Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), Wednesday 24 December 1930, page 2


Christmas. x-X Christmas is again upon us. In the universe of the spirit, is not every day a Christmas Day if we like to make it so ? We have enough crucifixions during the year to bring Good Friday every week, and there are many days of temptation in the wilderness, far m6re than the traditional forty. Then are we wrong to *consider Christmas as a state of consciousness ? 'Shall we not endure our vigils and temptations the more easily if we realise that Christmas Day can be created by the will ? All the spiritual content of Christmas-its overflowing.bounty of goodwill and. happiness--await the creative vision, every day in the year. Nothing exists'for us'saveas we create it in' our minds-no blade of grass, no human being, no god, no universe save as the sovereign power of the will brings it:intb manifestation in our mental and imaginative world. Everything awaits our creation, even Christmas Day. Christniais cheer, carols and chimes, Christmas trees and holly arid presents--whit, are these but the symbols of an experience which everyone may create for himself ? Are they not the symbols of that "peace on earth, goodwill toward men" which floods the earth at Christmas time, but meets frustration throughout .the year ? Yet to will and work creatively for peace and goodwill is to; produce Christmas ev,ery day, and to raise'and maintain the individual at the Christmas level',of joy and inspiration all th;eyear round. The Virgin Birth. SIn a deep religius sense- Christnmas celebrates inot only the birth of the sun, and the birth of the Christ, but. also the mystic birth in the heart of. man. The same solar symbolism appears in every faith. Because man is fundamentally one with nature, and shares her hidden life, he is.a universe in miniature, and what*affects the outer universe has its microscopic comuiterpart in the soul of the'lindividual. The sun's emergence inthe sign of Virgo is the cosmic archetype of the virgin birth of the Christ, and that again typifies the birth of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In the tongue of spiritual understanding Browning says : "When man. aspires God stoops to raise him, and themystic Christ is born." Each symbol prefigures the triumnh of .light over darkness, not oilly once, but endlessly and perpetually, in the long evolution of the soul integrating itself in the long evolution of the cosmos., Outpouring of.Goodwill. - With the approach of Christmias comes a tremendous outpouring of goodwill from the-heavens, a spiritual power which descends like a flood of blessing upon the .world. Occultists have glimpsed vast hosts of the angelic hierarchy preparing for'-weeks in advance the ceremonies which culminate in the festival of prais, and adoration to the Christ--their wonderful Counsellor, their Prince' of Peace-and as their joy deepeils, so also joy increases in' the earth, and men's' hearts are touched and eox panded towards one another. ,Myrinds of men are conscious of the unifying influence of the Christmas celebration, and their hearts' glow prompts the gifts which we all bestow at this woondrous season.' Because the world's ecoiomnic conditions are pchnonmeially depressed and the world'sd purse is strained is. all the more: re son why our gifts should be lavished: on those who are in distress.:l *'Their heed is greater than ours or thiatof' our friends. .' It ivill; bo a lapplier: Christmas for us as' we reniember. those less fortunately" placed, those who tire out of work, those who 'dre sick and huingry,' and their name.;is, legion. Our Brothers tlie Animals:.' Alndl while we think of-ourfellowis in- the human kingdom, lot us:not fbrcet our duty to the lower ord&rs. How ninny millions of creatures inhlie animal kingdom are impiously massacred to' provide us with succulent Chrsistmas dinneor ?- And oihl this day of all ilays in the year, an anomaly ex;. sts that' the sslaughter- is greatest; ,vhen the tide :of goodwill is at its highest; ' .World days for animalsiý should reach their apuiotheosis at :hristmas, when : our s6lfishness is 1 least evident, except to the kingdom-;; e.e prostitute to our' own self-satis-i

faction. The universal fatherhood of God embraces our Younger breth. ren of. the animal world, since all life is one, and we owethem kindlinss and respect rather than the ago- s and tortures which we now i.ict gonis on them. If humanit' wer? a little less selfish Christmas would be folir ll life less of a time of stress tham ii is it present, anti the merriment ti make would send rays of li,,h*t w" into their darkness instead ofpt own sifyinlg it as Ie mostly do nofw n nerry Christmas which brou ,h A Iiness to our neighbors and gotdaill and blessing to our animal friends would nmake the angels in heavci, . joicc, and, who knows, the Cl Himself, for these are all Ils Clies. tures, and "inasmuch as ye h?ve ',"ar it unto one'of the least of tese f t ne brethren, ye have done it untoi e , A Christman Truce. Let there be a truce to, cruelty, to hatred, to industrial confict to ,rty bickerings, and let the tide' t odarty will which rises at Christma god. out the accumulated animos?ic we ae illwill of the past.twelve months, lndN give Australia a cl.ean sntht atne New Year, with a supernbu at ofthe goodlwill in hand. Goodwill in fof damental to our national hl fi and a high tide ot.... .l " h ipei , i hsi•h tide of peace and goo]wil this Christmas will help to -eei thie whole nation happy during the conm ing year. coa