WHEN the angels announced the advent of Jesus as "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people," and then united in the refrain of "on earth peace, good will toward men," they started a song which is never to cease so long as time lasts. Men soon recognized that in peace and good will there may be found the promise of harmony and satisfaction in all their affairs. They quickly saw that in those few words of the angels there is the proclamation of limitless possibilities of good. The song will therefore go on in ever increasing volume until all men shall have united in fulfilling the joyous vision thus prophetically presented.
For centuries, at every Christmastide, people have ceased from their worldly cares and activities long enough to consider the meaning of both peace and good will. Prayers without number have ascended with the hope that they might be answered in a speedy realization among men of these heavenly conditions. While all Christians have united in believing that Jesus' mission was for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth,—that kingdom where peace and good-will are to be universally understood and experienced,—they have waited, sometimes almost despairingly, to see them expressed. To-day, as never before, the world is opening its hope to the possibility of their present realization. And yet how much seems to remain to be done before such hope can come to full fruition!
Because Jesus declared, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God," Christians have continually been seeking to bring about peace. Often, however, their efforts have only resulted in that which the prophet denounced when he said, "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." The difficulty has been that they have not understood that peace can never be won without its necessary associate, good-will; and they have also failed to see how this same good-will was to be understood and demonstrated.
