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A Christmas Message.

THE WONDER CHILD. Specially; written for the Taranaki Daily News. (By Rev. A. 11. Collins.) “There came a little child to earth long ago: And the Angels of God proclaimed His birth, high and low. Out on the night so calm and still, their song was heard, For they knew that the Child on Bethlehem’s hill was Christ the Lord.” When Charles Dickens, the Apostle of Christinas, wrote: “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when the Mighty Founder was a child Himself,” he struck, home to the heart of the world, and set its chords vibrating. For whatever else, or more, the season means, it is surely the iChildren’s Festival. All our great writers see and say this-, and none more powerfully- or successfully than Dickens himself. It is not Scrooge, but Tiny Tim, with his simple prayer, “God bless everybody,” who typifies the true Christmas spirit. It has taken us twice a thousand years to learn the true inwardness of )he amazing deed, when He in whom all prophesy and history found their climax and their crown, was born in Bethlehem. How strange, beyond all telling, that the birth of a lowly peasant’s child should change the calendar of the world! The Hebrews had reckoned their years from the supposed date of the creation. The Romans reckoned from the founding of the City of the Seven Hills. The Greeks counted from the first Olympic Games. But to-day, if ypu meet Jew, Italian, or Greek, and ask the number of the years, the answer is the same. Each one’s calendar is dated from Bethlehem of Judea. B.C. and A.D. are watersheds of history. The chronology of the world bears witness to the eternal significance of the unique event we commemorate at Yuletide. We keep our ledgers and date our letters from that humble spot, and that supreme event! Nothing ever seemed less likely. No candidate for universal recognition has ever been so heavily handicapped. Born in a cattle crutch, buried in a borrowed tomb, His craft, a carpenter, His town notorious, His land much worse than a poor relation among the nations, totally without political or ecclesiastical influence, His friends crude fisher folk, His teaching scorned! Yet the world keeps His Natal Day! It is the omnipotence of helplessness, the majesty of meekness, the sublimity of the commonplace, the divinity of the human! And because of it, baby is king the world over. Wherever a little child comes, it is the centre, and all else is a mere fragment of the vast circumference. Our domestic arrangements revolve round “His Majesty the Baby.” Things national and political move round the face and form of the child, and our wisest statesmen see that true statecraft concerns itself with the problems of childhood. All our greatest social questions lie there, and the fiercest conflicts rage about the honour and safety of the children, who freshen our faded humanity. Themistoeles said Greece governed the world, the Athenians governed Greece, he governed the Athenians, his wife governed him, and his little child governed his wife. It was a pagan’s way of saying “the child is the hub of the universe.” One remarkable feature of the last few years is the attention that is focussed on the teaching of the child. It is not sc long ago that anyone would do for a teacher, p.id anything would pass muster as education. The State sees that neglected childhood means full-grown criminals, and it is bet ter to build schools than erect prisons. Prevention is better than cure. A magnificent revolution is at the door, and whatever changes the years may bring in other departments of national life, we may confidently predict that in Church and State the Apostolic successors of Robert Rakes will hold increasingly honourable place. Under the inspiring example of the Bethlehem idyll, the childhood of the world is coming to its- own. Not only so. From that sacred night all things have changed from this old grey world. For the greatest wonder of that marvellous happening was not that angels styig and a new star appeared, but that men began to learn that love is all in all. and that the best of all gifts that, God can bestow or man offer to his. fellows is love. Stars grow djm, sweet music ceases, gold is scattered, and frankinscence loses its fragrance, but. love outlasts the world. Simply to be kind, and gentle, and generous; just to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty,, or place a smooth pillow underneath the aching head of the humble-born —this is the sum of religion pure and practical, and they who do these things shall surely see the King in His beauty. Applied Christianity is the only solvent of our obstinate social problems. Men are not made Christian by sermon or tract, still less by blistering criticism or hectoring speech, but by some real incarnation of the Christ-spirit in living and breathing form. “And so the Word had breath and wrought, With human hands, the creed of creeds in loveliness of perfect deeds, More strong than all poetic thought. Which he may read who minds the sheep. Or -builds the house, or digs the grave And those wild eyes that watch the wave In roarings round the coral reef.” Olive Schreiner has a beautiful story of an artist who painted a wonderful picture. The glow and glory of the gracious tints defied all imitation. Other men sought in vain the artist’s secret. They examined his colors, but they were like their own. One day he was found dead beside his latest picture, and the mystery was solved. Near his heart was a deep and dreadful wound. He had painted with his heart’s rich, blood. The legend enshrines a great truth. For when preacher, reformer, and statesmen read the Bethlehqin story anew, and learn to give their life to great causes, they will paint the future in colors fairer than the most radiant, optimist has ever dared ip dream, and the Wonder Child will rule the world. In this'faith we greet our readers, and wish them in all sincerity >, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19221215.2.50.4

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,034

A Christmas Message. Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Christmas Message. Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

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