AT the beginning of his public ministry Jesus was confronted with the problem of presenting his understanding of the realm of heavenly harmony to a people who had lost their political independence, and who were intensely anxious to regain it. They entertained a localized and circumscribed concept of this kingdom. They believed that it must be situated in Palestine and governed from the city of David by a descendant who should sit upon the throne of David. Freedom from the galling Roman yoke was what they demanded from their Messiah. To a great extent they had lost the vision of their prophets, some of whom had scaled celestial heights and perceived that God was the loving Father of all men, and that His kingdom was a universal and wholly spiritual one, not restricted to the Jewish kingdom of Israel. Isaiah, prophesying some seven hundred years before the time of the Master, "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places," and, "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters," must have envisioned both the spiritual realm of harmony within each individual consciousness and also universal salvation.
Jesus was called upon to deliver his message to a people who also wanted to be reëstablished in material pomp and splendor, but whose need it was to be reminded that their real past glory was in spiritual ascendancy above a dark background of pagan lust and cruelty.
In her poem "Christ and Christmas" the prophet of heavenly harmony in our day, Mary Baker Eddy, has pictured the star of Bethlehem poetically in these words:
