“God
sent His Son to overcome the world – the world of carnality and evil; the world
of lust and lewdness and license; the world of hate and sin, of war and murder,
of wickedness and ungodliness. The Son of Righteousness came to bring
righteousness and peace. And when he came, the world had sunk into a lower
abyss than at any time since all flesh, being corrupt and evil, save eight
souls only, had been drowned in the waters of Noah.
“Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and all the kingdoms of the world had ruled
by blood and the sword, by torture and death. But always there had been a
leaven of righteousness, a kingdom devoted to goodness, a few people who loved
the Lord and sought His face.
“But
now, in the time set apart for our Lord’s coming, corruptions and evils were
everywhere. A few righteous souls – a Zacharias here, an Elisabeth there –
stayed, as it were, the plagues of destruction, but the wickedness of the world
was everywhere and the stench of sin covered the earth.
“Even
the covenant people, in the main, had gone astray. No longer were they a leaven
to the worldly lump; subject to their priestcrafts, they would soon be in a
state where they would crucify a God. Naught but a new day of righteousness and
light, ushered in by one greater than the prophets could bring hope again to
men.
“The
advent of Christ was the breaking of the ‘dayspring from on high’ through a
gloom that had been gathering for ages; a great light dawning on a world which
lay in darkness, and in the shadow of death.”
-
Bruce
R. McConkie, “The Mortal Messiah Book 1” p 289-292
The
day You were born
You
split the heavens apart
And
angels descended
Trailing
in their flight
Golden
stars spilling over the night.
The
moon hid in shame
As
the angels spread Your godly light
And
from their lips fell homage
To
Your glory in the still of the night.
How
I wish I too could fly
Spreading
the message far and wide:
Our
God and our King was born
On a
Meridian night!
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Light of the World by Jay Bryant Ward)
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