“A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a faithful pastor to the people of God in his day. Part of his faithfulness may be seen in how he stood against the various errors and corruptions of the medieval church. One of these errors was the adding to the calendar various holidays. Not even Christmas was exempt from his fiery zeal: “WE have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas.“But one would be mistaken to think that dear old Spurgeon had no place in the heart and home of a Christian for the joyful celebration of our Lord’s birth. This can be seen from the fact that he often preached sermons on the incarnation at or on Christmas (the statement above comes to us from a sermon preached Dec. 24th the subject matter was the birth of Christ) and by these statements that are of the stock of Spurgeon’s verbal genus:
“Why all this
ringing of bells in the church steeples, as if all London were mad with
joy? There is a prince born; therefore, there is this salute, and
therefore are the bells ringing. Ah, Christians, ring the bells of your
hearts, tire the salute of your most joyous songs, “For unto us a child
is born, unto us a Son is given.” Dance, O my heart, and ring out peals
of gladness! Ye drops of blood within my veins dance every one of you!
Oh! all my nerves become harp strings, and let gratitude touch you with
angelic fingers! And thou, my tongue, shout—shout to his praise who hath
said to thee—”Unto thee a child is born, unto thee a Son is given.”
Wipe that tear away! Come, stop that sighing! Hush yon murmuring. What
matters your poverty? “Unto you a child is born.” What matters your
sickness? “Unto you a Son is given.”
Ah! miserable
wretch, without a hope, without Christ, without God. Unto thee there is
no Christmas mirth, for thee no child is born; to thee no Son is given.
Sad is the story of the poor men and women, who during the week before
last fell down dead in our streets through cruel hunger and bitter cold.
But far more pitiable is thy lot, far more terrible shall be thy
condition in the day when thou shalt cry for a drop of water to cool thy
burning tongue, and it shall be denied thee; when thou shalt seek for
death, for grim cold death—seek for him as for a friend, and yet thou
shalt not find him. For the fire of hell shall not consume thee, nor its
terrors devour thee.”[1]
“THIS is the season of the year when,
whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of
Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to
think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no
probabilities whatever that our Savior Jesus Christ was born on that day
and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those
who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how
consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred. However, I
wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is
work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring
people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us, particularly as it
enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once
more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other
people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the
Lord Jesus.
The old Puritans made a parade of work on
Christmas-day, just to show that they protested against the observance
of it. But we believe they entered that protest so completely, that we
are willing, as their descendants, to take the good accidentally
conferred by the day, and leave its superstitions to the
superstitious.”[2]
“Hail thou
Immanuel, all divine, In thee thy Father’s glories shine,Thou brightest,
sweetest, fairest One, That eyes have seen or angels known.”
Now, a happy
Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God
with you. I shall say nothing to-day against festivities on this great
birthday of Christ. I hold that, perhaps, it is not right to have the
birthday celebrated, but we will never be amongst those who think it as
much a duty to celebrate it the wrong way as others the right. But we
will to-morrow think of Christ’s birthday; we shall be obliged to do it,
I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And
so, “let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven
of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.” Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of
Bacchus; do not live tomorrow as if you adored some heathen divinity.
Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. Go to the house of
feasting to-morrow, celebrate your Savior’s birth; do not be ashamed to
be glad, you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, “Go thy way, eat
thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now
accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head
lack no ointment.” “Religion never was designed To make our pleasures
less.” Recollect that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way,
rejoice tomorrow; but, in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem;
let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the
virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the
Child given. I finish by again saying, “A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU
ALL!”[3]
[1] Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit vol. 6:291 Dec. 25
[2] Park Street pulpit vol. 2:57 Dec. 23
[3] Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit vol. 40:2392
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