One Solitary Life

When I was younger, my parents would take our family to Radio City Music Hall almost every year to see "Christmas Spectacular". The final scene of the musical Christmas review, was the living Nativity.  At the very end, a silk screen appeared and the words from the essay "One Solitary Life" were projected with the living Nativity in the background and narrated. At the conclusion, the silk screen was lifted giving a clear view of the Nativity and the choir and orchestra erupted in the most majestic performance of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".  I always felt this was the perfect way to bring the spirit of Christmas back to the focus point of Christ. As Easter approaches, I cannot help but think of "One Solitary Life" and how it has always moved me. I have searched and searched to for a pretty printed copy as I would love to hang this in my home but apparently this is not something that exists. I may just have to make it myself! I would like to share this beautiful essay with you.........

One Solitary Life

 

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself... While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia


***I tried to find a video on YouTube but apparently they took out the One Solitary Life portion of the Living Nativity. However here is link to just give you a tiny idea of how powerful a performance this was. (For some reason I can't get the actual video to post (gotta love blogger) so here is a link.

 http://youtu.be/OnlERaRBqaw