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Show A CHRISTMAS SERMON BY Claire Stewart Boy er t (Mrs. Boyer is one of the most highly gifted women of Salt Lake, a poet and writer She deals in che fine and high things f the spirit. We are fortunate to get an article like this one. Ed At this high moment in the history of mankind, thousands of valiant Christians know that the Great Challenge has come the power of Cod in man must rise to save the world! Just as the son of man became the Wayshower to perfection, per-fection, so now the sons of men, after professing to be believers be-lievers in and disciples of the Wayshower for two thousand years, must fulfill his dream for them and bring the Kingdom of God to earth. Although the white and seamless robe of his message has been cut into hundreds of conflicting creeds, although al-though Christianity has been taken for granted and has become be-come placid, the vision of the new Jerusalem is still with men and the love that can breathe life into that vision still flows on. To those whose eyes are singled to the glory of God, to those whose hearts yearn with compassion, the trumpet call is glorious! glo-rious! This is the Great Day! The Wayshower revealed every step that man must take to reach his spiritual stature, and "as many as received Him to them gave he the power to become sons of God." This, then, is man's destiny. With the spirit of truth to guide him to all truth, man can so live that he can come into his divine inheritance, inher-itance, become joint-heir with Christ. Jesus, the man, took his first step when at the age of twelve He recognized that He was the Son of God. This is the recognition recog-nition every man must make. When he senses the Divinity within him, he has set his foot on the path that leads to complete com-plete realization and fulfillment. "I must be about my Father's Fath-er's business," Jesus said. When man's work is done with the recognition that it is God's work, it is done in the spirit of Christ. It, is pure, loving and faithful to the highest ideal man has. Man must not fail in this first step forward. Living as if he were the son of God is the only sign that he has recognized his Sonship. People who are not conscious of this kinship live as do the flowers only half awake. No wonder Christ said, "Awake, arise, believe!" Awake from your human conception of yourself. Arise to your divinity. Believe that you too can become a Son of God. Whenever light comes to man, with it comes the inspiration to live by that light the living is the fulfillment of the purpose pur-pose of the light. God reaches to man and gives him high visions, when he makes those visions the structure of his thoughts, words and acts he builds for eternity. The acceptance of his divinity was the next step Jesus took to show men the way. His vision was cleared, the heavens were opened and he could see the glory man could achieve, the illumination of a peaceful spirit, the radiation of Christlike love, the joy of divine perfection. He was made anew, and so must every man be renewed by a higher vision by washing away the belief that he is limited and coming forth conscious that he is the image of God. For he too is a trinity, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever present! He will believe this only when he finds it true by experience. When man takes upon himself a new office, dire tempta-tions.come tempta-tions.come tohim It is necessary for him to become invulnerable invul-nerable to lesser desires. Love for material things lures him first. Then acclaim calls to his pride and because the desire for fame is so strong it takes all plan's strength to turn his back upon it. These were the temptations that Jesus overcome in His Christward journey. They come into the life of every man, again and again. When they can be ruled out, man's strength is multiplied and he is ready to begin his ministry. Again Jesus was lifted up, this time to the attainment of being. be-ing. He gathered to himself the twelve virtues that would insure in-sure his integrity. The disciples each held one quality: Peter was the man of faith, James the man of wisdom, John the man of love. These three were close companions of Jesus and were with him at his highest moments. The others, Phillip, spirituality; spirit-uality; James, the lesser Justice; Simon, zeal; Thomas, understanding; un-derstanding; Thaddeus, order; Andrew, celestial love; Bartholomew, Barthol-omew, imagination; Judah, celestial love; Mathew, will. How much man needs these qualities, for they are to become be-come the twelve foundations of the new Jerusalem and as they are built into his character, so they are built into his world. What real pleasure man finds in them. Doubting Thomas, or the understanding that demands proof through the senses, causes him the most distress and Judah's love of the celestial, betrays him because it lures him to live on other world ideas. Yet once these two qualities are transformed by light when once human reason gives way to divine reason and the celestial celes-tial isknown as an extension not a substitute of this human life, then are all things made clear and no mystery remains unsolved. When the truth is discovered, the soul must express it. So. Jesus clothed these qualities in everlasting beauty. They were so simple that children loved them, and so great, that wise men plumbed their depths. This was the divine art. Man expresses ex-presses through varied forms of the arts, the same values. He makes a cloak of beauty in words, colors, tones, or shapes and gives his soul qualities to the world which proclaims their goodness. Yet it is ever in action that the greatest step, is taken. So Jesus became the Christ in his works and, when this was revealed re-vealed to Peter, Christ knew his Sonship had been established. He healed by the ministration of touch, of Word, of thought, of vibration, all of which, healers of every generation have used. He. resurrected himself because he believed so completely com-pletely in eternal liife. And he promised that his followers could do all that he had done and more. He proved his mastery, his dominion over. all. He changed elements, forces and brought forth the substance from the invisible. He proved that all things are but variations of one substance and that they can be changed one to another. This was the omnipresence of spirit. He showed there was no situation sit-uation that love could not change. This was his omnipotence. He proved that through prayer, all could be known, that was his omniscience. Once he saw that this was so, then he lived it! And living it, he gave all praise and glory .to the Father, the Light of Lights, from whom cometh all precious gifts. So drawing draw-ing near unto the Father, he felt the Father drawing near unto him, until they became one that was the atonement! That made man and Cod one God enfolding man until there was only the divine for the human concept was but a shadow and now there was only light! Yes, all sins were washed away by the atonement for sins are the undivine thoughts of the self-limited human mind. And all men may know this glory when their eyes are singled when they are pure in heart when they have no other Gods! Then the Kingdom, the power and the glory will be theirs for they will find the Kingdom within with-in them and the power and the glory. After becoming one with God, Jesus the Christ saw himself as God saw him, and the transfiguration was a revelation to him. He was the past, present and future. He was the law, the prophets and the fulfillment. Law abides in the soul, the desires for perfection are the prophets of what is to be, abiding in the mind; then there is the Word Love, which fulfills, abiding abid-ing in the heart. And all are within each man! To show this, Christ took those disciples of highest quality, men of faith, wisdom and love, and lifted them up in the spirit until they saw that love alone suffices that the Word of God is all there is! Here indeed is a transfiguration of belief. Obeying the law of Moses is not enough. Worshipping a prophet is not enough. Loving God and man is all there is! (Continued or page four) Some Things Worth Thinking' About Read and Ponder (continued from Dage onr When Jesus knew that, he had the strength to meet the scorn of man, the trial and the crucificion. Upon the cross he gave up his human self that the divine might arise. He forgave, for-gave, knowing that men were seeing through a glass darkly and knew not what they were doing. But he knew that the transition he was to take was part of eternal progression. He knew that as spirit created body in the beginning, so spirit reborn, could recreate a body. He knew what life was! He was not content to accept the belief of his day, nor the creed of his people, he went beyond them to Cod. He went directly to Cod. He became a Cod. Then he told his people that he was the Way through which they too could become Cods. He gave them power to achieve this goal. What more could a savior do? Yet there was one thing more. They worshipped him and he knew he must go from them. When a leader is worshipped his light is lost. It has been proved again and again. Truth is greater than personality. Truth alone can set man free. Christ ascended, leaving man alone with the spirit of truth as his guide to lead him to all truth. Those who have followed the Christ life alone are the Sons of Cod. Those who have recognized their divinity and accepted it, who have tried to be Christlike, to teach eternal truth, to do the works of faith, to become one with the Father, to know himself law, prophet and love, to suffer for truth to rise above it and to become eternal they are Christians. To them Christ said, "The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." There is a strange parallel between the capitalistic system of today and the economy built upon slavery, within our own nation, prior to the Civil War. At that time there were within the United States two schools of thought. In the north the people realized that slavery had outlived its time. A few forward for-ward looking individuals could see that the retention of slavery could only mean constant friction and would ultimately lead to war. It was suggested that the United States purchase the slaves from their owners at a fair market price and free them. This wise suggestion was opposed by none so much as the slave owners who would have profited most. Their opposition led, as we know to the Civil War, the freeing of the slaves, the destruction of the economy of the South for a generation, and a cost to the United States of thousands of lives, and many times what it would have cost to purchase and free the slaves. Those who stood in the way of progress lost their slaves and other possessions. And many of them lost their lives as well. The United States has been peaceful and helpful toward to-ward Japan for 88 year?. V$g mothered her, nurtured her and sustained her while she was in her swadling clothes and befriended her until she started her mad and diabolical crusa e against China. And now she pours out her seven vials of salanic wrath uponus. We are a peace-loving people and have never studied the black arts of hate and vengeance and tortures and murder and therefore we may be made to suffer much at the hands of adepts in these - shameful arts. But give us the sense to be true to ourselves and our country and we shall put on the full armor of our strength and beat them down into the vile dust from whence they sprung and leave tbem in the stench ('of their own decay, "unwept, unhonored and unsung." The serpents, the ingrates, the venomous vultures, the dark ogres of hate and cruelty, struck at their friend, their benefactor. And while they struck they smiled a sickly, sadistic, slimy smile, which touched another hideous smile in Europe, and together they set about to poison all the good life and liberty of the known world. May the God of justice and freedom damn them to inglorious defeat de-feat and the everlasting execrat on of all honorable and truth loving people. St Odilia, the blind daughter of Frankish lord who became be-came a nun and founded a convent. About 700 A. D. she wrote a letter to her brother, predicting aerial warfare and ' a period of terror. She wrote: ' "It will be the time when Germania will be called the most bellingered nation on earth. There will spring from its womb the terrible warrior, who will undertake'waron the world The conquerer will come from the banks of the Danubp. . . He will win victories on land and sea, and even in the air. 1 His winged warriors will be s-;en in unbelievible attacks to rise up to the firmampnt and to seize the stars and Jthrow them down on towns and light giantij fires. "The conqueror will have attainedjthe apex of his triumph,,' in the middle of the sixlh month of the second,yearf hostil ities... In the flush. 6f victory he will say, ' ceppt the yoke of my domination " But his enemie- will not submilj andjThe war will continue.. "Th second part of the war will equaMn length the first half the third pei iod will be of ,'shor t duration and the victor will have lost the confidence of lis warriors. This will be called the period of invasion because the country of the conqueror will be invaded in all parts and laid waste in retribution Tor his injustices and his ungodlines. We wonder if people will believe us now. For a long time we have been saying that destiny would take us into the war, and that we could not avoid it. Often we have quoted what was said through Joseph Smith that peace should betaken from the earth, and that war would be poun d out upon all nations until an end is made of the old order. Of course most everyone knows it now, but they did not know and would j not believe it one year ago, two or three years ago, when we were giving out warnings. We know just what will happen now that we are in it, but we must not say anything that will hamper the work of defense or discourage the defenders dem ocracy. We stand at attention ready to serve Americ |