The influence of Jesus Christ on the world is
enormous. Kenneth Latourette in his seven-volume work on the history of
the expansion of Christianity summarizes the influence of Jesus Christ:
No life ever lived on this planet has been so
influential in the affairs of men like the life of Jesus Christ. From that
brief life and its apparent frustration has flowed a more powerful force for
the triumphant waging of man’s long battle than any other ever known by the
human race. By it millions have been lifted from illiteracy and ignorance and
have been placed upon the road of growing intellectual freedom and control over
the physical environment. It has done more to allay the physical ills of
disease and famine than any other impulse known to man. It’s emancipated
millions from chattel slavery and millions of others from addiction to vice. It
has protected tens of millions in exploitation by their fellows. It’s been the
most fruitful source of movement to lessen the horrors of war and to put the
relations of men and nations on the basis of justice and of peace.
Here are some poems you might like:
PRAYER FOR A NEW MOTHER
The things she knew, let her forget
again --
The voices in the sky, the fear, the
cold,
The gaping shepherds, and the queer
old men
Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign
gold.
Let her have laughter with her little
one;
Teach her the endless, tuneless songs
to sing,
Grant her her right to whisper to her
son
The foolish names one dare not call a
king.
Keep from her dreams the rumble of a
crowd,
The smell of rough-cut wood, the
trail of red,
The thick and chilly whiteness of the
shroud
That wraps the strange new body of
the dead.
Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where
mothers go
And boast his pretty words and ways,
and plan
The proud and happy years that they
shall know
Together, when her son is grown a
man.
Dorothy Parker
Noël
by Anne Porter
When snow is shaken
From the balsam trees
And they're cut down
And brought into our houses
When clustered sparks
Of many-colored fire
Appear at night
In ordinary windows
We hear and sing
The customary carols
They bring us ragged miracles
And hay and candles
And flowering weeds of poetry
That are loved all the more
Because they are so common
But there are carols
That carry phrases
Of the haunting music
Of the other world
A music wild and dangerous
As a prophet's message
Or the fresh truth of children
Who though they come to us
From our own bodies
Are altogether new
With their small limbs
And birdlike voices
They look at us
With their clear eyes
And ask the piercing questions
God alone can answer.
The Oxen
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|
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the
clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a
flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures
where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us
there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would
weave
In these years!
Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas
Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel,
"In the lonely barton by yonder
coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the
gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
A
Christmas Carol
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made
moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on
snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth
sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak
mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and
day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom
angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
Angels and archangels
May have gathered
there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air,
But only His mother
In her
maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a
shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, –
Yet
what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.
Christina Rossetti
Such a beautiful poem makes an even more beautiful hymn.
Such a beautiful poem makes an even more beautiful hymn.
The question of what we
bring to the manger is central to the message of Christmas. Jesus said, “If ye
love me, keep my commandments.” He expects to not just to believe, but to do
something about it. And his great commandments were to love God and love our
neighbor. Charles Dickens concludes his story of the life of Jesus with his
definition of Christianity.
"Remember! – It is Christianity TO DO GOOD always – even to those who do evil to us. It is Christianity to love our neighbour as ourself, and to do to all men as we would have them Do to us. It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but always to shew that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in Peace."
Charles Dickens , The Life of Our Lord
