The Clinton chronicle. (Clinton, S.C.) 1901-current, December 24, 1942, Image 9
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THE CHRONICli
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®hp (Clinton Clirontrlr
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THE CHRONICLE
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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
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