THE HERE is something very dismal about the darkness of night. And if you are sick, or suffering during the night, how slowly its hours pass away! and how long the night seems! And then, what a pleasant thing it is when the sun rises, and scatters his cheerful beams around! Then the birds begin to sing, and the flowers open their leaves, and unfold their loveliness, and everything seems bright and beautiful. Before Jesus was born into our world the state of things here, was compared to night. The Prophet Isaiah was speaking of this, when he said, "Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people." Is. lx: 2. And it was the effect of Christ's coming into our world that he was speaking of again, when he said, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Is. ix: 2. The birth of Christ was to be like the morning coming after a long, dark night. The Prophet Malachi compares the coming of Christ to the rising of the sun. This is what he means when he says:"Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings," or his beams. Mal. iv: 2. Christ's coming was like sunrise to the world. The birth of Christ was the most important event that ever took place in the history of our world. This is the great event of which we are now to speak. And in speaking of it, there are four things connected with it to be considered. These are the time of his birth; the place of his birth; the circumstances of his birth; and the reasons for his birth. Or to express it more briefly, when-where-how, and why-Christ was born. We begin them by considering-WHEN Christ was born. Any Sunday-schoolboy or girl can answer the question—When was Christ born? We reckon our years from the time when this great event took place. We all know what year it is that we are living in. We call this -the year 1877. And what we mean by this numbering of the years is, that Jesus was born into our world eighteen hundred and seventy-seven years ago. Learned men who have examined this subject carefully, tell us that the birth of Christ really took place four years before this. They say that these four years ought to be added to these 1877. This would make it actually eighteen hundred and eighty-one years since the birth of Christ. But we may well be content to let the figures stand as they are. We call this year, Anno Domini 1877. This means in the year of our Lord 1877. And every time we speak of the year in which we are living, we are, as it were, pointing back to the time of our Saviour's birth. And what St. Luke tells us, agrees with this. He informs us that John the Baptist began his ministry "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar." Luke iii: 1. John was then thirty years old. This was our Saviour's age, too, for he and John were born in the same year, within six months of each other. The fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar corresponds with the year 30, Anno Domini, or the thirtieth year of our present way of reckoning time. And Tiberius Cæsar began his reign when John and Jesus were about fifteen years old. And as twice fifteen make thirty, this shows us that our present way of reckoning time from the birth of Christ is correct. But some one may ask the question whether there was nothing said in the Old Testament about the time when Christ was to be born? Yes; there were two things said, and it may be well enough for us to take a look at them here: |