International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1889
A Happy New Year.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"I come, I come, the glad New Year!
O welcome me to your friendship dear;
O give me room by the social hearth,
Where the holy joys of home have birth;
Let me come with love that shall ne'er grow cold,
As comes a friend that is prized of old;
Let me whisper of help from the Lord above
To the toiling heart in its work of love,
And point to the peace and bliss of Heaven,
The crown to the faithful mother given,
Shining with jewels forever fair,
She won to Christ by her holy care."
Another year of life is now in the past. A new year is opening before us. What will be its record? What will we each inscribe upon its spotless pages? The manner in which we spend each passing day will decide this question. Fathers and mothers, while you wish your children a Happy New Year, will you strive in the fear of God to make it a happy year? Will you seek to lead your dear ones to the true source of peace and joy? Will you consecrate your own hearts to God, that you may exert a sanctifying influence upon your children? Will you separate them from sin and sinners, and by living faith connect them with God?
It should be the work of every parent to cultivate all that is good, and true, and noble, in his children. It is his duty to correct their faults, to restrain their waywardness, even as the Lord required Eli to restrain his sons. Fathers and mothers, make the word of God your guide in the education of your children, ever considering what will be for their future good, rather than what is for your present convenience. The mother may bestow upon her daughters an education that will be invaluable, by training them to bear their share of the family burdens. The father may give his sons a capital of more worth than gold or lands, by teaching them to love useful employment, instead of seeking happiness in idle amusements or dissipation. Parents, now is the time to form in your children habits of industry, self-reliance, and self-control; to cultivate economy and business tact. Now is the time to teach them courtesy and benevolence toward their fellow-men, and reverence and love for God.
You may make a happy new year for your children, if you faithfully discharge your duty. Home should be the most sunny and attractive spot on earth; and it may be made such2by pleasant words and kind acts, and, underlying all, a steadfast adherence to the right.
By their neglect to exercise proper restraint, many parents are creating great unhappiness for their children. The youth who are left to constantly seek for pleasure in amusement or selfish gratification are not happy, and never can be happy while following this course. Fathers and mothers, teach your children that the only way to be truly happy is to love and fear God; and enforce the lesson by your example. Let them see that the peace of Christ is ruling in your heart, and that his love pervades your life. Practical religion is the need of the present hour. You cannot teach this to your children unless you possess it yourselves.
Let us enter upon the new year with our hearts cleansed from the defilement of selfishness and pride. Let us put away every sinful indulgence, and seek to become faithful, diligent learners in the school of Christ. A new year opens its unsullied pages before us. What shall we write upon them?
Children, you greet your father and mother with a "Happy New Year," but will you make it a happy year to them? It is in your power to do this. Your conduct, more than everything besides, will make a happy or an unhappy year for your parents. You may cause their hearts to throb with joy or pain. Whatever dishonors your Saviour, whatever causes a stain upon your character, brings anxiety and distress to the heart of godly parents. You cannot give them a happy new year if you live only for self-gratification.
Seek to begin this year with right purposes and pure motives, as beings who are accountable to God. Ever bear in mind that your acts are daily passing into history by the pen of the recording angel. You must meet them again when the Judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened.
How often your lips utter the kindly greeting, "I wish you a happy new year," and then in a few moments speak impatient, fretful words. How many children are ever ready to dispute about trifles, unwilling to make the smallest sacrifice for others. To such the new year will bring no real happiness. They may indulge in boisterous mirth, but their hearts know no peace nor joy. Will you not come with penitence and humility to Jesus, that he may cleanse you from the impurity of sin, and fit you for his heavenly kingdom? All who do this will have the happiest new year that they ever experienced. It will bring joy in Heaven and joy on earth.
Many have been seeking some rare gift to bestow upon their friends. Will you not, children, bring to Jesus the gift which he prizes above all others—the gift of your heart? While others at the holiday season adorn themselves to please the eye of their friends, will you not seek the adorning which Heaven values—the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit? If we bring to God the first gift, the value of every other is enhanced; for love makes it not merely a passing compliment, but a precious offering. From the softened heart in which the peace of Christ abides, will flow forth sincere wishes, kindly words and deeds, and worthy, appropriate offerings.
Many are the gifts and greetings that have been exchanged on New Year's day, by parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and acquaintances. When it is over, many feel a sense of relief. They have discharged their duty in bestowing presents, and smiles, and compliments for the occasion, and there the matter is supposed to end. The next day, and the next, and onward to the end of the year, bring fretful, passionate words, fault-finding, recrimination, and careless neglect of the dear ones of the household. Oh, such a new year is one that angels will be grieved and ashamed to register! It is anything but happy. Friends and relatives bestow a gift of sorrow, a burden of unkindness, that crushes out hope, and makes the grave look desirable.
Do we truly wish our loved ones a happy new year? Then let us make it such to them by kindness, by sympathy, by cheerfulness, by unselfish devotion. If we connect with God, the source of peace, and light, and truth, his Spirit will flow through us as a channel, to refresh and bless all around us. This may be the last year of life to us. Shall we not enter upon it with thoughtful consideration? Shall not sincerity, respect, benevolence, mark our deportment toward all?
Let us withhold nothing from Him who gave His precious life for us. Fathers and mothers, bring to Him your children, in the freshness and bloom of youth, and devote them to His service. Let us all consecrate to God the property he has intrusted to us. Above all, let us give him ourselves, a free-will offering. Let us do his will, live for his glory, and he will give us a happy new year.
Jesuit Influence in Rome
The Rome correspondent of the New York Observer writes to that journal that the denizens of the eternal city are jealous of the influence of the Jesuits in the councils of the Papacy. This powerful society in many cases has gained possession by intrigue or influence of the property belonging to the suppressed Brotherhoods, while the priests are left in their poor and unhealthy abodes and are expected to say the masses and attend the funerals for small pay. Every new house opened or new privilege accorded to the Jesuits arouses the jealousy of the lower clergy.
Men Needed to Christianize New York
By Editor
The Evangelist of December 13 has an article on Christianizing New York City, in which its call is not for means and churches, but men. It says: "The work to be done is of a sort for which our city pastors in general are wholly unfitted." "What is needed here is that divine power of sympathy, in the presence of which all distinctions are nothing. That is the magnetism which flows like an electric current from heart to heart." Emphatically true. And why are not just such men needed in the great churches? Would Jesus of Nazareth be so highly educated and trained that he could not go out and preach to the poor? Or would he need a "professional education" in order to meet the demand in our great and popular temples, called churches? What is needed by the world is converted men, men converted to Christ and his truth, both in the great churches and in the mission hall.
Roman Catholic Influence in Sunday Movement
By Editor
At the Washington Convention of the National Sunday Association, the chairman, Col. Elliott F. Shepard, said that he was "glad to welcome the Roman Catholics in any work in which they could be induced to join." Some will be moved to ask whether the Sunday movement is a Protestant movement or not. If it is Protestant, then is there any difference between Protestant and Catholic? If professed Protestants are glad to welcome Roman Catholics in any work in which they can be induced to join, do they not thereby cease to be Protestants? We commend to those who are courting Roman Catholic influence and help, the following editorial utterance from America, under date of December 6, 1888:—
"If anyone believes that there has come a change over the policy and purposes of the Vatican, because the Pope indorses the President's Thanksgiving proclamation, he must forget the motto of the church, Semper idem, and that history proves that Rome never changes. It modifies its means, but it never surrenders its aims. It stoops to conquer. Woe to the republic which accepts its patronizing condescension as significant of approval of republican institutions!"
Russian Mission to the Vatican
The Russian mission to the Vatican has obtained from the Pope important concessions. Leo sanctions the deportation of Bishop of Vilna to Siberia, accepts Government candidates for certain important positions in the Roman Church in Russia, and consents to the use of the Russian language in the Catholic Churches in that country. The concessions are thought to be due to French influence.
Judaism and the Sabbath
By Editor
The Jewish Times and Observer thinks "that Judaism has a great mission before it," but it concludes that "if a part of that mission is to transform the Jewish Sabbath [Sabbath of Jehovah] into Sunday services we think the slower the progress the better it will be for Judaism." And we say, Amen. One of the hopeful signs to Protestants that the Jews are soon to embrace Christianity is that many no longer keep the Sabbath, and now hold Sunday services. If conversion to Christianity means the transgression of a single command of God's holy law, deliver the Jews from Christianity. But it does not mean this. Christ died to redeem men, not only from sin (Matt. 1:21), but from sinning (Tit. 2:14; 1 John 2:6; 3:6); and sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7. If the Jews are to be converted, or are to make progress, it will not be in the direction of violation, but observance, of God's law; and God's law can only be observed through the grace of Christ.
The Pope’s Address to the Sacred College
On the 24th ult. the Pope delivered an address to the Sacred College, which is said to have been unusually violent and bitter. The "great infallible" said that he was thankful for the blessing that had come to him on the occasion of his jubilee, but he complained bitterly of the treatment which the Papacy has received from the Italian Government. He said, "The whole world sees in what a painful situation I am placed." Again in referring to hostile acts of the Italian Government, he said, "One can only ask, How far will they go?" "At the present time," says the dispatch, "a systematic war is being waged. Even the person of the Pope is exposed to the threats of the mob." The fact that the bishops in other lands are laboring for the restoration of the Pope's temporal power was referred to as showing that the interests of the whole Catholic Church are bound up in the cause of the Papacy.
Restoration of Papal Temporal Power
It is evident that not only the Pope, but the whole Catholic world, is terribly in earnest in urging the restoration of the temporal power of the Papacy, and indications are by no means lacking which show that Leo's frequent bids for active sympathy are not in vain. With only two exceptions, all the great powers of the world have virtually acknowledged the Pope as a civil ruler, and it would not be a matter of surprise at any time if a majority, if not all of them, were to unite in demanding of Italy a practical recognition of the political "rights" of the supreme pontiff. The Papal head of the great beast of Rev. 13:1 has been "as it were wounded to death," but the deadly wound will be healed, and all the world shall wonder after the beast." Verse 3.
LOVE AS A PASSION AND AS A PRINCIPLE.
By Christian Inquirer
THAT word passion has a signification which should be carefully noted. The old grammars define a verb as a word denoting "action, passion, or being," and the older writers speak of the "passion" of Christ. The word denotes subjection to force. So a man in a "passion" is not one who is exerting strength, but one who is acted upon by a powerful influence, who is driven along by an external force, as a vessel, over which the sailors have lost control, hopelessly drifts before the wind or tide. Passion implies inaction, it shows weakness, it is a slavery.
Thus love as simply a passion is ignoble. So far as one is merely "attracted" or "drawn" to a given object, his affection is merely selfish. When one says that he "loves" this or that article of food he means that from it he can obtain pleasure for himself. And much of love of romance is of the same selfish kind. Even though it may not take the gross form of heartless lust, the lover may be seeking merely his own happiness, caring nothing for the interests of the one of whom he seeks to possess himself. We sometimes read in the papers of a young man's killing the girl who has refused his addresses, he showing by his crime that his love was not for her but for himself alone, that he cared nothing for her welfare, but only for his own gratification. He loved her simply as the beast loves the husks on which he feeds; he was attracted simply as the tiger is attracted to his prey. When Samson was chided for seeking a heathen bride, his defense was, "She pleaseth me." Many a young man to-day makes a foolish marriage in the same spirit, not using his judgment, but being swept along by his whims and fancies as helplessly as a log is borne on the current. Passion is not true love, it is mere selfishness.
Contrast with the foregoing the love shown by the mother in untiringly watching over a feeble-minded child, or by the affectionate daughter in ministering to a parent that has grown not only old but also fretful, unreasonable, and thoroughly unlovely. This love is not selfish, seeking merely one's own pleasure, but self-sacrificing, seeking purely the good of the loved one. This is true love, the love which is grounded not in passion but in principle. Of course the active and the passive element may be combined, as when the child the mother watches over is peculiarly attractive. But love of the highest form is that in which one seeks not his own pleasure in the possession of the loved object, but the good of the one loved.
And in like manner true religion or love to God is a matter not of passive emotion but of active principle. With too many persons religion is merely a matter of feeling and personal enjoyment. When religious exercises are pleasurable to them they are very devout, but when duty becomes burdensome they relapse into coldness. When there is a "big revival," with stirring preaching and arousing singing, and all the pleasurable thrill of great crowds and exciting incidents, they are tremendously religious. But when the novelty and excitement are over, and nothing remains but hum-drum, every-day work, their spirituality is a dried-up brook. In other words, when religion will yield them personal pleasure they are active in it, but when it becomes a matter of self-sacrifice they abandon it. They are acted upon from without, not acting from within. They drift on the current of emotion like a fragment of a wrecked boat, which goes up stream with the flood-tide and comes down with the ebb, when they should be like the steam craft, which goes along the same whether wind and tide be with or against it. Our religion should be, not passive and merely emotional, a movement under outside forces, but active, an inward principle, exerting itself always the same.
A SOLEMN QUESTION.
If your probation should close this hour, would it be well with your soul? If you were told that in an hour your case would be forever decided, would it arouse consternation in your breast? Would you want to take back those hasty, impatient words that you spoke this morning? Would you tremble to think of the Judge finding you committing the act which you did last night, or are even now contemplating? If so, then you are in a dangerous condition, for you know not but this may be your last hour. There will come a last hour for you, and you have no warrant that it will be different from the present. How necessary, then, that we ever live in the light of God's countenance. What a blessing to the world such a life would be. "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing."
Talents and Character
TALENTS are nurtured best in solitude, but character on life's tempestuous sea.
THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW.
By Sarah E. Clough
O FLEETING years! though oft the theme
Of poet's song and waking dream,
Still, oft as changing seasons bring
The burden of their offering,
And winter covers hedge and tree
With robes like loving charity,
As oft doth memory linger round
The past, as on enchanted ground,
And muses join to sing the praise,
Or chant the dirge of by-gone days.
If we could know all that has been,
Or, could all scenes of joy or sin,
Which the old year has seen and known,
In panoramic views be shown—
What lights and shades of life would be
Depicted in that scenery!
There side by side with wealth and fame,
And cultured mind, and honored name,
Would be such views of want and sin,
That hearts would ache to look within;
And scenes where love and beauty reign
Be followed close by scenes of pain.
For chimes of merry marriage bells
Have mingled with sad funeral knells;
And those who dreamed earth's joys their own,
Have waked to find earth's hopes have flown;
And aching hearts and empty arms,
To whom the world has lost its charms,
Long for loved voices, though they know
The white lips rest beneath the snow;
And where were peace and joy before
Are homes that will be homes no more;
For life and death, and woe and mirth
Dwell side by side o'er all the earth.
But we will not 'mid shadows dwell,
But on the sunshine look as well.
No day so clouded but some light
Has cheered its darkness ere the night;
No life so cheerless but some rays
Of God's love light its darkest days.
And the old year much joy has brought,
And powers unseen much good have wrought.
And some have sought the path of right
Which leads from darkness into light,
Who long had wandered far astray,
And follow now the narrow way.
And all in some way have been blessed,
By many a wayside fount refreshed,
And pleasant memories of the past
Will linger long as life shall last;
And if some crosses have been given,
They serve as stepping-stones to Heaven.
Sometimes we mourn in bitterness,
And sadly question why it is
That joy is always mixed with pain
And loved ones ne'er will come again.
The troubled spirit finds its rest
In the sweet answer, "God knows best."
For not a sparrow earthward falls
Without his notice, and through all
His wisdom and his love are shown;
He surely careth for his own.
And now the old year's brightest hours
Have faded with the summer flowers;
May all its bitterness and woe
Be buried 'neath its winter's snow;
And chastened hearts, tried as by fire,
Rise in new strength, fresh zeal inspire;
Hope bid each doubting thought be gone,
And gird the New Year's armor on,
And labor still, for o'er the land
The ripe fields wait the reaper's hand.
And labors past will not suffice
For present duty, when there lies
Within the reach of everyone
Work for the Master to be done.
Some heart to cheer 'mid toil and strife,
Someone to lead to the fount of life,
Some burden to bear for a weak one tried,
And a world to tell that Christ has died.
The work is great, but our strength is sure,
And the hope of reward to those who endure.
Not all can be reapers on life's great plain,
But they can be gleaners of golden grain;
And the life that is richest in deeds of love
Shall be richer far in the home above—
Where we'll bring our sheaves to the Master's
feet
When the work he has given is all complete,
When the old years fade from mortal view,
And the years to come are forever new.
—Sarah E. Clough, in Woman at Work.
WHAT IT IS.
COMMENTING upon Mrs. Kane's recent so-called exposure of Spiritualism, the Good Way says:—
All this may be very well, but it comes very far from furnishing a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of the modern delusion of Spiritualism. There is an occult power behind these phenomena, intelligent and depraved, and their misleading and corrupting and soul-damning influence is not to be counteracted or arrested by a catchpenny exposure, even though it may come from those who became the first willing instruments in introducing the delusion.
The plain truth is that Spiritualism is devilism, and whoever is deceived thereby is deceived by the devil. The Bible plainly points to our times as the period when the spirits of devils shall go forth to deceive men, and believers in the Bible have no trouble in identifying modern Spiritualism as a Satanic delusion. The power of Satan will continue to work by this and other means till the end. The people of God have from the beginning been warned against the sin of necromancy, and that warning needs to be heeded now as much as ever in the past.
Spiritualism is ancient necromancy modernized to suit the changed tastes and conditions of society. The only reliable safeguard against the evil is to obey God, and resist the devil. Whoever touches pitch will be defiled—whoever tampers with Spiritualism will become demonized. "Abhor that which is evil." "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
CONFIDENCE TOWARD GOD.
"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Ps. 5:3. Thus wrote the psalmist David, in the innocency and integrity of his soul. He could not have written thus if he had not been able to write as in verse 1: "Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my meditation." Looking up is a sign of hope and courage, and of a clear conscience. The guilty child hangs its head, and the criminal is afraid to look the officer of the law in the face. Thus Ezra, when identifying himself with his people, said: "I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head." Ezra 9:6. But the man whose heart is pure, whose thoughts are of God, and who meditates in his law day and night, can look up, not in self-confidence, but in the strength of Christ. "But thou, O Lord," says David, "art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." Ps. 3:3. He whose heart is free from guile may look up, and he shall behold the beauty of the Lord, for the pure in heart shall see God.
Doing Good by Being Good
WE can do more good in being good than in any other way.—Rowland Hill.
LOOK UP.
THE Lord does not want people to look down. If they do, like Bunyan's man with the muck rake, they will see only the straws, the sticks, and the rubbish of earth, and not the crown that is above them. God is in Heaven; but that which is of the earth is earthy. By beholding we become changed. So then if we look down, we become groveling in our disposition; if we look up, we may behold the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image. Here is an argument against despondency. The discouraged, despondent man hangs his head. But when he does that he can see only himself, and so he adds to his despondency. Not only so, but by beholding only that which is imperfect, he becomes more and more assimilated to that which is imperfect. Satan makes an easy prey of the doubting, despondent man. How much better to say with the psalmist: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Ps. 121: 1, 2. Besides this we are expressly enjoined to look up at this time. After speaking of the signs of his coming, Christ said: "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21: 28. Who are living so that they can daily rejoice in hope of the glory of God?
AN EVOLUTION BUBBLE PUNCTURED.
THE emptiness of the evolution theory of man's origin is well shown in the following reply by Dr. Henry C. McCook to an elaborate lecture on evolution, as recorded in the N. Y. Evangelist of December 13, 1888:—
Now they tell us that the ages of geological time included about as many millions of years as you choose to write out on the slate. Well, all those millions of years ago certain spiders spun their webs, and certain ants taught the sluggards their lessons. Now, says Dr. McCook, the fossils of those very spiders that spun their webs between the fence-rails so many million years ago, agree exactly with the spiders that make their festoons in the corners of our porches to-day. All these million-million years have not availed to start them on their evolutionary career. The same is true of the ants. So it appears that our enthusiastic evolutionists need a few successive eternities for the outworking of their theory. Would it not be well for them to appoint a standing committee to watch the processes of nature, and report on the subject, say five million-million years hence? If the committee grew uneasy with standing, they might be permitted to sit on the subject every alternate million years.
The Excellence of Pure Love
"The power of wealth has a tendency to corrupt and destroy; the power of force is strong to do hurt; but the excellence and value of pure love consists in its efficiency to do good, and to do nothing else than good."
The Fruitfulness of Pure Love
“WHATSOEVER is done out of pure love, be it ever so little or contemptible in the sight of men, is wholly fruitful; for God regards more with how much love one worketh, than the amount he doeth.”
THERE IS HELP IN GOD.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE Lord of hosts is the present help of those who put their trust in him. The arm of man is too feeble to help us in trouble, even when he is disposed to do his utmost for us. Those therefore do greatly err who put their trust even in princes. And why should we ever commit an error of this kind? Has not God invited us to trust in him? and has he not warned us not to trust in the arm of flesh?
God knows our sorrows as man cannot know them. To him all hearts are open. He knows our temptations, he understands our errors and faults. He is able to succor in the hour of our extremity, and he has promised to do it. There is no arm like his. If he is for us, he is more than all that can be against us. There is but one thing that will prevent him from extending help to us, and that is sin. And even sin cannot hinder God from helping us, if we will truly repent of it. But true repentance always involves a change of conduct. We must leave off our transgressions and turn from them to a course of true obedience.
Now God does not deny his mercy and his favor to penitent sinners. These are the very persons who may trust in him. All his promises are made to this class. We must not forget this fact, for it is of priceless value. God does not reject us because we have sinned, but because we refuse to put away our sins by repentance. If we could keep this fact before our minds, it would be a constant strength and support to us. We could then take hold of God's arm for help, and we should never be disappointed in the result. But we have an adversary who knows how to thwart our efforts in the great struggle for eternal life. He puts forth his utmost effort in every way to lead us into sin, and if he succeeds to any extent in his temptation, he then becomes our accuser, that he may cause us to distrust God's mercy, and to neglect to come to him for pardon and for salvation. This is a most cruel temptation, and its effect in paralyzing our strength is great.
But we need not be thus thwarted in our efforts to seek God. When we seek him with all our hearts, he promises to receive us. It is our duty to believe that he is as good as his word. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Isa. 55: 7. These are exceedingly precious words, and they were written on purpose that our faith may take hold on them. God is infinitely and supremely good. It is our privilege to trust him when every earthly refuge has failed us.
The Saviour says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt. 11: 28-30. This invitation is addressed to all who feel the burden of their sins. Though Satan will attempt to hinder us from accepting it by urging the fact that our burden of sin renders us unworthy of the Saviour's notice, yet the invitation is addressed to none but those who feel this burden.
Those who feel no need of relief are offered none by Christ. We need not stay away because of the burden upon our souls. We are the ones invited, and we may be sure that it is our privilege to accept the offer of mercy. He will in nowise cast out him that cometh to him. This is the very Saviour we need. We can find salvation through him. We can trust in him with the assurance that he will save us. We must indeed accept his yoke, but it is a privilege to accept it. We must leave our sins, for they are the very cause of our burden, and in the end they will ruin us if we do not put them away. Let us thank God for such a Saviour. Let us prove ourselves true to him and to his cause. He will never leave us; let us see that we never forsake him. We can trust in him always if we will but keep his sayings; and he will assuredly guide us with his counsel, and afterwards receive us to glory.—J. N. Andrews.
"HOW WAS THE DAY CHOSEN?"
By J. L. Barlow
WHAT day? Why, the 25th day of December for Christmas! This is answered, in a way, in "Dunn's Quarterly and Concert Exercises," on pages two and three. The editor, Rev. John O. Foster, starts off as follows:—
"It would take too long to trace the many reasons which probably led to the choice of the 25th of December. It was doubtless connected by a process of deduction with the day which had already been generally accepted as the common date of the annunciation, and of the creation of the world."
Now, whether owing to some inherent quality of mind, or to long observation, or to a little of both, this deponent cannot say; but in reading for facts, when a writer begins to say a thing is "probably" on this wise, or it was "doubtless" after this fashion, then he sniffs ignorance in the air, and looks elsewhere for his facts. But let us, for the nonce, follow up this champion for Christmas a little farther. His next sentence commences with—
"Assuming that the world was made in the spring [leaving out his reasons], it was natural, though somewhat naive, to fix upon the vernal equinox (according to the Julian calendar March 25) as the exact date of the creation. He who would question the value of such straightforward and scriptural argument as this must have had more logic and less piety than belonged to the early Christians; and once having discovered by this easy method the very day on which the world came into being, and the glorious light sprang out of darkness, what more simple than to assume that it was the same day on which the power of the Almighty overshadowed Mary, and the Day-spring from on high began his entrance into the world? Nothing could be plainer. Even the least imaginative of chronographers could reckon forward from this fixed point, and arrive at December 25 as the day of the nativity."
Of course he could. When Mr. Foster asks the question, "What more simple than to assume," etc., we give it up. Haven't seen anything "more simple" for a long time. Again he says:—
"And here another wonderful coincidence meets him. This [December 25] is the day of the winter solstice, the day when the world's darkness begins to lessen, and the world's light to grow; the day which the ancient [heathen] world had long celebrated as the birthday of the sun, what more appropriate day could be found for the birth of the Sun of Righteousness? . . . St. John the Baptist is born on June 25 [Who says so?], the summer solstice, when the sun begins to decline. The Lord Jesus is born on December 25, the winter solstice, when the sun begins to ascend; and in this is fulfilled the saying, 'He must increase, but I must decrease.'"
I never knew before that John, when he gave that saying, meant to tell us that he was born on June 25, and that Jesus was born on December 25! Well, well! "Live and learn." To be sure!
If the above arguments, founded on the "probably," the "assuming and assume" and "doubtless" of Mr. Foster, are not believed, does it follow that we unbelievers are blessed, or cursed, with more logic and less piety than has Mr. Foster and the early Christians? So he seems to teach.
He goes on to tell us that the earliest mention of this 25th of December as Christmas "is found in an ancient catalogue of church festivals about 354 A. D.," and from thence on it spread. In another article he tells us: "Long before the Christian era, the 25th of December was religiously observed by the sun-worshipers." Farther on he says that when Christ came, many of the sun-worshipers became his followers; but when the old sun-feast came around, they were liable to be drawn away to the dances and excesses so common to it; so the Christian leaders adopted this old heathen feast and called it Christmas. Here Mr. Foster comes out of the fog of conjecture into the realm of fact. But such a fact! The Christian churches celebrating a pagan day!
Two things are noteworthy. The author of the last article quoted from (not Mr. Foster, but T. N. Madden), says of keeping Christmas, "It mattered not whether the 25th of December was the birthday of Christ or not, the effect was the same." And so say they all. And then, secondly, they make brave endeavors to prove that Christ was born on that day, as though it was all-important. And the above is the best proof they can bring—which is no proof at all.—J. L. Barlow, in Christian Cynosure.
THE CHRISTIAN'S LEVER.
ARCHIMEDES is quoted as saying: "Give me a place on which to rest my lever, and I will move the world." But the Christian has a lever that is infinitely greater than that, for it will move not only the earth, but Heaven also. And he has a place on which to rest it, too. That lever is faith, and its resting-place is the throne of the eternal God. Hear what David says of the time when he was in deep trouble, and cried unto the Lord. "He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind." "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters." Ps. 18: 9, 10, 16. Read verses 1-19. Truly "there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky." Deut. 33: 26.
Doors Outward
By George MacDonald
ALL the doors that lead inward in the secret places of the Most High are the doors outward—out of self, out of smallness—out of wrong.—George MacDonald.