Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-12-26
THE ORIGIN OF TIE FESTIVAL.
Something Concerning the d ~ Of All Days
I'm the Year.

Concerning the d ~ Of All Days
in the Year.
There are some men in advance of
their age who had learned to think Of
the whole life of Christ in its unity as q
life for and with man. crowned by His
vicsrious death and resurrection. Iren.
eus in particular is worthy of special
and enduring the honor as the
first of the fathers to bring out the I'M
folding of all the stages Of human life in
Jesus Christ; and even though he had
never written another word than this,
he deserves to be immortal in the mem
DRY of the church for having said, 1.-THE
Son OF God became child among the
children in order that childhood might |
be made holy.
This sentence holds the heart Of
Christmas. But it was not until long
after it was uttered, it was not until the
latter half of the fourth century, that the
church at large began to feel and unfold
its meaning. Then it was that she
emerged from the storm of persecution
into the sunshine of imperial favor.
Then she saw that she had work to do
here on earth in the,,cleansinga and adorn-
ing of human life with the beauty ofhol-
mess. Then she realized that patient
ufiering and faithful death were not
the only duties of Christian, but that,
following God in love, it was possible to
begin in this world the purity and peace
of heaven. Then she began to feel the
wonderous significance ofthe living en-
trance of the Son of God into the life Of
man, and his perfect pattern of holiness
in every human relation. Then she
pass ed from the lower conception of a
church to be saved out Of the world, to
tie higher conception ola world to be
saved through the ministry of the church
Datural year to be transformed by rev.
erent devotion and wholesome piety in
! to the Christian year, redeemlDg life
as well as an atoning death of Christ, to
be preserved in living remembrance by
the perpetual commemoratiOn of its
chief events. Then it was that, opening
her heart to the humanity of religion, she
began to draw near to the humanity of
Jesus, and to seek with eager interest
| for the day of His birth that she might
| make it holy.
But what clew was there to direct the
search? What reason could be given for
choosing one day rather than another
for Christmas festival? The gospels, al
WAYS meagre in dates, were quite silent
here. They gave no hint of the day or
month of the Nativity. Oral tradition,
we may be sure, was equally reticent or
Indifferent. There were, indeed, few
scattering suggestions of the date of
Chirst's birth floating here and there
among the writings OF the fathers; but
these were all of late origin, manifestly
unhistorical, and, above all, quite con-
Trajectory. Clement of Alexandria said
that many Christians regarded the Goth
of Nav as the day of Nativity, others pre-
ferred the Goth of April, but he favored
the 10Th of November. In the Eastern
church the 9Th or 9Th OF January was
celebrated as the, date of Chirst's bap-
| tism, and the Nativity was joined with
this on no better ground than forced
Interpretation of Ezekiel, i. l-3, AS a
prophecy of the Incarnation, Others
again fixed upon the 2lst of March as the
day of Chirst's birth. Between such
varying and slightly supported assump-
lions there was little to choose. A his
torical date was clearly out of the ques-
ton. Nothing was left of the church to do
but to select some day on the ground OF
convenience and symbolic significance,
and celebrate it by common consent as
Christmas day.
It would take too long for ME to trace
The many reasons which probably led
J to the choice of the 18th of December. 1t
was doubtless connected by a process of
deduction with the day which had al
ready been generally accepted as the
common date of the annunciation and OF
the creation of the world. Assuming
that the world was made in the spring,
because it was commanded to bring
forth grass and herbs, and it was made
when light and darkness were equally
divided, because "the evening and the
morning were the first day." it was
natural, though somewhat naive, to fix
upon the vernal equinox according to
the Julian calendar, March 25) as the
, exact date of the creation. He who
could question the value of such q
straighttorwa ard and scriptural argument
as this must have had more logic and
less piety, and having discovered by an
easy method the very da, on which the
world came into being. and the glorious
light sprang out of darkness, what ls
more simple than to assume that 1t was
the same day on which the power OF the
Almighty overshadowed Mary, and the
day spring from on high began His en-.
trance into the world? Nothing could
be palmer. Even the least Imaginative
of chrongraphers could reckon forward
from this fixed point of the assumption
nine months, and arrive at December 70
as the day of the Nativity. And here
another wonderful coincidence meets
him. This is the day of the winter
solstice, the day when the worlds dark
J ness begins to lessen, and the worlds
light to grow, the day which the ancient
world had long celebrated as the birth.
day of the Son-dies aatalis soils invicti
what more appropriate day could be
found for the birth of the "Sun of Right.
eousness?" Behold, my brethren,
says St. Augustine, another instance Of
. the wondrous fulfillment of scripture
st. John the Baptist was born on June
, 25, the summer solstice, when the sun
, begins to decrease. The Lord Jesus is
born on December %. the winter solstice
when the sun begins to ascend. And IL
this is fulfilled the saying, He must In
crease, but 1 must decrease.
Does any disciple of modern criticism
sheer at this very simple exegesis? Doe:
he venture to think that the early Chris
tan may have been very pious, but must
have been even more foolish? Nay, my
, self-sstisfed but otherwise discontented
! friend, it is you who are foolish, when
you suppose that the early Christians
imagined that they were making history
or settling chronology as q science, by
these simple speculations. Other and
later commentators, the fathers Of the
lizard Church." like Archbishop Usher
may have thought their elaborate con
F illusions definite and exact. But in the
primitive age faith was less mathemat.
ical, and all that the early Christians
ever meant to do was to bind their devo