The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-24
CHRISTMAS DISCOURSE
AT THE oaURcH OF THE MESSIAH
 BY THE PASTOR.

The Birthday Of Jesus-Ths Accepted Date
 -Intsresting Historical Points - The Spirit of ohristinas-iiow It Giaddens the
 Earth.
 The large audience which gathered at the Church of the Messiah yesterday were much pleased with the tasteful Christmas decorations which eclipsed those of former years. The service in
 the evening consisted of a Sunday school concert and was an occasion long to be remembered with pleasure. The children who participated did ex- cellently. In the morning Rev. W. F. Dickerman preached e Christmas ser mon. which was as follows:
 Text-Luke il:l H.
 The early Christians did not celebrate the birthday of Jesus because the date was unknown Even the writers of the gospels did not know when Jesus was born. Many dates, covering all the months of the year. were suggested as the probable time. All the evidence is against the 18th of December as the birthday of Jesus. It Is proper to ask. how did this date come to be adopted?
 Immediately following the conversion of Constantine, in the year 3l2. Chris tianity was proclaimed the state re- hgion of the Roman empire. It was not easy to abolish. at one stroke, the doc trines. forms and festivals of the an- cient heather religion. Hence Constan- tine, with characteristic diplomacy, pressed the heather rites into the ser vices of the new religion, leaving the feast days pretty much as they were. except that they were baptised with Christian names Let us notice how easy this transition from the old relig- ion to the new was. Take the resurrec- tion festival of the ancient religions celebrated at the time of the vernal equinox, when the new life of the sum- mer arose from the grave of winter, when the sun-god again ascended the heavens and ruled the earth anew, unlocking the ice-bound streams, and calling tree, shrub and blade to awaken with new life and beauty. No great violence was done by calling this Easter and introducing Jesus, the son of God, as rising from the dead, instead of the sun-god. The council of Nicea, in 325, had declared the doctrine of the trim ity to be orthodox, and having its analo- que in the heather religions. the new converts to Christianity found it easy to transfer their devotions from the demi-gods to the Divine Son.
 Passing by the Greek and Roman feast of Bacchus, god of the harvest, and the Jewish harvest feast, both of which coincided with the autumnal equinox. we come to the greatest of the Roman feasts, that of the winter solstice. The shortening of the days was construed as the loss of the suns life and power The shortest day, De- cember 21, marked the end of his reign. But the next morning the sun rose earlier and the days heightened. The heather imagined that the old sun died at the close of that short day, and new sun was born the next morning. In honor of this new born sun they held feast of seven days, and this was the greatest of all the Roman festivals. It lasted until December. .29,' and was de- voted to freedom and rejoicing. The debts of the poor were cancelled, prison- CTS were set free, wrongs righted, all distinctions of society obliterated and a week of brotherly love and philanthropy was ushered in. Now this happy day of the birth of the sum could npt easily be set aside. It represented the; heart life, the best life of the people and 1t had the sanction of the ages. The problem was not hard for the bishop of Rome. It was announced that Christ was born on the 18th of December! An appeal to the gospels showed that the Son of God brought peace on earth and good will to men-that 1t was He who set the captives free, forgave debts and pro- claimed the brotherhood of man. It was considered g. divine coincidence, and all that was needed to transmute this fes- tival into a Christieam feast was to change the spelling of s-u-n into, s-o-n. Then mass for Christ was celebrated, and the heather festival became Christ mas, by the edict of the Church of Rome in about the year $50 A. D. This date has been generally observed ever since, except by the Puritans who ab- hored its papal origin. This feeling had not s,ibsided fifty years ago, for 1t wal only since then that Christmas has received special attention in New England. But here 1t is upon us with all the insignia of joy, and we are call ed upon, as liberal Christians, to take some view of 1t. and in some rational sense make 1t our festival.
 We are glad that an old heather re- ligion could make SO rich a contribution of good will and fraternity to Christian ity,or rather to humanity; for Christiani- ty embodied these graces before, but it shows after all, how universal devout and generous sentiments are. This an- cient festival was born of the hearts of the people it grew out of the com mon soil of humanity. It-is worthy of perpetuation not so much on account of its name but because of the goodness at the bottom of 1t. which no one has the right to call ''heathen."
 In the spirit Of good will toward men we keep this day. We celebrated the advent of Him who above all others ,rta l,Io f., es,a sS1iA.s A1.i ...s,.,L