C. J. ROBINSON was born at Fremantle, in Western Australia, where he joined the church in 1919. In 1926 he entered the College of the Bible, at Glen Iris, Victoria. Over the years he has served the churches at Hartwell, Red Cliffs, St. Arnaud, Middle Park, Preston, and Bendigo. Moving to Western Australia he ministered at Bassendean and Claremont. At the present time he is minister of the Margaret Street church, in Launceston, Tasmania. During the war, Mr. Robinson served as a Chaplain for three years, being posted both in Australia and the Pacific.

      In this country, there has been, in recent years, an urgent plea from the Christian Churches for a more Christ-honouring celebration of the Christmas festival. In various ways the public has been invited to give consideration to an observance of the season that does honour to the One whose birth is celebrated. The executives of business houses have been approached with a view to eliminating the orgies with which the holiday season so often begins. The manufacturers of Christmas Greeting Cards, seem to have co-operated to some extent by producing cards with a greater religious appeal, and an emphasis on the Nativity rather than on the wish that all may be merry. The slogan of the day is: Put Christ Back Into Christmas!

      All such efforts to Christianise Christmas are laudable, so long as the joyfulness of the season is not lost in too much bemoaning of the fact that Christ is left out of the feast that is supposed to be in His honour. It would be quite easy for Christians to become Puritanical in demanding a sanctity far beyond that which befits the occasion, and in this regard, it is most interesting to read the story of the development of our Christmas.

      Christmas is the one feast of the year which has the unifying quality implicit in the message of the angels at the first Christmas, and it is the one feast of the civilised world which is kept by people of many faiths and by people of no faith in particular. Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and many others keep the feast without any regard to, or consciousness of its original significance. It is universal because it releases, even if only for a few days in each year, feelings that self-interest cause to repress for the rest of the year.

      At Christmas-time old Scrooge becomes benevolent to the point of extravagance. Political and religious prejudices are shut away and grown-ups become inspired with the wisdom of children and of fools.

      It comes as a great surprise to many of us, to find that the Christian Church did not institute this festival in honour of her Saviour. The Church merely gave a new significance to an ancient pagan festival. There is evidence in the Catacombs, those ancient burial places, that the early Christians often celebrated the season of Christ's birth in a manner not very different from the pagans around them, though they were warned from time to time to keep the feast after "an Heavenly and not an earthly manner." It was not, as far as we know, until the year 533 A.D. that the custom of reckoning dates from the birth of Christ came into use. Before that time, dates in the West were reckoned from the beginning of the Roman Empire, or 753 B.C. in our reckoning.

      It was Dionysius, a Russian monk who first began to reckon dates from the birth of Christ, and it has not yet been proved, on what day Christ was really born.

      Luke's, gospel tells us that the birth of Jesus took place: "in the days of Herod the king." Now, Herod died in the year 750 A.U.C. of the Roman calendar, so that

      Christ must have been born before that date, which would have been at least three years before 1 A.D.

      There is every reason to believe that 25th December was chosen as the date of Christ's birth as a matter of convenience. It was the date upon which the pagan world celebrated a series of feasts in connection with the winter solstice. In the middle of this period of gaiety, a day was set aside for reverence of the conquering sun, which, after its total disappearance beneath the dark horizon, was rescued from oblivion. The day of the birth of the Unconquered Sun corresponds to December 25th in our calendar, and it provided the original excuse for the celebration of the birth of our Lord.

      This day, too, was the greatest feast day of Mithraism, which, at one stage, was a serious rival to the Christian faith, but although Christianity triumphed over Mithraism, the reverence with which the devotees of the latter held the 25th December was an added reason for the Church's decision to commemorate the birth of her Lord on that day.

      The early Church fathers gave various dates for the birth of Jesus. Such as January, April and May have been suggested, and, for astronomical and scientific reasons, modern scholarship is inclined to accept the period of May 16-17 in the year 8 B.C.

      It was, in all probability, a bishop of Rome named Julius I, who fixed the date for the Christian Church as December 25th.

      Be that as it may, correctly or incorrectly, the date has been fixed for good and all, and even if scholars could prove beyond a shadow of doubt that Christ was born on some other day, the world, Christian and un-Christian, would still keep the present date.

      Whatever may have been the original, Christmas is surely Christ's festival to us, and although the Church never succeeded in thoroughly purging it from pagan practices, it has at least succeeded in making it a feast in which even pagans may join with joyous sincerity. As Michael Harrison says in "The Story of Christmas", ". . . the modern Christmas, in which believer and unbeliever may join in feasting, is one of the triumphs of tolerance born of human understanding, matured over centuries of trial and error. Christmas is a feast not only of man's redemption, but of man himself."

      Our English Christmas has passed through many vicissitudes. We are well aware that there was Christianity of a non-Roman brand in England long before Augustine reluctantly and tremblingly set foot upon English soil and set out forthwith to make the best of what there was. In fact, the Roman missionaries accommodated themselves to Anglo-Saxon practices, that in turn, had been introduced into England from Europe. From the Teutons, for example, came the Yulelog, and once again the Christian Church adapted itself to pagan custom.

      Through successive reigns to the time of the Puritans, Christmas was spent in various forms of buffoonery, jousting and feasting; and kings spent lavishly on Christmas festivities.

      Henry III, whose very close alliance with the Holy See was the

occasion of much unrest, leading to the formation of Parliament, celebrated the marriage of his daughter Margaret on Christmas Day in the year 1252, with refreshments that cost the Archbishop of York £2,700--a princely sum for those days. Twenty years later the same monarch ordered all the shops in London to close for fifteen days while he indulged his fancy in Christmas frivolities. When the shopkeepers protested, Henry allowed them to open oil condition that they made him a present of £2,000.

      The practice of "dressing up" at the pagan winter festivals seems to have survived at least until the days of Edward III, despite the change over to Christianity, and the denunciations of the Church. But none shocked the mediaeval world of his time more than did Richard II of Shakespearean fame. The sumptuous scale of Richard's feasts put all previous efforts to shame, and the extravagance of his pageantry caused the Church to counter his shows with religious plays.

      By contrast, Henry V who depended on the Church to keep him on his throne, attacked the enemies of Holy Church with a ruthlessness not equalled even by Russia during the Revolution. He chose Christmas in the year 1414, as the appropriate time to round up the followers of John Wyclif, the Lollards, and to burn them at the stake for no other reason than that they had suggested that the Church might give more time to teaching Christianity than to accumulating wealth. Four years later, on Christmas Day 1418, the Lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle, immortalised in "Falstaff", was tortured and burnt while Henry was at war in France.

      The 15th century seems to have given pride of place to an individual who was known as the Abbott of Misrule or the Lord of Misrule, a gentleman of doubtful reputation

who held sway for the twelve days of Christmas, and whose chief duty seems to have been to upset law and order. He turned everything topsy-turvy in the interests of ribaldry and buffoonery. There is a survival of this practice in the modern custom of the Crossing the Line celebrations, when Father Neptune holds sway at the Equator,

      As we grow older, and our children leave the nest to make nests of their own, Christmas loses something, of its charm for us, but it seems incredible that anyone could be a hater of Christmas.

      Some of us may become a little cynical at times about the practice of exchanging Christmas greetings, especially when the toll of cards received and to be acknowledged turns the century, and looks like going on to a second century before long. But all this is a far cry from being a hater of Christmas. Yet there were some who hated this season, and we pause to speak of them.

      The Puritans had some admirable, qualities; but the sheer joy of Christian living was not one of them. Merry England was a very dull place in the 17th century when, in 1644, an act of Parliament made the keeping of Christmas illegal. Blood was shed in defence of the right to boil the Christmas pudding, and to kiss beneath the mistletoe.

      On Christmas Eve 1652, so we are told, the House of Commons was "presented with a terrible remonstrance against Christmas Day, grounded upon Divine Scriptures . . ."

      But one cannot repress the joy of human nature by acts of Parliament, and the world in general is most grateful to Charles II, who, for all his flippancy and prodigality restored the spirit of Christmas. The world is grateful too for that other Charles whose immortal Scrooge took away the gloom and miserliness with which some would invest the season.

      It is a little over a century since the first Christmas cards made their appearance about a thousand of them; but printing houses have not been slow to assess the commercial value of this form of Christmas greeting.

      Many attempts have been made to stop the commercialising of this and other feast days of the Christian Church. It is sometimes asserted that the money spent on Christmas Greeting cards, might, be better used for a more enlightened and Christian purpose, such as missions. It is doubtful, however, whether the removal of this or any other social custom of the Christmas season can be justified on economic or spiritual grounds. It is not difficult to believe that God could be satisfied with this prodigality in honour of His Son. During the year, Christian people spend themselves and their substance in His service, and it is surely legitimate to indulge in a little generosity that gives us personal pleasure, and engenders that spirit of goodwill which the Babe of Bethlehem came to bring. One remembers a saying of the Lord: "the poor ye have always with you." It may be said also that even the tinsel and the use of the printer's ink, creates employment.

      Santa Claus or Father Christmas, for all his mythical origin from St. Nicholas of Myra in the 4th century, has established his place as the personification of all that is paternal, and as the guardian of children's rights and pleasures. It is unfortunate, that business houses have made confusion worse confounded with the multiplicity of Santas they have created to appear months before the season to receive the children's orders for Christmas Day. Parents have to be very wide-awake today to be able to explain away the startling appearance of so many Santas at one and the same time in so many different places, and it is a great pity that good old Santa is not left to his place in the family chimney. Yet, who can imagine Christmas without Santa Claus? He excites the imagination, and stirs the sense of wonder that in every age makes man a religious being.

      The capacity to Wonder, has been called our most pregnant human faculty; for out of it is born our art, our science and our religion.

      That which makes Christmas eternally fresh to the Christian is the wonder and mystery aroused by the story of Bethlehem's manger.

      The babe in his cradle has stirred the imagination of the artist in every field of art. Indeed it would be very difficult to name an artist of any note why has not, at some time or other, dabbled in the theme of the Madonna and Child.

      (a) Portrayed in painting and sculpture.

      Some of the noblest statues; some of the most exquisite carvings in ivory and wood; some of the most beautiful of musical compositions have been on the theme of the Babe of Bethlehem.

      In this theme the early Church was presented with a subject peculiarly suited to the scope of art. Even if the mother and child were purely human, there is enough appeal and beauty to hand, but when the subject is the Divine Son of God and His earthly mother, there is subject enough for any artist to do his utmost to portray the fruit of consummated love, the beauty of motherhood and the love of God.

      The Italian Renaissance brought forth the world's most outstanding artists; for who has not heard of

Leonardo da Vinci, or of Michelangelo, or of Bellini and of Raphael? All of these, and many more have contributed to the theme of Christmas, and although some of us may wonder and marvel at the many weird and wonderful concepts of babes and madonnas they have presented, they gave of their best to enhance the world's conception of God's incarnation in Christ.

      Van Loon refers to this age of art as "The Italian Picture Factory" and says of Michael Angelo that, "obliged to paint pictures when he really wants to be carving statues, he has given full vent to his disappointment and fury by covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with a mixed collection of ancient heroes and sages. There they are. sitting high above the heads of the pious, brooding over their own pagan thoughts as if they were in some heathenish temple instead of the House of God."

      What may well be called the most famous canvas in the world is Raphael's "Sistine Madonna." When it was sold to the king of Saxony, the Dresden connoisseurs complained that the child on its mother's arm had a very "common" look. Perhaps others would agree, but the fact remains that the world's best artists gave themselves to the task of capturing the theme of the Nativity.

      Hugh L. Burleson sums it up in these lines--

      (b) In the field of music.

      It is in the field of music that art excels and the Christmas theme reaches its highest exaltation.

      Music, it is said, is the natural speech of a wondering faith, and Christianity is the religion of spiritual song; for it not only inherited the music of the Hebrew psalms, but it was born to the strains of the Celestial anthem: "Glory to God in the Highest."

      Very early in her history, the Christian Church produced poets and hymn writers who were able, to capture and set forth the emotions called up by the story of the manger of Bethlehem. The "Gloria in Excelsis", or Angel's Hymn may well be called the first carol of Christendom; for as early as the first century the custom of singing the Angel's hymn and other hymns was in vogue, and developed through succeeding centuries.

      One of the earliest Latin hymns, and one of the few that have come down to us from that father of church-song, Ambrose of Milan, speaks of the redemption that was wrought through the Incarnation. But there was nothing of the pathos of Bethlehem until the 13th century, when Jacopone da Todi, a passionate, wandering mystic, gave to the world the first of a cycle of cradle songs that was to issue in the great Christmas oratorio of Bach. Jacopone wrote:--

      The carol, was one of the earliest forms of Christian music, and grew out of a desire for a freer expression of praise to God in the common language of the people. At first it was a festal hymn designed for special occasions, but it came to be confined to traditional song in honour of the birth of Christ.

      Martin Luther did much to give music to the common people because he was sensible of Paul's statement about "teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."

      The music of the mediaeval period was rather tainted with references to the Virgin Mary; so Luther set himself the task of providing worshippers with the best in popular music--"so that the Word of God may dwell among the people by means of song also." And what more beautiful hymn is there of the Christmas theme than Luther's "Away in a Manger"? Roman Catholic singers fool no one when they ascribe this hymn to Luther Martin.

      The great carol period of England was the first half of the 16th century, but the Puritans suppressed them as being "sensuous", and, as we have already noted, the gloom as banished by Charles II.

      To the mediaeval scholar and translator, Rev. John Neale, we owe some of our popular Christmas music, including: "Good King Wenceslas" and "Good Christian Men Rejoice."

      It is, however, to the 18th century that we look for the production of our most popular Christmas hymns. These include Nahum Tate's "While Shepherds Watched", John Byrom's "Christian Awake'" and Wesley's "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

      Reference to the artist and the manger would not be complete without a word on Handel's "Messiah." While this monumental masterpiece surveys the whole of our Lord's work in redemption, much of its beauty is focused on the Bethlehem scene, and in all probability, it is for this reason that "Messiah" is most often rendered during the Christmas season.

      To Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the greatest composers of history and the father of modern church music, we owe the exquisitely beautiful "Christmas Oratorio."

      So the ages witness to the influence of the Christmas theme on artists in every field; and to the influence on the peoples of the world of this, the greatest of all festive seasons.

      Lloyd Douglas, author of "The Robe", "The Big Fisherman", and many other admirable novels, once wrote an article for a religious magazine issued to chaplains during the war. He entitled the article "Stable Thinking at Christmas", and perhaps the best part of the article was the title. He pleads for a more joyous Christmas, and says, " . . . Every Christmas, certain dismayed prophets preach depressing sermons on the theme of no room for Christ. They do not pause to bother with the implications of an event at once stirring and uniquely tender--a courier star shedding mysterious light upon a stable. They invite us to stop the carols, wipe off the smile, and contemplate an age-old injustice, to wit. There was and is no room for Jesus. Everybody else gets an invitation to the festivities--everybody but Jesus. The inn is noisy with joy. There is room for the Yulelog; room for the lighted tree; . . . room for Santa Claus and his giftpack; but, they lament, there is never any room for Jesus. If there is an atom of truth in all this, we may as well give it all up."

      Lloyd Douglas goes on then to show how much the children and the poor benefit from Christmas, and how much room he gets in many hearts at this season.

      A correspondent who took Douglas to task, said that his choice of the word "atom" was about the most appropriate he could have used in view of the threats of atoms

that bid fair to destroy mankind and the peace which the Babe of Bethlehem came to bring.

      Can anyone deny that Jesus was unwelcome, not only at His birth but when they hounded Him to the Cross? It may be true that Joseph made no reservation at the Inn of Bethlehem, and that the people were not aware of who was being born in their town that night, but does that excuse people who in their revelry and moneymaking fail to find room for Him who came cradled in a manger?

      A little band brought gifts to Him then, and larger bands bring gifts to Him now, but in the larger part of the world today there are millions of children who suffer need, and as many poverty-stricken adults. There are still Herods who are ready to make the rivers run with the blood of the innocent. It is still true there is no room for Him in His own world; yet Lloyd. Douglas is right in saying that, if the Christmas season were left to some Christians it would be a very gloomy season indeed; for the Puritans are still with us.

      Let Christian people give all honour to Christ at Christmas. Let them inspire others with the purity of their joys, and they will do more to put Christ back into Christmas than by any attempt to curtail the revelry and happiness this season so naturally brings to the peoples of the world--Christian and non-Christian.