The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-01-29
TIE DATE OF TIE NAr1HIr1.


It would be satisfactory, and posi-
by might be useful, to the religious
world to know for certain that the day
on which it celebrates the birth of the
Redeemer actually is entitled to the
distinction whaeh@ makes Dec 25 the
great festival lay Of all the year. But
while average humanity mall civilized
countries wilIusuAlly ignore this moot.
ed question, in It's greater desire to
commemorate the event itself, there
have been those who, looking back as
'fsr as they could into the mist Of the
learIy centuries, have been compelled 20
admit the vague and traditional title
winch Dec. Is has to the high honor it
enjoys. 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 6 Book of Days." that long
before the reign of Constantine,
in the fourth century, the season of
the New Year had been adopted for
celebrating the Nativity, though diff
ference 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 appears to
have been the act of Julius l., who
presided as Pope or Bishop of Rome,
from 337 to $50 A. D. Chrysostom, in
one of his epistles, states that Julius,
on thessolicitation of Cyril, of Jerusa-
lem, caused strict inquiries to be made
on the subject, and thereafter, follow
ing what seemed to be the best anthem
ticated tradition, settled authoritative
II the 25th of December as the ami
versary of Christ's birth, making it, in
Chrysostom's phrase, Fastoruno ons-
MUM metropolis, the metropolis of all
the feasts, and this distinction it has
since maintained.
Other, authority, of doubtful value,
however, represents the fixing of the
day to have been accomplished 200
years previous to Telephorus, who was
Bishop of Rome 128-139 A. D. And
toward the close of the second century,
in the reign of the Emperor Ccmmodus,
q reference has been found to the OBJ
servance of Christmas. A century
later, in the time of Diocletian. 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 s>arring every means of .egress from
the building, caused the agonizing
death of every worshiper. It will be
seen from the statements made that,
while no record exists whereby to fx
with certainty the date of the Savior's
birth, the day we now call Christmas
has for at least fifteen hundred years
been uniformly observed by all the ma
tions of Christendom as the anniver-
sary of the Nativity. And it would be
a libel upon humanity to doubt that,
unless future research shall stamp upon
some other day the certainty of being
the true anniversary of the Savior's
birth, the world and the church will
always continue to hold consecrate the
25th of December as commemorative of
that momentous event.-NeaO York
E'Uening MasE.