Looking backward down the vista of time, till thought rests with mingled awe and joy upon the central event of all history, the first Christmas, with its accompanying message of holy peace to all men, does not one overshadowing question present itself to all who thus journey back through the centuries, to consider and ponder the deep lesson taught by the nativity of the Virgin-born babe of Bethlehem? Of what present and individual significance, is this event to me? Is its import simply historical, or is its essence spiritual and of hourly value to me as a child of God?
Prophesied by the seers of Hebrew history, and appearing in the divine order of spiritual unfolding, "He came unto his own and his own received him not."
By men, he was first seen as a babe in the manger of humility and lowly estate, at twelve, the confounder of the scholastics in the temple at Jerusalem, later, a carpenter or builder preparing to enter the arena of human affairs, that he might teach men the Science of Being, the building of the heavenly character "after the pattern shown in the Mount," and finally, the" Light of the world," and great Victor over sin, disease and death.
