Summary of Christmas Service – 1884

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) – Mon, Dec 29, 1994 – Page 1009
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) – Mon, Dec 29, 1994 – Page 1009

The Church of Our Father.

The church was handsomely decorated for Christmas with holly, laurel and pine.  At the morning service the text of Mr. Cheney was from Haggai, 2, 7; “The desire of all nations shall come,” and Luke, 2, 34 and 35;  “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against  . . . that the thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed.” The revolution which Simeon predicted is to us a matter of history. The text indicates an office of Christ is not often considered, namely, Christ the revealer of man to himself, the educator of human thought.

In every age since the first Christmas – the person of Christ has attracted the inquiry and (???) the reverence of the foremost as well as the humblest minds.

The brilliant and reckless Rousscan joins in the simple peasant’s hymn of praise to Jesus. From scholarly Goethe to the unlettered frau in the humblest German village, one tribute ascends to Jesus of Nazareth. The profoundest learning of the most diligent and acquisitive body of students the world has ever seen has spent its every hour of active life in searching and unfolding the life work of Jesus and whether the conclusion be in one view or the other, whether with Strauss you end with myth, or with Schenkel in reality, whether with Renan you end in naturalism or with Neander in supernaturalism, whether with Channing you come forth a Unitarian or with Hopkins a Trinitarian, the profoundly significant thing is this—that in every case your judgment carries with it a disclosure of your real character and habitual thought. Men’s thoughts about Christ are often less descriptive of his character than of their own.  And it is here in the revelation of man to himself and to his brother that Christ’s gospel shows its predicted power.

In the evening Mr. Chaney preached a sermon appropriate to the close of the year, taking for his subject “A New Departure – Depart from Evil and Do Good.”

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) – Mon, Dec 29, 1884 – Page 1009 (not a mistake)

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