St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-25
CHRISTMAS.

AS far as scholars have been able to
determine, the celebration of Christ's
birth, on the particular day honored
for that purpose. rests on no very salts
factory historical evidence. We really
do not know the day or the month in
which the Savior of the world was born,
nor for that matter has there been any
great certainty until very modern times
abont the year in which the event took
place. A good many considerations con-
spired to make the early church select
the 25th of December as the date TO be
for all ages thus observed, and very
probably the traditions then prevalent
on the subject were not the weightiest
incentives to lis decision. From time
beyond memory the Roman world had
made of December month of feast
ing and festivities, when license
was freely accorded for indulgeuces
and excuses of every sort. The
new faith fighting against custom and
long-established habits, would have
made but difficult progress had its in
spired leaders been less wise in dealing
with the admitted laws of human nature.
And so in this instance, instead of
stamping out and destroying the Satur-
MALTA whose coming was looked forward
to and welcomed even by the regener-
ate, out of this pagan orgy they devel-
Oped and refined Christmas day. The
JOY and the cheer of the midwinter cele-
bratiOn was preserved, but its coarse
ness and debaucheries Supplanted by
the simple and wholesome pleasures
which survive even to our day. The
December holiday owes its origin thus
not only to the belief of the Christian
fathers, gained from some source, that
at this season was Christ born, but also
to their desire to accomplish a great
social reform by employing the machin-
cry devised by pagan priests for the
glory of God and the commemoratiOn of
his goodness to men.
These thoughts are not very impor
tant, however, because it is the event
and not the day which kindles anew
each year gladnesS and rejoicing in
the hearts of mankind. Over other feat
ureS of the Christian year there is
much.confuSion of feeling abroad in this
age of intellectual unrest and skepti-
cism. Many honest minds revolt at
some of the tragedies which the church
makes much of and seek in vain for an
explanation which will reconcile their
Inherited faith with their reason. PeO-
pie who in their own experience have
learned to idealize gentleness and
mercy find it frequently very hard to
sympathize, for example, with the con-
ventional theory of atOnement They
are reluctant to conceive of God as de-
handing the sacrifice of his sons life
for the salvation of mOrtals, and in as
far as they are Christians, they try to
dismiss from their thoughts a belief
which imputes to the King of the Uni
verse cruel passions and blood purposes
inconsistent even with the standards of
an humble and cropping human beng So
again in many of the other ideas which
have been cryStalIiZed into the body of
contemporary theology there are ele-
mentS distasteful to those who reflect
and disappointing to those who would
stand fast by the Gogmas which have
been handed down from of old.
In response to such views much
change and readJustment of beliefs are
taking place among Christian teachers,
and we read of trials for hereSy and of
radical opinions on important questions
advanced by men educated after the
conventional methods, but who have
outgrOwn the lessons they there learned.
One son OF the church prOclaims his in
dependence of the traditional concep-
ton of hell, another says that he can no
longer subscribe to what CALVIN
taught as to predestinatIOn, and a third
develops for himself an original inter-
probation of the mysteries of the atone
ment. The quiet waters of faith on
which our fathers sailed have been
lashed into a SETTLING sea where crafts
of many shapes and designs float
hither and thither with uncertainty at
her helms. Out of all this will be born =,
in the time to come, new tranquility;
but for the present there prevail con-
fusion, doubt and uprOar. One article
of the Christian creed alone remains
untouched by all this contemporary
rudeneSS and viOl ence of method, and
that is the one uppermost in a myriad
of minds today. There is no room for
wrangling or debating about the lOwly
cradle of the young child; and even
those who have no faith i'll anything
else draw inspiration from the contem-
plation of Jesus in the mauger, born to
be the light of the world.