The True Christmas Spirit

George Shaw Cook

The Christmas spirit is the Christ-spirit, the Christian spirit. It is best made manifest in deeds of kindness, in works of healing, in generous gifts of loving helpfulness to others. Such a Christmas spirit rightly celebrates the birth of him who, in speaking of his true spiritual selfhood, said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." To the extent, then, that we are bringing to our fellow men a more abundant sense of life, a fuller realization that infinite Life, the source and cause of all being and action, includes for man all that means health, harmony, happiness, joy, and peace, are we celebrating harmony in the way the master Christian would have us celebrate it.

Writing of Christmas on page 260 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy says, "The true spirit of Christmas elevates medicine to Mind; it casts out evils, heals the sick, raises the dormant faculties, appeals to all conditions, and supplies every need of man." For Christian Scientists to partake of this true spirit of Christmas and to demonstrate in their own human experience and that of others its power to elevate, heal, and save mankind—to supply all the needs of men—it is necessary that they should have the Christ-spirit. For them to be faithful followers of Christ Jesus and do the works which he said should be done by those who believe on—understand—the Christ, it is obligatory that they should discern Christ as the true spiritual idea, expressing exactly the nature of God, Principle, Mind.

This divine Christ, coming to human consciousness, reveals man as the perfect spiritual likeness of his Maker. It shows that man is indeed the blessed child of God, that he is in truth and always has been the image, idea, reflection of Mind. It enables us to see man as Mind expressed or manifested, and so to claim our divine heritage of good, to claim our oneness, our unity, with infinite good, to know and to prove our God-bestowed ability to reflect the divine qualities of purity, righteousness, holiness, completeness, perfection.

This appearing in human consciousness of the Christ, Truth, brings healing and salvation. It saves mortals from the ills of the flesh, from self-imposed limitations, from self-ease, self-pity, self-depreciation, self-condemnation. It breaks the bondage of hereditary traits and tendencies. It lifts the burden of materiality, ignorance, sin, and fear. It redeems, regenerates, reforms, and transforms mortals through the "renewing of" the "mind." Thus in Christian Science practice, healing and salvation are seen to be the result of Christ, Truth, appearing and error disappearing. This is the Christ-way of healing. It is the way that was taught and demonstrated by Jesus, and it is the way fully explained by our Leader in the Christian Science textbook and in her other writings.

On page 138 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as the sinning." For Christian Scientists to obey these orders is to celebrate Christmas in the Christianly scientific way. Such a celebration partakes of the true Christmas spirit. It need not be confined to Christmas Day, but should extend throughout the year and through all the years.

George Shaw Cook

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December 21, 1935

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