Christmas, 1942 JUST one thousand nine hundred and forty two years ago now Jesus of Nazareth was born in a manger near a crowded inn in the little town of Bethlehem in Palestines hills of Judea. No birth could have been more humble. Yet down through all the centuries of recorded time no happening has had such an influence on man. It was historys greatest event. At Christmas we celebrate that humble birth with a dual festival, which, as Tennyson has said, is both human and divine. Christmas has come to be the most widely observed and the gladdest of all the festivals of the year. The story of Christmas is told more often than any other story either in fact or fiction. It is told over and over again to children at the mothers knee; it is preached as sermons in thousands of pulpits; it is sung in the streets in carols of joy, and in churches in majestic music of adoration. And through the years, Christmas has come to us as the holiday of joy and sweetness. But what of Christmas, 1942, with the whole world torn by the horror, privation, sacrifice of total war; with most of our thoughts, virtually all our energies, and much of our emotion consumed by the passion to kill or help kill. Can Christmas have any place or meaning in the midst of this carnival of carnage? It does; it must! Never was there a time in mans existence when it was more vital for the world to pause for a reappraisal of fundamentals, lest we lose sight of the things for which we are working, fighting, dying. The strength, the power, the influence of Christmas forces such a pause. This war is being fought with a pagan barbarism as old, as un Christ like as yesterday, but magnified 100 million fold by the machines of death and destruction as new as tomorrow. It is imperative that we remember that this war is not the end in itself. In this unholy holocaust, we are all out, not to win a war, but to win a peace. Our world its manpower, its resources, its civilization could not stand up under another war like this one. This time the peace must be lasting. And to be lasting, it must be a peace dictated not by Hitler, To jo, Mussolini; not by Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin but by the teachings of Christ, the Prince of Peace. Let us not forget that it will do us little good to subdue the godless forces of hate, avarice, greed, lust on the battlefield, unless we also conquer them in our own hearts. After a year of great anxiety, bad news and reverses in this all important global conflagration, we can take a great measure of cheer and happiness this Christmas from the knowledge that, by Gods grace, the turning point has been reached. Now our forces are on the offensive in the battlefield. Are we making similar gains in our own private battle against evil, constantly being waged within each of us? The time will come we hope in the not too distant future when our worldly enemies will be vanquished and at our mercy. But to make certain that it is not a hollow victory, let us hold high the torch of Him who gave us humanitys greatest heritage Christianity. Only His spirit and teachings can bring back the day when it will be more than a prayer to sing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. I am the resurrection and the life.