Rays From Christmastide

Long, long ago there was witnessed, at dead of night, a sight in the heavens more wonderful than had ever before been witnessed by human eye. No astronomer, however well versed in his science, has ever hinted at the cause of this strange phenomenon. Though it filled those who saw it with awe and terror, so that “they were sore afraid,” it was not a warning of impending evil, but brought such a promise of peace and joy as never before was whispered in human ears.

The phenomenon referred to was the Star of Bethlehem, which blazed out through the dark night of old, bathing a world of woe in a hallowed light never before seen by mortals. Shining in the East, from whence cometh the light, it led mankind to the manger, where, cradled in humble obscurity, lay our Master,—the Prince of Peace. This guiding Star appeared to be a physical phenomenon; but we must look upon this vision in a higher sense (since matter has been shorn of its reality) and consider this heavenly light in its spiritual significance.

From this height of thought the Star of Bethlehem becomes a glimmer of Truth, rising above materiality, and blazing out through the dark night of sense, burning away the clouds of belief, and leading to the living Christ,—a glimmer of immortal light, traversing the darkness of human belief, rising higher and higher above worldliness, ever beckoning pilgrims to the habitation of the perfect Idea of God.

This glorious pilot of the heavenly realm will guide all to Christ. This Star, which for eighteen-hundred years has been lost to view, has again made its appearance in the heavenly dome.

The Wisemen from the far East were not the only ones who had supernatural warning of the advent of a new dispensation, in the birth of this wonderful child, Jesus. We read in the simple Gospel narrative: “There were in that same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night; and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.”

This wonderful vision, which the shepherds saw, was no mere fancy, no dream, no fable. It did not appear to those who were wrapped in slumber. It was not born of poet’s pen or painter’s pencil. It did not burst upon men when suddenly wakened out of sleep, too bewildered to believe their senses. It came to shepherds who were accustomed to all-night wakefulness, watching their flocks. It came to men who were in a proper condition of mind to receive it,—men whose spiritual vision was ever awake, penetrating the darkness of mortal mind, watching their flocks, the offspring of their thoughts, lest, during the darkness of belief, they should wander from their care. These shepherds stood guard over the messages of love God had given them, awaiting the time when the full light of Truth should forever dispel the mists of materiality, and reveal the full sunburst of an eternal day, in which there could be no night.

To such shepherds appeared this angelic message. It did not come in confusion or discord. It came in the midnight hour, when the world was asleep in material darkness, and none but shepherds were awake. It came in heavenly harmony, and was heard only by those whose minds were receptive to the heavenly chorus. The air was stirred with that wondrous song, as a multitude of the heavenly host swept down from the skies, to bless the earth with “glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill toward man.” The theme belongs to Heaven. There is a ring in the words that is not of this world.

When Jesus was born there was no place for his mother at the village inn, and she and Joseph were obliged to take up their lodgings in the stable connected with the inn. In a manger in this stable our Master was born.

Is it very different today? Does not personality again crowd Christ out from the consciousness of mankind? Does not the world refuse a place for the birth of Truth? Again comes the question, Where shall he be born? Oh that mortals would open their hearts for the birthplace of Truth. Christ stands at the door of your heart and knocks for admission. Who will open to him and the heavenly host?

The Star of Bethlehem shines today as of old, piercing the darkness of belief, and leading followers to the portals of Heaven. As of old, it shines in the Heavens of perpetual and perfect harmony. As our sun rises in the eastern horizon, where seem to blend the earth and sky, and ascends higher and higher above the material world, it causes the shadows to flee away which had stretched rearward. As the gilded orb of righteousness approaches the zenith, our shadows grow less and less, till we are immersed in a flood of sunshine which casts no shadows.

Can the light of Truth ever wholly disperse the darkness of mortal mind, until we find the perfect day in which is no night? Why do not mortals heed the lesson which the sun teaches, as it daily rises above matter? Are the signs of the times never to be observed? Will not the sun of Soul some day rise to the zenith, never more to descend? Can we not so teach that the sun of Truth shall never again sink below the horizon of human outlook? When our senses are so spiritual that we can discern no darkness, then we shall perpetually behold the light. Did not the sun stand still for Joshua, until he had defeated the enemy? So will God’s light, the light of eternal Truth,—Christ the light of the world,—remain shining in the Christian’s consciousness, until our enemies, sickness, sin, and death are vanquished. This everlasting day must dawn!

In former times, before electric lights, gas, or petroleum had been discovered, it was the fashion to light meeting-houses with candles. These candles were not furnished by the church-officers, but each worshipper brought his candle with him. One of these wicks would emit only a feeble light, but the aggregate of tiny flames illumined the place. So is it with us. The light carried by any single one of us may be flickering and faint; but let our thoughts shine together, each illumined with but a spark of Truth, and the moral region around us will be filled with divine light. Never despise the dimness of the reflection you make. A mere streak of gray dawn presages the open day. “To him that hath shall be given.”

Jesus is the central light of human history. His Truth is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He called himself the Way, the Truth, the Life. The Way and the Life, like the Truth, are “the same yesterday today and forever,”—that is, from eternity to eternity.

Human words and metaphors fail us, when we talk of God’s verities. The Way is from everlasting to everlasting, beginning with God and ending in God, for it is the eternal circle. The Truth shines in all ages and for all men. It shone for the angels, when the Morning Stars first sang together in Heaven. It will shine upon the wings of the seraphim “before the great white throne,” the ruling power of God,—the great white throne of the blessed Apocalypse, the revelation, the unfolding, of divine Love. The Life is the all-pervading essence of infinite Being, permeating alike the tiniest grain of reality and the grandest star of thought.

Jesus—or, to speak spiritually, the Christ—is the concentration, the essence, of the combined excellencies of spiritual realities, expressed by three words, Way, Truth, Life. Before his birth in human history, his culminating religion was anticipated by the divine thought, partially expressing itself in the inferior Mosaic system of religion, and in the higher conceptions of the Prophets. Even among the heathen nations were to he found anticipations of a brighter spiritual light to rise in Judea. The Magi, who came to the Holy Land at the Advent, were from a foreign country, where they had seen his Star in the East,—the light of Truth.

Since that day there is scarcely a religionist, the wide world over, who has not received, directly or indirectly, some higher blessedness of thought from the Star which “stood over the place where the young child lay.”

The angel of the Lord came upon the shepherds; that is to say, a message from infinite Love reached human hearts. This message has been sounding ever since. Nay, this message had been sounding from all eternity; only the ears of men were dulled, and it remained for Jesus to remove their deafness, that they might hear the Christmas chorus of peace and goodwill. If our ears are open, let us bless God, and the teachers whom God has sent; but if we hear this Overture of the Angels, this hearing lays upon us the wider duty of joining the everlasting song, and communicating it in our turn,—not only to the deaf ears about us, but to generations yet unborn.

Let us all turn our thoughts Heavenward. Then God will send His angels to us, and they will bear us upward to the dwelling-place of the Most High.

Birds never light on fluttering or moving objects. So is it with Truth. Truth can find no resting-place in vacillating minds.

Let us walk with single-eyed devotedness, reflecting so much of God’s glory, that we may point with the finger of assurance to the true and only Star, which will not only guide us, but lead others to the place where they can discern the living Christ, the risen and immortal Jesus.