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Comments on "We have no
superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in
the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First because we do
not believe in any mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or
in English: Secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for
observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its
observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition
has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there in no
possibility of discovering when it occurred. It was not till the middle of
the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the birth of our
Lord; and it was not till long after the western Church had set the example,
that the eastern adopted it. Because the day in not known. Probably the fact
is that the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals.
We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year of which we may be
pretty sure that it was not the day on which our Savior was born it is the
25th of December. Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for
the gift of His dear Son. How absurd to
think we could do it in the spirit of the world, with a Jack Frost clown, a
deceptive worldly Santa Claus, and a mixed program of sacred truth with fun,
deception and fiction. If it be possible to honor Christ in the giving of
gifts, I cannot see how while the gift, giver, and recipient are all in the
spirit of the world. The Catholics and high Church Episcopalians may have
their Christmas one day in 365 but we have a Christ gift the entire
year". C. H. Spurgeon Dec. 24, 1871 "Upright men
strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went
on. till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant was
submerged under pagan superstition. That Christmas is a pagan festival is
beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it in
celebrated, prove its origin". "Those who
follow the custom of observing Christmas, follow not the Bible, but pagan
ceremonies".
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