Article December 22, 1934 Issue

Happy Christmas!

MARGARET H. ANDERSON

CHRISTMAS DAY! What a wealth of happy and hallowed memories these words enfold! This glad holiday of friendly gatherings and family reunions, this holy day of gratitude to God, the great Giver of all good, commemorates the nativity of Jesus, born amidst lowly surroundings, in Bethlehem of Judea, nearly two thousand years ago, the babe whose advent—according to the reckonings of time—ushered in the dawn of Christianity and dated the world's history and happenings, as either before or after that momentous event.

The "old, old story" of that first Christmas; of the star seen in the East which guided the Magi to the manger where lay the infant Jesus; of the shepherds who beheld the glory of the dawn, who heard the angelic message of peace and good will from the heavenly host—these Gospel narratives have come down the centuries with unfaded and unfading beauty, interest, and sacred associations for children and adults throughout Christendom.

The lowly stable where Jesus was born, the manger where the Virgin-mother cradled her babe, were typical of the majestic humility which characterized the earthly career of the great Nazarene, who brought to the world the revelation that man is the unfallen, spiritual child of God, perfect as his heavenly Father; that the kingdom of heaven, of joy, health, freedom, abundance of good, is at hand and within man's consciousness here and now and throughout eternity. His perfect understanding of the spiritual facts of being enabled the great Teacher to prove the truth of his message, to demonstrate the power of the Christ, God's anointed, in his dominion over evil, in the healing of sin, sickness, and death. Thus was Christ Jesus indeed the promised Messiah, the Way-shower who unfolded for all mankind the solution for every difficulty, the way of salvation from all evil, thereby fulfilling the angelic "tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."

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