Omaha daily bee., 1902-12-22
LEGENDS OF THE NATIVITY
Subject Of Discourse Of Rev, N. N, Mann At
Unity Church.
DRAWS LINE BETWEEN REAL AND UNREAL
says Points of Historic Reality DO
Not Belong 60 Christmas, But IL f.
Time for and Gem
erous Sentiment.

-. @ANAIo
Mann took az his text yesterday morning
the stories told in the gospels Of the birth
Of Christ.
ITO begin with" said the preacher, at
Is notable that anything should be said
in these stories Of the subjects birth.
Biographers usually content themselves
with merely giving the date. But the date
in this case is precisely what the gospel
writer's have neglected to give. They do
not tell us the day or the month, or even
the year Of Jesus birth. nor do they con-
meet It with any public event by which the
date can be satisfactorily determined. This
is more remarkable from the fact that two
Of them profess to give us His genealogy
through forty-two generations. The birth
day Of Christ was fixed in the sixth CEN
fury by the authority OF the Monk Diony-
sius Exiguus. In the year he appears to
have made a considerable error; as to the
day, he was doubtless guided by the Gus
toms Of the Roman church to celebrate
Christmas on December rs, chief Of the
Roman holidays from time immemorial.
THE authors Of the second and fourth
gospels, knowing nothing Of the date, nat
urally pass over the whole matter and in
troduce Jesus to us on the eve of His en-
trance upon His public work. The other
two gospels have each their bits Of curious
story in reference to the nativity. In Luke
we have the highly wrought picture Of the
angel announcing to the shepherds the birth
Of Jesus.
The Region of U~nreaIity.
"a universal literary canon Of Judgment
remands any representation in which an
gels play a part to the region OF unreality,
the land Of visions and dreams. Unhap-
PLY the absurd method in vogue in inter-
preting scripture rules this canon out, and
the question is forced point blank on this
and other such stories: Are they true as
statements OF fact? For my part l hardly
know how patiently to meet so stupid a
proceeding. i have the same feeling as IL
one should press me to say whether 1 be-
lieve the story of the Cyciops in the
Odyssey Both are fine as poetical con-
ceptions, representing notions Of the uni
verse current in their day, but not to be
taken historically any more in the one case
than in the other.
"One thing we notice about all these
stories of the nativity: They imply that
Jesus in the helplessness OF infancy was
promptly recognized by shepherds and wise
men, prophets and kings as the long
looked-for Messiah. But after this for
more than thirty years nobody suspects him
of any such distinction. Now II the shep-
herds really saw the angel host; heard
their message and their song; II Jerusa-
lem was actually stirred up by the arrival
OF the wise men from Persia under con-
duct of a star which accommodatingly
guided them to a certain house in Bethle-
hem; II the evidences Of the appearances of
the Messiah we're so conclusive that the
government became alarmed and resorted
to extreme measures to destroy HINT is
certainly inexplicable that the whole mat
ter should have been directly forgotten and
the public left wholly unprepared for the
announcement OF His Messiahship thirty
Ave years or so afterward. Admitting the
possibility Of such marveIs, how could
Jesus Himself or His fathers family or
anybody connected with Him been In doubt
OF His missionH
WeRrisOme Representation.
Much will be said today and through
the week in the churches about us touch
ing upon the stories l have dwelt upon.
but l fear iD'none Of them will the point
l am making be brought out. The weari-
some representation will be made again
that the tales Of the nativity are to be
taken as reporting actual matters of fact.
Aud as often as this is said ideas are
emptied of their distinctions, the real and
fantastic are COMPOUNDED and superstition
takes a fresh hold OF human souls. The
distinction between the real and the i'm
aginary Is radical and ordinarily apparent.
The poet does not have to make a running
commentary on his verses. saying in the
margin Here l am speaking hguratively,'
Here / am telling the literal truth Su-
perstition is the name given to this species
OF mental unsoundness, C~uriously enough,
superstition affects US only as to our own
religion. We can read stories told by the
Greek or the Egyptian about their gods
without being In the slightest danger OF
mistaking them for facts, but no people
seem TO have been able TO read their own
religious books without falling into that
error.
Think OF the wealth Of imagery, OF ro-
nance, OF generous sentiment that clusters
about Christmas. II is the season OF good
feeling, OF poetic hopes and dreams. Points
OF historic reality do not belong to it, but
IL owns the legend to the guiding star and
OF the singing angels, OF the wondering
virgin and the miraculous child. These
take us up into dreamland and disclose to
Us scenes Of which we are not likely to
see too much Of IN this matter-of-fact age
Of ours"