I read a fantastic editorial in the Dec. 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal. It was originally published in 1949 and reprinted annually ever since. The editorial is a story about the time after Christ's resurrection when Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, set off when called upon to spread the Word of Christ, which is the Word of God.

In that time, most men expected God to send a promised Messiah to conquer their oppressors in a violent battle then take over and rule the world in righteousness. Many still believe this. The Muslims created their religion around such a false profit who claimed he could do this. But the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in Bethlehem some 2008 years ago, did not act according to humanity's expectations. Why would anyone think that He would?

The Messiah promised by God taught humanity how to serve The Father and sent His Holy Spirit to forever unite all men and women who would accept Him by their own free will into His Kingdom. He said that His Kingdom was not of this world, though one could learn to live under its loving dominion while also living in this world. He taught that humanity comprises God's children, whom are deserving of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that has since been inscribed in the founding of the United States of America (the world's last best hope). He taught that no man or woman can enslave or oppress another so long as that second person's heart belongs in God's domain.

The following editorial, by Vermont Royster, tells this story very eloquently in the style of old. I have used parentheses around a few words that I have changed in order to align them to my own philosophy. You may download the original to read Royster's original diction.

In Hoc Anno Domini
By Vermont Royster
December 24, 1949
Reprinted December 24, 2007
Review & Outlook
The Wall Street Journal

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression - for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of (God) into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the (government).

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of (God), spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

(This editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since.)