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| Subject: 25 CHRISTMAS |
CHRISTMAS
Mis 167:1-14 np
The material questions at this age on the reappearing of the infantile thought of God's man, are after the manner of a mother in the flesh, though their answers pertain to the spiritual idea, as in Christian Science:--
Is he deformed?
He is wholly symmetrical; the one altogether lovely.
Is the babe a son, or daughter?
Both son and daughter: even the compound idea of all that resembles God.
How much does he weigh?
His substance outweighs the material world.
How old is he?
Of his days there is no beginning and no ending.
What is his name?
Christ Science.
Who are his parents, brothers, and sisters?
His Father and Mother are divine Life, Truth, and Love; and they who do the will of his Father are his brethren.
Is he heir to an estate?
"The government shall be upon his shoulder!" He has dominion over the whole earth; and in admiration of his origin, he exclaims, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes!"
Is he wonderful?
His works thus prove him. He giveth power, peace, and holiness; he exalteth the lowly; he giveth liberty to the captive, health to the sick, salvation from sin to the sinner--and overcometh the world!
Go, and tell what things ye shall see and hear: how the blind, spiritually and physically, receive sight; how the lame, those halting between two opinions or hobbling on crutches, walk; how the physical and moral lepers are cleansed; how the deaf--those who, having ears, hear not, and are afflicted with "tympanum on the brain"--hear; how the dead, those buried in dogmas and physical ailments, are raised; that to the poor--the lowly in Christ, not the man-made rabbi--the gospel is preached. Note this: only such as are pure in spirit, emptied of vainglory and vain knowledge, receive Truth.
My 256:16-22 np CHRISTMAS, 1900
Again loved Christmas is here, full of divine benedictions and crowned with the dearest memories in human history--the earthly advent and nativity of our Lord and Master. At this happy season the veil of time springs aside at the touch of Love. We count our blessings and see whence they came and whither they tend. Parents call home their loved ones, the Yule-fires burn, the festive boards are spread, the gifts glow in the dark green branches of the Christmas-tree. But alas for the broken household band! God give to them more of His dear love that heals the wounded heart.
To-day the watchful shepherd shouts his welcome over the new cradle of an old truth. This truth has traversed night, through gloom to glory, from cradle to crown. To the awakened consciousness, the Bethlehem babe has left his swaddling-clothes (material environments) for the form and comeliness of the divine ideal, which has passed from a corporeal to the spiritual sense of Christ and is winning the heart of humanity with ineffable tenderness. The Christ is speaking for himself and for his mother, Christ's heavenly origin and aim. To-day the Christ is, more than ever before, "the way, the truth, and the life,"--"which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," healing all sorrow, sickness, and sin. To this auspicious Christmastide, which hallows the close of the nineteenth century, our hearts are kneeling humbly. We own his grace, reviving and healing. At this immortal hour, all human hate, pride, greed, lust should bow and declare Christ's power, and the reign of Truth and Life divine should make man's being pure and blest.
My 259:21-32 np
[New York World]
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRISTMAS
Certain occasions, considered either collectively or individually and observed properly, tend to give the activity of man infinite scope; but mere merry-making or needless gift-giving is not that in which human capacities find the most appropriate and proper exercise. Christmas respects the Christ too much to submerge itself in merely temporary means and ends. It represents the eternal informing Soul recognized only in harmony, in the beauty and bounty of Life everlasting,--in the truth that is Life, the Life that heals and saves mankind. An eternal Christmas would make matter an alien save as phenomenon, and matter would reverentially withdraw itself before Mind. The despotism of material sense or the flesh would flee before such reality, to make room for substance, and the shadow of frivolity and the inaccuracy of material sense would disappear.
In Christian Science, Christmas stands for the real, the absolute and eternal,--for the things of Spirit, not of matter. Science is divine; it hath no partnership with human means and ends, no half-way stations. Nothing conditional or material belongs to it. Human reason and philosophy may pursue paths devious, the line of liquids, the lure of gold, the doubtful sense that falls short of substance, the things hoped for and the evidence unseen.
The basis of Christmas is the rock, Christ Jesus; its fruits are inspiration and spiritual understanding of joy and rejoicing,--not because of tradition, usage, or corporeal pleasures, but because of fundamental and demonstrable truth, because of the heaven within us. The basis of Christmas is love loving its enemies, returning good for evil, love that "suffereth long, and is kind." The true spirit of Christmas elevates medicine to Mind; it casts out evils, heals the sick, raises the dormant faculties, appeals to all conditions, and supplies every need of man. It leaves hygiene, medicine, ethics, and religion to God and His Christ, to that which is the Way, in word and in deed,--the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is but one Jesus Christ on record. Christ is incorporeal. Neither the you nor the I in the flesh can be or is Christ.
My 261:21-263:2 [^The Ladies' Home Journal^]
WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME
To me Christmas involves an open secret, understood by few--or by none--and unutterable except in Christian Science. Christ was not born of the flesh. Christ is the Truth and Life born of God--born of Spirit and not of matter. Jesus, the Galilean Prophet, was born of the Virgin Mary's spiritual thoughts of Life and its manifestation.
God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection --an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection.
Observed by material sense, Christmas commemorates the birth of a human, material, mortal babe--a babe born in a manger amidst the flocks and herds of a Jewish village.
This homely origin of the babe Jesus falls far short of my sense of the eternal Christ, Truth, never born and never dying. I celebrate Christmas with my soul, my spiritual sense, and so commemorate the entrance into human understanding of the Christ conceived of Spirit, of God and not of a woman--as the birth of Truth, the dawn of divine Love breaking upon the gloom of matter and evil with the glory of infinite being.
Human doctrines or hypotheses or vague human philosophy afford little divine effulgence, deific presence or power. Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift,--His spiritual idea, man and the universe,--a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ's coming.
I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing.
The splendor of this nativity of Christ reveals infinite meanings and gives manifold blessings. Material gifts and pastimes tend to obliterate the spiritual idea in consciousness, leaving one alone and without His glory.
Chr 53:0-61
CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS
1. Fast circling on, from zone to zone,--
Bright, blest, afar,--
O'er the grim night of chaos shone
One lone, brave star.
2. In tender mercy, Spirit sped
A loyal ray
To rouse the living, wake the dead,
And point the Way--
3. The Christ-idea, God anoints--
Of Truth and Life;
The Way in Science He appoints,
That stills all strife.
4. What the Beloved knew and taught,
Science repeats,
Through understanding, dearly sought,
With fierce heart-beats;
5. Thus Christ, eternal and divine,
To celebrate
As Truth demands,--this living Vine
Ye demonstrate.
6. For heaven's Christus, earthly Eves,
By Adam bid,
Make merriment on Christmas eves,
O'er babe and crib.
7. Yet wherefore signalize the birth
Of him ne'er born?
What can rehearse the glorious worth
Of his high morn?
8. Christ was not crucified--that doom
Was Jesus' part;
For Sharon's rose must bud and bloom
In human heart. [*]
9. Forever present, bounteous, free,
Christ comes in gloom;
And aye, with grace towards you and me,
For health makes room.
10. Thus olden faith's pale star now blends
In seven-hued white!
Life, without birth and without end,
Emitting light!
11. The Way, the Truth, the Life--His word--
Are here, and now
Christ's silent healing, heaven heard,
Crowns the pale brow.
12. For Christian Science brings to view
The great I Am,--
Omniscient power,--gleaming through
Mind, mother, man.
13. As in blest Palestina's hour,
So in our age,
'T is the same hand unfolds His power,
And writes the page.
14. To-day, as oft, away from sin
Christ summons thee!
Truth pleads to-night: Just take Me in!
No mass for Me!
15. No blight, no broken wing, no moan,
Truth's fane can dim;
Eternal swells Christ's music-tone,
In heaven's hymn.
[*] "God was manifest in the flesh."--St. Paul.
Mis 320:3-22 np
CHRISTMAS
This interesting day, crowned with the history of Truth's idea,--its earthly advent and nativity,--is especially dear to the heart of Christian Scientists; to whom Christ's appearing in a fuller sense is so precious, and fraught with divine benedictions for mankind.
The star that looked lovingly down on the manger of our Lord, lends its resplendent light to this hour: the light of Truth, to cheer, guide, and bless man as he reaches forth for the infant idea of divine perfection dawning upon human imperfection,--that calms man's fears, bears his burdens, beckons him on to Truth and Love and the sweet immunity these bring from sin, sickness, and death.
This polar star, fixed in the heavens of divine Science, shall be the sign of his appearing who "healeth all our diseases;" it hath traversed night, wading through darkness and gloom, on to glory. It doth meet the antagonism of error; addressing to dull ears and undisciplined beliefs words of Truth and Life.
The star of Bethlehem is the star of Boston, high in the zenith of Truth's domain, that looketh down on the long night of human beliefs, to pierce the darkness and melt into dawn.
The star of Bethlehem is the light of all ages; is the light of Love, to-day christening religion undefiled, divine Science; giving to it a new name, and the white stone in token of purity and permanence.
The wise men follow this guiding star; the watchful shepherd chants his welcome over the cradle of a great truth, and saith, "Unto us a child is born," whose birth is less of a miracle than eighteen centuries ago; and "his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
My heart is filled with joy, that each receding year sees the steady gain of Truth's idea in Christian Science; that each recurring year witnesses the balance adjusted more on the side of God, the supremacy of Spirit; as shown by the triumphs of Truth over error, of health over sickness, of Life over death, and of Soul over sense.
"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Press on, press on! ye sons of light,
Untiring in your holy fight,
Still treading each temptation down,
And battling for a brighter crown.
Hymn 23:0-5 Christmas Morn by Mary Baker Eddy
Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds
Pursue thy way,
Thy light was born where storm enshrouds
Nor dawn nor day!
Dear Christ, forever here and near,
No cradle song,
No natal hour and mother's tear,
To thee belong.
Thou God-idea, Life-encrowned,
The Bethlehem babe--
Beloved, replete, by flesh embound--
Was but thy shade!
Thou gentle beam of living Love,
And deathless Life!
Truth infinite,--so far above
All mortal strife,
Or cruel creed, or earth-born taint:
Fill us today
With all thou art--be thou our saint,
Our stay, alway.
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