One of the books I've received from Booksneeze was The American Patriot's Almanac by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb. On page 510 the authors write an entry about Truman's Christmas radio greeting to the nation. I loved it, so here is is:
" In 1949, President Harry Truman sent Christmas greetings to the nation by radio from his home in Independence, Missouri:
"Once more I have come to Independence to celebrate Christmas with my family. We are back among old friends and neighbors around our own fireside..... Since returning holme, I have been reading again in our family Bible some of the passages which foretold this night. It was that grand old seer Isaiah who prophesied in the Old Testament the sublime event which found fulfillment almost 2,000 years ago. Just as Isaiah foresaw the coming of Christ, so another battler for the Lord, St. Paul, summed up the law and the prophets in a glorification of love which he exalts even about both fail and hope.
We miss the spirit of Christmas if we consider the Incarnation as an indistinct and doubtful, far-off event unrelated to our present problems. We miss the purport of Christ's birth if we do not accept it as a living link which joins us together in spirit as children of the ever-living and true God. In love alone - the love of God and the love of man - will be found the solution of all the ills which afflict the world today. Slowly, sometimes painfully, but always with increasing purpose, emerges the great message of Christianity: only with wisdom comes joy, and with greatness comes love.
In the spirit of the Christ Child - as little children with joy in our hearts and peace in our souls - let us, as a nation, dedicate ourselves anew to the love of our fellowmen. In such a dedication we shall find the message of the Child of Bethlehem, the real meaning of Christmas."
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