Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

13 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

USJAJN S1A1NLU* U_\ Utll{1::5TMA::S…

Newyddion
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Rhannu

USJAJN S1A1NLU* U_\ Utll{1::5TMA::S 1.li .UI' There was a special service at Westminster Abbey on Christmas morning, wneu tue sermon was preached by the Dean, and was an unusually eloquent one. By the early hour of lOo clook the Abbey was completely filled, and, by the courtesy of the Dean, as many as could be accommodated wore allowed seats in the •acnrium. Dean Stanley selected his text froui the 4th and 6th verses of the 4th chapter of Galatians: Bat when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, mado under the law. And becyo ye are sons God hatlisent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." He commenced by saying that Christmas Day aras fixed upon as tho festival of the Nativity, not because there was any evidence that our Saviour was really born on the 25th December, but because the nations, both of the East and West, had long celebrated the turning of the natural year at this season, and it therefore seemed fitting to celetrate at the same time the taming of the great moral year of the world—to lommomorate. so to speak, the birth of the sun which rives light and life to outward things and the first dawn of tijat San of Righteousness wuich should shed its healing wings, lengthening and brightening ever more and more into the perfect day. He concluded his Sermon by the following eloquent review of the moral And religious aspect of society in our day: We in Christendom have left far behind the cruel gladiatorial fames of ancient Rome. We, in England at least, have left far behind us the bull fights of Spain and the savage combats of buffaloes aud elephants of which we have lately heald from India; but have era fully learnt the lesson of humanity to the helpless animals of the brute creation in our ttreets, our shambles, and our hospitals ? "W hat is the answer on Christmas Day? h u that the gentle mud humane spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of our Universal Father, who feels for all the creatures of His hands, and would not that any of them should need- lessly suffer. We have left behind us the p«cdigious luxury a: d selfishness of old Imperial liuae, which threw its slaves into its fish ponds to fatien its laia- pieys for banquets, and stalled its horse3 in Btables of ivory and gold. But have we not allowed a new rage for extravagance to spring up amongst us of dress, adornments, and furniture, which encumbers and en- tangles us with ruin and dishonour? What is the 81cssage which, in this fulfilment of our time, God gives to us? Is it; not the simplicity, the hones;y, tho plain living and high thinking which wa, 80 promiuently conspicuous in Christ Jesus, and whica Is in all noble natures. We have left behind us soma of the foul sins of the ancient heathen world, but is our conversation and our litoraturo socuro against the subtle influences of that foolish frivolity, tht gross vulgarity, which undermines the puriiy and the sanc- tity of our English homes ? The answer of Christmas Day is that it was not for this that Christ blessed the jgaitrriage fCií,¡t at Cana, or gathered the children round him and bndo us remember that the vision of tho Supreme is given not to the prosperous or the self- seeker, but to the pure and clean of heart. We h* left behind the divisions which parted the Jews ft*c tho Pharisees, and the Greek from the Barbarial and the bitter disputes of the Pharisees about doctrines and modes of killing and eatirg food; but have we multiplied the dissensions of socts and churches havo we quarreled about the length and the breadth of oar tables has the ambition to torm or unite a party ehilbl our sense of honour or darkened our sen?e of rijrht. Are our separations in life carried on beside aur graves ? It is a comfort on this day to be reminded 1 bat one Master, even Christ, and that all of us in the supreme moments of life aLd death, whatever may be oursoparations elsewhere, arc breth;o i. The code of the Christian Church proclaimed as on this day is contained not in the book of Leviticus, or doubtful Canons and creeds, but in the beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer. Wo are not now as th f were in the first century before the Christian era, moaning of the oracles of Delphi, but are not some of us oppresied by the foreboding cry we sometimes h. ar thnt faith is llyi-ig out and that our God is departing ? The truo W'wer is that en this day what God haa sent us in the place of theoldoraciei and ol 1 truths and superstitions is that union of goodness, of moderation, and of truth in Jesus Christ, which can mver wax old, which de- pends on no doubtful condition and no human prcten- tions, but which makes itself manifest to the consciences •f evary man, and is as old and as cow as conscience itself. I1I may be that sometimes in onr gloomy moods wcaro inclined to think we cannot count on the con- tinuous advance of the onward progress of our race. It may be we are sometimes inclined to fear thac tho latter half of the 19th e?ntary is to close in a lower morality, a darker phi re iophy, a debasement of the senses, or a term of j gross superstition. It may be that diabolical crimes •hall anse again which v e bad hoped were dead for ever; that statesmen may again become corrupt and leli-sceking; that the leaders of sects and churches will agtin prefer the outward to the inward, the natural I to the spiritual, the seen to the unseen. Cut this need rot e 11.0. ana in our better moods we may well believe that the doctrine of Christmas Day is the declaration, that should com- hone to all of us that we ought not to allow it SQ to bl}. Let U8 not despair of om" age. We, thcinuiicnseinci caseof mechanical appliances .1). -• •' ^"inganalyses which sometimes seems likely to materialise our whole being, may be sure there is a bi i^hter and better side. In tho tacility-of our modes of communication, in the widening of our senses, in our fuller knowledge of history, in our keener sense of the sufferings of our feilow- roou. and to dutrb creatures, we also have a ful- t.P,13 of time, into tho midst of which God may, hhd we trust will, send forth the Spirit of His Son again into our very heart of hearts. We ourselves can, if we will, be as tho Apostle says, sons of God, on a more exalted scale, with loftier aims, and with wider powera of doing jod than in any age before, but always i-t must be as it was on the first Christmas Day, by the ttrengthening of our conviction of the Divine and incomparable supremacy of goodness and truth above everything else.

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