Article January 8, 1903 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Farrar, Thomas Hill, Usher

The New Testament prophecy of the new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness is the assurance of the ultimate triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom. In the contrast of the two seenes, the earth lying in darkness behind Peter and in radiance before him, we mark with him that it is righteousness that will constitute the main point of distinction. It will be the descent of the Christ of moral character, of sweet and holy life, on this clouded and stormy planet that will insure the new day and the new time. In that "new heaven and new earth" which Christ is to build in the midst of the old, to supplant the old, Faith will descend and fill the soul with cheer. Hope will move amid the scene, glowing with happy expectancy. There will Love be found with her benignant face and her gentle hands of helpfulness. Abroad will Wisdom walk in her garments of light. In the sacred group will be found a new holiness as the inheritance of the soul in Christ, turned to survey a better future, a new earth, even a heavenly kingdom, wherein right shall be the first love of man and honor his chief glory! On this clouded and stormy planet Peter saw the new light dawning, the light of moral character, which hitherto had been but as a dim taper in the great darkness and the barren waste, but which would flame abroad and make all the scene noble and fair, in a Christ-like righteousness. This was the source of the great contrast which in prophecy he pictured for the believer's comfort.—The Universalist Leader.

The fancy of the poet and painter has revelled in the imaginary glory of the Nativity. They have sung of the bright angels who hovered there, and of the stars lingering beyond their time to shed their sweet influences upon that smiling infant. They have painted the radiance of light from his manger-cradle, illuminating all the place till the bystanders are forced to shade their eyes from that heavenly splendor. But all this is wide of the reality. Such glories as the simple shepherds saw were seen only by the eye of faith. All which met their gaze was a peasant of Galilee, already beyond the prime of life, and a young mother with an infant Child, whom, since there was none to help her, her own hands had wrapped in swaddling clothes. The light that shined in the darkness was not physical but a spiritual beam; the Dayspring from on high which now visited mankind dawned only in a few faithful and humble hearts.
Farrar.

Rev. L. M. Powers says in The Universalist Leader:—

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