The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-12-21
Christmas Editorial

will be capable of manufacturing them. We
a failure Of their efforts to find some world
principle that all can live by, that disaster on
a worldwide scope will certainly result.
But looking at the picture today from the
long view of history, down the many centur-
les which have daWned on earth before and
after the time of Jesus Christ, mankind to-
day is not in any worse frame of mind than
it has been on many forgotten historic
periods of the past. Our Jeremiahs have de-
SPARED of us many times, and yet here we
are. Wars and pestilence, crusades, plaques,
ice ages, floods and fire have come and gone,
yet here we are still. And here we shall be
till the time of our foredestined end. There
are unresolved conflicts of major proper
lions still in the world, and we as a people
share some of the responsibility for their
existence. And we must recognize this with
the true humility and deep atonement of the
Christian spirit. If we say, like the Pharisee,
Thank Coo we are not as other men are, y
we follow the Pharisee's road of folly and
blindness. AT basis, people are much the
same the world over. Every philosopher,
every great religious figure who has ever
lived, has had this simple and profound truth
to tell. Our path out of present dangers is
to work to bring the great Christian dy-
manic of huma understanding and good
will into our personal, our community, and
our national lives. Fear is a dangerous thing
for us, and hatred is more dangerous than
the atom bomb for us and for our posterity.
An atom bomb will not go off of its own ac-
count. 1t needs the motivation of hatred to
release it. And let us not forget that if we
begin to run a finger over this perilous trig-
ger of hatred, other men and other nations
will soon be doing the same. In a situation
like that, a mood of hysteria will seize the
world, and then the margin between self
defense and aggression will be the mar
gin of a hair-line, and very likely everyone
will start shooting at once. There are fam
lies in the Kentucky hills who nave wiped
one another out that way-and years later
the widows and the orphaned children could
never really say what the original cause
was; but on both sides they were quite sure
it was 'self-defense."
Of course. it is one thing to make a speech
or sermon about the need for faith and good
will and brotherhood in world politics; and
1t is another thing to bring this to pass. But
who, ~afterall, are the nations of men," if
not we ourselves. We are the individuals
who make this nation. and every other
Christ tells us that we are brothers, beneath
the fatherhood of God Down the long cen
turtles men have denied this lesson, and vet
they have never quite been able to forget
y ioudy w hioW tldt SoHle suCn leeillS
is the only possible way out of our peril. Il
is the eternal, stirring promise in our hearts
the word of God. And we must find a way
we, simple, ordinary men, to give it voice, te
bring It's message into our own lives, into
our communities, and into our Congress. Let
us stop our ears to the publicans and the
Pharisees. And let us open our faith ano
our heart to the eternal Christmas message
and realize that it is the most beautiful, ane
yet most practical principle of all time. Let
us become Christians in more than words
and hollow deeds, and let us find our way
back to the spirite of the Sermon or
the mount, as fresh, as simple. as heartfelt.
ing as it was on that glowing day wher
Christ spoke his words of trust and Chris
tian charity.