THE most spiritually regal event of the ages, the coming of Christ Jesus, took place where the world does not look for royalty—even in a lowly stable. The Wisemen who followed the star were led, not to a throne of royal splendor, but to a babe cradled in a manger. And why a manger? Certainly, such a portentous event as the coming of the Messiah was not subject to the mere circumstance of an overcrowded inn. May not the manger present a picture of simplicity and naturalness? From this point of view it may well typify an unworldly mode of consciousness, open to divine ideas; indeed, a mode of thought gravitating heavenward, unrestricted by codes and customs, free from the conventional, wherein the truth can again appear to human comprehension. How natural, then, for the babe Jesus to have been cradled in a manger; and how natural also that to-day humility is required through which to perceive the spiritual idea! Such a state of consciousness receives and tenderly nurtures every new Christ like concept. Truly, in humility the infant idea of divine Science is tenderly cradled.
Did the world take notice of the babe Jesus? Did it herald his coming? No! Although this divine event illumined the heavens with the glory of God and was announced by a host of angels, proclaiming peace and good will toward men, yet the world went its ignorant way, blind to the spiritual marvel taking place in its midst. Not obscurity and modesty, but ostentation and display attract the world's attention and mark its events. Those in charge of the inn had given hospitality to others, so that there was no place for Mary and Joseph; but had the situation been understood, would policy and self interest have thus lost the opportunity to house the one who was to become the greatest man on earth? No! But, even so, the materiality and blindness of human nature could not have received the Christ-idea. As long as thought is filled with beliefs of class distinction, place, and power, there is no room in it for the idea of divine perfection.
Through Christian Science it is learned that the divine nature or essence of which Christ Jesus was the representative in the flesh, is ever present to be loved and understood to-day as of old. This spiritual truth was born in the present age in the consciousness of Mary Baker Eddy, who perceived the Christ-idea, and brought forth her revelation, naming it Christian Science. Hers was a life so illumined with love for God and man, so natively obedient to divine law, that her pure humility became as a manger in which to cradle spiritual understanding, the consciousness through which the Science of being could be perceived and given to the world.
