Evening star., 1923-12-25
COOLIDGES LEAD U. S.
1 IN CHRISTMAS RITES;
X, JOY RULES DISTRICT
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about Jesus Christ and much asser-
tion of what 1t thinks about Him.
The other group. weary of reac-
tionary conservatism, gratefully &C
cepts this statement as covering It's
own view that It is Jesus Christ and
not doctrines about Him that must
now be emphasized. And before we
know II the doctrinal debate is on, the
violent phrases are filling the air
shibboleths are being shouted. names
are being called and men are being
tested and classified. while the church
wallows in the ruck of controversy
This Christmas day finds US in dan
ger of lighting about Him or about
our interpretations of Him, rather
than making enough of Him
d. Life All One Piece.
The life of Jesus Christ was all
Of one piece. There was no contra
diction between His ideals and His
practices. between His principles and
His conduct. between what He knew
and what He did, between what He
said and what He was.
This child whose birth we cele-
brate gets His place in our thoughts
and our hearts, His place in the
world at last, in consequence of what
He became, what He said, what He
did. If you ask the familiar, homely
that was born there at Bethlehem
the answer will carry you through all
His earthly life and down to this
present hour.
AT the age of twelve He said He
must be about his Fathers business.
At the age of thirty He declared
that He had been anointed to give
broken humanity a chance. At an
other time He said Ee must work the
works of God. In the garden He put
Gods will as always on the throne
of His own life. At the end He said
He had finished what had been given
Him to do.
'On this Christmas day in this
world capital l declare the faith that
this is the normal life for other men,
that the creation Of such lives is
Chrlst's desire, the living of such
lives our supreme achievement, and
world its salvation from it's present
evil state.
Concept of Normal Man.
A recent hook declares that our
conception of the normal identifies
il with the commonplace that the
normal man cannot be very bad. but
also he cannot he very good. that
he remains normal by a careful
combining of pale virtues and equally
pale vices. But in the presence of
this life of Jesus the normal does
not seem to be that poor middling,
not-VeTy good and not-verv-bad thing
with which We are all too familiar
This life of one piece, that did not
strike a pitifui average. that never
got a hairs breadth off the line
that began in infancy to be what il
ought to have kept on being, that
keeps on being what it was while
IL dWelt among us is our personal
hope and the hope of the world this
glad morning
christmas does not help us deeply
II II only brings us warm and com
Portable feelings while it leaves us
in utter mediocrity of character. pur
pose and life. 1t is not of highest
use for us to see this real man un-
less the vision makes new men out
OF us average men.
Prom first to last He was the
servant of the spirit, never letting
His soul get eameshed in a material
scheme of life. He knew that a per-
son cannot be half of this world and
material. The darkness into which
He came, through which for thirty
Years He moved, never overpowercd
never put out. never dimmed the
glory of the lighted mind
Inconsistency Is Seen.
We accept the ideals and principles
or Jesus, the spiritual ideals and
principles that made Him supreme
and then we reinforce them with ma
terialism, as though they needed it,
we mix them up with what we call
ratniI1 oommGn sense, but what Is really a
utterly destroy the unity of life
WHICH He utterly preserved.
he was not speaking externally
or abstractly when He said that no
man can serve two masters. Men by
the million are trying 1t. Men in this
Capitol are trying to do 1t. And the
world is full Of those divided loyal-
ties, those half-and half lives, that
nd
comparison with His.
he raced the great temptation. 1t
came TO him as IL comes to US. But
out of the unity of his life he smoke
those blazing words that walk across
the centuries and grip the rearts Of
men, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God and Him only shalt thou
serve You can only lead the Christ
like life by keeping 1t whole. We
must close the chasm between what
we know and what we do. what we
say and what we are, between one
part of our life and the other parts
of IL, even as Jesus did.
Principle of Christ.
Another thing to remember today
is that the coming of Jesus Christ into
the world Is both an event and a
principle. thing that occurred and
a thing with perpetual meaning in
life. One hesitates to speak Of the
incarnation because that Is one of
those large terms around which contro-
versy RACES like storm. But really
II is not so vague or mysterious or
difficult when we come to think Of 1t
in a human way.
"The wonder is not that God came
into human life in that intimate,
vital. personal way. The wonder
would have been blank and impene-
trable If He had not come. He had
come to put strength at the service
of weakness, health at the service Of
those who suffer, wisdom into tho
darkness Of the ignorant and holiness
into the very evil of the world.
"And we shall feel, looking at him,
that incarnation and atonement are
both events and principles. For the
life of Jesus is not simply ideal and
normal for Him, it is ideal and nor
NAL for all men.
Glory OF Incarnation.
'It is the very glory Of our world
Of God in His world. that this eternal
principle of incarnation Is in it.
IF we can clip and do not. II We
can lift and do not. il we can serve
and sacrifice and do not, il we can
MI up that which is lacking in the
work and sufferings of Christ and
do not, what must men and angels
think OF US; what must we think Of
ourselves? What, above all. must
Jesus Christ think Of us?
The incarnation is not simply for