“Immortality of Christmas”

Evening Star, Issue 20053, 19 December 1928, Page 15

“Immortality of Christmas”

“ The evergreen tree of Christmas' Greets us with hope and cheer, To bless ,the needy souls of men, ■ And children ever dear.” Christmas, with its' mirth, its perpetual youthfulness and good comradeship, is here, and once again we utter the time-hoiioured wish, “ A Merry Christmas.” THE MOST SACRED POSSESSIONS Are entwined in the national life of the people who luive come under its benign influence. Wherever the festival ,is observed, there we find eld quarrels are forgiven, friendship’s ties renewed, families 1 reunited, and universal greetings of goodwill are expressed. . . It is, therefore, our priceless privilege and bounden duty to foster and propagate the spirit, of Christmas, which is “ goodwill to man ” and peace to all.

WHAT IS THE MEANING 07 IT?

During the dreadful days of war that gallant sailor. Lord Beatty, in a letter to the S.P.C.K., said:. “Surely God does not intend that this war shall be merely a blood-drunken orgy ~ . . there must be a purpose in this war. ’ A significant message, surely! “ If God made this world I would not be God. for its woes would break my heart, said the great German pessimist, Schopenhauer. “If God does, not exist, we should have to invent Him,” said the famous Frenchman, Voltaire. Christmas is the answer to all three. “ Humanity,” wo are reminded by R. F. Horton, “ is the creation of God.” God. it would seem, desires humanity. He has for us the feeling that a father has for a child that has gone out of the house and got lost in the streets. And from the very impulse and being of God there comes the desire, the fixed purpose, that the lost child should come back. Now, in order that the last child might come back, there are evidently two things necessary. First of all, there must come down to the lost child some comprehension of the being and of the nature of the God that is seeking him. The child must understand that God is Father and Son and Spirit. And, secondly, it will be necessary that in the approach of this stupendous thought of the Infinite Being, Who is Father and Son and Spirit, there shall bo some gentle touch of a human hand, some out-reaching which can lay hold on the lost child and lead it back, bring it home by a way it can understand, take from it-the scales that are on its eyes, wash it, and present it clean and restored in the Father’s house.

Now, atheism of every kind degrades man. As an atheist doctor says in one of Balzac’s stories: “If I don’t believe in God, still less do I believe in man.” Theism—the faith in God—oppresses man. It exalts the thought of the Infinite Being to that point where the finite gives up in despair. The Incarnation is the one and only satisfactory answer to the . yearning heart of our common humanity, which has been likened by Tennyson to An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry. In the Incarnation, which is the “ humanisation of the Infinite,” God touches our human nature. On the other hand, in the Incarnation man

[Written by Rot. T. H. Eoobmai.d, for the * Evening Star.’]

touches the Infinite: “ The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us . . . and the Word was God.” (John's Gospel). That is the mystery and meaning of our Chrisrnas festival. Has it not occurred to you that it seems more than passing strange that wo keep and memorialise the name of a Person who lived and died 1,900 years ago? Where, may we ask, arc the names of the illustrious dead who stood before the world’s gaze in , all their greatness, pomp, and power? As.the yeas rollonwara they are forgotten and sink into oblivion. On the other hand, with the swing of the centuries the name and fame of Jesus are ever increasing, with tender affection, gracious meniories, and moral inspirations. He has entered into no department of oi human life, without giving an added charm and beauty v WHAT WORLD LIFE BE WITHOUT v HIM? “ Democracy,” Renan writes, in one of his letters, “ has no discipline and no moral ideal to impose.” We need to remind ourselves at this season of the year that Democracy divorced from Deity deals only with dust, “ And what is man? A living lie; A grain of dust, Aflame with lust, And horn to die. Ami this is man! And what is man? A prophecy, A bit or clod, Alit with God, Eternity. And this is man! ” —P. H. Lowery.

“ Thou has mado the heart for Thyself, and it is ever restless until it finds its rest in Thee,” said Augustine. Jesus is the answer of God to the needs of His human family. He is at onoe the antiseptic and the tonic of the human race. He fills moribund States with new life. His presence and supremacy are the prime conditions of human progress. “ Whatever the future may hold for us,” says Strauss, “ Jesus will never bo surpassed.” This season of the year reminds ub of the promise fulfilled, that “ Onto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9). There is a pretty German legend of a poor boy, the son of a widow, who bad gathered in the ■ rood a dish of strawberries. Returning home, ,a venerable man startled him by calling out: “ My lad, let mo have your full dish and you take my empty one.” Pity for the old man’s weakness and helplessness overcame the boy’s reluctance to part with his berries, and he made the exchange and then went to work to fill the empty dish. Haying < accomplished this, he returned with it to his mother, to whom he told the story of the adventure, “ Ah, happy are wo, my child,” she exclaimed; “the dish is pure gold.” If we give God the contents of our dish, the dish itself will be turned into the gold of heaven. When men believe that through Jesus Christ they may command the wisdom, power, and boundless resources of God, the dross of earth will be transformed into the riches of heaven. Once again the old refrain: “A Merry Christmas!”