Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-23
CHRISTMAS.

Matthew, 1-2l.
AS the day, set apart and hallowed for
centuries as the birthday of Christ, ap-
proaches, it is meet and proper that those,
who believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ,
should review his great work, and possess
an intelligent appreciation of the reason,
why she left the glory he had with the
Father before the world was" and took on
him the form of man. To those who be-
lieve none OF these things, and who have
no hope for the future. it might prove a
convenient season" to seek after God;
even in the darkness of unbelief they chap
ly may feel after him." for he is not far
from those who seek him.
Christ came to save msn from their 81 rs
because he was sent. "God sent not his
Son into the world to ondemn the world.''
Christ SAID. 81 came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the Will of Him that
sent ms" "The works that I do bear, wit
ness of me that the Father hath sent me-"
st. Paul said, because He hath ap-
pointed day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness, by that man
whom He hath ordained" Such is the uni
form testimony of the Bible. The prophets
foretold before Christ's birth, that God
would send deiiverer, who should save
his people by bearing their sins in his own
body On the tree.
How does Christ save men from their
sins? Did the agony in the garden the suf
ferings Of the judgment-hall, or the last
an bonr On ha RI
his first innocence? Will faith
in Christ give back to man the innocence
OF the old days in Eden when
God talked with them? There is no pos
sibility of such result. With sin came
the knowledge of good and evil, and that
knowledge cannot be lost until intelligence
is stricken from the world.
Within the walls of Eden man was NOR
tai, ignorant and innocent, with access to
the tree Of life; on the other side mortal
man was cut off from the tree of life by
the swords of cherubims bat possessed the
fruit Of the tree of knowledge.
If Christ did not come to restore Eden,
what was his mission? To ransom, to re-
deem man from the power of death. The
sentence against man was, "Thou shalt
surely die" When Adam gained tho
knowledge Of good and evil he lost access
to the tree OF Life, and from that time the
way Of humanity has led down TO the ''val-
ley and shadow of death"
By sin man did not lose heaven,
h3 had no heaven to lose.
He lost life. Spy sin came DEATH" There
: 10 in.imation in the Bible that man by
SHINING lost any thing but life. Before
the fall man could prevent corruption by
eating of the tree of Life, but after his sir,
God ordered him TO be driven away 'lest
he eat and live forever"
Christ saves his people firm their sins,
by saving them from the penalty OF sin.
Christ is not Restorer, but Rsdeemer,
Life giver.
How he performed his work, his disci-
pies have told. How angels heralded his
coming, and how star, emblem of hope,
appeared sin the East, over where the
young child was" They have told OF his
hunger, his WEAKNESS, of the buffetings of
his enemies and the betrayal of his
friends. They have told how he endured
every form of temptation; how he suffered
with the sorrowing, mourned
for the dead, and then
how he too like those he came, to save
passed under the power of death.
What did Christ say for himself? Not
once did ne tell his disciples that he had
come to opea the gates of heaven to them;
he never promised them a home in heav-
en-. The burden Of his teaching was, "Be-
lieve on Me and ye shall have ife." "Who-
soever will, let him take of the
waters of life freely" He said,
81 avn the Life" s'For as the Father hath
life in himself, SO hath he given to the Son
to have life in himself" His promise was
fundamentally. His threat was death.
AS surety of the truth of his promise he
declared, GAS live ye shall live ALSO"
Let Us for once put aside the doctrine
of inherent Immortality and contemplate
Christ in his great mission of bringing
life to the dead. Pardon for sin, desira-
bic as it seems now, would be valueless if
all ended with death. Paul wrote, "If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we
are of ell man most miserable"
If the sun were totally collapsed and the
earth left to darkness and desolation, the
situation would not be more appalling
than the state OF mankind without Sa-
vior. To live without hope, to endure all
the ills of life, aud then to return to dust,
surely "the game is not worth the candle"
The birthday of Savior, the bringing
in of i new hope, is tho day we celebrate.
1t is fitting that We should be glad and re-
joice, for he came to savs Us from de ath.
He has burst the bars of death; Es hiss
taken the prey from the mighty: :aa de-
livered tbs lawful Captive; she hiss
brought life anc mortality to light in the
gospel" How different is life now.
What are its sils, its sorrows, its WEAKNESS,
It's disappointments, when its brief hour,
its corruption and decay may merge into
immortal life with God and Christ. Death
may make our homes desolate, and the
hour is near when We too shall pass into
the 'breathless darkness of the narrow
house." but the Savior ''has pass
ed through its portals," and
he promised to bring his fol-
lowers from the dead. "Heaven and earth