The approach of Christmas stirs great joy and gratitude in the heart of the Christian Scientist. He welcomes it as an opportunity for the magnification of the things of Spirit and the subjugation of material pleasures and pastimes. He knows that through higher conduct and thought the true concept and significance of Christmas will appear. More than a mere celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus, the most spiritually minded and best individual ever to inhabit this earthly sphere, Christmas commemorates the revelation to the human consciousness of the Christ, the divine idea of God.

The story of the nativity is dear to students of Christian Science. Its simplicity and homeliness are the only fit and proper accompaniments to its great spiritual import. Had the event been attended by ceremony and the mere giving of earth's finite treasures, which characterize today's observances, its significance might well have been lost. But he who of all mankind best exemplified the spiritual ideal of Truth was received into a materialistic world in the meek and humble surroundings of a lowly manger in a roadside inn.

We who would honor this wondrous event should be ever watchful lest our commemoration lose amid worldliness and materialism the spiritual purity and grandeur of which it is worthy. The alert Scientist turns from the gross materialism so frequently marking this date and in humble quietness seeks communion with Spirit, God.

On page 262 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mary Baker Eddy writes, "I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing." What more worthy or satisfying observance could be made than this of our beloved Leader?

When Mary and Joseph sought lodging that eve in Bethlehem, they found that "there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). Let each of us who professes to love the Christ examine himself to see if the dear Christ can enter into his heart today and every day, unobstructed and undeterred by material hindrances and mundane occupations, and abide there.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy defines "Christ" as, "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (p. 583). In the measure that one makes room in his consciousness for the Christ, in like proportion will the Christ enter and lodge within him. This entering of the Christ into individual experience, one's entertainment of the spiritual idea of God, is the essential element of the real Christmas.

The Revelator envisions the appearing of the Christ in this way (Rev. 3:20): "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." It is always an individual responsibility to "open the door" in order that the Christ may enter. If the door be open every day, the Christ is entertained throughout the year, and every day becomes a Christmas.

The humble shepherds tending their flocks on the hillsides and in the fields about Bethlehem were receptive to the divine appearing. An angel announced the arrival of the human babe whose later efforts were to reveal to a needy world the healing and saving office of the Christ. The Wisemen, in wonderment and awe, beheld a great star from afar and followed its steady light to the newborn babe to pay him homage.

At Christmas time, Christian Scientists honor the Christ and behold with renewed inspiration the eternal rays of Truth. As the true spirit of Christmas unfolds itself in their consciousness, they turn in praise and gratitude to God for the bright bounty, comfort, and beauty of His promises. A fuller understanding of the deep spiritual meaning of Christmas dawns on their thought and prepares room for the appearance of the Christ. No more does the gross materialism that formerly played its illusory role obscure the blessed occasion or becloud its radiant glory.

Our Leader states (Miscellany, pp. 262, 263): "The splendor of this nativity of Christ reveals infinite meanings and gives manifold blessings. Material gifts and pastimes tend to obliterate the spiritual idea in consciousness, leaving one alone and without His glory." Truly the Christmas season is vastly enriched when a feast of Love replaces the frivolity and materiality of mortal thought and conduct.

The spiritual idea enters one's experience as he turns to the brightness of Truth's appearing. Sorrow, loneliness, and human burdens pass away in the presence of the Christ, the understanding of man's unity with God, eternal good. Restoration and rehabilitation take place under the constructive, exhilarating influence of the divine presence and sonship. Bleak, barren lives are rejuvenated and renewed as the Christ-idea dawns upon consciousness.'

The impress of the Christ touches every human heart that humbly prepares room for it through unselfed meekness, humility, and quietness. A higher and purer sense of God and of man's spiritual, eternal sonship is gained. Healings and blessings are experienced as erroneous beliefs are replaced with the true concepts of perfect God and of perfect man.

When the Christ finds welcome and enters into its abiding place in the heart, the coincidence of the human and the divine is experienced, the human yielding to the divine in the glorious light of Truth. This is the immortal Christmas, the coming of the age-old yet ever new, ever-present ideal of God.

The familiar and beloved words of Phillips Brooks, as adapted for the Christian Science Hymnal (Hymn No. 222), depict the quiet simplicity and purity of the true Christmas in which the Christ finds welcome and room,