Jew, if he will be consistent, the gos pel history must necessarily be accredited, and the applicability of these marks to the Messiah of Christians, must be acknowledged to be real and if real they are also decisive in favour of his Messiahship. I say they are decisive, because many of them are such as no imposter would challenge to himself if he were able; for they presuppose his own disgrace and rejection. Many of them also are such as no imposter could appropriate to himself, if he were even willing. They were affixed to him by agents over whom he could exercise no control-They were rejection, and mockery, and crucifixion, and death, and interment, and resurrection. These were predicted as marks by which Messiah was to be recognised, and in Jesus of Nazareth they did all meet. This, therefore, is He-"We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John i. 45. Survey his course from the cradle to the grave; he appears the Messiah at every step-in his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension-in his tribe, family, friends, inheritance, and even in his betrayer, "in whom he trusted, which did eat of his bread, and yet lifted up his heel against him,"-(Ps. xli. 9.)-in his humiliation, in his being numbered among the transgressors, (Isa. liii. 12.)—and in his making his grave with the rich in his death; verse 9. To him has been the gathering of the people; he has been a light to the Gentiles; Zion has "lengthened her cords and strengthened her stakes"-the Gentiles are actually come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. Lift up thines eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves together, they come to thee, thy sons are come from far, and thy daughters are nursed at thy side The abundance of the sea is now converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles are come unto thee." (Isa. lx. 3-5.) If a certain time was specified at which Messiah was to make his appearance; if certain marks were laid down by which his person would infallibly be ascertained; and if at the appointed time a certain personage did appear who laid claim to the Messiahship, and if in this person all the appropriate marks of Messiah did meet; if Jehovah himself set his seal to the claim by working miracles in attestation of it; if the claim was so incontestable as to enlist in its behalf a considerable part of the Jewish and Gentile world, though at the sacrifice of their national and family prejudices, of their possessions, and often of their lives-if all this be true, who dare say that this is not the Christ, the Son of the living God? Objections against a truth clearly established by direct evidence, ought certainly to have but little. weight; and those of the Jews do really appear to be mere cavils-destitute even of plausibility, if fairly examined. When we adduce the 53d chapter of Isaiah, to prove that Messiah ought to suffer these things and to enter into his glory;" they apply the passage to themselves; who though afflicted, are yet an holy people, who know no sin. And yet when we urge upon them that the time of Messiah's advent is already past, they say that it has been delayed on account of their sins.-Yet one purpose of his advent was to take away sin. (Zech. xiii. 1. Dan. ix. 24.) The main argument of the Jews against Christianity is the tradition of their fathers. But even admitting the validity of tradition; if the tradition of the unbelieving part proves that Messiah is not yet come, the tradition of those who at early and subsequent periods have embraced the gospel must prove the contrary. For the testimony of these latter, although the number that bear it is comparatively small, is the more entitled to credit, because it is contrary to their national pride and prejudice. Another argument on which they place some reliance is, that what God has ordained he cannot alter. The plans of God we acknowledge, in reply, he never alters. But surely the abrogation of a system may not only not involve any alteration of his plans, but may even form a part of them-this abrogated system being merely intended to answer a certain temporary purpose. Besides, the fulfilment of the ceremonial law is not the abolition of it. And if, as the Jews admit, the Gentiles, at and after the advent of the Messiah, are to be brought in, how could the ceremonial law be extended over them? Could every male, from the most distant parts of the world, repair three times annually to Jerusalem? Nor on this supposition would the family of Aaron be sufficient for priests, nor that of Levi for ministers. Hence the prediction, "And ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests." (Ex. xix. 6.) Although the children of Israel be "a rebellious house," our "hearts' desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." With humility we desire to remember that "as concerning the gospel they are enemies for our sakes," (Rom. xi. 28.) We behold "the severity and goodness of God; on them which fell severity, but towards us goodness." We have seen them "a hissing, and a byeword, and a reproach among all people," and we rejoice "that they shall yet return to Sion with songs and everlasting salvation, and that sorrow and sighing shall flee away forever." We rejoice that "there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and so all Israel shall be saved."-"For a small moment they have been forsaken, but with great mercies will they be gathered." We rejoice too at the spirit of inquiry prevalent at the present day; that there is a shaking in "the valley of dry bones," and that ere long, as we hope, there "will stand up an exceeding great army" that there are some among them who are looking to Him whom they have pierced and are mourning. And may we be of that people who, both by our language and our conduct, shall say to the Jews, "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord;" "come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." If we look at the past, we perceive that to them "pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God," that of them are "the promises, and of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever. Amen." (Rom. ix. 4, 5.) If we look forward, we learn "that as the casting away of them has been the reconciling of the world, the receiving of them shall be life from the dead." Gratitude to them, and a regard to our own salvation who are Gentiles, are equally and powerfully urgent in their claims upon our prayers, our exertions, and our purses. Let us merely not say to them, be ye warmed, and filled, and converted-letus give them also those things which are needful to their present and everlasting welfare. The American society for meliorating the condition of the Jews, divests us of the plea of inability to reach the case of the Jews. The benevolence, the sobriety, and scriptural character of its object, as well as the known character of its managers, present it strongly to the attention of those "who pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and whose right hands shall sooner forget their cunning than they forget thee, O Zion. PHILALETHES. Miscellaneous. FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. CHRISTMAS. It is known to all who have examined the subject, that we are entirely ignorant of the precise time of our Lord's nativity. There is good reason to believe that the Christian era itself is considerably inaccurate; that our Saviour's birth really took place about four years earlier than the time from which it is commonly reckoned; so that we are now in the year 1827, from the true period of his incarnation. The cause of this error was, that even Christians, to say nothing of others, did not reckon time from the birth of Christ, till about the beginning of the sixth century after his advent; when it was no longer practicable to fix that great epoch with certainty. The publick archives had been destroyed by the burning of the greater part of the city of Rome, in the time of Nero, and probably by his order; and hence, although the empire in the sixth century had long since become Christian, the decree of Augustus for a general taxing, which was cotemporaneous with our Saviour's birth, and the account of his death sent to Rome by Pilate, could not be resorted to, in deter mining the exact time of these interesting and important events. The word Christmas is composed of the two words Christ, and Mass, and was first employed to denote the religious service made use of in the Roman Catholick church, in celebrating our Saviour's birth; nor is it improbable, that this very term has increased, if it did not originate, the strong dislike which some protestants have always entertained and expressed, against the performance of any religious service on the day call ed Christmas. There seems to be no probability that the great event which Christmas commemorates, happened on the 25th of December; and it is wonderful that Pope Julius, by whom that day was fixed for religious observance, should have decided as he did. Two events, coincident with the incarnation of our Redeemer, are fully known-the resort of the Jews from the most distant parts of Judea, to the city, or place, where they were born, that they might be enrolled and taxedand the watching of their flocks by night, of the shepherds, in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Now, it is very improbable, that the season of the year the most unfavourable of all for travelling, should have been assigned for the universal attendance of the Jews at the various places of enrolment: and it is still more improbable, that in a climate not very different from that of the southern part of the United States, shepherds should be "keeping watch over their flocks by night," on the 25th of December encamped, as they clearly were, in the open fields. Those who have investigated the subject most carefully, have placed our Lord's nativity somewhere between the middle of August and the middle of November; and the best and prevalent opinion is, that it happened in the latter part of September, or in the early part of October. We have no evidence that Christmas was ever observed as a religious festival till toward the end of the second century of the Christian era, under the Roman emperor Commodus. The observance of it, however, soon became general, and continued to be so till the time of the protestant reformation. Neither, indeed, was its observance proscribed otherwise than that this might seem or discountenanced by the reformers; otherwise than that this might seem to be implied in the great protestant principle, that the scriptures alone best maps, in Lat. 32° 36′ north, which * Bethlehem, in Judea, is placed in the is very nearly the latitude of Charleston, South Carolina. contain the laws and institutions which are binding on conscience and obligatory on the church, and that in the scriptures, there is certainly no command, nor any recorded usage of the primitive church, in favour of the observance of Christmas. The protestant churches, nevertheless, both Lutheran and Calvinistick, have, in fact, generally observed the day, not only as a season of social festivity, but by the performance of some religious service commemorative of the birth of Christ. It is believed that the Scotch church and the English Puritans, with their descendants, stand alone, among all the reformed churches whose origin is coeval with the reformation, in their refusal to celebrate Christmas in a religious manner-esteeming such a celebration as a departure from the fundamental principle of protestantism already mentioned; and viewing it as dangerous to make any observance habitual, without a clear scriptural warrant; or to act as if any other day than the Sabbath could lawfully be regarded as sacred. We are now prepared to make the following summary statement. 1. That the religious observance of the day called Christmas is not a divine institution, and therefore to represent or regard it as such, is contrary to truth and duty. 2. That the day of the year, and even the month, in which our Saviour was born, is not known.-The day of his crucifixion we know exactly. It is ascertained by the Jewish Passover, the annual return of which is most clearly specified in the Pentateuch, and has been punctually observed by the Jews in every successive age. But, in the providence of God, we are not permitted to know the day on which our blessed Lord became incarnate. 3. That the incarnation or nativity of the Redeemer of the world, is unquestionably an event which we ought often to recollect, with the deepest admiration and the most lively gratitude, and on suitable occasions to celebrate in social worship. VOL. I.-Ch. Adv. 4. That since the second century of the Christian era the great body of Christians, both catholicks and protestants, have assigned a specifick day for the commemoration of the great event by which a Saviour was given to the world. 5. That some protestant sects, notwithstanding, refuse to observe this day, because they have no scriptural warrant for such an observance, and therefore think that it is wrong in itself, and likely to be followed by bad consequences. On the last of these items it is proposed to offer a few remarks. The writer is a member of the presbyterian church, honours its steadfast adherence to the sole and paramount authority of scripture, and certainly is not disposed to censure those who are conscientiously scrupulous in regard to the observance of the 25th of December, as a season for the religious commemoration of our Redeemer's nativity. He has, however, no such scruples himself; and he begs leave to state to his fellow Christians the reasons why he thinks their scruples might be laid aside and he does this with the more freedom, because the publick standards of the presbyterian church say not a word on this subject, either in the Confession of Faith, or in the Larger or Shorter Catechism,-leaving it to be judged of freely, by every individual of our communion. To meditate with profound and adoring gratitude on the incarnation of the Son of God, on his infinite condescension in assuming our nature in becoming "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," in being "made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;" and to celebrate all this in acts of publick social worship, no Christian, it is believed, will deny to be an important duty. Nor will it probably be denied, that some special season may with propriety be set apart for a particular attention to this duty. It has been well said, "that a duty which we think we may discharge at any time, 3 Z we are likely to perform at no time." It is certainly prudent and useful, to have a time appropriated to every important duty, that it may not be overlooked and neglected. Now, it is feared by the writer, and his fears arise from long observation, that those who have no appropriate season for making the incarnation of our Redeemer the subject of publick discourse, accompanied with special praise and prayer, do too much neglect this duty. It is not affirmed, that all the parties concerned are chargeable with this neglect; nor that any neglect the duty altogether. But that it is too much, and too generally neglected, is believed to be a fact. It is not unknown or forgotten by the writer, that days of fasting and thanksgiving are enjoined, in our publick standards, to be observed* "upon special occasions, which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in a holy and religious manner;" and that this is construed by some, as intimating that there should be no stated seasons for these duties. But this is believed to be an unsound construction. The design of the pious and learned framers of our publick formulas of faith, was to withstand the observance of the stated fasts and festivals in the popish church, or any thing of a like nature; because they might, and often did, call those who regarded them to a celebration exactly contrary to the demand of existing circumstances -to fast when they ought to give thanks, and to give thanks when there was a call to be humbled and mourn. This appears to have been particularly in view, both in what we have quoted from the Confession, and in the answer, in the larger Catechism, to the question "what are the sins forbidden in the second commandment," But there is no reason to believe that the framers of our formulas believed, or meant to intimate, that there were not certain subjects that would always and regularly demand gratitude and thanksgiving, and others that would always and regularly call for humiliation and fasting. They only meant to provide for a due and seasonable regard to these, and to prevent their interference with each other. Accordingly we find, that the descendants of the puritans in New England, although they have disregarded the observance of Christmas, have established a custom, which we think a very laudable one, of having an annual thanksgiv ing, and an annual fast-both appointed and proclaimed by the civil authority. This custom is continued to the present day; and it would probably be a very unpopular thing, if any governor should violate the usage, by neglecting to appoint a thanksgiving in autumn, or the beginning of winter, and a fast some time in the spring. We not only wish that this usage may be perpetual, but that it may be adopted in every state in the American Union. But we do think that the nativity of our blessed Lord more imperiously demands a day for its annual celebration, than any other event, or series of events, which can deserve the religious regard of a Christian community. And as a specifick day for this purpose has been fixed by long prescription and the general observance of Christians, why should not this day be observed? Only two objections occur to the writer, both of which have already been brought into view. The first is, that it may happen that existing circumstances may call for mourning and humiliation, and not for the publick expression of religious joy, on the 25th of December. Be it so and on every such occasion, which certainly will not often occur, let another period be assigned for celebrating the Redeemer's incarnation. This will serve to show, unequivocally, that Christmas is not considered as a divine institution; and thus help to remove the second objection-which is, that the regular observance of this |