"THOU shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 1:21.
BOTH of the above scriptures refer to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. At this season of the year His birth is celebrated by many, who believe December 25 to be its anniversary. The above texts, it is safe to say, will be used in Christmas-tide celebrations not a few. They will be used for the season and forgotten. We are using them at this time, not because of the season, not to call attention to a feast or festival, but to impress upon all, so far as the Lord may help us, that these scriptures are not for a special season, but for every season.
UPON whatever day Christ was born, it is certain that He was not born upon December 25. He was more probably born in early mid-autumn, the definite time of which no mortal may determine. God has not revealed the exact day of His birth or death or resurrection or ascension; and the multitude of theories concerning it held by learned men, is evidence of the uncertainty. The reason why the Lord has not revealed the definite time is that He would have us regard the fact, not the day; that a day is not a fitting memorial of any of these things; and that the truths taught in the birth of Jesus are living, present truths, as applicable to us now as when they occurred.
"HOW CAME December 25 to be set apart?" you ask. It is the last day of the old pagan Saturnalia, brought down to us, and called Christian. The old Saturnalian feast was celebrated with excesses of all sorts, with lights, with evergreens, with the licentious emblems of yule log and wreath, with sending of gifts one to another. And a backslidden, worldly church, deceived by the perverter of all truth, thought it would be a good thing to adopt the heathen festival, or a portion of it, "Christianize" it, and so the more easily "convert" the heathen. The result was loss to the church.
“Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10, 11.
THE "song in the air" and the "star in the sky" are for the sad hearts and benighted wanderers in earth's gloomy vale now. The "good tidings of great joy" are for those who are now in the gloom clouds of despair, whose ears have heard only the wos and curses of sin. The blessed news of a SAVIOUR comes now to him who is bound by the cords of his sins, who is laden with iniquities, who is without strength in himself. The message is "to all people," to the nineteenth-century people as well as the first-century people, to men on October 25, on January 15, or on any other date, as truly as on December 25.
O, IT is perennial glad tidings! It is "the everlasting Gospel" to a fallen world. The angel's message comes now to every sin-sick soul, "Unto you is born this day . . . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." He was born into this world that He might be born anew in the heart of every soul who would receive Him. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," He must first be born there. That He may be born there, the Spirit of God must take possession of you. You must welcome that Spirit sufficiently to give up self, to ask, seek, knock, that God may bestow it upon you. He will do it; for He is more willing to do it than are earthly parents to give good gifts unto their children. Luke 11:9-13.
His name is JESUS—SAVIOUR. He, and He alone, can save from sin; "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. Saving from sin, He saves from death; for death is the fruit of sin. James 1:15. Saving from sin, He saves unto righteousness; for "this is the name where-by He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. 23:6. Saving to righteousness, He saves to life eternal; for "in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28.
"His name shall be called EMMANUEL," GOD-WITH-US. (Margin of Matt. 1:23.) Not with us on the day of His birth alone, not with us during His thirty-three years of earth life alone, but with us forever. He became just what we are,—a partaker of flesh and blood,2subject to sin, infirmity, death, meeting all life's wos, temptations, trials—that we might be one with Him, triumphant over all. He is still God-with-us. Our divine-human Saviour lives with all His human members. He is touched with the feeling of all our infirmities. From Him pulses out to all His children in the flesh the never-failing streams of the water of life. And to every soul still peals through galaxies of holy angels and faithful followers the glad invitation of the good tidings of great joy. Come, come, come, and partake of the water of life freely. O reader, Jesus Christ, if born anew by faith in your heart, if dwelling there by faith, is a Saviour every day, a perennial wellspring of joy!
