Mexico weekly ledger., 1888-12-27


date cannot we'll have been a mere
assumption, but must have had
some kind of tradition to support
it,"
st. Augustine says; "As the
church hath handed down, John
the Baptist was horn on tho sth
before the kalends of July, but the
Lord vas born ON the Sth before
the kaleuds of January.
st. C~hryrostom in II sermon
preached on the 25th of December
says; Ye may expect a worthy
reward of this your zeal from
Christ who to-day was born in the
flesh"
The early Christians had oppor-
tunities of examining the public
documents, which were kept in the
archives at Rome as to the date,
and what do we find?
First. Justice Martyr in the
years 40 and Ill refers Anto-
MUS Plus and the Roman Senate to
the Roman Archives. He says /:
''There is in Judea a village dis
tant 35 stadia from Jerusalem in
which Christ was born as We may
learn from the enrollments COM
pleted under Cyrenius."
Second. In the reign of Commo-
dus QS0-192) as the Presbyterian
Chambers says: "Traces of Christ
mas are found" Third. In the
year 200 Tertullian, writing against
Marcion, says: FINALLY, con
corning the census or enrolment of
Augustin which the Roman Ar
chives preserved as a faithful
witness to the Lords nativity"
In the reign of Diocletian 2S4-305,
while that monarch was holding
court at Nicomedia, he learned
that a multitude of Christians were
assembled in the city to celebrate
the birth day of Christ ordered the
| Church doors closed and the build
ings set on fire.
Then coming down to modern
| scholars and historians we find such
cautious scholars as DIR. Campion,
F. @. c. c., and Rev. w. J. Bea.
mont, S. F. T. c. c. saying: "a
festival of the incarnation was held
from the earliest times" DR..
Jarvis in his chronology Church Of
the Redeemed) has settled the
question from the Roman archives
and DR.. Mahan in his "Science O.
Numbers has proved by mathe.
NAUTICAL computation that the 25tl
of December was the birthday OF
Christ, and as many of you readers
may be interested IN seeing how
the scriptural and mathematical ar
guments meet and center on the
18th day of December. I appene
a letter on the subject by the Rev
w. P. Ten Brock, of La Crosse
Wisconsin Reckoning from
Tisri LIST, B. c. 536, and allowing o
a suspension of 11O5 days unde
Antiochius Epiphanes, Zecharia
went on duty Aug. Oath. B. c., 9
Also reckoning backwards from
June q, A. D. SO, the time whel
Josephus says the sacrifices ceased
and accepting the statement of tn
Talmud that "Jolarib'' or 9Th
first course" was on duty then, pre-
cisely the same result is reached
By divers other clues l have shew.
lin a pamphlet he raj publishing
that our Lord was born Decembe
) 18th, B. C. s, SO that the argumen
} is perfect"
What Constitutes a Word?
To the Editor of the Ledger.
, MEXICO, Mo-, Dec. 26.-Ther
, are in the English dictionaries Gel
tain characters called letters, whic
= are not as widely understood to b
= words but Webster distinct
says A is a word and Worceste
Y gives a marked A as the characte
or letter designating the word A
1t may also be taken for granite
) that few that have given an
thought to this subject doubt thu
! the pronoun l and the interjectio
/ o are words. So much therefor
may be regarded as settled. b,
s what of the other letters? Wei
ster gives the following definitio
S of a word : San a~rticulate or voc;
sound, or a combination of artlcl
< late or vocal sounds uttered by til
Y human voice and by custom e.
r pressing an idea or ideas /; a sing
component part of human speec
d or language +; the letter or %..lettel
n written or painted which represel
a sound or combination of sounds.
And again, he defines a letter
"a mark or character writer
e printed, engraved or painted, use
It as the representative of a sound
of an articulation of the huma
organs of speech. By sounds ar
y calculations or closures of the O
h gans are formed syllables al
words. Hence, a letter is the fir
# element of written language, or
n simple sound is the first eleme:
of spoken language or speech.
sounds are audible and commur
e cate ideas to others by the ear,
letters are visible representative
e of sounds and communicate Il
ill., L. 20 81