The name "Christmas." by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 23, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 21.

The name "Christmas."

By Editor

The very term "Christmas" is, in its origin, idolatrous. It comes from the words "Christ" and "mass," the latter signifying not a commemorative act, but a sacrament, an ordinance in which the bread and wine are transmuted into the very body and blood of Christ, and again offered, immolated as a sacrifice. This is directly contrary to the teaching of Holy Writ, which declares that the "offering of the body of Jesus Christ" was made "once for all"; and that He offered "one sacrifice for sins forever." Heb. 10:10, 12. That sacrifice holds to the end, and its merits are continually presented before God in the person of our Advocate, Jesus Christ. The outward, visible, pseudo sacrifice of the mass is one of the strongest supports to an exclusive pseudo priesthood. All of God's people are priests; nay, more, "kings and priests," "a royal priesthood." Rev. 1:5; 1 Peter 2:9. They offer up "spiritual sacrifices of thanksgiving, or service, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Heb. 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5; Rom. 12:1. Whenever men substitute the physical for the spiritual, the earthly for the heavenly, they shut away Christ Jesus, and put in His place a fear-breeding theology, a god that can not save. The very name "Christmas" is but one evidence of the idolatry which entered the early church, and has been perpetuated ever since.

A Good Work.

The Delineator magazine is doing a noble work in connection with orphan children. It is endeavoring not to find institutional homes for the children, but to find real homes. It has learned that there are one hundred thousand children waiting in asylums of all kinds for some one to take them and make homes for them; and it logically pleads that it is not the machine home where the children are taught to do so many things so well, as parts of a great machine, and yet not really developing individual character. It is by a long way not the best method of caring for the poor little waifs. The best thing of all is to find good homes where the child will feel that he is a part of it, and will be loved and nourished. The institutional cottage home is the next best thing, but the great institutional home is the saddest of all. A writer in The Delineator well expresses the thought that upon the children's faces is "a look that can only be loved away." May the Lord bless the Delineator for its good work for the children and may it find many happy homes that will lead them on to the free, eternal home.

"The Outlook magazine of New York City has widely advertised that Mr. Roosevelt, when he is through his presidential term, will take position on that journal as editor. Since that, it has developed that The Outlook is largely owned by one of the directors of the Standard Oil Company, Mr. James Stillman, the president of the National City Bank, known as the Standard Oil Bank. Mr. Stillman's daughter Elsie is the wife of Wm. G. Rockefeller, and his daughter Isabel is the wife of Percy A. Rockefeller, both of whom are nephews of John D. Rockefeller. It is suggested by the press that it has been a shrewd trap laid by Standard Oil to obtain the President's influence in its favor, or at least, to nullify his influence against it."

There are several articles well worth the reading, and stimulative of thought, tho one may not agree with the writers in all things, in the October number of The International Journal of Ethics, published by Sherman, French & Company, Boston. These are "Ethics and Law," by Prof. Charles W. Super; "The Modern Conception of Justice," by F. Milian Stawell; "Liberty and the Early Church," by Thomas Davidson. A thoughtful and earnest article on "Pain," by Miss Caroline E. Stephen, will be found in the Hibbart Journal by the same publishers; also an article on "The Moslem Tradition of Jesus' Second Coming."

The California Promotion Committee has just issued a helpful little booklet entitled "Tips for Tourists in California." It furnishes a vast amount of information which the tourist wants to know. The address of the committee is San Francisco.

Spain's budget shows a deficit of 20,000,000 pesetas — $4,000,000.

November 15 in Okmulgee, Okla., five negroes, at least, the chief of police of Okmulgee, and the sheriff were killed, and a number of other people wounded in a riot which rose over a fight between an Indian and a negro. More than one thousand shots were fired in the battle, and the negro who started the trouble was literally riddled with bullets. It is said that a race war is feared. We do not know why this should be the case inasmuch as the negroes were all killed by a negro whom they were with the whites trying to arrest.

Fruit Desired.

To our friends on the Pacific Coast. Elder C. L. Taylor, of the St. Helena Sanitarium, Sanitarium, Cal., is packing shipments of fruit to send to missionaries in India. If there are any who have dried apricots, peaches, prunes, raisins, apples, in fact, any good dried fruit, he would be glad to receive it, as a ton-shipment can be sent almost as cheap as a few hundred pounds. He would like very much an early response to this call. If there are any that have fruit, please write him at once, St. Helena Sanitarium, Sanitarium, Cal., before shipping to him, telling him how much you have and how soon you can ship it.