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CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS  

Dr. Ernest Holmes 

Science of Mind Magazine, December 1929 

CHRIST, the perfect man, is developed within us through the realization and revelation of the self to the self. God in us is Christ, and Christ in us constitutes our true Sonship to the Parent Mind, which is God. Every man is a potential Christ, an as yet undeveloped divinity. From the least to the greatest the same life runs through all, threading itself in the patterns of our individualities. He is “over all, in all and through all.”  

This over brooding presence, this inner sense of a greater reality bears witness to itself through our highest acts and in our deepest emotions. Who is there who has not at times felt this inner presence? It is impossible to escape our true nature. The voice of Truth is insistent. The urge to unfold is constant. In the long run each will fully express his divinity.  

We stand in the shadow of a mighty Presence while love forever points the way to heaven. Mingled with the voice of humanity is the word of God, for Truth is a synonym for God, and whoever speaks the truth speaks the word of God. Science reveals eternal principles, mathematics, immutable laws, and illumined minds reveal the Eternal Spirit. Behind all is a unity, through all is a diversity, saturating all is a divinity.  

The Christ which Jesus revealed is already incarnated in our own nature and this hidden center seeks to find circumference through our lives. The intellect must give its consent and the mind must unify with the Spirit. The outlet for Truth must be true.  

Christmas is for remembrance. The love manifest through our gifts to each other typifies the offering of Life, the givingness of Spirit to Its creation. The hands of the Eternal are outstretched through our hands, and the heart of the Infinite beats in the human breast. But the giver must give of himself, for, “The gift without the giver is bare.”  

It is not enough to give money to a great cause. Only those understand giving who give of themselves, withholding nothing. It is not, then, in lavish gifts that we find true giving but in the sweet simplicity of remembrance, in the kindly thought, the tolerant mind and the gentle act. Love alone can give love, sympathy alone can sympathize, and only goodness can really do or be good. The one who gives for reward does not give at all; he seeks to bargain; to trade for spiritual gifts, hence he senses a loss in his own giving and finds no completion through the act. But he who gives half his meat to the hungry, feels justified and is warmed by a real sense of comradeship. He has established an· actual unity between himself and another offspring of creation.  

Great causes succeed when there is a giving of humanity to humanity. With the check must come the one who wrote it, his interest, his enthusiasm, his love. The check must be a symbol of his desire to impart of himself,-then shall it multiply its benefits and do good. Charity is cold but love is warm. When heart speaks to heart a divine conversation has taken place, a heavenly discourse.  

Each of us has something to give. Let each see that he gives of his best. If we are bringing our gifts to the altar of love nothing less than the best will be acceptable, nothing less than all is enough. This giving will never deplete us nor can it drain the storehouse of the Infinite. 

 MEDITATION 

The joy of the Christmas Spirit is eternally mine. The comfort of the Christ Idea finds an abiding place in my consciousness.  

THE CHRIST WITHIN  

My Life is “hid with Christ in God;”  

The Inner Man is the image and likeness of the Spirit of God. 

I let that Inner Man come forth into expression in my life;  

He will guide my feet into all Truth and Wisdom.  

The Christ within me is free from all worry, and cannot be hindered by any opposing force.  

My Christ within me now is perfect. 

 My Christ is within me.