The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-12-27
DIR. TALMAGE
breaches GIN RESPECT OF A
HOLY DAY."
Christmas tho Greatest Day of All That 10 to
BE Found in the Calendar-A Review
of the Great Events of the Bible.

sermon preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage
this morning, was of character especlal-
ly appropriate to the holiday season, and
was listened to with rapt attention by an
audience that crowded the tabernacle. Be
fore beginning his discourse, the preacher
gave out the opening hymn:
JOY to the world, the Lord hath come.
Let earth receive her king.
The text selected was, .Colossians 2, 16:
''In respect C holy day"
What the Bible here and elsewhere calls
a holy day, We by change of one letter and
change of pronunciation, call holiday. But,
by change of spelling and accentuatic1,
we cannot change the fact that holidays
have great significance. AS long as the
world stands, Christmas day and New
Years day, and Easter day will be charged
and surcharged with solemn suggestiveness
and holy mirth. Whether you take the old
style of my text and call them holy days
or the modern style and call them holidays,
they somehow set all my nerves a-tlngle
and my deeper emotions into profoundest
agitation. l am glad that this season we
have the holidays completely bounded. For
years Christmas day, starting i'll the midst
of one week. and New Years day, starting
i'll the midst of another week, we have been
and when they ended, and perhaps we may
have began them too soon or continued
them too long But, this year they are
bounded by two beaches of gold Sabbath
December %. 1892. and Sabbath, January
1. 1893. The one Sabbath this year COM
memorateS the birth of the greatest being
that ever walked the EARTH the other cele
brates the birth of that which is to be one
OF the greatest years of all time. The one
day supernatural because of an unhinged
star and angelic doXOiOgy, and the other day
natural, but part OF Il procession that start
ed with the worlds existence and will 60 on
until the world Is burned up; both the first
and last days of these holidays coming in
with Sabbatical splendor and solemnity,
and glrdling all the days between with
thoughts that have all time and all eternity
III their emphasis. How shall we spend
them! AT haphazard and without special
direction, and they leaving, as they go away
from us, physical fatigue and mental ex-
haustiOn, the effect OF late hours and reck-
lessness of diet, adding another chapter
10 the moral and spiritual and eternal dis
aSterS, which have resulted from mispent
holidays Oh, no. \ stout and resounding
no. for all the eight days.
propose that we divide this holiday sea-
son, the two Sabaths of the holiday and
the six days between, into three chapters
Ihe hrst part of a chapter of an illustrIvus
birthday; the second part a chapter of annual
decadence; the third part a chapter of
chronological introduction.
First, then, chapter of illustriOus birth
day Not Il dag of any year but has been
marked by the nativity of some good or
great soul Among the discoveries the birth
day of Hunbot was September 14th and
of David Livingstone, March 10Th. Among
aStronome. s. the birthday of Isaac Newton
was December 20tn and Herschel Novem-
Der 18th. among orators the birthday of
Cicero was January Sd and of Chrysostom
January 18th. Among prison reformers, the
birthday of John Howard was September "a
and of EhzabetA Fry May LIST. Among
March 18th and If Michael Angelo March
9th. Among st:trsmen, the birthday of
Washington was February 22d, of Hamil-
ton May lot. and of Jefferson April I'd.
among consecrated souls. the birthday of
Lucretia Alott January Sd and of Isabella
Graham July 18th. But what are all those
birthdays compared with December 25th,
for on or about that day was born one who
eclipsed ali tn, great names of all the
centuries Jesus Of Bethlehem. Jesus of
Nazareth. Jesus of Golgotha. Jesus of
Olivet, Jesus OF the heavenly throne? The
greatest pictures have been made about
scenes in His lifetime. The greatest sac
riiices on field CT battle or in hospital or
on long march Or ii martyrdom have been
inspired by His self abnegation. The finest
words of e.oquence ever spoken have ut
tered i'll the proclamation of His gospel The
GrandeSt orators that Nave ever rolled
from orchestra" were descriptive of His
life and death TT ere have been other or
oratorios put none like Him who 'spake as
never man spake There has been other
reformers but none like Him who VIII not
have complete. his mission until the last
prison is ventilated and the last blind eye
opened and the last deaf ear unstopped and
the last lame foot bounds Ike a roe and
ST ga n. 6pmpntj1 shall q Its
right mind. There have been other dis
coverers but none like Him, able to find
how man may be just with God. There
have been othe. deliverers. but none like
Him, the rescue, of nations. There have
been other painters, but none like Him
who put the image of God on a lost soul.
No wonder we celebrate His birth, Pro
teJtant church, Catholic church, Greek
church, st. lsaac's of St Petersburg, st
Peters at Rome the Madeleine at Paris,
lean cathedrals and churches and logcabin
meeting houses ard homes i'll keeping this
pre-eminent britt festival.
Elaborate aud prolonged efforts have been
made to show that the star that pointed
to the ma, ger III which Christ was born
was not what it appeared to be, but a
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.
Our wise men Ct the west say that the
wise men OF tn east were mistaken.
Astronomers, YOU know, cancalculate
backward IT'S Wen as IOTWdTu, anu lUtt
can tell what will occur a hundred years
from now among the heavenly bodies, so
they can accurately calculate backward
and tell what occurred eighteen or nineteen
hunded years ago. And it is true that sew
en- years before Christ in Chaldea, about
three hours before day dawn, there was a
conjunction Of Jupiter and Saturn. Stand
ing in Jerusalem and looking over toward
Bethlehem those two stars would have
seemed to hang over that village, and it is
suggested by learned professor that the
magi may have had weak eyes, SO that the
two stars may have looked like one. In
order to take everything supernatural out
of the story, we have to blind the eyes Of
the magi and introduce second star TO
help out the idea of the one star. But /
prefer the simple story of the Bible, that a
light of some kind-stellar meteoric-
pointed from the sky to the straw-cradie.
| When it is so easy for God to make a world
| that he puts eighteen million of them within
| one sweep of the telescope, he could certain
| ly afford one sivery or fiery signal of some
! kind to point the world to the place where
| the sovereign of the universe lay incarnat-
ed and infantie. If God could afford to
| make an especial earthquake at the cruci-
! fixion (the aslant rocks on Mount Calvary
| still showing that there was a CONFUSION of
nature at that particular spot which was
| felt in none of the surroundings then he
| cnu11 affOrd something unuSual Something