Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1874-02-03
TaE Date OF THE NATIVITY.

II would be satisfactory, and possibly
,,;gbt be useful to the religious world to
Nv for certain that the day on which it
,sIebrates the birth of the Redeemer
.,,rslly is entitled to the distinction
,rbieh makes December 25th the great
sssfiyal day of all the year. but while
s,srage humanity in all civilized coun-
,ries will usually ignore this mooted
Ine,tion, in its greater desire to CON-
,namorate the event ITSELF there have
beeu those who, looking back as far as
they could into the mists of the early
centuries, have been compelled to admit
the vague and traditional title which De-
cember 25th has to the high honor it
epioys. In the earliest periods at which
We have any record of the observance Of
Christmas. we find that some communi-
ties of Christians celebrated the festival
on the 1st or 9th OF January; others on
the 29th of March, the time of the jew
ish Passover; while others, it is said,
observed it on the 29th of September, or
Feast of Tabernacles. There can be no
doubt" =" says Chambers, in his Book of
DAYS, "that long before the reign of Con-
,tanine, in the fourth century, the season
Of the new year had been adopted for cele-
brating the Nativity, though difference
in this respect existed in the practice Of
the Eastern and Western Churches, the
former observing the 9th of January, and
the latter the 25th Of December. The
custom Of the Western Church at last
prevailed, and both Of the ecclesiastical
bodies agreed to hold the anniversary on
the same day, The fixing Of the date ap.
pears to have been the act of julius l.,
Who presided AS Pope or Bishop of
Rome, from 337 to 352 A. d. Chrysos-
tom, in one of his epistles, stntes that
julius, on the solicitation of Cyril of Je-
r1salem. caused strict inquiries to be
made on this subject and thereafter, fol-
lowing what seemed to be the best au-
thenticnted tradition settled authorita-
lively the 25th of December as the ami
ysrsary of Christ's birth, making it. in
Chrysostom's phase. Festornn omni,m
metropolis, the metropolis Of all the feasts
and this distinction it has since msin-
toined.
Other authority, Of doubtful value,
however, represents the fixing of the day
to have been accomplished 200 years pre-
yionsly by Telephorus. who was Bishop
"a 1Npiut I-D-ioO u. huu lOWdIub
tue close of the second century, in
the reign of the Emperor Commo-
ius, reference has been found
to the observance of Christmasr
century later, in the time of Diocle.
tan, the celebration of the Nativity by
the Christians in Nicomedia was made
the occasion of an atrocious act Of
cruelty on the part of that infamous
ruler, in that he caused the church in
which the festival occurred to be set on
FIRE, and by barring every means of
egress from the building, caused the
agonizing death of every wor,hiper. 1t
will be seen from the statements made
that, while no record exists whereby to
hx with certainty the date of the
Saviour's birth, the day we now call
Christmas has for at least fifteen hun
dred years been uniformly observed by
all the nations of Christenaom as the
anniversary of the Nativity. And ii
would be libel upon humanity to
doubt that, unless future research shall
stamp upon some other day the certainty
of being the true anniversary of the
Saviour's birth, the world and the
Church will always continue to hold con
secrate the 25th of December as com
memorative of that momentous event
IN. Y Evening Mail.