From what is said to be the beginning of time, the thought of mankind has longed for direction by a power greater than itself and has sought it in the phenomena of a material sense of life. How understandable then that Christians everywhere should innately recognize in the occasion of the birth of the babe Jesus the appearing to mankind of the Christ-consciousness. This appearing was the inevitable, though as yet unrealized, end of their outward search. Notwithstanding the lack of comprehension evident in its yearly commemoration, how truly blessed it is that this event of supreme importance should continue to engage the attention and affection of a progressively enlightened Christian world.
The power of the Christ-consciousness, so fully realized by Jesus, has been perceived, proved, and presented to this age as a demonstrable Science. From the way-showing of God's omnipresence, which illumined the night in Bethlehem, has come Christian Science, discovered and established by Mary Baker Eddy, to reveal man's native radiancy and perfection. The Christ, Truth, will continue to dawn on individual consciousness, because the eternal and inherent good, which is Life, must inevitably dispel mental darkness with the light of its irresistible reality. Concerning Christmas, Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 259, 260), "It represents the eternal informing Soul recognized only in harmony, in the beauty and bounty of Life everlasting,—in the truth that is Life, the Life that heals and saves mankind."
The recognition by Jesus of the imperishable harmony and unerring guidance of Spirit inspired Peter to say (II Pet. 1:19), "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." The light of Truth, this daystar which Peter progressively perceived in the works of Jesus and which illumined his own thinking in the measure that he discerned the innate nature of its presence, was the radiance of "the eternal informing Soul."
