Kindly favor a constant reader of the Editor's Corner with your views as to the proper observance of Christmas. Is it in any sense a sacred day? Are these good grounds for assigning to December 25 the birth of our Lord? How far back does this observance date?
Your last questions must be answered first; for we must know the nature and origin of Christmas before we can know anything about its "proper observance." As to the date you can read the following in Encyclopedia Britannica: A festival of the Christian Church, observed on the 25th day of December, in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ. There is, however, a difficulty in accepting this as the date of the Nativity, December being the height of the rainy season in Judea, when neither flocks nor shepherds could have been at night in the fields of Bethlehem.
It is a "difficulty" indeed. It is strange that anybody could ever have been led to suppose that Jesus was born on the 25th of December, and that shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks by night, in winter. Nobody in the world knows the date of Christ's birth; but nothing can be more sure than that it was not on the date commonly assigned to it.
It was not till some hundreds of years after Christ's birth that people thought of observing a day in memory of it, and it was some time later before they agreed as to what day they should take. October was by some regarded as the month in which Christ was born, and some time in spring was favored by others. In the East the 6th of January was observed for some time.
By the fifth century, however, whether from the influence of some tradition, or from the desire to supplant some heathen festivals of that period of the year, such as the Saturnalia, the 25th of December had been generally agreed upon.--Encyclopedia Britannica.
In these statements all church historians are agreed. In the Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, published by the "Christian Literature Company," New York, Prof. Foster, of Oberlin, says: "The choice of the date, in the utter lack of all tradition, has been referred to different thoughts, but the most probable is the analogy between the birth of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, and the beginning of the return, or the rebirth, of the natural sun upon December 25."
Dr. Schaff, the celebrated church historian, says: "After the establishment of Christianity by Constantine, and among the new institutions which were intended for the benefit of the church, we seem authorized to place the commemoration of Christ's advent. ... It is generally admitted that the designation of the 25th of December for the festival was first made about the middle of the fourth century.
He adds that many think that that day was chosen "because it was the day on which the Romans celebrated the festival of natalis solis invictis (the birth of the unconquered sun), or of the sun's passing the southern solstice and beginning to return northward."
When we remember that "the establishment of Christianity by Constantine" was the paganizing of the Church, and learn of the heathen festival to the sun, which was celebrated the last days in December, we can see that Christmas is wholly pagan in its origin, and that it has no sacredness whatever. To keep it as a sacred day, therefore, is as much a sin as to disregard a day which is sacred. That is, to presume to sanctify a day which God has not sanctified shows as much contempt for His authority as to treat as common a day which He has sanctified.
I think this fully answers all your questions; but now I hear another question:
Even though we do not know the exact day of Christ's birth, is it not well, and may it not be pleasing to God, for us to keep one day in memory of it? and since December 25 is commonly accepted, is there any harm in devoting it to that event?
I must repeat what I have just said, that to presume to sanctify a common day is as wicked as to make common a sacred day. The fact that nothing is said in the Bible about celebrating the day of Christ's birth, and that not the slightest hint as to when it occurred is given, is ample evidence that God does not wish to have any day devoted to it.
To celebrate a day which it is well known cannot be the day of Christ's birth, is as absurd as it would be for me to go to a shop and buy a photograph of a man whom I never saw, and carry it about most carefully, and proudly exhibit it to people, as the picture of my father. When people have done all that God has commanded, they will have no time nor inclination to devote their energies to that which He has not commanded.
One thing in which the Gospel is conspicuously distinguished from heathenism is that it has no festival days whatever. There is not a single day set apart to commemorate any event in Christ's life or earthly ministry. We have only the Sabbath, which is not a festival day, and which was before the Gospel, dating from creation.
As to the celebration of Christmas, there can be no harm in making it the day of the annual reunion of families, as then the scattered members are free from business, since it is a regular holiday; and if we wish to give our friends, and especially the poor, some useful and needed article, there is no objection to making December 25 the date of its bestowal, provided it is not more urgently needed at some other time; but true Christians will certainly avoid making it a day of hilarity and surfeiting, or looking upon it as sacred in any sense whatever.
The practice of setting apart a day for the commemoration of Christ's birth indicates an utter failure to understand the nature of that birth. It is a thing for and of eternity. "His [Christ's] goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity." (Micah 5:3,margin)
He is the One who was, and is, and is to come: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)
God gave His only begotten Son from the beginning, even before the world was made: "The lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
He is the Word that was with God in the beginning, and was God, and He was "made flesh" when Adam was created. His appearance as a babe in Bethlehem was to make so plain that none could fail to see it, that He does not despise us in our low state, but continues to dwell even in fallen, sinful flesh, in order that we may be born again, and become as new and as innocent as Adam was when God created Him.
Every day and every hour, yes, every minute in our lives, should be a celebration of the birth of Christ; not the mere keeping of it in memory, but the actual repetition of it in us. Christ is to be formed in us, and the life of Christ manifest in our mortal flesh is to be "renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16)
He is "the Son of man," (Daniel 7:13; Revelation 1:13, 14:14; and many references in the Gospels) and therefore every soul of man may say continually: "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." (Isaiah 9:6)
And as He who is our peace (Ephesians 2:14) abides with us, so that the peace of God rules in our hearts, (Colossians 3:15) we may continually join in the chorus of the heavenly host: "Peace on earth, good will to men." (Luke 2:14)--Present Truth, December 20, 1900--Original title: Celebrating Christ's Birth-The Christmas Festival: Its Origin and History.