Charles
H. Spurgeon on Christmass
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 the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in
Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever
for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance
is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition
has fixed most positively the day of our Saviour's birth, although there is no
possibility of discovering when it occured. Fabricius gives a catalogue of 136
different learned opinions upon the matter; and various divines invent weighty
arguments for advocating a date in every month of the year. It
was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated
the nativity of our Lord, and it was not till very long after the Western church
had set the example that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known,
therefore superstition has fixed it; while, since the death of our Saviour might
be determined with much certainty, therefore superstition shifts the date of its
observance every year. Where
is the method in the madness of the superstitious? 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 the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December.
From
a sermon delivered on the Lord's Day morning,
24th December, 1871
At
the Metropolitan Tabernacle
Newington, London
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