The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-12-25

were observed
EA@ ~ % with more rever-
ence than it is.
and with more thought of him than of
Santa Claus, the pagan god, in whose
name the world passes round its gifts.
Nevertheless, it is of him that his
people think, and they are glad of a
special opportunity to press his name
and his claims upon all who will give
heed to them.
Mas He Born of a Virgin?
1t is the feature of his virgin birth
that our text emphasizes, and that we
have chosen to dwell upon in this dis
course. Some of the destructive crit
les of the Bible as they are called,
deny this. They are those who would
empty it of the supernatural alto
gether and hence destroy faith in it
as a divine revelation. Why they
deny it is simply because they do not
want to believe it. They have no
proof to the contrary, but have just
made up their minds that it is not SO.
Our proof is the statements of the
Bible. The earliest promise of a re-
deemer in Genesis 3:15 foreshadows
it. The prophet Isaiah predicts it in
chapter Z of his prophecy at verse IA,
and both Matthew in this place, and
Luke in the first chapter OF his Gospel,
verses 26-35, ~corroborate it.
OF course, it need not have been So.
We do not say that God might not
have brought his son into the world
some other way, and that he still
might have accomplished redemption
for us; but if we question the record
at this point, we make it liable to be
questioned at any point, and then the
door is opened to deny Christ and to
deny redemption altogether.
ReasonabIeness of It.
When you come to think of it why
should not the Son of God have been
born in just this way? If he were a
pre-existent Divine Person as we
know him to be, then some kind OF a
birth were necessary. 1t must have
been by natural generation or of a
virgin, and how could it have been in
the natural way on account of sin?
Jesus must be sinless to be a Savior
of sinners, and how could he be sin
less unless he had a virgin birth?
Oh, what a mystery this is! God
clothing himself with our nature
that is the meaning of Emmanuel"
And yet while the two natures in
Christ are united they are not identi-
cal. There was a time simply when
deity became man, it was not so eter-
nally. And yet Notwithstanding this
union there is no human nature in
God. Men are by nature human and
only human, for there was only one
incarnation of the divine, and that
was Christ.
Meaning OF the Two Natures.
But it was necessary that Christ
should be human, else how otherwise
could he have sympathized with us
in u infirmity, and borne our sins
in his own body on the tree? And it
was necessary that he should have
been divine, for how otherwise could
his death have had sufficient efficacy
for such redemption?
Oh, who will receive him today by
faith as the divine-human Savior?
This is to know the peace and joy of
salvation, and to enter upon the new
year no longer as a servant of sin but
as a servant of righteousness and of
God.
And was there ever greater urgency
than now to do this? The awful COM
motion in the world cannot be without
meaning for the future; and perhaps
the very lear future.
But it is not only in the likelihood
of sudden death to thousands upon
thousands of our fellow men that we
find urgency for this appeal, but in an
event of much greater moment that
stands back of all these things, and
that is the coming of our Lord. He
who came the first time as a babe
and Graded in a manger, will come
the second time, as the glorified Son
of God and riding upon the clouds of
heaven. He came before to save, he
will come again to judge. Unto them
hat look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin unto saliva
tion," as we read in Hebrews 1928.
But unto them not looking for him,
but instead, crying peace and Safe
ty;" j.. e., peace and safety in the
worlds methods of bringing it about,
will find Sudden destruction coming
upon them, as travail upon a woman
with child, and they shall not escape"
We read this in Paul's second letter
to the Thessalonians at the fifth chap
ter. Would to God that more would
read it. and believe it.