Soon the Christian world will lie in the midst of Christmas observances. We but speak the truth of past history when we assert that most of this observance will be of a wholly mirthful character, from the ordinary standpoint of mirthfulness. Every form of material festivity and enjoyment which human ingenuity has been able to devise will be resorted to. Night and day will be devoted to this sort of merry-making. Along with it all there will be special Christmas services held in the churches, and some will worship God in the light of the birth and mission of Jesus Christ. There will be certain devout ones who will think deeply and seriously upon the event which they are celebrating and the nature and character and purpose of the special observances and services; but how many? How many will stop to earnestly and soberly inquire: What significance has Jesus' birth for me? How much am I bettered by the fact of his birth? How fully have I in the past profited by his birth, his teachings, his practices, his death upon the cross, his resurrection and his ascension? How earnestly have I striven to learn the deep and mighty meaning of all this to me? How fully have I sought to obey his commandments to do unto others as I would have others do unto me? To love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind and soul? To love my neighbor as myself? To fulfil all the law and the prophets which he said were contained in these two commandments? To be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect? To leave all and follow him? To turn absolutely and finally away from the world and the things thereof, seeking only God and His righteousness? To have no other gods than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Jesus and the apostles, the God of the early Christian Fathers, the God of the truly devout in the ages since their day? How many, we ask, are there in Christendom to-day who in the sense above indicated are striving to make this Christmas their true Christ-mass?. This inquiry is broad and general. It includes Christian Scientists as well as all other Christians. It means as much for these as for any others. What account shall we be able to render of our stewardship? This question comes home to each of us. It is an individual question. The question for each one to consider, is not nearly as much, What have other Christians been doing, or what are my neighbors in Christian Science doing, or shall do, as what have I been doing in the direction of living the lesson taught by Jesus' birth, life and death?
It matters not how many have failed or fallen short of the demands of Truth as taught and exemplified by Jesus, if I have failed and fallen short, I am the sufferer and must pay the penalty of my own shortcomings. My business and duty is to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing the while that if I do my part, I will find God through Christ Jesus, ever working with me. Mighty fact! Stupendous thought! God working with me! Who would not work in such company? Who would not forsake all other companions that he might companion with God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?
Only in the measure in which we leave behind us all false material conceptions and reach out after the Life which is Love, the Love which is Life, the Truth which is Good, and the Good which is Truth, are we leaving all and following Christ, and only as we leave all and follow Christ, each day, each hour, each moment, are we truly celebrating the Christ-mass. This is the meaning of Christmas to each one of us. We should celebrate it by turning face about and forsaking all the sins and errors which are holding us in false conditions and preventing our realization of the allness of Almighty Good.
