will the circumstance mentioned of, Joseph's going to Bethlehem help us in the least. His going was not that he might be in readiness for any Jewish festival, by which circumstance we might have had given us some clue to the probable time, but solely for the purpose of taxation, which gives us no clue whatever. Each inhabitant of the land was to be enrolled, and every branch of the great tribe of Judah, which now alone of all the twelve remained in its integrity, was summoned-by the aid the Roman rulers obtained from the registries religiously kept in Jerusalem-to its own centre. No Jewish festival being then on the eve of celebration, we cannot even fix the time of the birth of Christ proximately. On the other hand the time of the crucifixion may be ascertained with some show of probability from the circumstance that it took place at the time of the Jewish passover. But even in this last instance, the time is of small significance in comparison with the event, as we may gather from the testimony of the Evangelists. Our Lord, they tell us plainly enough, enjoined upon His disciples the commemoration of His death, and for this instituted the Supper. But in this solemn and perpetual ordinance they were to commemorate, not the day of His death, as the antitype of the Jewish passover, but the event itself, and at any time and in any place. Nor is there any thing in the Acts of the Apostles, or in any one of the Epistles, that can be claimed as an allusion to such a festival as that of the nativity. We do find, however, that the Apostle Paul had to write to some of the early churches about 'days' and their observance; but none of the passages where these matters are mentioned will in the least justify modern observers of Christmas. It appears, for instance, that certain Gentile members of the Church at Rome were offended because certain Jewish members of the same church still kept up an observance of the days' celebrated under the old economy; and the apostle wrote to the church 'He generally, and enjoined mutual forbearance. He says, in effect, let not the Jew take offence at the Gentile for his non-observance of these days; let not the Gentile take offence at the Jew for his observance of them. Remember your common Master, and be charitable. that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.' We have never heard that any advocate for the celebration of Christmas day had the boldness to affirm that the day' referred to was Christmas day; and even if any one should have the boldness, the apostle's concluding negative clause is equally in favour of those who abstain from its observance. It is manifest, however, from other epistles that the ' days' which the Jew 'regarded' were not new ones, set apart under the new covenant, but those which were recognized under the old law. From Paul's letter to the Colossians we gather that certain Judaizing teachers had been endeavouring to corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by condemning the Gentile Christians who did not live after the manner of Jews.' Paul says to them, Suffer not any man to condemn you for what you eat or drink, or in respect of feast days, or new moons, or Sabbaths; for these are a shadow of good things to come, but the body is Christ.'* And once more, in writing to the Galatian churches, the apostle makes it a ground of complaint against some of them that they observe days, and months, and times, and years;' and adds with evident sorrow, 'I am afraid of you, least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.' Now if Christmas day had really been known in the apostolic times we should at any rate have had some allusion to it in the Epistles, and Paul would have taken the opportunity when condemning Gentile Christians for the observance of Jewish days' to have excepted Christmas day, and to have spoken in its favour. 6 The records of the early church * Conybear and Howson's translation. Silence of Early Christian Writers on the Matter. are equally silent about it. For the first two centuries not one word is found in any of the Christian writers that by any ingenuity can be twisted into evidence for its celebration. Neither in the epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, which belongs almost to the apostolic age; nor in the epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, in the second century; nor in those venerable memorials of the early church, the seven epistles of Ignatius, is there the remotest allusion to such a festival. This is the more remarkable since both Clement, Polycarp, and Ignatius discuss various points of faith, order, and worship; and the epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians makes special mention of the nativity of Christ, and of the phenomena that attended the manifestation of God in human form. But again, the Apology of Justin Martyr describes minutely the celebration of the Eucharist, and the various religious services of the Christians, and justifies the assembling of Christians on the first day of the week to commemorate the resurrection of the Lord; and the Apology of Tertullian gives a minute account of the Sabbath day assemblies of Christians, of their agapæ, and other services and rites; and yet in neither the apology of Justin Martyr nor of Tertullian, both elaborate documents, designed to vindicate the entire faith, worship, order, and customs of the Christians, is there any allusion of any kind to such a festival as is now known as Christmas day. In another part of his voluminous writings the African father reproves Christians for sharing in the pagan custom of interchanging gifts towards the close of the year; but there is no evidence from his writings that the festival of Christmas was instituted in his day. Clement, of Alexandria, however, who was cotemporary with Tertullian, does refer in his 'Stromata' to the fact that men were then trying to fix the day of Christ's birth. His language is: "There are some who overcuriously assign, not only the year, but also the day of our Saviour's nativity, which they say 443 was the 28th year of Augustus, on the 25th of Pachon (May).........Some say he was born in Pharmathi (April) the 20th or 21st day.' This is almost the only genuine passage of an Anti-Nican writer which can be supposed to allude at all to such a festival as that of the nativity; and even here we discover the indifference with which learned men treated any attempt to ascertain the day of the Saviour's birth. Indeed not a word is said about any festival, but only about the vain endeavour to fix the time when the word became flesh.' We need not point out, what has at once struck every reader, how completely at variance, as to the time of the year when Christ was born, are these ancient guesses, for they were evidently nothing more with the tradition that has positively declared that day to be the 25th of December. the The evidence is conclusive that the apostolic age, and the two centuries immediately succeeding, had no festival answering to our modern Christmas day. 'It was only,' says Schaff, at a later period that the church went from the centre of her faith, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, to the beginning of His theanthropic (God-man) life, and appointed a special feast for mystery of the incarnation.' The whole spirit of Christianity was opposed to the celebration of such a festival as a return to respect for days and months, times and years;' and had to meet at starting with the religious habit of the whole world then running strong in an opposite direction. The Jews, for whom had been appointed certain yearly festivals, as a means of public instruction and national union, and also, when books and the teaching were wanting, as a help to faith, now magnified these outward institutions as the substance of religion, and the signs of the favour of God toward them as a people. The pagans had also their religious festivals in honour of their gods. The origin of such a festival as Christmas may thus be easily discovered. The converts from Judaism and Paganism, under the pressure, sostom for our assertion about the of old and familiar systems of religion, and by the force of early education, aided by that fondness for ceremonial pomp which is common to the uneducated, sought to harmonize the spirit of Christianity with their previous religious forms and sentiments, and so borrowed the rites of Judaism, and even of Paganism, to represent Christian ideas. Sir Isaac Newton has given several examples of the last in his analysis of the early Christian calendars. The two equinoxes and the two solstices, which had long marked Pagan festivals, were appropriated to some of the Christian feasts. A saint's day was assigned to the entrance of the sun into each sign successively of the Judlian calendar; and if there were any other remarkable days in that calendar, they placed the saints upon them; as St. Barnabas on June 11, where Ovid seems to place the feast of Vesta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matula; and St. Philip and St. James on the 1st May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and the goddess Flora, and then celebrated with her rites. In some such way as this originated the festival of Christmas, coincident in time, and in many important features with the old Roman Saturnalia. The festival of Christmas was scarcely known in the Eastern church until nearly the close of the fourth century. There is indeed an incidental proof of its occasional celebration nearly a century earlier, if we take the testimony of Nicephorus, a writer of the fourteenth century; but so untrustworthy is that testimony that we may well doubt its accuracy. Diocletian, the Roman emperor, says Nicephorus, was keeping his court at Nicomedia, and being told that the Christians were assembled on this day in great numbers to celebrate Christ's nativity, ordered the doors to be shut and the church set on fire. More than six hundred perished in the burning pile. This was at the commencement of the tenth persecution, about 303. We have, on the other hand, the testimony of Chry later introduction of the festival of the nativity into the Eastern church. In a homily delivered at Antioch, on December 25, 386, he expressly says that this festival had first become known about ten years before In other homilies Chrysostom argues the propriety and importance of the festival, and in such a way as to show that not only the day of the nativity, but the festival itself was a subject of controversy in the Eastern church, and that the festival was generally regarded as an innovation. We have seen that the time of this festival could not have been determined by any historical data, nor by any uniform and reliable tradition. The day now uniformly observed was first designated at Rome-the centre of Paganism and carnality, of hero-worship and materialism-so late as the middle of the fourth century. The reasons for fixing the day as the 25th of December were chiefly these: first, a desire to avoid the multiplication of festivals about the vernal equinox; second, to appropriate to a Christian use the existing festival of the winter solstice-the Saturnalia; and third, to withdraw Christian converts from those Pagan observances with which the closing year was crowded. The result might have been foreseen. Paganism brought over its rites and mummeries into the observance of Christmas. The Saturnalia lived on under another name, except that the churches were crowded in the earlier part of the day, and by and bye on Christmas eve. Saturnalia was a time of riotous indulgence, feasting, and universal licence; its characteristic, not a solemn religious joy, but unbridled mirth. Public business was suspended. The greatest social intercourse prevailed. Slaves were permitted to come to the tables of their masters, clothed in their apparel, and waited upon by those whom they were wont to serve. Horace frames one of his satires upon this licence given to slaves, which he styles the freedom of December. Davus, his slave, using the licence Christmas and the old Roman Saturnalia. 445 or by a choice of beans or of straws, and did his utmost to promote lawless sports, whether in the house of king, noble, or peasant. Precisely in this manner a King of Sports' was chosen in the Saturnalia, even to the election of beans. In short, Christmas succeeded to Saturnalia and very plainly reproduced it. Old Puritan Prynne, in whose days the mummeries of Christmastide were carried to a high pitch, waxed warm at these imitations of the Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian festivals, and declares that their origin ought to cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them.' It is obvious then, from the testimony of reliable witnesses of the earliest ages, that the festival of Christmas is not of divine but of human appointment; and that its appointment took place in by no means the purest era of the church. of the Saturnalia, reads Horace a serio-comic lecture upon the follies of his life, representing him to be the real slave. In another satire the poet represents himself as having retreated to his Sabine farm from the uproarious excesses of the Saturnalia in the capital. Saturnalia re-appeared as Christmas. Hervey, in his 'Book of Christmas,' thus tells the tale of 'Merrie England in the olden time:' 'The peasant, and even the pauper, were made, as it were, once a year, sharers in the mirth of their immediate lord, and even of the monarch himself. The labouring classes had enlarged privileges during this season, not only by custom, but by positive enactment; and the restrictive Acts of Parliament by which they were prohibited from certain games at other periods, contained exceptions in favour of Christmastide. Nay, folly was, as it were, It may be urged, if the actual date crowned, and disorder had licence.' of the birth of Christ be not known, He then quotes a proclamation, per- and the fixing of the 25th of Decemhaps satirical, from a sheriff of York, ber be of purely Roman invention; wherein it is declared, that all and the rites with which Christmas thieves, dice-players, carders, &c., was associated in early times did and all unthrifty folke, be welcome resemble the old Saturnalia-is it to the towne, whether they came not advantageous that on some one late or early, att the reverence of day the thoughts of Christians should the high feast of Youle, till the be mainly turned to the contemplatwelve dayes be passed.' In this tion of the birth of the world's unbridled revelry of all classes the Saviour? To this we reply, first, Christmas of the olden time and the that any attempt to fasten on parRoman Saturnalia agree. ticular days special subjects for reThe hymns also sung through ligious thought, even though they be the streets of Papal Rome, and the so momentous as the Incarnation, is Christmas carol of Old England cor- certain to end in, and does commonly respond exactly to the hymn sung end in, the notion of special sanctity in praise of Saturn at his festival. connected with such celebration, The interchange of presents between (a fact of which there are thousands friends is alike characteristic of of instances to be found among Christmas and the Saturnalia, and worldly members of the Anglican must have been adopted by the church). And secondly, if such celeChristians from the Pagans, as the bration mean anything, it must admonition of Tertullian plainly mean this, that evidence is thus furshows. Christmas, like the Saturnalia nished of one's fidelity to Christ; was a festival for children, and cele- and yet, rightly considered it is brated by the special use of candles the least possible expression of and wax tapers. And finally, not fidelity one can give. If there be to multiply illustrations, a famous any advantage in such special refeature of Christmas anciently was, membrance, it ought not to be conthe choice of a 'twelfth night' king, fined to one day in the year, but or a king of misrule, to direct the should be of perpetual, nay, even of sports. He was chosen by a ring,daily occurrence. And lastly, such a special reference to the natal day of Christ, seems to degrade Him to the level of the world's heroes whom men are thus accustomed to honour. We would not be understood, however, to object to a religious observance of Christmas day by any who regard such a commemoration as a means of spiritual advantage; but only to contend that we who have commonly abstained from its observance think we have very good reasons for our conduct. It is rather to show that we have not taken up our position without considering its character that we have written, than from any desire to curtail the liberty of others. THE GLORY AND MAJESTY OF THE SON OF GOD. 'WHO being the brightness of glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High.' Hebrews i. 3. THE divinity of Christ is the golden thread that binds all the parts of this epistle together. This great doctrine underlies each argument and illustration. Assuming His divinity there are difficulties which we cannot solve: rejecting it, these difficulties augment, and the book itself becomes absurd. The text contains four great truths relative to the glory and majesty of the Son of God. His being and His relations declare that He was greater and more glorious than the sons of men. Let us notice I. HIS ESSENTIAL MAJESTY. 'Who being the brightness of glory. and the express image of His person.' The writer of this epistle begins by asserting the essential majesty and glory of the Son of God. His being is the basis of His becoming. The other parts of the description are grounded on this idea. 1. The brightness of glory. Light is an emblem of God. Of God invisible, and of God manifested in the flesh. God is light. 'I am the light of the world." 'The Son of God is in this, His essential majesty, the expression and the sole expression of the divine light.'Alford. Light has three noticeable qualities. It (2) Satisfies. Light satisfies the longings of the eye, and the inquiries of the mind. Christ is the only satisfaction to the immortal spirits. Without Christ there will be an eternal gnawing within. (3) Beautifies. Light paints all nature in colours of heavenly beauty: gilds the fleecy cloud, crimsons the rose, decks the lily, and colours the carpet of the earth. Christ gives moral beauty to character. His saints blossom like the lily and strike forth their roots like cedars of Lebanon. 2. The impress of His substance. This expresses a very subtle thought. The character of Christ was the impress of the character of God. The moral attributes of the eternal and invisible God were embodied and illustrated in the visible life of Christ. 'He who hath seen me, hath seen the Father. 'He was the image of the invisible God.' We may notice some of the lineaments of the divine character as illustrated by Christ. (1) Holiness. Christ was holy, harmless, separate from sinners. In Him was no sin. No spot was on His garments. His will lay in a paralleled line with the will of the Father. (2) Benevolence. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. The Son so loved the world that He gave Himself. (3) Compassion. Sympathy for |