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T t 9 - THE CHRONICli Strives To Be A Cleon Newspaper, Complete, NeWsy and Reliable • ■ ( • » ' ®hp (Clinton Clirontrlr If You Don't Read THE CHRONICLE You Don't Get the Newt Volume XLIl- Clinton, S. C, Thursday, December 24, 1942 Number 52 A Christmas Sermon . ^ V BETHLEHEM AND BEYOND REV. RALPH W. SOCKMAN, December Issue Christian Herald In a beautiful new chi rch some;living whose most active verb is “et years ago my attention wis called to get” into the poetry of Christmas a “children’s door.” At the side of; whose most active verb is “to give.” the main entrance to the sanctuary' But are we content that Christmas was a door cut to the scale of a; should mean only this to us? Per- child’s size. The knob was placed low, sonally I am not. Therefore, while enough so that the little ones could turn it. Through such a children’s door most of us, I venture to think, would like to enter the Christmas scene. • • Christmas is the red letter day of childhood. We who are grown re member the glow of our early Christ mas experiences. Expectancy quick ened our pulse for days in advance the children’s door to Christmas is open and beckoning, let us go by way of the grown-ups. In the words re ported of the ancient shepherds, “Let us now go even’ unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass.” And let no one think that he has to leave his intelligence behind when he goes to see the thing which came t* pass at Bethlehem. JVe are not sitting and even crept into bur dreams. The down to hear a lovely fairy tale; we mysterious bringer of gifts during the night before Christmas, the sur prises and shouts of the glad mom- 4ng—all these cnme hark to us across the years. In that childhood atmos phere, the beautiful Bible stories seemed perfectly at home. The shep herds hearing the heavenly host, the wise men seeing a star, the manger, and the dumb beasts looking on — these figures were as fresh and ever green as the Christmas tree which brightened our homes. No doubt many of us wish that we could cast away the accumulated years, close our ears to the cares around us, bow our critical heads and enter the Christmas scene with our childhood emotions. How often we hear it said that it requires the presence of children to make a real Christmas. And to be sure, the day would serve a worthy purpose if it did nothing more than bring about a are going to behold first of all, the birthday of theeworld’s most wonder ful personality. The Christmas event is like the stars in this, that the more we know about it the more our wonder gi;pws. The most wonderful thing about Christmas is the One who came. Remerrtber, it is the birthday of a real person. Some there are who seem to think that in the Christmas celebration, the church has merely taken over the pagan festival of the winter solstice, when, after the short est day in the year, the light and wormth of the sun begin to return*. To be sure, the pre-Christian world did have such a festival, and into, our Christmas symbols have come some pagan elements. Our Yule log de rives from the “jol” of Iceland, our fir tree comes from the Germany of pagan days, our mistletoe from. Celtic Britain and our Saint Nicholas from amid the. snows of winter. Phillips Brooks saw clearly when he said of the little town of Bethlehem: “Yet in thy dark street shineth The hopes and fears of all the years The everlasting Light; Are met in thee tonight,” When we go up to Bethlehem we are in the presence of no solar myth, but of a historical personage. More honest scholarly study has been giv en to the life of Jesus than to any other single subject, except perhaps the physical universe itself; and as a result of that study Jesus has been established as a historical figure, bom at Bethlehem, reared in a carpenter shop at Nazareth, preaching His gos pel in Galilee, calling fishermen and other plain folk to be His disciples, healing the sick, making friends of publicans and sinners. He set his face to go up to Jerusalem where He was arrested, tried before Pontius Pilate, scourged and crucified—and then three' days later we see Him turning His disciples from despair to triumphant conviction that He was still a living force. Such is the brief biography of the historical person ality bom at Bethlehem. But while He did .wondrous things none give so much inspiration to keep us goihg on. Our technical and pro fessional schools may teach us how to live by. We have to work to make Jus good/Culture may only put a pol- a living, but we have to'worship to,ish on our pagan motives. In cities make a life. And Jesus shows us how which have been considered centers to make enough to live on, but Je- to make ^a life that is life indeed. i of culture, "we have witnessed un- sus the Master teacher gives us Culture cannot save us. It makes speakable cruelties of late, Persecu- something to live for and something us interesting, but it does not makej (Continued on next page) renewal of childhood memories and 1 Holland. But all these pagan ele- contacts. There is a slumhernig spark ments are added proof of the mag- of youth in us and blessed is the oc casion which fans it into flame. In the Christmas number of a humorous magazine some years ago appeared the picture of a toy counter sur- x rounded by staid but fascinated adults, and one distinguished elderly man was making some purchases of tops with the explanation, “I am buying these for my nieces and neph ews whom I haven’t seen foT twenty netism of the persortality bom at Bethlehem. It is as if there had been lying around this * distraught old world a lot of dreams and hopes be gotten by men’s longing for light and salvation; and then when Jesus came it was like a magnet let down to earth, drawing to itself the unreal ized aspirations of the ages and races. The coming of Christ so warmed the hearts of men that they did link it years.” Good it is to have a day lik^ I with the festival of the winter sol- this when time slips backward, and we enter through the children’s door into the spirit of Christmas, when stice. The character of Christ is so perennially fresh in its appeal that it was natural to symbolize His birth we translate the prose of everyday by the fir tree which keeps green ▼ ▼ FROM YOUR REXALL STORE t This firm extends to its friends and patrons its best wishes for a Happy Christmas and’a Prosperous New Yeaj\~— * — The loyalty of our friends has been of material bene> fit in bringing us a little closer to our goal of achieve ment. We pledge ourselves to an even greater and more ef ficient service than ever before; and in beeping witfi this policy we respectfully solicit your continued friendship and patronage. SMITH’S PHARMACY x The Rexall Store L. E. BISHOP W. M. WALKER ,1—£ £ during those brief thirty years, the still more wonderful fact is that He refuses to die. He is as persitent as lightning. “As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Some think those words apply to a so-called sec ond coming of Christ. Ah, Christ keep coming. He flashes like lightning inj the storm and in the night-time of! the soul. It was claimed for Napoleon i Bonaparte that the sight of him sit-| ting astride his white charger was worth many a battalion to the morale; of his troops. And so with other great leaders of men; their presence was, magnetic. But more than twelve hun- j dred years after Jesus’ death, Peter the Hermit churned Europe into a vast crusade to fescue from Moslem hands the burial place of Christ. What other leader of men can reach across the centuries and stir men to fight for his memory? Does some one explain this contin uance of Christ’s power as due to the repeated cultivation of His memory by the church? The person who takes i that explanation is faced with a more difficult puzzle, viz., how to account for the rise and continuation of the church. If the Christian church were merely a memorial society organized to perpetuate the memory of a noble Galilean, it would long since have ceased, to function. The church which has survived all its contemporary or ganizations, like the Roman empire, the church that has lived despite the mistakes and sins of its members, the church which has held together through the bitter controversies with in, and the persecution from without —that church must have a dynamic power behind it and beyond it. It is not the church which has kept the memory of Christ alive; it is rather i the power of the Christ which has kept the church alive. When, therefore, we go ‘‘unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass,” we behold first ofj all the birth of the world’s most; wonderful personality. A second thing we find when we | go up to Bethlehem. We see wisdom bowing before the Child bom this day. Do not puzzle yourself unduly about the identity of the “wise men” in the Christmas story. They stand for something greater and deeper. They symbolize wisdom in search of a Saviour. Wisdom and culture were well de veloped before Jesus was bom. The ancient philosophers of India looked down upon the rest of the world with superiority. ' Athens had produced 1 such teachers as Socrates, Plato and | Aristotle. In Egypt was the famed li brary of Alexandria, and the re-! nowned scholar Euclid. But the wise were aware that learning alone could not save the world. Plato had said that “only by way of some divine disclosure coming into life from out side it, could men find the way of j truth and freedom.” Ye^, wisdom was looking for a star of hope. Then came Christ. Of His school ing we have no record. With a car- J penter shop and a fatherless family) on His hands, Hi$ contact with books and schools must have been slight.; Yet when He emerged from his shojj | at the age of thirty, He began to speak words of such classic purity that grammarians still hold them as models. He expressed ideas which at first seemed almost childishly simple but, on second thought, revealed a limpid clarity which is the very es sence of wisdom. He laid down prin ciples of such far-reaching range and permanence that our Harvards and Yales can only verify them, not im prove them. That a carpenter could fashion and phrase such thoughts is so amazing that we, might quickly explain them as the creation of his biographers, wer$ it not for the fact that those biographers were theih-j selves unlearned and untraveled. Is] it surprising that wise men bow in wonder before the mind of Jesus? Yet the most distinctive thing about Jesus’ mind is not the ripeness nor the rightness of His principles, but rather the purpose and power which He gives for putting them into practice. Other minds have been more encyclopedic; oione have been so dynamic. Others may give us more! information about what is going on; gmuiuss Once more it is our pleasure to extend the compliments of the Y u 1 e t i d e ■ Season to our host of friends in this community. It is a very pleasant and cheerful custom to renew these as sociations — that’s w hy we await Christmas time with eager anticipa- tion. You have been good to us—may old Santa l>e iuM as eood to vou. The H ome Store A. W. BRABHAM, Mgr. CLINTON, S. C. May your share of happiness at this glad Christmastime be brightened by the knowledge of our appreciation of your fine and valued friendships. May you enjoy the associations of those dear to you, and may their companionship continue through the years to come. Happy Christmas to all! D. E. Tribble Company i The spirit of the season prompts us^ to express to you appreciation of our pleasant business relations during the post year and to most heartily wish you o very Merry Christmas and Happiness arid Prosperity for the New Year, Royal Cleaners. Inc. Phone 77 ■