The joy of Christmas should not be so largely dependent upon environment and circumstance. Where have we gone astray? Have we lost sight of the fact that the giving znd receiving of gifts, the holiday making, the good fellowship, are the effects and not causes,—the outcome of the Christmas joy, and not the source of it, If so, then the unseasonableness of Christmas it. the far East; the lack of the old familiar setting may prove a blessing in disguise, a God given opportunity for us to grasp the real signi ficance, the inward meaning of the festival. As we come apart to stand by the manger of Bethlehem, as we read and ponder over these old narratives, which we first heard at our mother's knee, God grant they may live for us; that with new and compelling force we may realize the truth these narratives would teach u hat unto us, forever near forever loving—is born a Saviour. Yes, more than a Saviour, a guide, a companion, and a friend. Then we too shall be filled with the real and lesting joy with which this book is full. The joy which bubbles over in the songs of the Incarnation, the songs of Zacherias, of Mary, and of Simeon. Yes, and of that Glory Song of the Heavenly Host bursting through the veils which hide that other world from us—to express their joy that God had come to dwell with ren. Emmanuel. A
Saviour.
For unless our joy be founded on that Gospel, if it has its source elsewhere, it cannot be enduring. Tt, will speedily pass. Like the greenery, the flowers, with which we decorate our homes and Churches, our joy cannot live when it has been separated from the source of its life. But alas so many attempt the impossible! They would have the Christmas joy and the Christmas peace, without going to the manger of Bethlehem. Christ's birthday is the occasion and not the cause of their festivities. It matters not for them that the long line of prophecy has been fulfilled, that the longings and the aspirations of the ages have been satisfied; for them no Herald Angels sing in the night, unto them no Son of Right-oonsness arises with healing in his wings. The day passes and with it the apparent joy, for it has no permanent and abiding source.
His first reception was prophetic. Of that day we read that his Mother, "Wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn." shut, out from the Inn at his birth. It foreshadowed what was to be his treatment during his earthly ministry. "He came to his own, and his own received him not."
Lip Service It has been the same down through the centuries; even when men profess to receive Him, it is seldom wholeheartedly, but with reservations.
Not the whole or best of our lives are opened to his coming. We give him the service of cur lips so often, but not the homage and devotion of our hearts. We give him stable room, but not the inner chamber. And I would premise that this explains our weakness and of frequent failures. Here we may find the explanation of so many of the obvious inconsistencies which are visible in the lives of professing Christians.
"We read that Christ proclaimed the brotherhood of man in a world where slavery was rampant, and we applaud that attitude because we are not slaves, but we do not press the application of the law to the whole of our relations to others in the world about us. We give our assent and approval to his Gospel of love and forgiveness, but how far short we come in attainment. Yes, we would like to possess the peace and the joy that we see he possessed, but we are not willing to open the door of our lives to the costly part, the sacrifices, the renunciation, and the cross. And the world is in very real danger or perishing, because it has made room ror everything except the one thing needful; because in the affairs of the home and the state we have only given the Lord Christ such a very tiny part of that whole which makes up the life of men and of nations. Because he has not and is not present in nine-tenths of life,—because he is given such a small place and an unimportant place. The safety and security of life itself is in danger, and civilization of Collapse. We have found no room for Christ, nor for the things of Christ And so there is individual unrest and unhappiness and the world is torn by strifes and jealousies, by hatreds and bitterness. There are wars and rumours of wars, and men's hearts are failing them for fear, and for "looking after those things which are coming on the earth."
There is no true or lasting peace or joy apart from Christ. We are made in the image of God, and man can only find his true satisfaction in Him. Was it not St. Augustine who said, with such true insight, "O God thou hast made us for thyself, and we are not content until we rest in thee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.