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Show i)ri$!n?a$ OioucjSns. Bethlehem The 'Manger Helpless Infant's Proposition Pro-position to the Pagan World Their Conver- sion The Means Adopted to Attain That End ! Twelve Illiterate Fishermen Chosen Their Suc- i cess Conclusion. (Written for th'1 fntermouii'ain Catindi'-.t The feast, of Christmas to lo oei.liraied mxi Monday commemorates the gresiie-t even! in the history of the world. It is the link i!mr unir-moiiorn unir-moiiorn and ancient times. The event -was !h Nativity of Je-us Christ. lit studying the f;iei and the eircum-f aiicrs conucereil with !'. there seems to be nothiuu- very extraordinary in the ,-v ir itself. The simple artless narrative- as iriv.-u ii, the gospel does p,t ;nl,I illi.V great lu-ter to wh.l' took place. In obedience a decree of the Ueueu ' Kmperor Joseph and Mary went frm Nuzareih t ' Bethlehem to en role their names. Whilst there; 4Tt. came to pa?s that she should be delivered."" Tie new born babe "was wrapped in swaddling cbnlie-. and laid in a manger: bectui-e there was no mom j for him in the inn." How simple yet nnostemariou-I nnostemariou-I this narrative. The first announcement '- euually so. To obscure -iieplierds :,u angelic, delrii-;i'i..n is sent. "And there in the sarie! e"i;r.try -uepherd-were watching, and keeping the nigiit wetej:- ..ve,-j ..ve,-j their Hock. And behold an angel ,f the l.er.l stood by them, and the brightness of d.d -h.ote j round about them, ami they feared with a great ! fear. And the angel said to ihi-iu: bear noi : for j behold I bring you good tiding- of great joy. ihat i shall be to all ihe people. For ibis day is b..rn : 1 you a Savior, who is Christ 1 1 1 - l.ord. in the Cir. of David." The marks, by which they could know ! the child who was to be the fountain and source of j "great joy," are remarkable only for their simpiie- j ity. and lack of worldly pomp, grandeur and di I play. "And ibis shall be a sign unto you. " on shall find tlio infant wrapped in -waddling clothe-, j and laid in a manger." j Viewing those .-imnle fact- in ail' their ob-enr-I ity and contrasting, them wi;!i the effect- th.u aft j erwards resuled from the exampk. and n aching of I' Clirid. the ernelnsi.-,i: that lie was (iod is inevitable. inevit-able. Christ and Chri-tianity fe-rui one divine eombin-ition. (Christ is i he ant h"r and Christianity , is Jesus coming hwu i Irroegh. centurie-. ful rilling j his mission of Uodempiiou. Strii)peu of i's presepi I srilerubo' and ci;ed rr and viewetl in its origin. . that is. in Ilotlti. bem. tU- eotitrast .-hov..- i h- )v : . ; ! and InHue'ie.- of -tok rn -.tnral i ruths. Side by side with the. manger and the cro-- we place the pagan world in all its . str ngth. and'w'th alb its jiower and we:dfb. i Avorld that lavi-hr d in prai-es on a Nero, and Claudius, incensed them as gods, in order that they might give the people bread and games. The condition that then existed was not merely accidental, but the reuh and accumulation ac-cumulation of all known miseries since the origin of society. Excesses, which appealed rr. human perversity were officially recognized, -auci'oned and consecrated by public worship. The pe.,pl-Were pe.,pl-Were immersed in an atmosphere of vice, and ihere through the affections of their hearts, the prejudices preju-dices of their minds, the attraction of tla ir ,-en-c-. and the fear of the gods they were held captive. We turn from the corrupt pagan world to Bethlehem., Bethle-hem., where, we see f ho helpless infant laid in a manger. What a contrast.. Like a blade ofgra beside a forest. Yet that infant .is ' the rising I Christianity. Hr has a mission to perform, a pro-i pro-i posal to make to this huge pagan monster. It is an j important one. and one that under ordim.iry cir-! cir-! oumstanees. or one that ie the natural course of event- would be impossible. If is rhi-: Y change j throughout the world the religions ' already eab-I eab-I lis'hed. To do away with all p;gan rites and wor-I wor-I ship. To destroy those temples and idols, bronzed i by th.e smoke of saeriiicc and covered with ihe dust of ages, to exchange .those vices sanctioned by usage, us-age, for virtues never before heard of. 'virtue strict and uncompromising, '--imb a- virginity., love, of poverty, penance, the forgiveness of injuries, ami universal love, all the very opposite f those vices which hitherto were almost universally practiced. What 'an enterprise! What are the conditions upon which this great change must take place Because a certain child born in indigency and obscurity at Lethlehem. and who thirty year- later was crucified in Calvary and arose from 'the dead, said so. He Iceland himself to be God. Not a god: but the only eternal God. and his command must be obeyed. God "wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in n manger" dying , an ignominious death on the cross asks the adora-I adora-I tion of the world. How disproportionate to the ' enterprise are not the means of attaining this end. ' Twelve illiterate fishermen from a lake of Gall-: Gall-: lee are choen. Their leader is apparently tha "weakest among them. They set out. on their mission mis-sion to conquer the pagan world. They mu-t not be solicitous about the world and its goods. Such are the orders they receive. Instead of reward-, honors, and compliments, they would he perseented. Such is the career foreshadowed for them.' Their Master would leave them as He would ascend'" into heaven. They would see bun no more. Yet they were not left as orphans, for lie would send the Spirit of Truth, who would remain with them and their successors till the end of the world. The means proposed, rationally considered, are entirely inadequate to the end proposed, and if it was not the work of God. it would bo the wildest, as well as the silliest undertaking that any madman mad-man could dream of accomplishing. What has been the result? It succeeded beyund measure. This success is a decisive miracle hi proof of the divinity of Christ. The twelve fishermen, after receiving their commission com-mission to preach .Christian truths to the orhl. went forth bearing the cross, hitherto an object of I shame, and succeeded in a few years in conquering j the-woiil to the religion for which Jesits died on the cross. They planted the cross in he strong- j holds of paganism; and ever since paganism fatal- -lv wounded has been struggling at the foot of toe cross. This literally as well as historically true. How explain, 'or account for this effect produced on the world by Christianity Considering the . origin "an infant wrapped in swaddling clothe- f Continued on . Page 4 ' ! CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS. ! I . ! I Continued From Page 1. and lakl in a manger his infant wail proclaiming ! his mission to convert the world, with twelve ob- pcurc .fishermen as his army, .the answer is. that. I the institution of Christianity which has endured for twenty centuries is the most direct argument in favor of he divinity of Christ. It is an argument argu-ment that borrows its weapons of defense from un- i belief against incredulity itself. i But we have today unbelievers who were bom l under Christian influence, who have cast aside, or j became totally indifferent to Christian truths. j What might be expected if they were born and raised where all their surroundings were anti- j Christian? To reasoning and inquiring mind-. i whilst denying the divine origin of Christianity, if must at least appear to them as imposing, by its duration, its blessing.-, its relations and its glories. With it nearly everything grand in art. science and genius is connected. It is the worship of the civilized civ-ilized world. Yet persons insist on calling them- j selves infidels, agnostics, or rationalists. If trained in pagan 'ideas, customs and morals, and they heard for the first time that a cruciiieel young man asked to be adored as the only one God in place of all the gods, that his authority is rec-ognized, and his rights acknowledged by all the people, and sanctioned sanc-tioned by tradition. What evidence would be needed under these circumstances to make one n Christian. It would require a miracle to convimv their reason. re it o. What miracles must then be needed to convert the pagan world, and what a great miracle that conversion was. The nature of the unbelievers in no wise differs from that pf other men. Trace 'his incredulity to what source he may. he must remember tluit the ' same ideas, judgments, and instinct that led up to j his unbelief are common to humanity, and natural- . j ly experienced by most men. From his own feel- j ings. he can, by analogy, judge what the ideas of j the pagan world were in regard to Christianity. If. j under the light of the twentieth century, it is un- able to command his belief, it must have been a hundred times more difficult to command the be- j lief of the pagan world. Hence it follows tha't if Christianity is incredible, it is equally incredible that, the whole world has believeel in it naturally. We know historically that the pagan world em-braeeel em-braeeel it. Therefore it is credible either naturally by itself, or supernaturally by the action of God. i, e.V miracles. But miracles, or even their possibility, the unbeliever un-believer rejects. -'IIow is it then," asks St. Augustine, Augus-tine, "that in ages of highly cultured intellectuality, intellectual-ity, the world admitted, without miracles, a doctrine doc-trine which you yourselves proclaim to be incredible? incredi-ble? Will you admit that the Christian doctrine is ' by itself worthy of faith? Then why not embrace it by your faith? In either case, therefore, the unbeliever un-believer presses the canclusion all the more forcibly against himself, as he proclaims with a'louder and prouder voice that it is beneath his reason to believe be-lieve in the divinity of our holy religion." ' The story of Christmas is old, but always new. j It is simple and artless, yet it. is a beacon light of all historical facts. If is the winding up of the history of 4,000 years that prceeeled the event, and the beginning of history which commenced 1.90'J years ago. and as Ra nan, the French infidel, expressed ex-pressed it. "Without him (Chri.-t) the whole of history is incomprehensible." It is in fine the historical his-torical bridge over which we pass from the old to the new world, from ancient to"modern times,, and -neither the distance of time pr.phi.ee has lessened the arthr and ferver of tlie hundreds of millions of , souls who have and ever will rejoice at thesimple event celebrated cn Chri:-tino- day. F. D. . . I I ' i '-" ' I |