The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1925-12-25
CHRISTMAS

Christmas is the romance of two worlds, the
link between them being birth. Easter also is a
romance of two worlds, but with a difference-the
link between them being death. At Easter we
are likely to conceive immortal life as that toward
which we are moving; we think Of the other world
as one into which we shall presently pass. But
at Christmas the emphasis is different; we con-
ceive immortal life as moving toward us; that
other world as passing into ours.
At Easter we conceive of mortality as some
how breaking through to immortality; at Christ
mas the vision is from another quarter-we see
immortality breaking in upon our mortal life; the
invisible world becoming clear, becoming part of
our world, lighting it with a great light and lift
ing it up with strength.
At Easter we speak of men going to the angels
at Christmas the angels come to men. "And sud-
denly there was with the angel a multitude of the
heavenly soldiers singing Peace on Earth, Good
Will to Men"
One would hesitate to say which is the greater
tTuth-the Incarnation or the ResurrectiOn-but
one feels that the first is greater. And the reason
seems to be that Christmas, with its center in the
Incarnation, is a symbol of the rich pOtentialities
of the invisible world. There is in the universe a
source and reservoir of Observation-Disclosures
OA5 anu ar O"OA' WHS q AACCA~ w. ~ INV
through to men, we call it inspiration; when once
it came in a Personality that has since dominated
history, we call it Incarnation. It all harks back
to the exhaustless radiant life of the invisible
world, and men are more caught up in mind by
the world whence their inspiration comes than by
the world to which they may go through death.
The one is now; the other is, we say, Ito come"
We are all equally rich at Christmas because we
are all pensioners of that source-world. At
Easter, quite the other way, we are all seen equal
ly poor at the last, and barely escape with our
lives.
We know some who would bring the pail of
dogma over Christmas and turn the words of st.
Luke into a classroom lecture. We say this the
more readily because we believe that the Greek
physician knew of what he was writing; he was
no fool; it was his medical interest in the birth
of Jesus that gave us the classic Christmas story
Yet men of this country fuss about it as if We
we're required somehow to duplicate the wonder
We dissect the element of the Virgin Birth, anC
have nothing for our pains-as if it were Oul
problem.
To say the Virgin Birth presents no difficultie
is to dull the facts. It had difficulties for Mar,
read her story. It had difficulties for JOSEPH
1t had difficulties for Jesus-the crowds in tn
streets of Jerusalem tainted Him with the shadov
on His name. The difficulties were human an
real, but it is never minated that the powers in
vOlved were human. If this work had been re
quired of human wisdom, human power, it simpl
never would have been accOmplished-never!
But as we read the Holy Scriptures it grow
very clear that the problem was not ours at al
There was neither any intention nor any purpoI
to explain or to convince mankind of the Virgi
Birth. The sole problem was to get the Son
the Highest into the world of humanity. TT
problem was how the invisible world could NAL
its highest manifestation on the earth plane. Al
that seems to have been accomplished.
If this were a wonder flung to gaping crowd
a superstitious test of mems credulity, a silly pie
Of unnecessary magic, that would be one thin
But it seems to have been a task laid upon t.
invisible world, and it has been accomplished.
any rate, there has always, since that time, be
Christmas in the world-the Lord Christ's Dirt
day-Dearborn Independent.