The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-26
CHRISTMAS AT TRINITY.
FINE SERMON By THE RECTOR
REV. DIR. BAKER.

Decorated.
a special Christmas sermon was held
in Trinity P. E. church yesterday
morning at 1880. the Rev. DR.. Baker
officiating. The church decorations
were unusually tasteful and were made
up largely Of Christmas wreaths and
Burmuda lilies. The former were
gracefully arranged around the arches
in front of the pulpit, while the altar
was set off by a green bank of ever
green with the white star of Bethel inn
bedded in the center. The following
programme was we'll rendered:
Morning 1890.
rocessiOnal-Hymnn 81. .MendelssOhn
Nenite-Chant ........ Steggall
Festival Gloria Patri ............ Mozart
lie Deum in G ....................Ca lkin
Jubilate in r fiat. Klein
Introir "Adeste Fideles." Arr Novello
hymn 64 NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Willis
Onertory .......... Vincent
Communion service in B fiat. .Agutter
Gloria in EXcelsis. Old Chant
ecessional-Hymnn $40 .... Gauntlet
The rector, Rev. DR.. Baker, preached
an eloquent sermon, text, The word
was made flesh and dwelt among us"
st. John I, part of 14th verse DR..
Bakers sermon in full was as follows:
The incarnation is the central truth
of Christianity. 1t is the great revela-
ton which Christianity has to give;
God manifest in the flesh; God come
to man in a form which man can see
and understand. On this Christmas
day when we come together to join
heart with heart in joyful praise to
God for sending His Son into the
world; it is especially fitting that We
should consider the truth of the Incar-
nation-its necessity: the manner in
which it came; the motive.
Mankind has continually striven af-
ter the knowledge of God. Men have
tried every means by which they
thought they might raise themselves to
that knowledge. They have built affairs
to the unknown god They have
planted the ladders of their intellect
firmly upon the earth and tried to
climb up to God; but have always
found their ladders too short, and have
been compelled to return to the earth
unsatsfied. What is God? What are
the ruling principles of His life? Is
He kindly disposed toward man? Can
attain unto Him? Or am l utterly
and forever separated from Him" Is
my life confined to few years here on
earth. or is it eternal? If eternal, what
will be its future conditions" These
and many other questions like them
filled the minds of the wise of all ages.
All men were asking these questions,
but who could answer them? All men
were seeking a revelation, but who
could give it? That was the question
which Jesus answered when He came
into the world. Il am the light of the
world" he said. Il am, the way, the
truth and the life. l and the Father are
one He that hath seen me hath seen
my Father also. Ye who are in search
for God; you who labor and are heavy
laden come unto Me-and I will give
you rest. Such were his answering
words And how many have been to
Him and found in Him the rest they
sought; the full revelation of God; the
satisfying of their souls!
The Incarnation was rendered neCes-
sary by mans sin. Sin is missing the
mark, sin is incompleteness. BY every
sin we commit we deaden the image
of God within us, all the higher in
stincts of the soul which point to Cod
and hence render it impossible to know
God by our unaided selves. We must
have God revealed to us. He is the
perfect life: and before we can live a
life approaching perfection We must
have a knowledge of His life, not SIM
ply as He governs the universe but as
He is, what God thinks and what He
feels Cor man.
AS a, child must have the life of some
man as a model by which to guide his
own actions before he can reach true
manhood; so must every man have the
true life revealed to him, before he can
make any part Of it his own.
But who can give us this revelation
of the perfect life of freedom, of the
life of God? Can man? No! man, the
best of men, can only partially reveal
God. But where should we look for
the perfect revelation? We can look
to God alone, for only God can reveal
God, as only man can reyea | man.
Hence the "word' which became flesh
and dwelt among us was God the Son.
Consider, now, the manner in which
this revelation came to man. In order
to be a revelation to man, 1t must be
in a form which man could understand,
not a few learned men, but all man
kind; the peasant as we'll as the King;
the fisherman as well as the phil0s-
opher; the child and the mother. 1t
must be a revelation which all can I'M
derstand, one written in human letters
of every day experience. 1t must also
be revelation set before us in a liv-
ing form, in order that we may have
it as the model for our lives. But we
have seen that only God could give it..
Only God can reveal God. How then
shall it be accomplished? The text
tells us. THE word" God, became
flesh and dwelt among U.S."
AS the teacher must adapt himself to
the comprehension Of his scholars and
use those illustrations and only those
with which they are familiar; so God
in Christianity came to man In the
nature of man, in order that He might
draw all men unto Himself.
We have oil wondered, no doubt, why,
l.