A MAGAZINE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
STRIKING A NEW CHORD IN THE
AGE-OLD SONG OF PEACE ON EARTH
I
|
|
|
I
I
'T'HE YULETIDE season through which we are passing is again
furnishing an ideal setting for a seasonal outpouring of
human kindness. For centuries men have differed on religious
dogmas, but the spirit of religion is bound by neither creed nor
color. The Jew, who, for each of eight succeeding days before
Christmas, lights a candle in observance of Chanukah, or the
Christian, with his Christ kind story and his Yule customs, who
commences his festivity on Christmas eve, each participates in
his own way to make the season a Feast of Lights, whether its
significance begins and ends in outward manifestations or re
flects a fervid spirituality. While the teachers of religion for
ages have been quarreling over suitable forms of worshiping God,
the Creator, the deeper significance of religion has always been
the true concept of His image—Love, Justice, Charity. Old dog
mas and religious barriers are giving way. Weary hearts are
crying out in protest against the intolerance and suffering con-
tinually visited upon humanity in His name. Renowned teachers
and theologians, courageous spirits, are today rising on the ram
parts of Faith, demanding a new religious deal and hastening the
era of Peace on Earth to Men of Good Will.
Whether we believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a Prophet
or Divine, we would do well to spend less time in quarreling over
His origin and more time in putting into practice His teachings
and living our lives according to the example He set. The famous
Jewish rabbi of New York who, upon the eve of this Christmas
season, asserted that he was convinced that Jesus had lived and
urged his people to embrace the teachings of the Nazarene,
might not be conscious of it, but his proclamation constitutes
the dawn of a new era, signifying that a new epoch in religious
progress in the world is being gradually ushered in.
DECEMBER 1925
PORTLAND, OREGON