P. E. THOMAS, B.A., was trained in America, and is now minister of Lane Cove Church of Christ. Prior ministries have been at Taree and Hamilton, as well as very long terms at Belmore and Marrickville. He also served as Conference President in N.S.W.

      "Everybody quiet, please, while our minister explains the significance of Christmas." The speaker was an old man, seated at the top of the table as the Head of the House. The occasion was a family reunion, when his children and their children were gathered in the old home in the Middle-West of the United States to share and enjoy Christmas together. Because the preacher's home was "down-under", on the other side of the world, and obviously out of bounds for him in his very limited Christmas vacation, he had been graciously included in this family circle and asked to share the day.

      The morning had been a particularly happy one for the family, because normally they were separated by long distances, and the "get-together" made for good fellowship. They had shared the family Christmas Tree, and the sumptuous meal. As then they sat relaxed and chatting, the old man, with beaming face, arose from his seat and called for the silence already mentioned. When the noise gave place to stillness, he turned to me and softly said, "Pastor, please tell us something of the deeper things of Christmas."

      How greatly I appreciated that spiritual touch! What a joy it was to be invited to remind the older ones and to explain to the younger ones in the company, that the very heart of Christmas is God; that it all began with Him, Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son--to become our Saviour and our Lord.

      We are now at the doorstep of

      Probably most of us, if not all, have already completed plans for spending the season. What we shall do, where we shall go, and how we shall fare are questions

we have faced and answered, mostly according to our choice. But what of the deeper things of Christmas? Have we made adequate, have we made any provision for the recognition of God! Are we acknowledging and praising Him for the gift of His Son--are we responding in a reconsecration of ourselves; to the work of His Kingdom? If shepherds and wise men could go out of their way to pay tribute on that first Christmas morn to a babe born in a manger, surely we should find it in our hearts to pay tribute to the same babe, who lived to become a man, only to die that we might live.

      Peter Marshall argued that

not celebrate it. That was his way of saying that in Christmas there is a spiritual content, and that Christians should not only recognise it, but also see to it that it is given a pre-eminent place, in their thought and conduct at this particular time of the year.

      For so many people--and, unfortunately, included in this group are many Christians--the spiritual in Christmas is

      The "atmosphere" of the season, the fellowship, the feasting, the good cheer and the holidays have become more important. I offer here no criticism of any of these things in themselves, for I am persuaded that in moderation all can be, and mostly are, delightful accompaniments of our Christmas season. For instance

      I have only praise for the man who finds it in his heart to decorate his home for Christmas with streamers and lights, bells and stars, holly and the like, so that his children may have the greater delight. I am by no means averse to seeing "Santa" invade our stores and take notes and orders of wants and wishes from tiny people. I like to see windows and shops full of toys where little children can look with popping eyes at all there is to be seen, and then go home to dream about it all. I like to see these little ones with their unshakeable faith in Santa, bubbling with excitement, showing off what he has left for them on Christmas morning. Perhaps there are some people who feel and say, "Lies and deceit", but at least for me there is thrill in the joy of the times. And for that reason, if for no other, the glamour of Christmas is by no means meaningless. Personally, I have very fragrant memories of one particular Christmas eve, when by force of circumstance I was obliged to walk many weary miles, carrying two bulky parcels, so that in the morning there would be no disappointment for two little people who were my responsibility. My tiredness is long forgotten, but the joy somehow remains.

      I like

      My friends overseas, when they came together in their family circle on the Christmas morning already mentioned, found the nectar of enjoyment in their fellowship one with the other. I often feel that, with the growing habit we are developing here in Australia of spending Christmas out-of-doors, more or less alone, in the car, on the beach or elsewhere, our people are depriving themselves increasingly of much that our fathers and grandfathers found to be so enriching and enjoyable, as they met with relatives and friends in the family groups at home.

      Then

      At this time of the year we are given a number of statutory holidays, and in addition, large sections

of the community take their annual leave. Shops and factories close down; industries cease production. City dwellers seek the country, and country folk the cities. Quiet little villages and vacant reserves become respectively scenes of animation and vast canvas towns. Because holidays are essential to health and happiness, there is no complaint that the wheels of industry slow down and stop, while men recreate and rest from their labours.

      All these enjoyments of Christmas make their contribution to both our individual and national life; but let us remember that, good and helpful as they are,

nor do they make Christmas. They are only accompaniments of Christmas--the effects of one great Cause.

      No one ever mistakes wrappings for the gift itself. He would be a strange person, indeed, who took the paper from a gift parcel, folded it up and put it carefully away and then threw the enclosed present into the waste paper basket or rubbish bin. Yet, in principle, that is what many do at Christmas. They treasure the physical, material or social enjoyment, and take no heed of the basic spiritual. By all means, let us esteem the holidays, enjoy the fellowship and delight in the good cheer; but let us keep a proper perspective that puts things in their rightful place. The recent movement in America, Great Britain and here in Australia to "put Christ into Christmas" is but an effort to get men to evaluate truly between the real and the superficial.

can never be fully assessed, for spiritual values rarely lend themselves to easy tabulation. But we can and do know something of the tremendous impact that Christ made upon the world and history. The Scriptures tell us over and over again that

      In His redemptive work He touched and healed broken men. He cleansed and cured diseased bodies and minds. He gave to those spiritually lost a sense of direction, and renewed faith and hope. Men of His own day, and countless millions of men and women through the centuries, have testified with joy to the Saviour Who saved them from the penalty of their unforgettable past; Who freed them from the slavery of their sinful present; Who took for them all the "less" out of their hopeless future.

      James McGrahan sings:--

      The chorus writer ought to speak for all of us:--

      Coulson Kernahan, in his booklet, "The Child, the Wise Man and the Devil", seeks to show what Christ means to men by painting a word picture of

      He writes, "And as God spoke it seemed to me that He wiped out--as a child wipes an unfinished sum from a slate--all that the great name of Jesus means, and has meant to humanity. For one instant I saw, shining down the dark vista of the ages the supreme

figure of the Divine Man. Below me, as on a midnight plain, that stretched away into infinite darkness, lay the wounded in life's battle--the widowed, the orphaned, the friendless, the sick the halt and sin-bound. And I saw that it was this One Divine and Shining Figure, the very Light of the World, to which all hands were uplifted--upon which every eye was fixed. I saw the Christ look down upon His suffering creatures with eyes from which streamed tears of tender and pitying love; I heard the great and yearning cry which rose to His lips at the sight of their sorrows; I saw Him stretch His arms to them, as a mother stretches her arms to her stricken child--and then the sublime and lonely figure of the Man of Sorrows faded out forever, and upon helpless, hopeless, sin-stained and suffering humanity, darkness and despair descended, like vultures upon its prey. I looked down upon a Christless world, and I saw that though the same sun made glad the morning, the same stars made beautiful the night, the men and women who dwelt thereon, were become haggard, restless and unhappy."

      Only the phantasy of a dream! But if these hard descriptive adjectives, helpless, hopeless, sin-stained, suffering, haggard, restless, unhappy, do not apply to us now individually, it is only because Christ came in to the world as Saviour some two thousand years ago.

is often unappreciated, because we have not known or experienced any world condition other than that which exists in our day; and we accept that without question, just as if it could never have been otherwise. How we arrived at our standard of life, or who helped to make it what it is, seems to concern the great bulk of people very little. But when we go to our history books and learn something of other ages and civilisations we discover that we have made some moral progress over the years. We find such things as slavery, child labour and white slavery, vicious, cruel and inhuman as they were, that once flourished, are now no longer measured in the moral standards of our day. They are generally and specifically banned by the nations of the world. And if they are practised at all, it is surreptitiously underground. The achievement of this higher morality in the world is the direct fruit of the Spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ, through the instrumentality of the Christian church. And the work still goes on.

      The late Albert Einstein, world famous scientist, made this observation:--"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked to the universities to defend it--knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth: but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom: but they like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."

      Doubtless, some would remind us that the moral and spiritual standards of today are not so high, after all; or at least not as high as might be expected after twenty centuries of Christian impact. We would be foolish not to admit that this is so, but the fault is neither with Christ nor His message. If we have allowed our waywardness and

selfishness to impede the work of God, then the blame is fairly on us. Jesus Christ has shown the way and given the lead, and left us to follow. Had we accepted in full His way of life then earth for all of us would have been heaven indeed. Let our failure challenge us to press for a deeper personal loyalty to Him who came as God's Unspeakable Gift.

      He came as God's Gift of LOVE; He brought God's Gift of GOOD PLEASURE.

      "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give to You

      What a gift! Here is the blueprint for happy, helpful, secure and successful living for individuals, societies, nations and the world. Within its framework is the complete answer to every human need. Jesus Himself placed

upon it when He likened it to "treasure hidden in a field", and to "a pearl of great price". Cecil B. de Mille said of the Ten Commandments that these are not separate laws, but "THE LAW." Keep it and blessing comes, break it and disaster follows. Surely this is true of the Kingdom of God. Because it projects the DIVINE WAY OF LIFE it offers to those who accept it consequential gain. Jesus underlined this, when He said to His disciples concerning their physical and material needs, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you." Jesus Himself was the

of His Kingdom. The principles He enunciated He lived. His life was THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IN ACTION.

      His critics could not fault Him.

      His friends bore witness that "He went about doing good."

      His enemies said, "He saved others."

      He Himself prayed about a "finished" work that "glorified" God.

      It was a life, grand and full; a life that remains as copy for us. At Christmas it is good to take the time to measure our stature against this perfect standard.

      E. Stanley Jones raises the question,

      He wrote his book, "under that title," as an answer to the challenge that Christianity is only idealism. He seeks to prove that the Kingdom of God is so real that one cannot escape it. He quotes a prominent doctor as saying that the laws of the Kingdom are written in the tissues of our body, and then to prove the point gives the findings of certain medical men who have made investigations into the relationship of the moral and the physical. In each case these doctors, after exhaustive tests, found that disruptive things such as resentment, anxiety, self centredness, and sense of guilt, left definite adverse marks upon the human body.

      If Stanley Jones is right--and his evidence seems irrefutable--then the Kingdom of God carries the

      If we follow the principles of living as set forth by Jesus we make inestimable gain. Every good local doctor will tell us that purity, temperance and a clear conscience are antibiotic in effect; and that happiness, contentment and love are panaceal in their operation.

      Perhaps, it is cold comfort for those who have wrecked their bodies and broken their resistance by loose living to be told too late that the way of the Kingdom is the way to health. But really it is not too late, for the Kingdom has an answer even for these in repentance and a new life in Christ. It does not promise full restoration, for with diseased organs and atrophied faculties we may not get back all that we have destroyed, but the gain is considerable and worth the effort. And best of all, spiritually there is no limit to the come-back.

the Kingdom of God has everything to offer. Unfortunately, however, it is hardly ever tried socially. It is true that in the day of calamity, gates that are usually closed are thrown wide open, and good flows forth. For instance, when a house is stricken with trouble, neighbours gather around to see what can be done to help. They spare neither money nor effort to bring relief. "I never knew there was so much goodness in the world" is the frequent testimony of those who have been so helped. Similarly, in the day of national disaster, as when a State is inundated by flood waters, or ravished by the flames of a bush fire, purses are widely opened to meet the emergency of the unfortunate. This is all very splendid but why do we have to wait for trouble and disaster before our compassionate emotions are touched? Personal concern for the welfare of others should be a normal everyday attitude. But is it? On the contrary, most of us are too busy with our own self interests to be bothered overmuch. It almost seems at times that we are ready to help a man up when he is down, only to pull him down when he is up, if we can be advantaged by it.

      Some of the things we have read about and see happen around us every day of men seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of others simply couldn't happen if the Kingdom were honoured. Hewlett Johnson, the "Red" Dean of Canterbury, may be regarded by some as an unreliable witness, but if what he says in "The Socialist Sixth of the World" about deliberate waste in the world at the time he wrote is only partially true, it is a damning indictment of the avarice and greed on the part of certain commercial interests. I quote: "Half a million sheep were burnt to cinders in Chile; six million cattle and two million sheep destroyed in the U.S.A. Twenty-six million bags of Brazilian coffee were dumped into the Pacific ocean, and a ship load of Spanish oranges shovelled into the Irish Sea, while the empty vessel steamed into Liverpool on a sweltering August day among children to whom oranges were an unattainable luxury . . .We fling God's gifts back in His face. Fish are shovelled into the sea. Wheat burned. Fruit is left to rot on the trees. Hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton plants ploughed into the land again, Rubber growers bewail improved methods of increasing production; rubber pests are hailed as angels from heaven." (End of quote).

      There is evidence that this same kind of thing persists down through the years and nearer to home. We find in The Sydney Sun the following article, under the heading "Apple Hand-out defies Board." I quote: "Hobart, Saturday. High quality apples that had been dumped in the orchard district of the Huon were distributed free in Hobart today by two members of the Legislative Council. They are Messrs. W. G. Wedd and D. R. Lonergan. Their action was a protest against waste, and was taken in defiance of the Apple and Pear Board. The Board technically owned the apples, having paid the growers for them. So far Mr. Wedd, who organised the distribution, does not know what action--if any--the Board proposes

to take against him. The Board's legal advisers yesterday served notice on a Hobart newspaper, that no advertisement giving the time and place of distribution must be accepted. Wedd and Lonergan overcame that by advertising that they would be at Warwick Street at 10 a.m., but made no mention of apples. The Board's solicitors also warned the transport company, which lent its lorries, that it must not carry the fruit, but the warning was ignored. When the lorries arrived at the place of destination, hundreds of children were waiting with hand trucks, school bags, kit bags and containers of all descriptions."

      Only a few months back a personal friend of mine, a market gardener, when he sent a consignment of lovely beans to the market, received a bill for freight and handling, together with an intimation that his beans had been dumped. Perhaps the late Dr. Norwood of City Temple, London, was right for both then and now, when he said on his last visit to Sydney, "We grow wheat, not to feed hungry people, but to sell."

      Then what can we say of States and governments that thrive upon the moral weaknesses of their people? Who cares if somebody sinks, or a home is broken? What of the big "interests" that chant, as did the chairmen of two Australian combines at their respective annual meetings, "We must keep our sales up by getting more young people to drink to take the place of the old ones dying off", and "We are not responsible for life, only for cloth 36 inches wide."

      It does seem that generally on the social and economic front the principles of the Kingdom of God are getting scant recognition. The consequences are that we have so much disruption, discontent and a bitter class war. It may be trite to say that if the Kingdom of God were more widely accepted and acted upon by the people and their leaders, these social evils and immoral attitudes would be on their way out, but it is nevertheless true.

      Give the Kingdom of God a chance and our social world would be revolutionised. George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "I am no more Christian than Pilate was: and yet like Pilate I greatly prefer Jesus to Annas or Caiaphas: and I am ready to admit that after contemplating the world and human nature for nearly sixty years, I can see no way out of the world's misery but the way which would have been found by Christ's will, if He had undertaken the work of a modern practical statesman. If we were better men we might try His plan." E. F. Scott, an eminent Canadian, adds, "Today as never before Jesus stands out as the moral leader of humanity. The principles which He laid down have been vindicated through the bitter experiences of the last few years, and all opinions are now agreed that the society of the future can be securely built on no other foundation."

      One of our daily newspapers in an editorial makes this comment--"And let there be no mistake about it, the Christian ethic remains the noblest philosophy ever devised for the conduct of human affairs."

      Yes, indeed, if we were better men we might try it.

we live in confused uncertainty and perpetual fear. We have grown utterly weary of reading and hearing about nuclear tests and weapons; and yet the threat remains with us. Every little flare in any part of the world is viewed with anxiety and alarm, lest it should become the touchstone of another world conflict, this time with certain atomic destruction. We may have varied opinions about the wisdom or foolishness of nuclear tests,

about the right or wrong of the manufacture of atomic weapons, but we are all agreed on this, that science has placed in the hands of man a power to destroy, far greater than we ever imagined possible. It may be a great achievement to split the atom, but without a moral power to control the use of it, it is a distinctly dangerous matter.

      If the World is to be Saved at all from the destruction that faces us so imminently, then some authority or power must be found that could and would restrain all unsocial and unethical actions on the part of any individual nation, or group of nations, in the use of nuclear energy. External force, as envisaged and applied by the United Nations, may accomplish much, but external force has its limitations, as we discovered in two world wars, and are still discovering daily. The only kind of force that is really and permanently effective is that which comes from within, self-imposed--the restraint of a good conscience, a sense of honour and right, a love of justice and fair play, and a concern for the good of others.

      If these inner qualities of the Kingdom are manifest in the life of a nation, then that nation may be entrusted with all kinds of power, without any fear or worry on the part of others about its use, for the trust will never be betrayed. But if on the other hand, a people lack these qualities, then all power in their hands, be it mental, industrial, military, or atomic, is and will remain, a menace to world good, security and peace.

      The answer to the tension that exists between East and West today is not in Summit Conferences, or in any session of the United Nations, but in the simple application of the principles of Christ's Kingdom to world affairs. International agreements may be broken and pacts dishonoured, but love and goodwill endure for ever. Where these obtain there is

      Van Dyke well says,

      In the face of all that is possible to us, what lunatics are we to throw back at God His priceless gift of the Kingdom, when by accepting it we could have here and now all that we need individually, socially, economically and internationally, for happy, contented, helpful, purposeful living.

as we come to Christmas, get beneath the surface to sense the DEEPER things of the season and feel their demand upon us. And may God give us grace to find it in our hearts to thank Him for both His Son and His Kingdom, by acclaiming Christ as our Saviour and Lord, and pledging ourselves anew to the spread of The Kingdom here upon earth.