The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-01-10

Christ Is born, the great anointed,
Heaven and earth, His praises sing,
oh receive whom God appointed,
For your Prophet, Priest and King.
Another poet describes it thus:
ain the holy hush of twilight,
On that morning long ago,
Bent host of angels wandering,
Gazing on n son below;
In II manger 10 n stranger,
Saw thee lying cyadled low,
Prince of glory, strange, strange story,
Was He lying there so low;
Yet, of all who sang this prises,
On that morning long ago,
None could do Him greater homage
Than our hearts that love Him so;
Hail TO Thee, dear infant Savior,
Lord of all and Prince of Peace,
Take our hearts and rule within us,
Till all sin and strife shall cease"
1t is our custom to celebrate great
events in our history, as n nation, to
perpetuate their memory and to en-
kindle in our hearts the Spirit of
patriotisms and gratitude for blessings
received. For example, we celebrate
the 4th Of July as The day OH which
our iorefathers proclaimed our nation
al independence. This was followed
by long and bloody struggle for the
independence and liberty which we
today emmy. But He, whose advent
we this day celebrate, came TO deliver
us, and all man kind from a bondage
fare more terrible than that which
oppressed our fOrefathers in the DAYS
of the revolution, and against which
they protested, pe,itioned struggled
suffered and fought until victory
punched upon their banners. But
the kingdom which our Lord came to
es tablish was not II temporal, but
spiritual one. A kingdom of love
and truth to be built up and estlb.
lished in the hearts and lives of all
who will accept Him as their King
and by his Divine help live according
TO the precepts of HIS word.
To show the sad condition of our
race at the time of his advent, the
Scriptures declare that cit was in
state of bondage to sin, The souls
and in many instaces the bodies of
men were possessed by evil spirits.
The worship Of God was entirely
formal and external and devoid ofall
Spiritual lite, while the Priests and
Rtbbi were most scrupuously exact in
all the outward rituals or forms Of
their worship so much - that our
Saviour compared them to whilei
sepulcher all beautiful without. but
within, full Of dead mems bones and
To NIL uncleanness. They did not
perceive o. make any distiction be-
tween the natural and spiritual man.
The natural and spiritual birth-the
birth OF the soul into higher life
and when our Savior told Nichodemus
of the necessity Of this birth he mar.
veled greatly and asked how that
could be, ard although he was sup.
Posed to know aud understand the
teachings Of the scriptures, yet he
had np conception Of the real nature
of that kingdom which the Masiah
came 10 establish and the Jews only
looked to Ills advent as me who was
to deliver them from the Roman yoke
and TO establish a universal Empire
To which all men should pay tribute
and it has been said lhst at the time
of Ills advent that our forefathers in
s"me Of the European countries were
ntierin9 human sacrifses. Had lie
not come as our redeemer and Savior.
what pen could portray, what tongue
could describe, what would have been
the sad condition Of our race todayg
Had lie not c0me there would have
been M new testament Scriptures-no
churches, no SABBATH schools. NO
missions aud even the old testament
which contains the propbesies in rela.
ton 20 Ills advent aud Kin gdom
would have been rejected az false and |
untrue together with the precepts Of
the decalngue and all our civil laws
based upon the precepls Of the Bible /
aud thus tent 10 the best ialeresis
peace and happiness Of socieiy would
have BEEN unknown or disregarled