Article December 19, 1964 Issue

Signs of the Times

Ralph W. Sockman

The Link

The Rev. Dr. Ralph W. Sockman Director of Hall of Fame for Famous Americans in The Link, Protestant magazine for Armed Forces personnel Washington, District of Columbia

The wonder of Christmas grows on me the more I ponder it. To be sure, we have borrowed many features of our festival from pagan sources, ... but ... the thing which impresses me is that the event of a Nazarene carpenter's birth should have the power to draw to itself the hopes and joys and ceremonies of all the various pagan lands, It is as if there were lying around the distraught old world a lot of dreams and hopes, begotten by man's longing for more light and life. And then when Jesus came, he was like a divine magnet let down to earth and drawing to himself the unrealized hopes of the races and ages.

In the Christmas story a second note which is struck loud and long is that of glory to God. In the account of the shepherds the record begins: "And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them." [Rev. Stand. Ver.] And after the heavenly message announcing the birth of a Savior in the City of David, came the angelic chorus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" Then after the shepherds have visited the Bethlehem manger, Luke reports that "the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

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