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Show oo CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VIEWOFCMKISTMAS (By Alfred G. Potts, First Reader, Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Salt Lake City.) The wonderful story of the angels' song to tho shepherds on the hills of Judoa, horalding the lowly birt".: of the Savior of mankind, has charmed men's hearts throughout the ages and its beauty must continue to glow with increasing radiance, for It Is the story of God's love to man. To none doe3 this come with more profound significance signifi-cance than to the Christian Scientist, for ho rejoices in the fact that his eyes have been opened to see something some-thing of the deeper spiritual meaning of the nativity of the Christ child. To him Christmas means far more than tho anniversary of the historical date of tho birth of Jesus of Nazareth; tho true spirit of Christmas is epitomized epit-omized for him In the message of the angels, "Peace on earth, good will toward to-ward men," and he has learnod to understand un-derstand that the life of Jesus was a practical demonstration of that message, mes-sage, furnishing to mankind positive proof of the allness and goodness of God. The Christ idea, or divine truth regarding re-garding God and man, of which the life and teaching of the Master waB a complete illustration, remains today to be lived by every Christian, and mere material giving Is not of Itself sufficient to prove that that idea is being understood and lived. Neither is it possible to limit the application of this Idea to one "day in the year; T it must be lived every day and every hour. Henry Drummond has said, "The poor need love more than bread, and if you can give them the oil of joy for tho spirit of heaviness it will be better for them than blankets," and tho Christian Scientist rejoices that through the consecrated life of a woman wom-an In this age such a clear light haa been thrown on tho life and teachings of Jesus as to make them practically available not only for the relief of poverty and want, but for the healing of disease and the overcoming of every ev-ery human ill. He Is therefore pri-ileged pri-ileged to do moro than send presents to friends or give alms to tho poor, for he Is able to bear a message of rejoicing to all, because he has learned learn-ed that the real mission of the Christ was to prove that "God is universal, eternal divine Love, which changelh not and causeth no evil, disease nor death" (Scien and Health with Koto Ko-to tho Scriptures, page 140), and that a knowledge of this truth is ablo to overcome sin and disease as readily now ns it was nineteen centuries ago Mrs. Eddy has described angels as 'puro thoughts from God, winged with trutji and Lovo" (Ibid, page 298), and today many who were bound in affliction afflic-tion and sin are through tho teaching of Christian Scicnco, hearing the an-gelB an-gelB sing again and their message is still that of old, "Peace on earth, good will toward men." |