Editorial December 20, 1913 Issue

Christmas Lessons

Annie M. Knott

With most of us, especially those who are no longer children, Christmas is a retrospective season, and we are apt to compare the past with the present, possibly to indulge in vain regrets for the days that are gone, when perchance the good we then had was little appreciated. In any event, it is surely well worth while to ask ourselves what lasting gain of joy and gladness is ours from these anniversaries, and what treasure of holy memories—of love, unselfishness, and forgiveness—we have laid up for the days and years to come. Some of the children count the dolls, the tops, and other toys which came to them at Christmas, and wonder if another season will bring as many gifts. The older people smile at this, knowing the transitory nature of toys, but do they inquire of themselves how much they have to show of the things that perish not "with the using"?

All this and much more comes to thought as we read the chapter on Christmas in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," and strive to reach the altitude of thought attained by our beloved Leader when she wrote (p. 262): "I celebrate Christmas with my soul, my spiritual sense, and so commemorate the entrance into human understanding of the Christ conceived of Spirit, of God and not of a woman—as the birth of Truth, the dawn of divine Love breaking upon the gloom of matter and evil with the glory of infinite being." As we ponder these words, we can be no less than grateful that through her teachings we have been in large measure freed from the tyranny of custom, and thus enabled to celebrate Christmas with our spiritual sense and witness to "the dawn of divine Love" in human consciousness. Thanks to Christian Science, our awakened spiritual sense pierces the gloom of mortal mind, sees the light of Truth, and hears above the rumors of strife and carnage the angels' sweet strain of promised peace on earth, and of "good will" not only to men, but among men.

Let none think that because Christian Scientists have to a large extent turned away from its outward and material observance, they forget to gather the lessons of Christmas. If they ever do so, it is because they have not followed their Leader in launching out into the depths of divine Truth. "A Christmas Sermon" in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 161) lifts the pall of material and personal sense, the belief in a departed Saviour with which our religious concepts were shrouded, and declares the ever-present Christ, or to quote St. Paul, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In addition to this sermon, and many other vital words by her on the same subject, we have that profound though perhaps little understood message given in the illustrated poem, "Christ and Christmas," of which we might say as did the Master of some of his own utterances, "Let him that readeth understand." It points to the divinity of the Christ, as "the way, the truth, and the life," and shows that only as we leave behind us the mortal concepts of birth and death can we fully understand the Christ-healing and demonstrate it in every hour of human need.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Christmas Lessons

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access