CHRISTMAS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1892

CHRISTMAS.

By Editor

An old couplet, in speaking of the country boor, runs somewhat on this wise:—

You may starch and may straightlace a man as you will, The scent of the stables will cling to him still.

And this is more emphatically true of the ancient pagan festival which many good souls in our day would fain make Christmas. The same profusion of flowers is now witnessed on Easter Sunday as was seen when our pagan ancestors brought them as offerings to the vernal goddess Eostre. And there is but little difference in the motives in the majority of cases now and then. It was fashionable then; it is now. Christmas is not an exception; in fact, it is a notable example of this very thing.

December 25 in pagan times was one of the great days of the old Roman Saturnalia, noted for its gluttony, drunkenness, and licentiousness. In another column we give an article from the Christian at Work of some time ago on "Christmas Feasting" in Christian lands three hundred years ago. How far removed is the picture then presented from that of the old Saturnalian orgies as revealed by the classic writers? And what is Christmas today but a day of revelry, drunkenness, and gluttonous gorging and feasting. Of course much is said and printed about the Christ child, some of which is very good, but in all Christian lands the mythical Santa Claus is mentioned ten times to the Christ child once. The gifts of the day, while many times tokens of love and results of self-denial among the poor, are based on selfishness, knowing little of the Spirit of Christ, in whose honor the day is said to be celebrated.

We do not wish to deprive one soul of any pure, wholesome enjoyment, but, as judgment-bound men and women, it is well to face the facts. The truth is that December 25 is not the day of Christ's birth, neither is that day kept by the people generally in honor of that event. It is safe to say that the day will have more heartaches, headaches, and stomachaches than it relieves.

To those who do what they can to relieve distress and bring joy to the lonely homes and wretched worse than homes on that day, or any other, we bid Godspeed; but in this work so much is sometimes paid out for ostentation and trimmings that but little good is done for the amount invested. If Christians would really remember Him who became poor that we might be made rich, let them remember the neglected, bleeding, suffering cause of Christ, in the homeless, houseless, joyless dwellings of the poor, in the rayless, sinsick heathen all around, into whose souls the light of the gospel never broke. In other words, let Christians be partakers with Christ in self-sacrifice for others, and thus carry the glad tidings of—

Glory to God in the highest, On earth peace And good will to men.

Let every day be a day in which Jesus in all his glorious work shall be remembered, and then indeed will there be joy because of his birth. Such a happy, joyous Christian life we wish all our readers.

Evangelicalism in Germany.

Professor Harnack, the learned and liberal occupant of Neander's chair at Berlin, Germany, contends in a recent publication that a new creed ought to be framed for the Evangelical Church in place of the "Apostles' Creed," as the former does not show progress, as many ministers of the Protestant Church in Germany cannot accept its teachings. Among the things taught by the Apostles' Creed to which he objects, are the following:—

That one proposition, namely, "resurrection of the dead," cannot, also, according to the principles of the Evangelical Church, be maintained in its literal meaning.

"Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." Here something is maintained as a fact which is not believed by many faithful Christians, and which cannot be adapted to their present faith. Here there is an actual rock of offense (Notsland) for every upright Christian who desires to use this symbol as his confession, and yet does not believe this statement.

But many other conservative evangelicals protest zealously against these opinions of Professor Harnack, and hence comes war. It will be difficult to tell in not a little time whether it is necessary for a "Christian" to believe in Christ at all or not. Truly the gospel of Christ is a "rock of offense" to those who "stumble at the word." We do not defend the "Apostles' Creed," which the apostles never saw, but it is the truth of the Scripture in that creed to which Professor Harnack and the liberals seem to object. Where is the end?