Good tidings of great joy which Shall be to all people. Was the Angel's estimate an exaggeration? If not, why do we find the world so full of strife and bitterness today? Why wars and rumours of war, with all their attendant fears and miseries?
Why all the unhappiness, the misunderstandings and jealousies, the cruelty and unbrotherliness?
The reason is not hard to find. For the same reason that there was no joy outside the little circle of those who recognized Him at His coming. John sums it up in his opening chapter when he says, "The light shined in the darkness and the darkness com-operate, we must do our part We must give him more than stable-room. Give him an honoured place in our hearts. Give it by a sincere desire to be free from sin and its power. Give it by an honest effort to follow in his footsteps. In simple faith ask forgiveness and the guidance of His Spirit, He will do the rest.
So Christ is born in human hearts.
God with us—God in us. This is the real joy of Christmas; a joy that may be ours this year, regardless of outward circumstances or surroundings. prehended it not He came to his own and his own received him not."
Christianity has not failed. It has not been even tried by the vast majority. The ills of the present day are not due to Christianity, but to lack of it. Isaiah's words are as true today as they were when he penned them thousands of years ago. "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.