The following words by Mary Baker Eddy point the way to a happy Christmas in the wake of war: "To-day the watchful shepherd shouts his welcome over the new cradle of an old truth. This truth has traversed night, through gloom to glory, from cradle to crown. To the awakened consciousness, the Bethlehem babe has left his swaddling-clothes (material environments) for the form and comeliness of the divine ideal, which has passed from a corporeal to the spiritual sense of Christ and is winning the heart of humanity with ineffable tenderness" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 257).

Those seeking the comfort of the Christ will find it in "the new cradle of an old truth," the textbook of Christian Science, which thousands herald in the same way as the shepherds greeted the angelic messengers that told of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. For, now as then, the Christ, Truth, is ever present to unfold to waking humanity the man of God's creation, the likeness of divine Love, never born of the flesh, never dying out of the flesh.

Those who attend the Wednesday evening testimony meetings in Churches of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world, hear earnest testifiers say that through their continued study of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, they have been lifted out of the depths of sorrow, pain, and distress of every type. They express their gratitude for this gift of gifts because, for most of them, it has meant the coming of Christ, Truth, to consciousness, and the difference between death and life, deformity and normalcy, sorrow and joy, lack and abundance.

Such healings and adjustments come about through the relinquishment of the false concept of the Saviour as a personal Jesus for the realization of the ever-present Christ, Truth, whose light reveals man to be the eternal reflection of divine Life and Love. The putting off of material concepts of life in matter, health in pills, and joy in material pursuits is made easy for the student of Christian Science when he divests his thought of all that obstructs the light and hinders his spiritual growth in grace.

Some who have lost those dear to them are prone to hold fast to their material, physical concept of the individual, hoping that in some way it will comfort and sustain them, but this only prolongs the anguish and the suffering of loneliness and yearning. Christ Jesus, with characteristic firmness, exposed the error of such false comfort when he said to one of his disciples, who wanted to go and bury his father (Matt. 8:22), "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."

The ineffable tenderness of the Christ, Truth, which animated Jesus, won the heart of the disciple, for he faithfully continued on his way with Jesus. Even though he did not grasp the full import of the teaching, he was willing to accept the facts of divine Life which the Master taught, and to let false concepts of man disappear. Thus the disciple was prepared for the revelation in his own consciousness of the truth concerning God, and man as His reflection, perfect, whole, incorporeal, and eternal.

Today the Christ is present to guide the lonely and sorrowing to the mount of revelation, where man is found to be not brain and muscle, but the spiritual idea of God that lives because it is the expression of divine Life, the emanation of divine Love, the manifestation of infinite Truth.

One who had lost her husband was uplifted and blessed one year at Christmas time when she refused to enter into the usual holiday festivities which had always brought them much joy but which, after the husband's passing, caused her untold agony as memories claimed place and activity in her thought. This time she stayed quietly at home with her books, the Bible and Science and Health, to seek the truth of Christmas and to learn more of man's spiritual status. She knew that an increased understanding of the truth regarding man was the greatest gift she could give to others; that, indeed, an understanding of man's heritage as the son of God relieves men of the burdens imposed by a false sense of Christmas.

Alone with God on Christmas Day, this student's thought was filled constantly with inspiring, healing messages from divine Love, and never again did she feel the pangs of loneliness, doubt, fear, anxiety, and rebellion that had previously engrossed her attention. Her healing was so complete that she has been a comforter to others in times of bereavement, showing them firmly and tenderly that there are no dead to those whose thought is uplifted to behold the Christ, which reveals Life to be everlasting and man to be coexistent with Life and therefore deathless.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 246): "Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof." No one is too young in the study of Christian Science to begin this demonstration of divine omniaction, and no student is well enough grounded in spiritual facts to dispense with the daily study of the truth of being. In overcoming suggestions of life in matter and death of matter, we subdue and finally annihilate the supposed laws of matter which would condemn man and lead to the grave. Man in the image of God is uncondemned and unfettered by human beliefs; he is free in the understanding of himself as reflection, as the idea of Soul, divine Spirit, and he knows nothing but sinless joy and satisfaction in the facts of Mind. His life has never been at the mercy of war, accident, or disease, but abides safe and whole in the Science of being.

The Christ is ever saying to the human consciousness, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:13). The truth that comforts and sustains was brought to the world by Christ Jesus and later elucidated in the textbook of Christian Science. Jesus said, speaking of the Father of all, "He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (John 14:16). In explanation of this Bible verse, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 55 of Science and Health, "This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."

Through the knowledge that the Comforter brings us of man, all may prove to their own satisfaction that Christmas happiness is assured because the dawn of Truth in consciousness is always a joyful experience. Rejoicing in and proving the facts of divine Life are the best Christmas gifts we can give to all men.

Copyright, 1945, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston 15, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918. Published every Saturday. Cost of remailing within the United States: 1 cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. Foreign, including Canada, Newfoundland, and Pan-American countries: 1½ cents for each two ounces or fraction thereof.