The record-union., 1897-01-03
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various RELIGIOUS
newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

merely by the cynic who either fears or
sneers at everything, or the pessimist
who believes that all things are going
the wrong way, but by the most ardent
lovers of Christmas festivities, who at
the same time revere the name and the
mouse Of the Lord-that the worship of
santa Claus ObScureS or diminiSheS the
alteration due to the Son of God In di-
recting attention to this tendency we are
oppressed with the fear that some may
suspect forgetfulness of the children and
of their joys. Santa Claus is a Dutch
name for st. Nicholas. We do not object
to the alteration of Santa Claus in the
very earliest years of childhood, and
firmly believe that Christmas should be
the most delightful day of the year in
the home, but fear that the Santa Claus
epidemic has become far too costly as
we'll as too distracting. The hearts of
parents are grieved because they can
not make their children equal those
of their Wealthier neighbors, and men
whose rent is behind feel as the time
comes that they must give as good pres
ents as before. The competition of
Sunday-school operates in the same
way. As soon as possible the child
should be undeceived as to the Santa
Claus legend, and it should be done be-
fore the child is fully old enough to rea
son. That tale seems to US pathetic of
the little girl who, when her mother
thought the time had come to tell her
that she was now in earnest and that
the real Santa Claus was her papa, sat
for a long time silent, in deep thought,
and then, while her lip quivered, and
with fearful eyes, she cried out, oh,
mamma, you have not told me story
about Jesus Christ, have your"
I'VE hear much of the divinity that
is in men," says the New York ''Out-
look" But this coming of Christ to
the earth reveals something beside that;
it reveals what DR.. Van Dyke has we'll
called the human life of God 1t shows
I'm God himself a humaneness that links
Him to US. and SO links US to Him. To
say that God made man in his image is
also to say that God is in mans image.
If the babe is the image of his father,
then the father is like the babe. This
truth is implied in our faith in the In
finite and the Eternal; a humanity so
He can lay aside all wondrous power, all
marvellous wisdom, empty Himself,
beggar Himself to use PauFs figures,
and come and dwell man among men,
and still be the essential God. For the
essential in God and the essential in man
are one; and though the one circle be
infinite and the other finite, the center of
both is the same. There is not a little
child to-day that, when he thinks of
God, may not think. of him who played
on the earth a little boy, who longed for
education but could not have it, and
who went home with all those supernal
aspirations stirring in him, to be obedi-
ent to a peasant mother, and in that
very act of obedience to love revealing
the heart of the Almighty and the
Eternal 1t is not strange that men
doubt the incarnation; it is rather
strange that they believe it; believe
that the Infinite and the Eternal, He
who launched the worlds upon their
courses and holds them in their places
that He is so human that He has been
able to walk the world as man seen of
men, and handled of men, and talked
with by men, Do any Of us really be-
human life of God?"
Because we believe that God is a
Person it is not necessary to infer that
we conceive Of Him as a great man.,
says the Interior CPres.) of Chicago,
land that we do not do so should be
readily inferred from the doctrine of
the Trinity. We do not profess to know
anything about the personality of God.
We know that he reveals himself as
tri-personal, and that as such he is the
Father, the Redeemer and the Sancti-
fer But his infinite attributes, we fully
confess. are all beyond our comprehen
sion We do not know how he can oe
omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent;
and no created intelligence ever can
know, because it would require the pos
session of these attributes in order to
comprehend them But we are given,
and can enjoy, the faith that there are
no limitations upon his knowledge and
power TO US ward; that we can approach
him with the same love and confidence
which we have for, and in, very goodly
earthly father; that we can place our
selves confidently in his hands as our
Redeemer, and that we can ask him for
guidance and enlightenment and for
moral and spiritual publication and up
lift. as our Sanctifier. This gives us
home with and in God-shelter and
safety. Having these gwe are not dis
eoura eed nor distressed because we can
NOT comprehend Him, nor understand
His glorious manifestations in revela-
tion. nature, and providence. 1t is only
of late that science has taught us some
thing about the constitution of the sun.
and Of the means by which he reaches
ms with his beams; but men basked in
them. and enjoyed their bounties upon
the fruitful earth, as happily before
science disclosed these mysteries as they
do now. We can reply to inquiries about
cd bxy answering that we do not know.
ord vet have in certainty the fact more
;,,nortant to us than all other facts.
,ybich enables us TO say: know that my
Redeemer liveth."
..T-7,e bnsiness of devoting special sun
aa,.s to snecial causes in which min
ieters are requested 10 present a certain
line of thought is being grossly over
,aCre - remarks the ''Watchman' CBapp
&c poston. IF the ministers heed all OF
tbeea requests their sermons are princi-
,ouv devoted to the presentation OF
.o.,,-os,, The causes are all deserving
- .a1ote 10 matters in which the peo-
- ebo,,Id take a warm interest. bu1
- ,reacbing Of the Gospel IS also an
.-,>d,.+a,t matter for the Christian MIN
..to hi