THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 52, 30 December 1925, Page 59

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

. *.;. It was a cloud above the Ark which manifested to the Israelites a definite manifesta- ■ tion of; God. Now this would have drawn * .;away the mind of man from the spiritual "s nature of God had not God willed to demon- ; strate His presence in such, fashion that the Ark and -the cloud above it would be a v.. mere shadow of a coming historical sub■'■r stance. In the suburb of a Judean village, in the manger of a stable, hewn out from ' a" limestone rock, was born of aT'Syrian maiden Jesus Christ, the Everlasting Redeemer r of the world—our God. i To make such a statement in the face of the u modern scientific world seems somewhat -audacious, for it bespeaks the blending of ' two modes of being spiritual with the material, the humanly dependent with the .-•. absolutely, divine. We have little inclination • , to discuss the serious subject as to how far ;->-^the : ' : old civilisations confounded the phe- ; nomena of nature with the Being of nature's {Gad. We are the believers in the mystery ?iof the Incarnate birth of Jesus Christ, the Eternal God. ' It is much more to our pur:j pose, since-we are the children of the dawned ing hopes of humanity to venture an esser- >: tion that the Nativity was a new starting point in the sphere of human liberty and '.'. material progress. There is but one ques- .; tion for every individual: "Have I any distinct • relationship with Him Who out of Everlasting Lose for me clothed Himself . with my erring flesh and assumed unto Himself the whole of the physical creation?"