties; and the candles burning, and the great high masses in the churches, and talking about Jesus and--and so forth (the churches were), and going through all kind of a routines and mass, and singing, and carols and everything. Little did they know what was going on back in the alley, behind all this. This little fellow back there; he got beside himself. He wanted that little girl to have that doll so bad, 'cause she had begged so for this little doll. So he went out, and he bought her a little rag doll, a little--a little thing, probably about thirty cents, a little dirty something he'd bought, down on the side of the street. And it was a real cold night, the--the--the blizzard winds a-blowing, the snow a-falling hard there, in New York, right on the coast.

117 And the streets filling up; and the people in their great big limousine cars. And drunken parties, out drinking, the celebration of the birth of Christ and of these things that we speak of tonight, trying to think that that's the right way to do it; just drink off their old sorrows and things, and that that's the way to do it. All of them... Stand in the store, the other day, and a woman talking about what... Two girls met and they wanted to know what they got for their daddy. And one of them said, "Well, he..." She got him a carton of certain kind of cigarettes. And the other one said she got him a fifth of whiskey and a--and a--and a deck of cards. Now, if that ain't giving a memorial gift for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the way it goes (You see?); it's just a big bunch of tinsel. It hasn't got Christmas in it at all.

119 And so we find now, this little man, he wandered along. And he knowed in his heart his little girl was gone, but he went and bought the doll anyhow. And he thought, "I'll just start walking; I'll find her somewhere. She'll be along the street here and I'll find her." And he started walking. He--he couldn't fool himself, she wasn't back there in the little shanty, in the little, ragged, dirty bed; but she was buried. So he--he knew, He thought he'd find her on the street. He said, "I'll just keep walking." And he was going down through the alleys, while they were singing their carols and going on. And going down the alley, a-packing this little, dirty doll; holding it in his coat, up to his heart, thinking of his little girl.

121 And finally a policeman happened to see him, and the policeman had a few drinks himself, and he ran into the alley and grabbed the old man and turned him around. He said, "What are you doing hanging here?" He said, "I'm taking this little doll, sir, to my little girl." He said, "Well, where do you live?" And he told him where he lived. He said, "Well, you're going away from that place; you're drunk. Go back the other way." Said, "Sir, I'm--I'm not drunk. I promised my little girl I'd--I'd get her a gift for Christmas." And said, "An appropriate gift for a little girl is a little doll." And he said, "Let me see it." So he showed him a little, dirty like, rag doll. And he was holding it in his--next to his bosom, holding the little doll as he... So the policeman, half drunk, himself, shoved him on and started him down. The old man went down the alley, and snow falling fast.

126 And, well, the midnight parties broke up. The next morning the snow had let up; the sun had come out. And so they was... All the people from their great gaiety parties with ice sacks on their heads, from too much drinking and celebration of the--the birth of Christ. And--and many of them were hoarse from carrying on, from all the going-on. But way down in the alley, they found the old man. And when they turned him over, he had the little doll next to his heart. I suppose he took his gift to her. He found her in a land not here. He--he--he took the gift. It was an appropriate gift. (God, merciful.) Yet it cost him his death. There's no other way in the world he could've give her the gift; she was buried. But don't the only way you do it would be go like that... The little doll didn't mean too much, I guess, the little dirty-faced doll, but it... What did he do it? It fulfilled a promise he had made. No matter what the people thought about it, his dirty hands on a little, dirty doll, but it--it fulfilled a promise to his little girl.

128 Sometimes they look upon the Gospel as singing, playing, they didn't want it when God brought It, but it fulfilled a promise that He would give His Son. And you know what? They left Him to die too just like a tramp on the street. That's exactly right, they've left Him to die like a tramp on the street. And today they treat Him like a tramp on the street, but He fulfilled what He was supposed to do. He was the Gift that God promised to the world. Tonight, let me take Him as my Saviour in my heart. Let me walk in the face of my death, or whatever it is, like that. I promised my life to Him. I'm want to take it to Him. No matter what I have to go, if I have to go through death, if I have to be shot; no matter what takes place, I have to be laughed at, called crazy, everything, excommunicated from the rest of the Christian churches and so forth, I... It's a gift of God that I hold in my heart. He give it me, I want to take it to Him. Let us bow our heads just a moment..