Waiapu Church Gazette. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1911. Christmas.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume II, Issue 6, 1 December 1911, Page 98

Waiapu Church Gazette. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1911. Christmas.

A. W. WaiAPU.

My dear People, The near approach of the joyous Festival of Christmas moves me to write a few words m which to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and to express the hope that you will all endeavour to keep the birthday of the Lord Jesus as a day of holy joy and gladness, and remember thajt it is only a holiday because it is a Holy Day. First and foremost it is a day on which we should all make a real effort to join m the Great Eucharistic or Thanksgiving service, the Holy Communion. The more we realise what Christianity has done for the world, and is doing for: the world, the more shall we realise that we must be m our Father's House on Christmas morning to offer up our praises and thanksgivings to the Great Father of all, Who "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Truly may we say of Christmas Day, "This

is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad m it." We dare not think what the world would be, what" our own lives would be without the Christmas message, without the unveiling of the Father's love, without the touch"" of the Divine Life, without the exaltation of human nature, without the inspiration of hope which the Incarnation has brought into the world ; and yet how prone we are to forget, and to join with the thoughtless crowd who can only see m the love and suffering of God an occasion for a worldly holiday. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" A writer of the day says : "It is a terrible thing to have outlived Christ, and to have made Bethlehem, Gethsemene and Golgotha historic names or mere spectral shadows." Should not our sense of gratitude for the blessings of Christianity stir up our hearts and wills to range ourselves on the side of those who are striving to rescue the annual commemoration of the Saviour's Nativity from secularisation and neglect ? Think over the words of the Bishop of Oxford: "There once appeared on our earth, going about doing good, 'bearing men's sicknesses and carrying their infirmities, One, Jesus of Nazareth, true man m all that makes up human nature, Whom those nearest to Him gradually discovered, by the authority of His works, by the miracles of His love and judgment, and by His victory over death, to be the Eternal Son of God. v They— His first disciples — came to believe m His Godhead through their experience of His manhood ; and coming so to believe, they handed on their faith as an inheritance to the Christian Church, an m heritance which the record of the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazarath, and the perpetual experience of His power m those who believe, has made continually more creditable. We of the Christian Church believe, then, that the Eternal Son or Word of God, Himself Very God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was made very man by taking Flesh of the Virgin Mary, and appeared on earth as Jesus

of Nazareth, to live and work and suffer and die and rise again from the dead, and ascend up to the Father's right hand, where He was before. The Incarnation is both the disclosure of God and the disclosure of our true manhood, and the fresh start for sinful humanity." "The Incarnation," says C. H. Robinson, m his " Studies oh the Character of Christ," "is the Gospel of hope, and not merely or chiefly for the individual but for the race." "We alone," said Bishop Westcott, "who believe that 'the Word became Flesh,' can keep hope fresh m the face of the sorrows of the world, for we alone know that evil is intrusive and remediable, we alone know that the victory over the world has been won, and that our part is to gather with patience the fruits of the victory." The Incarnation has not only introduced into human life a new principle, a hew motive, a new power, but it has given to mankind a permanent endowment m the Sacramental life of the Church. The Incarnate Christ ascended and glorified is present by His Spirit now and always, and the Life, the Strength, the Joy and the Hope of those who are living m union with Him. The Incarnation has for ever raised and honoured the status of woman and has cast a halo of glory upon childhood and motherhood, and rightly do we associate with the Christmas Festival the pure and innocent joys of child and family life, If God, to Whom all things are possible, chose to manifest Himself through the instrumentality of a Virgin, m a manner transcending the known laws of nature, who are we that we should dare to limit God's power to say that the Ruler and Director of all things m Heaven and m Earth is constrained to act through and by means of His ordinary methods of action which we call the laws of nature ? Of what value is private judgment m such a matter compared with, the universal witness of the Church for nineteen centuries? "The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Spiritual

things are spiritually discerned." " Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary," is the witness of the Bible and the Universal Church. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give to you a humble and believing heart, a sanctified and reverent intellect, a pure and holy vision, and a simple faith which stumbles not at mysteries but is contented to wait until the shadows pass and fulness of Truth is manifested, and then you will enter into the holy joy of Christmas and adore the highest manifestation of the Eternal God m Jesus Christ our Lord. May the Infant Jesus speak to you of the love and self-sacrifice of the true God and Father of all, and bring you m love and gratitude to worship Him m His own appointed Service ! May Christmas still bring its message of peace to men and women of good- will ! Believe me, your sincere Friend and Bishop,