CAPTAIN J. VJ. ROBERTS, USN
Commanding Officer
CDR R. L. STRAUB, USN
Executive Officer
THE
A D A K
SUM
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F. W. hC CLUER, PN2^x, 350/0-- V Editor
The Real Meaning of Christmas
Soon it will be Christmas, In millions
of homes across the country families and
kinsmen will sit down together, eat a lit
tle more than is good for them and make
merry* There will be a slight, temporary,
yet perceptible all-round rising of .the
temperature of human kindliness,
What does it all mean? For a minority,
Christmas is a religious commemoration,
the highlight of the Christian year* For
a majority, it is merely a feast and a
holiday, and is kept by them because
their fathers kept it, because their ear*
liest memories of celebration and fam
ily reunion go back to Christmas Day#
The "Christmas myth"s that is how
"clever" man refer to the body of Chris
tian belief out of which the Christmas
(Continued next column )
feast rises. But before we dismiss the
"myth" there are certain historical
facts which we should do well to remem
ber.
The first is that on a specific day
there was born in the manger of a poor
inn in Judea a child called Jesus. He
was not a prince or a statesman or a
warrior. He was not a member of a con
quering race; He wrote no book, raised
no artistic monument. His years on earth
were few and lived out in poor, obscure,
conquered province. He was regarded by
cultivated and educated contemporaries
as a person of no consequence, As'a mat
ter of prosaic history, it is to cole- £
irr
brate this man * s birth that wc ait' down
to eat roast fov/l and plum pudding. It
takes, one might think, much explanation
The theological interpretation put by
churches and scholars on Christ’s repor-r
tod woid.s has varied in all ages and
varies to this dry, itfhnt thare never has
doubt about is that those who
lev best during His life, and
e.rlv after His terrible and ag
onizing death, became convinced that He
both was and knew Himself to be more
than man. He believed He was the Son of
God, and He succeeded, in the teeth of
every opposition, ridicule and persecu
tion, in communicating that belief- to j
others, 1
bee.,
K. 0 c V' -’
parr
What Jesus did caused men to worship
what He was* For what He did created in
those who were witnesses of it - and in
those who came to learn of it only by
hearsay - a conviction of what He was*
The conviction was so intense that they
regarded His existence on earth as infin
itely the most important thing that had
ever happened* Hot only did they try to
alter their own lives - to live, however
unsuccessfully, as He had lived - but in
many cases they deliberately elected to
die as He had died* This is not a myths
it is fully documented history* It hap
pened, and nothing can alter the fact*
For this wonderful man, whom those of
us who call ourselves Christians believe
(Continued column 1, page 3)