The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 46

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46

‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

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The Christmas Tidings. ings bring to them the true Christmas joy—joy
in the Saviour who is the Comfort of all the
sorrowing and the Consolation of all the weep-
ing. May we all welcome with glad and be-
lieving hearts the holy Christmas-day, with
its joyful tidings of mercy and peace and
blessedness.

oe

The Birthday of Christ.

WONDERFUL TIDINGS.

The Christmas tidings are wonderful tidings.
The child whose birth they proclaim was no
ordinary child. His birth was ushered in by
a long train of prophecy and longed for by a
multitude of believing hearts. At the birth
of that child angels’ hearts were stirred and
angels’ voices raised in adoring song. He who
was born at Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary
was ‘Christ, the Lord.’”? The child that had
so lowly a birth, whose mother ‘‘wrapped Him
in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the
inn,”’ was God over all, blessed forever. ‘‘The
Word was made flesh.’’ The Son of God be-
came man. Wonderful tidings! How wonder-
ful that He who is ‘‘The Father of Eternity,”
He who is ‘‘ The Mighty God’’ became a feeble
child, taking upon Himself our human nature.
How wonderful that He who is the Maker and
Upholder of the universe should lie in a manger
wrapped in swaddling clothes. How wonder-
ful that He who is the Lord of the heavenly
hosts and who receives the homage of Cheru-
bim and Seraphim should become a child of
poverty and of sorrows. Such a birth there
had never been before, and such a birth can
neyer again occur. No wonder that at this
birth the heavenly host was all astir and that
“suddenly there was with the angel a multi-
tude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men.”’

WAS IT THE 25TH OF DECEMBER?

The Christian Church had good reasons for
believing and deciding that the 25th of Decem-
ber was the day upon which Christ was born
into the world.

In the Western Church, with Rome as its
metropolis, Christmas or the Nativity, was
celebrated ‘‘from the beginning”’ as a distinct
festival. This is declared by Chrysostom.

Judea was a conquered Roman province at
the time Jesus was born, and the Roman gov-
ernors had careful records made of all events
of interest and importance that occurred in the
provinces under their jurisdiction, and copies
and reports of these were sent to Rome and
were there preserved among the imperial ar-
chives.

From the importance attached to the birth
of Christ, heralded and attended by extraordi-
nary circumstances, it is evident that every
attuinable fact in regard to Him would be care-
fully recorded in the archives at Jerusalem,
and transmitted to Rome, the capital of the
empire. The armies of the Roman Empire,
under Titus, besieged Jerusalem, captured and
destroyed the city, scattered the nation, and
carried its archives to Rome.

From some statements of Tertullian, it ap-
pears that an investigation to ascertain the
precise date of Christ's birth at Bethlehem was
made under Julius I. among the Jewish ar-
chives stored at Rome, the result of which
established the 25th of December as the day
upon which the Saviour of mankind was born,
and as the beginning of the Christian era of
the world. The Western Church had com-
memorated the Nativity on this day, ‘‘from
the beginning,’’ but in the Eastern Church,
both the Nativity and Epiphany were generally
celebrated in one festival, on the 6th of Janu-
ary up to the time of Chrysostom. On the
25th of December,-A.-D-..386,.Chrysostom_de-
livered a homily on the ‘birthday of our Sav-
iour Jesus Christ,’’ at Antioch, in which, after
saying how earnestly he had wished to see on
the day of the Nativity, a congregation like
that which had then met, he uses the following
language:

‘‘Nevertheless, it is not yet the tenth year
since this day has been made manifest and
plain to us, although it had been handed down
to us from the beginning and many years ago
it has flourished thus through your zeal.’’

He also refers his hearers to the archives at

JOYFUL TIDINGS.

The Christmas tidings are joyful tidings.
The angel said, ‘‘I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people; for
unto you is born this day, in the city of David,
a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’”’? The
tidings concern us Jost sinners and announce to
us the Deliverer from our doom. All men are
sinners and subject to God’s wrath and eternal
punishment; for ‘‘the wages of sin is death.”
No angel and no mere man could rescue us
from our awful doom. But behold! God came
to the rescue. His own Son became man and
took the sinners’ place, and did in our stead
what the law requires, and took upon Himself
the punishment of our transgressions. The
birth of this Saviour is made known to usin the
tidings of Christmas. Joyful tidings! It is
our Saviour that was born; it is to ws that
salvation now hascome. Joyful tidings truly
are these that we have a Redeemer. These
tidings are for us and for all people. They
who live in poverty and want may miss many
an earthly Christmas-gift in the merry Christ-
mas time; but the Christmas tidings bring to
them the richest of all gifts—the Saviour of
sinners, who for our sakes became poor that we
through His poverty might berich. They who

@ cast down with sorrow and affliction may
mies many an earthly Christmas joy in the

Christmas time; but the Christmas tid-|could be obtained and then adds:

Rome, where certain evidence on this point

“From those who have an accurate knowl-
edge of these things, and inhabit that city,
have we received this day. For they who
dwell there, observing it from the beginning,
and by old tradition, themselves have now
sent to us the knowledge of it.’’-

From the foregoing it is evident that the
Christian Church had good reasons to regard
the 25th of December as the anniversary of
the birth of her Saviour and Lord.

—Church Messenger.

oe

Christmas in Norway.

The great festival of the year in Norway, as
among all Germanic nations, is Christmas.

The preparations in the way of provisioning
the house, would, to American eyes, look per-
fectly enormous. Baking and brewing and
butchering keep the whole household busy
during the last three weeks preceding the fes-
tival. And the fact that the proress is re-
peated year after year probably proves that it
is necessary. Every man, woman or child who
comes within stone’s throw of the house during
the holidays (which last until a week after
New Year) must be invited in and urged to
eat and drink. Even the birds are to have
their share of the Christmas joy. As soon as
the church-bells have ‘‘rung in the feast,”’ at
five o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas Eve,
tho-fathor-of_the house tales his richest sheaf
of oats or barley and attaches it to the end of
a pole, which is nailed to the gable of the
barns or the store-houses. The mother and the
children stand by enjoying the sight of the
happy birds, fluttering around the sheaf, while
the father will perhaps quote the passage about
God’s care even for the sparrow, wherefore it
is right that the sparrow too should rejoice on
the day when Christ was born.

The German custom of having poor children
wander about on Christmas Eve, carrying a
large lighted star of canvas, representing the
star of Bethlehem, prevails also in Norway.
No one can hear their shrill, tiny voices in the
snow under his window, singing the dear fa-
miliar carols, and refuse them their well-earned
penny.—Seribner.

s+ o> oo

God’s Way.

When God intends to fill a soul, He first
makes it empty; when He intends to enrich a
soul, He first makes it poor; when He intends
to exalt a soul, He first makes it humble; when
He intends to save a soul, He first makes it
sensible of its own miseries, wants, and nothing-
ness. If God lifts you up to Christ, and mercy,
and grace, and glory, He will first bring you
low in the sense of your sinful miseries, and
spiritual wants and self-nothingness and un-
worthiness.

—>—~+ oo

Tr won’t take an anxious sinner long to meet

an anxious Saviour.