Editorial December 27, 1919 Issue

Christmas and the New Birth

William P. McKenzie

One who was healed through the ministry of Christian Science at once connected her experience with divine Principle, declaring: "To me the most convincing proof that the healing came from God, was that I knew I was loving good. I had turned right around; had begun to be mentally regenerated." In such a connection we think at once of what our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, said in "Miscellaneous Writings" in regard to regeneration (p. 74): "This new-born sense subdues not only the false sense of generation, but the human will, and the unnatural enmity of mortal man toward God. It quickly imparts a new apprehension of the true basis of being, and the spiritual foundation for the affections which enthrone the Son of man in the glory of his Father."

Among the northern peoples winter was a time dark and dreary. So in mid-yule, when the winter solstice was past and the days began to lengthen, they welcomed with noisy feasting the turning of the year the the growing light. When we now speak of yuletide, the word refers to Christmas time, for the feast of the Nativity of Christ Jesus superseded the ancient festival. The historian Bede says that "the ancient peoples of the Angli began the year on the twenty-fifth of December, when we now celebrate the birthday of the Lord." This celebration came into fashion slowly, accompanied by much debate, the date of its establishment as Alexandria being given as 440 A. D., and the feast of the Nativity was held as a protest against those who denied the incarnation. In 1644 some English puritans by act of parliament forbade merriment or even religious celebrations on Christmas day, ordering the day to be kept as a fast, for even at that date many looked upon the festival as being an institution of heathen origin.

The question important for every man to consider is whether or not the Christ is born to him. Does he know of the disappearing of evil because consciousness has become cognizant of good? Is there the subsidence of willfulness, pride, envy, and covetous desire because the birth of true Christianity is going on through regeneration by the holy spirit of God?

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December 27, 1919
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