Christmas

“FOR UNTO us a child is born, and his name shall be called Wonderful, the mighty, the counselor, the everlasting, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and of his reign there shall be no end.”

So beloved to you who read this page, at this very instant great floods of spiritual light are breaking over you. The soul of you arises at the blast of the silent trumpet, and the glad tidings are proclaimed throughout your Universe. The picture of history and legend that you have cherished so long in your heart has suddenly come to life and the divine event takes place within you—within the manger of your heart. You, the poor worm of the dust, the sinner, the outcast, are actually the lowly manger wherein the Christ is born. His name is to be called Wonder­ful, and the government shall be upon his shoul­ders. The government of what? The government of your life. The poor struggling sinner who has so long been under the law of “When I would do good, I do evil,” he it is who suddenly sees the star in the East and goes towards the stable of his own heart and finds there at this glorious instant the divine event taking place.

And the government of your life is to be upon his shoulders. All the worrying and trying and effort fall away. “Cast your burden on Me and I shall sus­tain thee”; “Lean on Me”; “Come unto Me,” a hun­dred invitations are given to the struggling man, but, until the divine event takes place, he turns a deaf ear to it all, unable to see how it can possibly take place. The quickening of the Father within. The recogni­tion of the Divine Sonship. The glorious revelation of the at-one-ment with God. “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.” All these and a hundred more testimo­nies hover about the new babe like angels of the Lord. Enfolding the universe of the newborn in the soft folds of their wings. It is wonderful. Heaven and earth are full of Thee.

The struggle is over. “He that loseth his life shall find it.” He that loseth his personal life, his life of separateness, in the immensity of the All-life shall find the real meaning of Life; shall find the hidden manna and the living waters, and shall never hunger or thirst again. Then if your will be lost in the Di­vine Will or if your human governing be given over to the Christ, then your will becomes His will and His will becomes your will, and you see the new regime setting in.

The glorious heralds of the New Day go forth and proclaim it to the uttermost parts of your sin-bound Universe. The prisons of thought are opened and the prisoners are set free. There is great rejoicing in the land, for you that were dead are made alive.

“For unto us a child is born, and his name shall be called Wonderful.” His name shall be called Wonderful. Do you hear? Do you feel it? You who read this page, you? Blessings, floods of blessings, holiness, glorious swirls of illumination are yours—–the heavenly hosts are descended unto you. You are in a blaze of light or revelation in the glorious NOW. The soul of you at this time is singing “Glory Halle­lujah. Christ is born.” Not in a far-off country, not in the dead history of yester-years, but in the glori­ous Now, right in the midst of the fear-filled life. Christ is born and the government shall be upon His shoulders. The wonder of it fills you with silence so great and powerful that you are lost in the im­mensity of it all.

The government shall be upon His shoulders, and it shall therefore be right and just and good. Fear not—it is well with thee. Let go of the personal striv­ing. You are now about your Father’s business and this is the eternal expression of harmony and joy. A new sense of integrity will come to you. “Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and when thougoest out.” The lazy, sluggish mind shall give place to fresh streams of activity. Like a frozen river that is suddenly touched by the hot tropic sun, the frozen river of your life shall burst forth into expression. Or, like a flood that passes through the stagnant wa­ters of life, this glorious awakening shall sweep away all the scum and stagnation of human fears and thinking, and leave in its place the healthful waters of activity.

Be not anxious. The government shall be upon His shoulders, and it will be well with thee. Fear not.

“All the ends of the earth shall come.” The ends of your universe. They shall hear of the new birth and shall arise, and the kings shall come and lay their crowns and jewels at the feet of the new babe. The realms of human power, of human thinking, shall finally bend their knees to the new King.

Thus will the monarchs of Health, Wealth and Happiness, who have been so difficult to appease, come and lay their power down. No more shall they have dominion over you, for your life shall be gov­erned from now on, not by a group of tyrants doling out a little happiness, health and substance to you, but by the Great Central Power of all—the Christ in the midst of you, and all flesh shall see it together, “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your Redeemer draweth nigh. The limited concept of life shall be swept away. In place thereof is the Christ who says, “Be­fore you ask I will answer,” instead of the tyrants of human thinking who required sacrifice of blood and fire before they could be moved to do ever so little for you.

“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” When in your weakness, when in the recognition of your inability to accomplish the good you would, you come to the point of recognition of the Christ within, then you are “no more under the law,” but “are under grace.” No more under the law of what?The law of your human belief; the law of your hu­man concept of Life which was full of so much trou­ble. No more under the law of “When I would do good, I do evil.”

“My grace is sufficient for thee.” My grace, my Divine Influence shall be sufficient for thee. The in­fluence of the Divine surrounds you—it is above the possibility of failure or fear or harm. No wonder, then, that you are thrilling with joy. The long years of bondage are ended. The scorching path in the des­ert has terminated. You have come to the promised land. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Where is the MY of this promise and where is the thee? Do you not see how it all goes back to the Christmas; to the new birth of that which is Wonderful and upon whose shoulders the government shall rest? The government of the human personality shall be upon the Christ and the Grace of the Christ shall be suffi­cient for the human manifestation. Sufficient is enough. Do you hear, you who read this page? You? “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sufficient is enough. Over and over this revelation comes to man­kind, and at last out of it he perceives the wonders of the Divine Influence. The Divine Influence is that which causes the acorn to press its tiny shoot through the hard earth, and even through places and under conditions that are pronounced hopeless. This same Divine Influence is that which enables you to pass by safely. It is that which opens the doors in walls that otherwise appear blank and adamant.

This glorious quality of the Divine Influence which we call grace resides in the consciousness of the Christ Mind, and it is this very Christ Mind which you were told to “let” be in you. “Let the Child be born”—in other words, when we have the Christmas celebration within our own souls, then the Christ is born within us, then we begin to experience the law of Grace or the Divine Influence. We begin to see the old beliefs fall away. We begin to see that the legends of Father Christmas and the Christmas tree are truths told so that the uninitiate should not despoil them of their precious substance. They are the pearls which are not cast before swine.

The Christmas tree is only another way of ex­pressing the Tree of Life which lies in the midst of the garden and upon whose branches are all good gifts, the Gifts of Spirit. Whosoever heareth the word will henceforth not be a beggar for the gifts of life, but will go within his own garden and take his own gifts. “All that the Father hath is thine—-“­when the law of Grace is set free the law of limita­tion is made null and void. You will find then that the promise “Before they ask, I will answer” is some­thing true and wonderful.

You are your own Christmas tree and your own Father Christmas. You are the center and circumfer­ence of your being. You stand in the center of your universe and at the uttermost point of your universe. Spirit is all, and only when man accepts his birth­right and goes forward upon these new lines can he possibly know the joy and thrill that the truth about Christmas brings. When you realize for an instant “For unto us a child is born and his name shall be called Wonderful, the mighty, the counselor, the everlasting, and upon his shoulders shall be the gov­ernment,” then you have taken Christmas out of the symbolism and gotten back to the soul of it. It ceases to be a day of gifts, with pudding and turkey—and a possible church service thrown in with a magnani­mous prayer for the poor—and turns itself into a heavenly recognition of the Presence: flings wide the portals of a New year, a New life and a New field of attainment.

At the name of Christ every knee shall bend. At the nature or name of the Christ the knee of every human belief shall bend to do Him homage. Every so-called power shall bend before the One and Only Power, who rules by Grace. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” It is wonderful.

“Joy to the world (your world)

The Lord hath come.

Let earth receive her kind.”

Joy to your world—joy to your world—the Lord hath come. Lord of Lords and King of Kings is born within you. Born within your consciousness. Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and besides this there isno other. Not a little personal despot of a king, but a glorious consciousness that is one with the Univer­sal God.

Everything is fused with the new—old idea, the birth of the Christ within you. You are filled with light and the radiance of the New Day.

Awake!—with the new birth man loses his fantastic idea of demonstrating God, and lets God dem­onstrate him. Lets the Light reveal the answer which was before the question. Sees the futility of demon­strating a thing which immediately disintegrates and returns to the endless source from which it pours.

 

Walter C. Lanyon