The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-01-09
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A SERMON IKEA
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CHRISTMAS DISCOURSE.
Theme: The Significance Of the Firth
Of Christ.
CHRISTMAS

on the theme, 1.-THE Significance OF
the Birth of Christ" the Rev. Ira
Wemmell Henderson, pastor, o as
his text Luke 2:11: For unto you
Is born this day, in the city OF David,
a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord
He said:
The coming of the Christ is the
axis of Western chronology and d
inspiration Of uncounted Souls.
When, on that starry night amid the
fertile fields of Judea, the angel or
the Lord stood beside the watching
shepherds and the multitude of the
heavenly host sang hosanna to n
living God, the sweetest, most n
trancing soul among the SONS of men
began His earthly history. The wise
men from afar, who laid at the feet
of the manger babe the royal, costly
gifts, were but the precursors OF a
glad, rejoicing host who, in every
epoch and every cline, have rendered
homage to the Christ. The sudden
light that bathed the quiet plain that
peaceful Christmas v beams to-day
with undimmed radiance into multi
tudes of hearts. The voices that sang
from heaven to earth still sing to
listening ears, The angel of the Lord
still speaks. The babe whom Mary
loved is with US. The Son Of God Is
here.
The birth Of Christ Is historic. The
presence of Christ yesterday and to-
day Is a fact. Nothing is more GER
tain than that Christ once lived. The
Gospels attest it. Contemporaneous
records recognize it. The Christian
world around us is a consequential
evidence of His reality and His in
fuence. Men may dispute concern
ing the exact day and month and
year Of His coming into the affairs
of men; they may speculate concern
ing the exact place of His birth; tley
may argue, as they will, ove' the
manner of His coming; but the can
not, they have not and they Will not
deny His actuality. Jesus is a fact;
the most momentous fact Of history.
Let us consider the significance Of
the birth Of Jesus in the light of the
ages.
The birth of Jesus is significant as
we consider it to be the fulhllment
Of Hebrew prophecy; as we under
stand 1t to be the elimination Of a
divine self revelation; as we study its
effect on humanity.
The birth of Jesus was the fulfill
ment Of prophecy. Except we glance
down the long record Of the prophetic
hopes Of Israel we cannot understand
the Christ. Christ, apart from Jew
ish history, is inexplicable. Jesus is
not an isolated, but, rather, a result
ant fact. The Saviour is the fulfill
ment of a nations hope, though so
largely unaccepted. He lie the con-
summation Of the efforts of a ma
tons sanity men to lead their peo-
pie near to God. The messages of
Isaiah are the adumbrations of the
Christ. The visions of the prophets
are the fore-gleams Of the gentle
Galilean. Israel looked with expect
ancy and with hope ~unquenchable
for Immanuel-the presence Of Je-
hovah in the midst Of His people.
Having been led out of physical and
carking bondage they looked forward
with eagerness at a later day to a
Jesus, a Saviour, who, clothed with
divine power and enriched with a d.
vine commission, should lead the sin
sick people of God out Of the thrall-
dom of spiritual slavery into the free
dom and the b~lessedness of an eternal
and sufficient salvation from their
sins. Jesus was the fulfllment of that
hope and prophecy. What the faith
ers had declared, He was. The chos-
en- people of God yearned for an
earthly king, a Messiah anointed of
God, set apart to a holy leadership,
divinely dedicated to the consumma-
ton of a national existence in right
eousness and truth. And in Jesus
was this other hope fulfilled, and
with a nobler purpose and with a
larger scope. Within the spiritual
kingdom that He came to institute
lay the secret of a kingdom which
should rule the world. Far grander
than any prophecy and hope of Is
rael was the plan that, in Jesus
Christ, God unfolded to His chosen
people. What a pity It is that nine
teen centuries ago Israel did not see
the beauty Of the plan Of God, that
she did not recognize that broader
and that grander mission of a world
wide ministration and universal do
minion to which God, in Jesus, called
her. And how sad it is to-day that
the race to whom the principles of
Jesus are most easily understandable
is so opposed to the system of relie-
ious truth that.ia our times Is termed
distinctively Christian. The appro-
priation by the Jew of those princi-
Piles of pure and central Christianity
that are the glory of the truth as it
has been revealed Of God in Jesus
Christ would be the exceeding story
Of the coming ages and the fairest
possession of the chosen people of
the Lord.
The birth Of Jesus was the Gull
mination of divine self-revelation. In
the personality and the message of
the Christ God gave the fullness of
the divine self-explication. Jesus is
the objectifying of the Godhead be-
fore the very eyes of humanity. In
Him Jehovah unfolds the personality
of divinity. In His message is pro-
claimed the mind of God for the well
fare and sanctifying of the world.
Jesus is the declaration Of the divin-
ity, the humanity, the fatherhood of
God. And in the person os,the Christ
Is completed the long endeavor Of a
loving and patient Father to impress
Himself upon the minds, the hearts,
the lives of His wayward, errant chill
dren. Throughout all the ages and
in the lives Of all His people God had
been revealing God to man. Here
and there, as Israel heard the voice
Of Jehovah, there arose men of pre-
vision, men of insight, men of intense
spiritual discernment to declare to
the duller and less spiritually acute
multitude the meaning and the i'm
port Of Gods self-revealment.
throughout all the history Of the