THE LESSONS WHICH IT TEACHES.
BOYS and girls often think that big people have set apart Christmas as a day for gathering around the Christmas tree, as a time for Santa Claus, for the giving of presents and for having a good time generally. This is not the case. I will tell you why we celebrate Christmas, and particularly the significance and meaning of the Christmas tree. Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into this world to redeem us from sin and everlasting death; and the Christmas tree, laden with its many gifts and suggestive of so much joy and blessing, is a symbol of the Saviour. In order that you may best understand the full meaning of the Christmas tree, I must call your attention to the season of the year when Christmas came. You will remember that last summer, when the sun rose at half-past four in the morning and did not set until half-past seven in the evening, the days were very long, and you could see to go about in the evening until about eight o'clock and after. At Christmas time the sun goes down at half-past four in the afternoon, and does not rise until half-past seven in the morning. So you see that the days are about six hours shorter in December than they are in the latter part of the month of June. Christmas occurs at that season when the days are shorter and the nights are longer than at any other period of the year. In the Bible darkness represents sin and unbelief and wickedness; and the daytime or light represents truth and righteousness and godly living. So you will see that the long nights at the Christmas period of the year, and the short days, fitly represent the condition of the world at the time when Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem. At no other time in the world's history was there so much of moral darkness and sin and wickedness and corruption in the world. Cruelty and crime and wickedness abounded everywhere. If I were to stop and tell you of the condition of society, of the wrong and the iniquity, which abounded everywhere, you would be greatly horrified. It was at such a time as this in the world's history, when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this world, that sin might be banished and righteousness might abound. So you see that Christmas occurs at that period of the year when the night and the darkness are the longest of any of the entire year, and it very fittingly represents the condition which existed in the world when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as the Saviour of the world. He came to banish the moral darkness which covered the whole earth.
Not only the time of the year, but also the character of the Christmas tree suggests something. With the long nights comes also the cold winter. The earth is wrapped in snow. The trees, which a few months ago were green and beautiful and in the fall all laden with fruit, are now all naked and bare, and if you were to go out into the orchard or forest you could not tell the difference between a dead tree, and all the others which seem to be dead. Among all the trees you would only find such as the pine, the hemlock, the fir and other varieties, such as are known as evergreen trees, that would be green and give evidence of life. So you will see again how the Christmas tree fittingly represents Christ, because these evergreens, in the field and in the forest, seem to be the only things that have greenness and life, while all else around them seems to be dead and laid in a shroud of white snow.
Copyrighted 1911 by Sylvanus Stall
The Christmas Tree
The custom of setting up a tree at Christmas time and loading it with fruit and gifts seems to have originated in Germany, and the thought of these people in introducing this custom centuries ago, was that they might teach their children this very lesson to which I have referred.
Now, I desire to call your attention also to the fruit which is so often hung on the Christmas tree. The Bible tells us that a tree is known by its fruit. If you go into the orchard you could tell the apple tree from the pear tree, and you could tell the plum tree from the peach tree. If you did not know them by their leaves, you would at least know them by their fruit. But when you come to look at this tree you find oranges upon it. Now, this is not an orange tree. You find dolls upon it, but it is not a doll tree. Here are a pair of skates, but it is not a skate tree. Here are some candies, but it is not a candy tree. Neither can it be known by the name of any one of these various things which hang upon the tree. But it is a Christmas tree. And all these various kinds of things are properly hung upon the Christmas tree to represent the fulfillment of that promise that, with His Son Jesus Christ, God would also give us all things richly to enjoy.
The gifts hung on Christmas trees are usually presents from one person to another—often not only from parents to children, but from teachers to scholars, and from friend to friend. Now, until Christ was born, there were no Christmas presents. There was no Christmas day celebrated. But the reason we give presents on Christmas day is to remind each other of God's Great Gift to man, the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer and Saviour. With Jesus Christ, God also gave us grace and truth, reconciliation, and pardon and peace and salvation. Man had sinned against God; was living in open rebellion against God. Whatever was good, man hated. He loved to do wickedly. He preferred to serve Satan, rather than to serve God. And Jesus came in order to reconcile men to God—to get them to turn away from sin, wickedness and Satan, and to accept of God's love and pardon and everlasting salvation, and to do that which was right and good and holy.
If you could travel through the countries where they do not know of Christ and do not worship Him, and then travel through Christian countries, where Jesus is loved and honored, you would soon see what a great difference there is between the two. We have railroads, steamboats, and telegraphs, and telephones, and phonographs, and every kind of cloth, and silk, and furs with which to clothe ourselves for greatest comfort, and when we sit down at our tables there is no good thing that is produced in any nation under the sun, that is not available even to those of limited means.
In the heathen countries it is not so. They are still riding in carts drawn by oxen. Without clothing and without comforts, the people in Africa are still groping through the bushes and jungles. And if you go to India and China and Japan you will find that only in so far as they have been brought under the influence of the religion of Jesus Christ, do they have even now the material blessings which come with the Gospel.
But there are other blessings which come to us with the preaching of the Gospel. In heathen countries they have no asylums to care for the orphans, no hospitals for the sick and the distressed and the dying; no institutions of charity and of mercy; but few schools, and these only for the rich and the upper classes. So you see that these things are among the gifts which God has given us with His Son Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
Then there are also the spiritual blessings and gifts. God's grace, communion with God, and the joy and satisfaction we have in our hearts in knowing that we are the children of God; that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from sin and death; that we are the heirs of everlasting life, and of everlasting glory. And the Bible promises us that in the world to come we shall enjoy everlasting blessedness, and happiness and joy—that we shall dwell forever with Jesus Christ; that we shall be made kings and queens unto our God. The Bible tells us, that it has not entered into the heart of man to think or to conceive of the things which God has in store for those who love Him. If we were to laden this tree with all the richest treasures of the world they could not adequately suggest the great blessings which God has in store for you and for me.
How fitting, then, that we should be glad and joyous on Christmas day!—that you and I should receive not simply these material gifts, but that we should also accept of Jesus Christ in our hearts and receive His spiritual blessings; and so be adopted into the family of God, and be permitted to dwell for ever in His presence on high. May God always bless you in your Christmas joy, and may you be glad not only because you receive the gifts of your parents and friends, but also because God gives to us all, His Only Begotten and Well Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer and Friend.
Questions.—What event does Christmas Day commemorate? About what time of the year are the days shortest and the nights longest? What does the darkness of the long nights represent? Was the world in moral darkness when Christ came? Is He the world's Redeemer? What trees are green in the winter? Whom does the evergreen tree represent? Why? Where did the custom of having Christmas trees probably originate? What do the things on the Christmas tree represent? Did people give Christmas presents before Christ came? What do our gifts to one another represent? With His Son, has God given us other things which we are to enjoy? Where do people enjoy the greatest material comforts and blessings, in Christian or heathen lands? In what lands are the largest spiritual blessings enjoyed?