Editorial December 19, 1914 Issue

A Continuous Christmas

John B. Willis

The return of the Christmas-tide this year is sure to remind all thoughtful Christians of the heart-saddening incongruity between the sweet song of "On earth peace," that floated down out of the Judæan skies that first Christmas time, and the outcries of passion and of pain attending the present strife among Christian nations. Surely there will be at least a momentary lull in this strife, when above its dreadful din the echo of those far-away angel voices is heard again, reminding all of the coming of the gentle Christ-child to teach men that only in love for God and love for one another can happiness and peace be found.

The sufficient reason for the Master's moments of apparent depression appears when we remember that, knowing the world's wilful way, its pride and selfishness and love of power, he must have anticipated the unspeakable tragedies of the past nineteen hundred years, when he said, "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars." Nevertheless, there remain his loving assurances: "Peace I leave with you;" "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." In these and other kindred sayings he disclosed the vital truth brought near again in Christian Science,—that despite all the turmoils of human experience, the promised Comforter is come, and that it is ours to find the freedom and joy of heaven in the declaration and demonstration of the omnipresence and omnipotence of good.

The phenomena of this mortal life can be known for what they are, the fictions of falsity, and their terrors escaped from only as we prove again the power of the Christ-idea, whose continuous coming constitutes the true Christmas-tide. We can celebrate a far-off event, but we can know and really possess only that which is present in consciousness; hence the significance of those wondrous words: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

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