The news & observer., 1905-12-24


even barrel filled with lightwood
knots; nor can l behave myself, as be-
cometh one of my years, when a
man from the country--a big hearted
llay-seeder. walks right into my house
with a basket full of such things as
back bones, spare ribs, sausages, chit
terl.ngs, souse and cracklings and
dumps the whole load right down on
my table That's very exciting; and
to tell the truth about it, l am pret-
ty sure to dream over the matter if
! am not careful how / eat, for the
next day Or two
By the way, how comes it that
Christmas got here SO soon! 1t seems
that it was but last week when | was
writing of Christmas; now here it
comes again. 1t used to seem an age
between the Christmases: and / sup
pose it is that way, to the children,
now: but to we older people, the
years go round like spinning jenny,
and Christmas comes SO often it
makes us dizzy to look at it coming
and going.
What is Christmas any how? Let
us go back and trace the matter up,
and see whether or not we spend it
, right-in accordance with the solemn
ity of the great events in the world s
history for which it stands.
The saddest event that ever oc-
| Cured is recorded in the third chap
ter of Genesis--the fall of man. In
the same chapter is found the prime
val promise upon which all the other
Bible promises rest; that is: 'the seed
of the woman shall bruise Satan's
head" When the trio stood before God
and curse had been denounced
againts the SHINING pair. the Almighty
Father in His wrath. said to the SER
pent: Il will put enmity between thee
and the woman between thy seed and
! her seed it shall bruise thy head
and thou shalt bruise his heel"
| From that moment the world had a
Saviour, and faith in that promised
| Saviour made a saint of Abel, whose
| redeemed soul was first to enter the
realms of bliss and sing, in the pres
! ence of angels and arch-angels a song
| that had never before been heard in
| heaven--the new song of Dying Love
and Redeeming Grace"
cit shalT bruise thy head and thou
! shaat bruise hiS heel" was, as ii
| seems to us, living in the midst of SC
| much light a very vague promise
| But vague as it was, it was understood
as meaning that a being born of a
| woman was to be a great deliverer
who was to champion the cause OF
man, and finally to overcome the
| enemy that had brought about the
| fall. When, how and in what man
| ner he should appear, they did not
know. But, as he was to bruise the
serpents head. the anti-deluv.ans
might have supposed that when he
| came they would see a giant with
| great iron heels. with which to crush
| the serpent; or being, in some form
/ able to contend with and overcome
! mans enemy. Enoch did not know
| in what form or in what age the
/ worlds Redeemer would come; but II
was the faith he had in the promised
| Saviour that enabled him to walk
with God
The flood had deluged the world
and destroyed the human race, save
Noah and his family; the earth had
been re-peopled; Abraham had been
called to be the father of q great
nation, and his posterity had served
j a long time in Egyptian bondage be-
/ fore God gave to the world the first
| intimation that the Redeemer of Man
was to be a child-the Lamb of God
to take away the sins of the world.
Moses was about to lead the child
! rem of Israel from a land of slavery
| and hardship to the land which God
] had said the descendants of Abraham
/ should have for a possession
| Pharaoh had refused to let them go
until God, in his wrath, decreed that
on q certain night, all the first born
of man and beast in Egypt, should be
slain by the death angel To save
| n fl ST born of the TSraelites he com.
| manded that each family should Sc
| lect a spotless, unblemished lamb OF
/, the first year on the tenth day of the
month. and keep it until the four
teenth day of the month; when, in the
| presence of the whole family, tht
lamb was to be slain, its blood be
caught in basin, and, with a hyssop.
/ branch that blood was to be sprinkled
| on the Intel and the door-posts of the
| houses of the Israelites, so that wher
| the death angel passed through the
land killing the first-born, he would
| see the blood on the doors, and pass
over the houses on which the blood
! vas sDTinkled. That lamb was to be
| slain between the two evenings, and its
body was to be roasted with fire and
! the family must eat it-all of it, il
| they could not eat it all, the remnant
must be burned
All that was typical of Christine
Lamb to be slain, whose blood sprn.
! kled on the heart with the hyssou