THE SABBATH

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20995, 23 December 1939, Page 21 (Supplement)

THE SABBATH

BETHLEHEM’S MESSAGE PW WORLD ORDER The birth of Jesus Christ into the world marked the beginning of a new order. Man’s thought of God and of hirnself was incalculably enriched whm he began to reflect upon the meaning of this event, the significance of which is inexhaustible. Wonder is still our dominant emotion cn Christmas Day. The new order revealed itself as an order of power. Behind the familiar sentence in the Gospel of the day, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” lies the thought of the creativeness of God. Here was an act of God striking down into human history; here was the eternal world proving its reality in the world of time. Love, the essential energy of God, was manifesting itself visibly in human life. And to what end? The purpose of the Incarnation was that men might receive fresh supplies of life and might know them - selves to be sons of God: “As many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God.” Men in realising their true sonship would discover that they could be set free from the bondage of sin and circumstance through the entrance into them of a New Power of Life. Henceforth theirs would be the liberty of the child who moves with a glad obedience in his Father’s house. To the reality of the power of this new order Christian experience testifies. Christ has proved Himself to be the transformer of human personality, saving men from the downward drag of their lower nature and leading them into fellowship with God.

The new order of redemption testifies also to the nearness of God to man. In the birth of Jesus Christ heaven and earth met. No longer were men to think of God as remote or to interpret His transcendence as aloofness. God had come to meet men in closest union, giving the supreme revelation of Himself through the medium of a human personality. He could so come because man was a sharer in the Divine nature and was made in the image of God. The Incarnation attests that man has always belonged to God. Hence it emphasises the essential dignity and worth of human nature. Christmas Day should bring us strong confirmation of the native testimony of our hearts that there is real kinship between God and man and that our moral and spiritual constitution with its ideals and aspirations bears on it the marks of a heavenly origin. The Christmas message of peace and good will is the challenge of the new order to men to bethink them of their common constitution as members of the one human family of God. In a world tom with strife and division such a message may seem a mockery; yet the question must be put, whether mankind has ever on any large scale seriously tried to live by the principles of the kingdom which Christ established, or submitted itself to the leadership of the Child of Bethlehem. In its ideal the kingdom of God is co-extensive ■with humanity. Within it there is room for all the differing gifts of individuals and nations, as contributing to the richness of the whole. Service and Co-operation are the law of the kingdom which is grounded in the truth that all men are children of God. In this new order the central figure is Jesus Christ. Bom of a particular race He yet stands in a universal relationship to mankind. “Son of Man” was the title by which He called Himself; a phrase which, whatever its other meanings may be, indicates this relationship. That He conceived Himself as having a claim

upon the spiritual allegiance of men is certain. “Follow me” was His call, and from His followers He demanded an unqualified loyalty and devotion. This claim to spiritual sovereignty the world has allowed; it sees in Christ the ideal for human living.

On Christmas Day we do homage at the cradle in which lay the Hope of mankind. There is the child in all of us, and it is to this element of the child that the Christmas festival makes appeal, reminding us that entrance into the kingdom is only for those who can accent in humble trust the blessings which God wants to give. A child has much to teach us. if we will be at pains to learn.

THE CITADEL Unconquered and serene within my heart There is a citadel that stands apart From all the mundane clamour and the strife Of warring men; the surging storms of life Batter her towers in vain and at her gate, Unmoved of wild demands importunate To yield, and shafts that rain upon her walls, Are sentinels who stir not save there calls The quiet voice of love, when swift they fling The portals open for His entering. So now I pray those wardens shall not sleep Till the long battle day is done, but keep From ev’ry taint of earth and power of hell Inviolate my citadel. —Reginald C. Eva.

THE GENERAL PRAYS A certain Canadian, one-time aviator in the World War, was in attendance upon some official business in China’s capital, and in the course of his visit had an opportunity to meet General and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Unable to finish the matter they had in hand, Madame Chiang extended an invitation that he share their evening meal with them . . . As he prepared to go General Chiang said, “Must you go immediately? We would be happy if you would stay and join us in our evening devotions.” The General began by reading some Scripture. Then the three joined in prayer, the General leading. Says the Canadian: “I never expect to hear such a prayer again in all my life. The General began with a simple expression of thanks for their personal safety. Then he added thanks for the courage of the nation under fire. Then he prayed for strength for the men in the field and along the firing lines; he prayed for strength for himself, and added a most earnest plea for guidance and wisdom, that he should not fail the people. “But the most amazing thing in his prayer was a plea that God would help him, and help China, not to hate the Japanese people. He prayed for the Japanese Christians, and all thq suffering multitudes of Japan whose impoverishment was making the war on China possible.

“In the simplest and humblest terms he laid himself at the service of the Almighty God, and begged that he might know the Divine will and do it on the morrow.”—Dr. Roy L. Smith in the Christian Advocate.