Bay of Plenty Beacon WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1946. Always Christmas

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 64, 18 December 1946, Page 4 (Supplement)

Bay of Plenty Beacon WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1946. Always Christmas

IN an ageing world of materialism mankind may take strong heart from the remarkable preservation of the annual commemoration of Christmas and all the spirit of cheerfulness and laughter which accompany it. Nineteen centuries have left undimmed the glad tidings of great joy which have hailed the advent dawn since .the first humble manger in Bethlehem. Today in a- world hardened by two catastrophic wars; when hunger, want and suffering are the lot of so many millions it is good to be able to reflect that Christmas will still be observed throughout the sorrowing world, and that its soft light of goodwill and continued faith will do much to repair the ravages on the hardened conscience of mankind. In spite of man’s best efforts to commercialise it, the festival remains one of genuine gladness and goodwill and those Who fail to respond to the national wave of rejoicing are but a fractional minority. It is a time dedicated mainly to the children, but more than that it is a time when reflection takes the average adult back to happier and carefree years when responsibilities were slight and leisure reigned supreme. Who but cannot recall the thrill of the Christmas party; the exchanging of childish gifts; the magnificent surprise on Christmas morning when Santa Claus had been the rounds. Simplicity is the key to still greater happiness for the world in general and this thought may well be borrowed from the laughter-making message of Christmas cheer. We are all too prone to build our world affairs upon a superstructure of dogma and fetishes born of stale-as-dust international practices, leaving the average man for whom it was planned gaping in bewilderment at the massive array of restrictions and regimentations' he is expected to fulfil. The simple way is. the Christmas way and may well be exemplified in the poet’s imortal lines ‘So many thoughts; So many creeds; So many paths that wind and wind—When just the art of being kind, is all this sad world needs.’ There is the elusive message again. But how to bring it into force has cudgelled more statemen’s brains than most any other problem ever considered over recent centuries. Again we arrive at the fundamental simplicity of charity and goodwill which can be taken from the example which occurs every Christmas day under our very noses. Hundreds of millions of Christian' homes behold the answer in all y its sweetness and simple beauty. It can bring harmony to the home; it can bring harmony to a community; to a country; to a nation. Why not then to a whole world upon which two thousand million human beings fashioned in the Creators likeness live and are desperately suspicious one against the other. The deadliness of the warring centuries today has reached a climax as the atomic age looms up with all its alternative horrors or its blessings. Mankind will make the choice ! Can it l?e that Christmas, the'homliest of festivals will supply the answer so that the goodwill and brotherhood conveyed in its story will indeed bring about a permanent ‘Peace on Earth.’