Editorial December 19, 1908 Issue

CHRISTMAS

John B. Willis

For unfailing interest there is naught that can eclipse the beginnings of life. How delightedly one always sees again the sweet unopened bud that hints of flower and fruitage, the wee wax-cradled bee that dreams its way toward summer sweets, the silk-wound chrysalis that shapes itself for gay and brilliant flight, the callow nestling that nervously awaits its feathered freedom, and, chief of all, the little babe whose wondering eyes globe all mysteries, and in whose tender helplessness so many hopes are centered, so many cycles start anew, so many great careers are launched, so many vast events take their rise. Here at the threshold of mortal existence spring up evermore the world's deepest questionings, and here, as one stands before the opening doors of that temple within whose courts all created things are fashioned, and looks upon the unfolding miracle of life, he uncovers his head in a hush of reverent awe.

Upon the most interesting, most significant of all life-beginnings, Christmas-time is focusing the world's thought to-day. The coming of the little stranger who nestled in Mary's bosom awoke a cheerier song than earth had ever heard before, and this because he was to be the sweetest babe, the dearest boy, the noblest son and brother, and the most splendid and heroic man that the world has ever known. More than this, he was to make all things new, present a higher ideal and beget a truer sense of love and faith and duty, of fellowship and freedom and purity, of man's true nature and privilege and power. He was to be the world's Wayshower and Exemplar, humanity's true helper; and because he thus fulfilled every hope and met every need, said the right word and did the right thing for all men and for all time, his natal song has become a perennial pean, his birthplace a sacred spot to all the nations.

And yet in all our commemorative Christmas joys we need to understand and to remember that the birth of Jesus, the Christ-child, takes its greatness from a yet greater event, namely, the appearing of the Christ, the revelation of the divine idea in human consciousness. The them of the angels' song to which the shepherds listened with uplifted faces, embraced infinitely more than the storied incident of the Judean village. It was the coming of the saving Christ, for the healing of all sicknesses, the righting of all wrongs, the wiping away of all tears. As understood in Christian Science the nativity of the Bethlehem babe symbolizes and expresses that universal fact, the dawning of divine truth upon human thought, which is the basis of all redemptive philosophy, faith, and experience. Like all other universal truths, it belongs to every individual, and it must be apprehended and experienced by each, made one's very own, ere he can grasp its true meaning, utilize its saving power, and drink its cup of joy.

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