Evening star., 1931-12-20

ny every degree that We lose the
l. influence and presence of Jesus
Christ in our lives, VIC make
IL them poorer, barer,, more blind
more sad,
The happiest lives in the world are
those lived in a simple effort to love
and follow Him: even though those lives
seem externally poor and obscure, un-
successful and even contemplate. He
was considered all these things in His
lifetime, incidentally.
The most brilliant, worldly lives, on
the other hand, have a queer way OF
turning to ulSt and ashes even though
they have free access to all the expen-
sive places where one never finds Jesus
Christ; memberships in smart clubs,
front seats at Follies and revues, private
yachts, night clubs, Hollywood parties,
roulette wheels, divorce courts. FurS,
fame diamonds, the society column,
the apartment on Park avenue, the
mansion at Pebble Beach-these are
only words. The men and women who
move through these glittering panor-
amaS arc just the same as the men
and women who live in the crowded
streets of the Bronx, in New York, or
the lonelieSt farm in Kansas or North
to find anything else real in the world
except Jesus Christ, happy if they
have made the long hard journey that
is yet so short and have reached the
Kingdom within.
His name blaZeS across the whole
tumbled. troubled, puzzled history of
mankind like a great light. 1t is our
one living miracle. Why should We
who know Him worry because con-
scientious scientists think that a comma
in the story of the loaveS and the fishes
has somewhat changed its nature and
that loaf" IN this case means the
Greek word signifying thought" and
fish might be the old Latin symbol
for smile, so that the 5000 were fed
on smiles and thoughts rather than
actual food an so on, and so on, and
80 on?
SCIENTISTS will harass and burden
~ and agonize themselves disproving
the miracles in the New Testament
until the end Of time And as they
bend spectacled and absorbed over their
documents and research, they will never
know that all they need do is raise
their Statistic-crammed heads to see
the miracle that is Jesus Christ still
lifted high above any other miracle of
our human history, to feel the radiant
miracle of Christmas coming nearer and
nearer through the hum and hustle
of life.
'The time draws near the birth Of
Christ
The moon is hid; the night is still:
And Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist"
Tennyson gives US the happiness our
hearts know on Christmas Eve, in those
four lines and Alice Meynell dips
deeper into the mystic beauty of it
when she says:
Sudden as sweet, come the expected
feet
All poy is new, and new all art,
And He, too, whom we have by heart!"
We have had 1000 years in which to
assimilate the extraordinary claims Of
the obscure Baby who was born in
stable who had but illiterate and pen
nileSS fishermen for friends, who never
had political party nor dollar nor a
newspaper to back Him in His lifetime,
who was diScredited and scorned. be-
trayed by His own group, and finally
destroyed as a menace to His state
He left no documents behind Him, and
His doctrine was considered so pre-
lage group, that according to all human
standards his unsuccessful life should
have been washed away in the great
river Of unsuccessful peasants lives
that has carried on the world.
SINCE His death a thousand great
Kings have died, after striving
frantically to make themselves a place
In history, after winning battles, hang
ing themselves with jewels, building
palaces, writing the laudatory inscrip-
tions for their own great tombs
We don't know their names apart.
Their palaces are museums filled with
paintings Of Madonnas, of Nativities. Of
dim old saints and chors of angels.
Wherever the obscure Christmas Baby
is painted, His little head is ringed
with heavenly light.
II some old crown room or powder
closet is used for books. the Baby has
possession there, too. Dante Shake
speake, Goethe. all honor Him. His
and ilumined folios is crowned with
lilies, grapes, pearls, roses, with the
innocent faces Of lambs and the meek
little heads Of doves; with everything
emblematic of royalty, purity, sacrifice
and power.
His doctrine runs like a river under
our whole civilization. We find Him
everywhere. Those of our modern
writer's who are most glib and sure
in complete oderlal of Him who can
Statistically convince us that in the
first place He was wrong, in the second
place He was completely misquoted,
and in the third place He never lived
at all. are themselves living lives that
He has shaped and influenced more
than any other person who ever lived
One such writer. and great influ-
ence he has over Americas younger
generation. too, l happen to know
wonder where he thinks he gets his
love for the oppressed and suffering,
h ~ tlaA ;..4