The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-01-11
For the Central PresbY terian.
The Birth of Jesus and Faith in
Our Day.


Its distance lends enchantment to the view,
And clothes the mountain in its azure hue"
But distance, so far from being always
delusive, is very often the indispensable
condition of true and adequate cognition.
To contemplate an edifce, you must seek
point, distant from the object proper
tionately to its size and your power of
vision. The same is true of pictures and
Statuary. The distance, at which the
painters or the sculptor's work is to be
seen, is very important consideration
for him in producing it, and must be
found by the connoisseur, in order that
his impression of it may be Just. When
the object to be viewed is a mountain, if
there is a distance, which lends enchant-
ment, there is also distance absolutely
necessary to secure true knowledge.
AS distance of space is required for the
true presentation of works of art and of
nature to the eye, so also, distance OF
time is necessary for the full presentation
of historical events to the mind. But in
the one class of cases, distance is demand
ed by the laws of bodily sight, in the
other, by considerations not at all analo-
gous to those. Here it is the condition
sine qua non, of the minds being freed
from the hindrance of mere animal feel
ing, and of selfish passions, and, of what
most appertains to our present purpose,
the manifestation of causal property or
power. In history an event is always
force or influence. Hence to be duly i'm
pressed upon us, or to be really known
by us, it must have manifested itself to
us. 1t may, indeed, become in a sense
known to us by testimony; but the
knowledge thus impaired must be very
different from that of one who has con
templated the accomplished results of the
object. We're you to show to the inhab-
liant of some barren isle of polar seas, an
acorn, and tell him of its nature, he would,
if he believed you, get some knowledge
OF the wonderful germ, from your instruc-
ton; but he could neither believe nor
learn, while his observation is only that
of treeless ice, as he would, were mighty
oak before him, and, be able with GER
talnty to trace its existence back to iden-
tity with the parent seed. 1t is involved
In this difference of the reasons for the
necessity of distance in the two classes
of cases, that while there is limited dis
lance at which works of nature and art
must be seen-beyond which, they can
not be seen at all and nearer than which,
they cannot be seen aright-the Law in
reference to historical events is, that pro-
vlded you can trace the connection of in
fuence between any given event and the
present. then the greater your distance
from the time in which it occurred the
better you can apprehend its nature.
Applying this simple principle to that
birth, which, having taken place in the
reign of Augustus Cesar at the time of
the first enrolment made when Cyrenius
was governor of Syria, was the introduce
ton among the forces of the world of
germ which has been manifesting itself
ever since, and, which though SO small in
its beginning within the tremendous or
ganism of the Roman empire, yet has
burst that world bestriding giant to
atoms, and fourished above the frag-
ments of its destruction-we who live in
this year of our Lord 1882, are in a posi-
ton more favorable to the belief of what
the apostolic Church has ever taught
touching the nature of that event, than
was that of any generation who have pre-
coded u.s.
w nave OAOSlJ upOu IGduluR LUKE
account of the infancy of Jesus, supple
mented by that Of Matthew, wondered
whether Mary, when she wrapped her
first born in swaddling clothes and laid
him in manger, knew that he was her
Creator as well as her son? whether the
shepherds recognized the babe, whom
they were sent by the angels message to
find, as the thrice holy Jehovah OF Isaiah s
temple vision and whether, when the
Magi worshipped the young child, with
prostration, and gold, and frankincense,
and myrrh, their souls rendered the hom-
age which the apprehension of the infinite
Is necessary in order to educe, or only,
such reverence as was wont to be paid to
the heir of an eastern throne? 1t is plain
that Joseph, and all those referred to-
recognized in this birth very much that
was supernatural but is it certain that
their thought reached unto the stupen-
dous fact Of the incarnation of God in
that infant of days before their eyes, and
in their hands?
Be that as it may, most assuredly when
John, between seventy and eight-fve
years after the events, recorded in the
second chapter Of the gospel according to
St. Luke had taken place, penned the
first paragraph Of his memoir of Jesus, he
had not the shadow of a doubt that the