Article December 22, 1951 Issue

"LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING"

KATHLEEN O'CONNOR

When the shepherds' songs echoed in the Syrian hills and the star stood over Bethlehem, the earth was waiting to receive her king. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth ushered in a new era in world history, for the Christ, as presented by Jesus, was destined to revolutionize, and ultimately to govern, the thinking of mankind.

With each recurring Christmas, Christian Scientists love to read with ever fresh inspiration the sweet story of the birth of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. In addition, many make a practice of reading all that our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has written on the subject, references which have happily been collected and published by the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy in a convenient small volume entitled "What Christmas Means to Me and Other Christmas Messages." Thus at this or indeed at any time of the year all may renew their gratitude to our great Master while gaining the better understanding that Christian Science gives of his life on earth and his mission as the Messiah, or Christ.

Anticipation of a future second coming of Christ has largely robbed Christians of the true sense of the Christ as ever present, awaiting only humanity's recognition and acceptance. Christian Science clearly differentiates between the human Jesus, born of Mary in Judea nearly two thousand years ago, and the eternal Christ, or spiritual idea, the truth of God and man, which Christ Jesus presented and of which Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 333), "Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea,—the reflection of God,—has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth."

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