Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-12-26
Large Congregations at services.


Il LCckney was celebrant at ) o'clock
and Rev. Father Hall at 1920 o'clock.
The choir sang J. Neigand's mass.
Frank Friestat was organist and Prof
| Wilson director. The services at st.
Mary's were conducted by Rev. Con-
rad.
At Trinity Church
Christmas services were held at
Trinity Episcopal church at midnight
! Thursday and at 10 O'Clock yesterday
| morning, with special music by the
| chcir at beth hours. At 10 o'clock
Rev. F. y. HcisIey preached Il Christ
mas sermon, taking his theme from
| the gospel Ct St. Luke in his details
of the birth of the SAVER: The light
shineth in the darkness and the dark
ness comPrehcndcd not He came
1into His own and His own received
Him not" And one word was made
! flesh and dwelt among US" In part
Rev. Heisley said:
The truth in God must be set on some
better basis than that Of taking it or
! leaving it. Its aspect of love. its open
ness in promising satisfaction to the
heart. its blessed effects realized even
upon first acquaintance-all these
things must make the christian relig-
ion difficult to ignore and hard to get
along without. Nay. do not these
chara cteristics of the christian reli6-
| ion account for its great and unWCak-
ened hold on hearts, so that people of
any sort of neral timber cannot CON
template utterly rCnOuncing it. leav-
ing this foolish course only to those
who, like the big boy. wants to be Il
man and swear. And if we shall reap
he benefits of the christian religion.
we must believe in all its articles of
belief, because it is not of man. but
from God. 1t tells us how, from the
beginning. God promised a prophet
whom He would raise up from among
the peOple--promised Son to Him
self which a virgin should conceive
apd bear.
Draw Nearer.
He purposes drawing nearer and
ever nearer. until He should indeed
come among His people and be unto
them in most real sense a God, and
they unto Himself people. The law
was given by Moses to direct and mold
unto this contamination. The God
inspired messages of the prophets
were intended to prepare people for
Emanuers coming, but grace and
mirth should be realized only in Him
whose birthday we now celebrate.
Gods light can fall only upon those
whose hearts are opened to its shin
ing, and though His proprietary right
is over all men. only those can receive
him who have in some way been pre-
pared, but also accepted the prepar-
atOry work for His coming. 1t is not
enough that God owns us. but we
must own Him for our God, and if
necessary become as little children in
so doing. Hence. it is not difficult, be
it ever so mysterious to us, that an
angel from God should have spoken
nine months before in Nazareth to Il
virgin named Mary. that st. JCseph's
mind had been purged by an angel of
all doubt about the virtue of her to
whom he was espoused, and now the
decree of Caesar Augustus for all to
be taxed brings them probably by a
muddy road and toilsome journey to
an overcrowded inn at Bethlehem of
Judea. where, in the midnight, in the
stable of the inn, the fulness of her
time comes upon the virgin wife, and
the fulIness of time in which God
would hide her face from men, the
fullness of time fer which He would
exhibit other than the tenderest mer-
cies, has been realized. And so the
infant Redeemer is brought forth.
God has manifested Himself as incar-
nate, and the heavenly host sings its
anthem of greeting to men of good
will
THAT was over 1900 years ago, but
not therefore the less interesting to