CHRISTMAS – 6

     Christian Scientists, on this anniversary of the nativity of our Master, we question thee. Has the light of divine Science gone before you a star in the heavens of Soul till it came and stood over where the young child was, to break the solemn night?  Was it a divine hope, springing exultant on triumphant wing, sovereign o’er sin, the victor over sickness yielding glad fruition, a sublime understanding whose upward tendency told you it was a child of heaven born not of the flesh, but of the Spirit clothed with white winged charity and on the door of heaven and face radiant with goodbye (God be with you)?  Mary Baker Eddy  (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.20)

CHRISTMAS – 5   

     Christian Science, casting out error and healing the sick, teaches that all things are possible to God. Do you believe this and how can you doubt it if you believe the Bible? Like the star of night the gentle presence of Truth comes to us in the darkness, when earth hath half-starved our angel appetites and we are an hungered; and it comes to cheer, to guide and bless — to point to heaven and lead the way.  Mary Baker Eddy (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.20)

CHRISTMAS – 4

     Mary’s conception was the counterpart of God’s creation, of a scientific metaphysical creation, without a single material element, whereby to create, as when Spirit first said, “Let there be light and there was light” and “let us make man.” This great metaphysical fact by which we learn that Mind evolves all outline, form and color, that the universe and man are created spiritually, of the increase of His government there shall be no end. When unto us this child is born, the age lays it again in a manger, binds it in swaddling clothes, nurses it in obscurity and decrees its death, and yet we behold now, as of old, the power of Truth in meekness as in might.  Mary Baker Eddy (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.19)

CHRISTMAS – 3   

     Almost nineteen centuries ago—Science, symbolized by a star, appeared to Zion’s watchmen in the night of that age, a period darkened by the reign of the debauched Herod, and it guided them to the birth of a more spiritual idea, even to the Virgin Mother’s spiritual thought, and true conception of man’s real being, which thought that wonderful Mother made palpable, presented to others, and to their belief it became flesh and dwelt among us in the form of a babe at first, — and according to their belief her spiritual conception of man brought forth a material man and was a miraculous conception (but it was not) and they called the babe Jesus. The prophet, however, gave this idea of Mary’s a more appropriate term — he called it, Wonderful, a Counsellor, a Prince of Peace.  Mary Baker Eddy  (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.19)

CHRISTMAS – 2

     The existence of Jesus was identical with Truth, and the Life that is God. He demonstrated Spirit free from matter, and the divine Soul, the substance of man, and body but its accompa­nying shadow, and this eternal substance never in its body or shadow. He knew that even as good and evil are opposites, so are the spiritual and material sense of things opposites.

       The material senses declare matter substance and Spirit shadow, while the spiritual sense of things reverses this statement, and finds the only permanent and eternal side of things, the thoughts that beget them.

       To understand this great fact in metaphysics, it is neces­sary to be born again; born of the Spirit and not of the flesh; and this was the birth referred to in those words of the prophet Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful.”  Mary Baker Eddy (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.14)

CHRISTMAS – 1

     …did not that wise seer forecast the destiny of Truth when he said, the government shall be upon its shoulder, it shall be a marvelous instructor, an omnipotent power, an imperishable Principle? But remember, the Hebrew bard in his grand epic re­ferred not to that little bunch of flesh, phosphate and linen lying in a crib — but to the advent of a spiritual idea, the idea of Life evolved from Spirit, man begotten of the Principle of all being; perfect Mind reflecting perfect Mind, and mind never start­ing from or resulting in matter; Soul not cribbing with beasts; Deity never blending with dust; Spirit untouched by evil passions and mortality. Retaining conscious spiritual existence and enti­ty, the mind of Jesus retained its native domain of mind instead of matter. Hence, the control Jesus exercised over material be­liefs, and the error called mortal man.  Mary Baker Eddy  (Carpenter, Gilbert, Essays On Christian Science, p.14)

[The Ladies’ Home Journal]

WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME

     To me Christmas involves an open secret, understood by few – or by none – and unutterable except in Christian Science. Christ was not born of the flesh. Christ is the Truth and Life born of God – born of Spirit and not of matter. Jesus, the Galilean Prophet, was born of the Virgin Mary’s spiritual thoughts of Life and its manifestation.

     God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection – an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection.

     Observed by material sense, Christmas commemorates the birth of a human, material, mortal babe – a babe born in a manger amidst the flocks and herds of a Jewish village.

     This homely origin of the babe Jesus falls far short of my sense of the eternal Christ, Truth, never born and never dying.  I celebrate Christmas with my soul, my spiritual sense, and so commemorate the entrance into human understanding of the Christ conceived of Spirit, of God and not of a woman – as the birth of Truth, the dawn of divine Love breaking upon the gloom of matter and evil with the glory of infinite being.

     Human doctrines or hypotheses or vague human philosophy afford little divine effulgence, deific presence or power. Christmas to me is the reminder of God’s great gift, – His spiritual idea, man and the universe, – a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ’s coming.

     I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth’s appearing.

     The splendor of this nativity of Christ reveals infinite meanings and gives manifold blessings. Material gifts and pastimes tend to obliterate the spiritual idea in consciousness, leaving one alone and without His glory. (Eddy, Mary Baker, Miscellany, p.261 :21-263:2)

To First Church, Kansas City, Mo. (telegram)

(Dec. 1898) My heart greets you with Christmas joy. Continue, fellow-worshippers, vigilant in that whereto God calleth thee. Unity imparts the spirit of the trinity. Opinions of men are not substitutes for Science. Be patient with misjudgment. Christ, Truth, overcometh error. Today is tomorrow understood. Love maketh right pros­perous. Pure hearts and clean hands upbuild the cause and Church of Christ, Scientist. Have one God; live in conformity therewith, obedient thereto, governed thereby. (See Journal, Vol. XXX, p. 227.)   Mary Baker Eddy  (Oakes, Richard, Course In Divinity And General Collectanea, p.130)