The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-12-25
THE SONG 3 THE ANGELS.


Today, throughout Christendom, the
Christmas bells are ringing. Where
ever civilization has carried its mes
sage, today hearts are looking up. and
people pause to listen to the echo Of
the song the angels sang on that night
IN far off Bethlehem, when Christ was
born.
Through all the hundreds Of years
since the shepherds watched their
flocks by night, the song has fingered
to rise ever stronger and more beauti-
full as the years pass and sorrows
crown of sorrows add their burdens to
those that the world so long has borne.
Today. while the hymns Of peace
and praise ring out upon the Christ
mas air, Civilization stands, stripped
Of glamour, bereft of glory, stark and
naked in the great searchlight of truth
and we know that not even i'm Christ
endom has COME that peace that was
presaged on the birth Of the Christ
Child.
Shall we. then. we who wait with
breaking hearts. think that we have
been defrauded. and that the pledge
that was given to the world on that
first Christmas Day is Of no avail?
Not so. The promises of God cannot
be broken and His mighty truths pre-
vail It is just that we have come
to the hour of travail we are waiting
for the new birtk. that wonderful birth
that viii mean the new Heaven and
the new Earth that has been promised
to His people.
Today Civilization stands surrounded
with the wreck Of many nations. but
shall we be as those without hope, shall
we not rather, looking on the ruin of
what has been, look forward to the
coming of that new time when there
shall be no more war, when the ma
tons shall be as one. when the battle
ships and the cannons have been made
into ploughshares, and peace and
plenty are the common lot Of man?
Is not this the meaning Of all that
anguish through which the world has
gomez Is this not the real meaning Of
the strife and turmoil through which
the nations have passed,
We have tried war and it has failed
US. Whatever the result of the dis
armament conference may be, we are
today nearer peace than the world has
ever been. We are toady nearer equal /
ity for all than the world has ever
been. We are nearer to that happi-
ness for humanity, for which so long
the world has striven, than we have
ever been.
Today the Christmas songs are rising /
IN million cities. cities far from Ju-
IDEAS hills, and it is the same song
and il bears the same message mes
sage Of peace and good will to men.
II is the same song that was sung
by the angels when they came to
bring to us good tidings of great joy. |
And the song will be sung when we are
dust, and others take our places
Shall we not then, we who wonder, |
take heart of grace ana know that
God is a great God, and that His word |
is fast as the everlasting hills?
We are standing today at a perilous |
point, and sometimes as we look be-
hind US. and strive to penetrate the /
veil that divides US from the Unseen.
we wonder If in that Holy of Holes |
there is still greater suffering reserved |
for the children of men
But however that may be, however
hard the road may seem that winds /
from the song of the angels on Christ |
mas morn to cross crowned Calvary |
we know that after death comes life |
that after the night is the morning, and |
that the song Of the angels can never
die, but will live onsand on, until that
day when war shall cease and peace I
shall reign, and the Savior Who Is
Christ The Lord, shall reign in glory. +
Lord of Lords and King Of Kings