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Show Perfect 3$mz---uv$ Jforeber jjfJ . By Thelma Urli . ? t FIRST PRIZE ESSAY sounds more like a contradiction than a war. There is a strange missing link somewhere in our lives this particular parti-cular year. We pay homage to Christ, the Prince of Peace, by celebrating Christmas in His honor. hon-or. On the other hand we are involved in-volved in a struggle which, perhaps per-haps unthinkingly, is a war of pacific or peace-making. Where is this missing essence? You should already know, for it it is in the hearts of man. In the depths of their very souls they carry a flame, brightly burning, one that will never die because it is so instilled within them that it can never perish. per-ish. It shouts unceasingly, "Some day soon, and from that day forever after we will have as our own, and cherish above all, "Peace on earth good will toward men" and Christ will rule unquestionably, not only as Prince of Peace, but as Supreme King of the Universe. "And in, despair I bowed my head, There is no peace on earth, I said." Words of Henry . Wads worth Longfellow's immortal poem is ringing in my ears this evening because as I was listening to the carol ushering in the merry season sea-son of Christmas, I heard the message mes-sage on the radio that war had been declared on the United States. Th is communication so clearly said to me another thing. It said, "In our lives 'now, the time has come that the reason we and every Christian nation observe Christmas Christ-mas has been torn from its very foundation. Now, in our democracy, demo-cracy, the only one in existence, the spell of peace on earth good will toward men has been demol- jri ished, not because we willed it so, but because it has been forced upon us." Christmas, as-we all know, pays reverence to Christ, the Prince of Peace. He, who taught to love thy neighbor as thyself, would surely be discontented to see exploding bombs, flashing bayonets, and wounded soldiers crying for the angel of dqath to deliver them from their misery. He would wonder won-der if His crueification had been all in vain, if we so little loved Him for what He had done for us that we would forget Him and His teachings so completely. Our Christmas this year may be vastly different from that of the past, or it may be the same, but whatever it may be, in our Christmas Christ-mas there must remain the priceless price-less quality of solemn, sacred reverence, rev-erence, and humble prayer, for disorder dis-order is a synonym of sin and strife. Our new conflict is called tentatively, tenta-tively, "The War of the Pacific." How strange this is, when we know Pacific means peace - making. 'The War of Peace-making.' It |