Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-01-02
I9II--Christ and the Cdlenddr--I9I2
By Bishop W. A. Gambler

! Inc OlQ year Is DGlANu uB aA0 bAAS AAC "
year is at hand. Like all the years they
are in christendom "the years of our
Lord; for in the numerals 1911 and 1872
We see his image and superscription. In
the most enlightened nations of the
world all events are dated from the time
OF his birth. foolish man can not
print a book which denies his claims
to be the Son of God without dating it's
publication with reference to the time
of his advent in the flesh. The multi
piled thousands OF newspapers and other
] periodicals which issue daily, weekly,
and monthly from the millions of presses
in the world, go forth with a tribute
| to his power and influence printed in
their date lines. Both his followers and
| his foes unite in this tribute to Him.
All business enterprises mark their
movements and fix the time of their
| transactions by the same mark. The vast
volume of commercial papers, as bonds,
stocks. notes, mortgages, and accounts,
on their face tell that he has come into
the world. Congresses and parliaments,
! judicial and legislative bodies, attest
their proceedings by his sign manual.
| Great railways point to his birth by the
date of their schedules, and the log
books of all the ships that sail the seas
take account of the star OF Bethlehem.
Nothing of Importance In all christendom
can escape the touch Of his pierced
hand. The year A. D. is the bench
mark 900 from which all events in mod
ern history take their start and from
which their level is measured.
There have been calendars before the
christian calendad, but they have all
passed to make way for Its domination
Time past has been measured by the
lates of the Romans, and the Eponyms
of the Babylonians; but all those signs
have faded out of sight For long pc
Rod the letters AUG" testified to the
fact that the worlds time was dated
from the foundation OF the city of Rome.
Another calendar dated from Alexander
the Great, and still another from julius
Caesar. But all these eras have van
ished, leaving no mark which the time
they undertook to measure has not eff
faced in its ever flowing currents. But
''the year of our Lord" is cut too deeply
into history ever to be washed out with
the flow of the centuries. If the stars
I'm the armament had concerted together
to set in radiant characters the name
of the Christ on the nightly skies, the
spectacle would not be more significant
and sublime than this imprint OF the
name of Jesus on the face of history.
iI1OW Snail we account LOT TACT 50
strange and so striking? 1t is beyond the
reach of priest-craft to have accomplish
ed, even If the first followers of Christ
had desired to bring to pass such re-
It, All the statesmen and all the phil
osophers of the world could not have
achieved such a thing without the pre-
vailing power of Christ going before
them and making such result possible.
About the year AID. 525 an obscure Ro-
nfOnxrcfrse vi m
figure in his Easter tables "AB INCAR-
NATIONE DOMINT'; but a decade or
more after that time the Emperor JUS
tinian proclaimed a decree that all pub
lie documents should be dated by the
year of the Emperor. the name of the
consul, and the Induction or tax-period.
But this decree availed nothing. In a few
years the name # Jesus had wrought
such a spell over men that they wiped
out all former date lines, and began to
count the years from what they believed
was the day of his birth, as If all that
had gone before Him was nothing and
that with his coming mankind found a
new starting point for it's life.
Since then other attempts have been
made to fix another point of departure
for reckoning time; hut they have all
failed of general acceptance, and have
been abandoned as vain The astronomer,
Laplace, proposed that time be meas
ured from A. ID. 1880 when the major
axis of the earth's orbit was at right
angles with the line of the equinoxes He
argued that time ought not to he meas
ured from events on the earth and the
fleeing names of human history but by
the majestic movements of the heavenly
bodies Nevertheless his proposal went
for nought. Back of the stars was
hand too powerful for the astronomer to
restrain by his scientific calculations
The Revolutionists of France, intoxica-
ted with vanity and overestimatng the
disturbance they were making, tried to
measure time from the year A. d. 1893,
which year they proposed to call 1.-The
Year One," as marking the beginning
of a new departure in human history. The
French Assembly so ordained. and the
frenzied populace, drunken with self
Importance and inhdelity. hailed the de-
cree with enthusiastic acclamations. But
that calendar lasted only fifteen years.
Mohammedan nations count the years
from the Hegira, A. ID. 622; but their
counting does not count among the great
nations of the world and is scarcely re-
spected now among themselves even II
was first imposed by force; but the pow
err of the Cross has overcome the sword
of the Caliph Omar and the Moslem
almanac supplies no time-measure for
men beyond the narrow limits within
which the foul and dying creed of Islam
degrades and enfeebles some semi-bar-
barous nations.
Only the birth of Christ sends its light
across all the seas and over all the lands
with every rising day and all the passing
years. Without a show of effort Jesus
has made the centuries in their courses
witness, to His divine nature and super
human power. What could not be accom-
plished by imperial DEGREES and national
assemblies and fiery crusaders He has
done with power silent and sublime as