CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT
EEEEEEE Christmas Messages SSDRESSERTS
"A HAPPY CHRISTMAS” -
by
Ber. Father George Byrne, SJ.
HOOSING CHRISTMAS CARDS
-but appropriate ones-is a December occupation. I was think- ing of it the other day and I berran to linger over the word "appropri- "ate."
Appropriate to what? Eri- dently it should be appropriate to Christmas. We may, and we do, wish people happiness, prosperity, or any of the gifts that go to brighten life on their birthday or on any other day of the year, but on this day we wish them a “Happy Christmas." There is a depth of mtaning in the word Christmas: is there not a danger that, in these our days, when we move so much on the sba lows, we may forget- we may even lose the power to sound the depinx?
In an old diary of a Naval Chap lain, one Heary Teenge, is the en- try: "At Sea, 1575.
keepe thus at ten we go to prayers and semon; text, Zace. IX 9." The text expounded to the Naval men that morning was “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy. O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt _the_foal_of_an_253."
Cristmas Day, we?!
WAT ET No war,
sick may think was a good one.
The first Christmas morning the world was very sick. No doubt there was peace, the great Auras-
of tan peace. The war temple “Jamuis was closed. To measure-peace there was no other standard except We who are war- that the standard But is it? Do we not know only too well that the doors of the war temple fly open at the pressing of a button. They close only when men of good will all combine to close them. In the days of the Augustan peace bow many men of good will were to be found? The yoke of slavery press- ed-heavily on umanmbered masses. Their cry of distress went up to show that there could be no abid ing peace in the hearts of men, who knew not love, for they knew not sympathy. No! The world of ap parent peace was broken. It was sick unto death. It needed a phy- sician. It was "seated in darkness" It needed above all things Light.
Light came at Christmas. Be- fare the Light came a heavenly song: the song of Angels. Not all heard the song. Shepherds heard it. They followed the Angel lead, and they found what the world
They found love. Thegrat found the Mother and the Child They understood the meaning of the song "Glory to God in the high- est and on earth peace to men of good will" The beautiful Gospel narrative tells us that "they “un- derstood of the word": but the others wondered. There werp sceptics in those days, as there are sceptics in ours. And the sceptic seems to prefer the dim rays of uncertainty to the penetrating rays of light, above all of Heavenly Light: "and the light shined in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”
There *were the philosophers... Athens and Rome had brilliant schools. Yet they had no message.. As of old Baltasar summoned his wise men to read the fatal writing on the wall "then came all the King's wise men, but they could ́ neither read the writing nor decizie the interpretation to the King." "They were agiostics in the an thing that mattered: they could not explain the riddle of life, for their own lives were frittered away in idle speculations: they were sowing the seeds of war in the fields opposing speculations
of
On the Court of another King the message of Light suddenly shone. This time his wise men were able: to interpret the message. Yes! It thoa was written in the book: Bethlehem the land of Juda ært not the least among the princes Jade: for out of thee shall come Continued on Page 29)
IT HAPPENED”
BY THE RT. REV. R. O. HALL,
Bishop Of Hong Kong
THRISTMAS is real. A babe was
born at Benthiehem. He lived Ee died He came back on Eister Day a living Spirit to lead menta
victory.
Christmas is real or it is nothing. If Christmas is not real, if Bethle- hem is not true but one more tale of men's desiring, there is no God
If Christmas is not true there is no God So men are free, frce to make the world they will or can. If there is no God the world is ours and we can mould it to our choosing. If there is no God thea there is no Christmas, no babe at Bethlehem, no hope for Scrooge or Little Tim. If Christmas is not tune there is no God and men' are free to make the world they will or
But to take Christmas from
-
Can.
the world is to make it worse than it is now.
Our fathers in their youth. were- mesmerized by science. Iške a child. with a new toy they could think of nothing else. Everything,
Jays science, can be explained. Christ- mas and all Christmas means can be explained in diagrams and mum- bers and strange assorted letters. Christmas can be weighed in the balance and found romantic, amus- ing, a pleasant pastime but unreal. Our generation is more fortunate. Science, faithful w is true spirit of humility, says now she is not so sura. There is more than measur- ing, counting, weighing, analysing. tabulating.
So Christmas stands ·
(Continued on Page 29)
The Three Kings
O'ER the hill and o'er the vele,
Come three kings together, Caring not for snow and
hail,
Cold and wi i and weather,
Now on Parsid's sandy plains, Now where Tigris swells with
TAIRE,
They their camels tethers Now through Syrian lands they
20,
Now through Moab, faint and
slow.
-Now o'er Edom's heather
O'er the hill and o'er the vale, Each king bears a present; Wise Men go`a Child to hii,
Monarchs seek a Peasant; : And a star in front proceeds,
"Over rocks and rivers leade, Shines with beams incessant;
Therefore
onward
still!
onward,
Ford the stream and climb thi.
kill;
Love makes all things pleasant.
JM. NEALE
THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS
by
REV. J. R. HIGGS,
Vicar of St. Andrew's Church
ONCE agait Christmas will soon
be here and we shall young and old, rich and pour. endeavour to have a merry, time. The belly and mistletoe will be put up (if we can get any), the shops will be deseiged with buyers and rightseers, every one will be sending Christmas cards and wishing as a Happy Christmas,” the children will be wondering what they will have în their “Christmas stockings" and most people will be sending and receiv- ing presents..
ordinary hundrum life will have a magic __touch_about it, and we shall all be temporarily mad (or perhaps tem porarily sane, according to our point of view). For a few days at the end of each year we are all transported to another world—a world of make-believe and happy. light-hearted gaiety.
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There is a Danish fable which tells how a spider once slid down ΟΣ single thread of web from the lofty afters of a barn ́ ́and made his home on a lower level There he caught many flies, grew sleek and prospered. One day be noticed the single thread that stretched up to the Unseen above him "What is that for?" he said, and snapped it, and all his web collapsed The tragedy of Chris tendom to-day is that it accepts the good things that" Christianity has given it, but forgets their source and refuses to acknowledge the Giver. Whatever is good to- day in Westem civilisation is due to the Spirit of Christ working in the hearts of men... These “good”. things include
Festivals. Unfortunately it is necessary to- reminā people that Christmas is a Christian Festival. It is our Christian Birthday Party. Our gladness, gaiety, festivities, greetings, presents and merriment should not be dne primarily to our own desire for those things, but because we are happy about Jesus: Christ-about His birthday, Strictly speaking, no one has–A. right to join in the Christmas fes- tivities who is not a Christian. It is merely "gate-crashing.” It is like coming to a party to which you have not been invited. ́ ́ Chris- tian people are happy and gay at Christmas because, and only be- cause, it is the birthday of Jesus the event to which all history pointed and to which all history. will look back
day
But I have no desire at this happy season to divide the world into the sheep and the goris.” Why cannot we all try to make our Christmas z religious one this year to put Christ first on His -birthday- Many people have no ides of the joy they are missing by refusing to give life a Caris- Mistakenly tian interpretation
they look on religion as rather dull and uninteresting, forgetting that Christianity has given us the most joyous festivals of the Jess Christinax. Easter, Whitsun and There could not be anything very dull and gloomy about a religion that gave us Christmas!
It has been said that “every, man is an idealist imprisoned in a materialist." "Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief" is another way of expressing it. No man really irreligiouzz. we are all at. various stages of becoming-reli- gions. There is the "divine spark” within us all. As the joy of ani Blooding other Christmas comes into our hearts reminding us of the most beautiful story in the world-of God's Sort Who came to earth as a little baby to bring. -fresh-hope and lore and peace and joy to a cynical and strive-ridden world, why cannot we determine to Ict the dealinf” in un control our lives and live throughout the year for those values we recognize and Christmas enjoy at this sacred senson? When our Hyer becom "shot through with "happy" and (Continued on Page 29)