Article December 24, 1927 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from F. T. Woods

[From an editorial in the Dearborn Independent, Michigan]

There was no wild clamor of bells, no great gathering of great notables, no acclaim from vast multitudes that night two thousand years ago in the little hamlet of a Roman province. Instead, the simple shepherds came, called from their tasks on the hills round about by a voice they had never before heard, or never were to hear again. Hills, bathed in the glorious starlight of the East—that is the scene which rises before our eyes at Christmas time—hills, and white flocks grazing on their slopes, and a soft, fragrant breeze, and here and there the tinkle of a bell. And then the manger, lowly and humble. ... He was not welcomed by the world, but he brought welcome into the world. He was attacked and persecuted and put to death, but he brought a message of peace and good cheer and forgiveness. His very simplicity was used by his enemies to ridicule him, but this simplicity became in time the foundation stone of Christianity. And in this simplicity of Christ [Jesus], which comes so close to the heart of man at Christmas time, lies the solution of all the grievous problems which vex mankind.

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