XMAS
Charles. H. Spurgeon
The
following extract is from the late C. H. Spurgeon's exposition of Psalm
81 in the Treasury of David.
"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our
solemn feast day." (Verse 3)
Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought
his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons
be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord. “In the time appointed,
on our solemn feast day.” Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim
and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which
no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not
only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had
been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the olden time welcomed the
times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never
speak of the Sabbath as though it could be other than “a delight” and “honourable.”
Those who plead this passage as authority for their man-appointed feasts
and fasts must be moonstruck. We will keep such feasts as the Lord appoints,
but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.
"For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob."
(Verse 4)
It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should
be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the
Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it
can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other
Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will
attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the
traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning
every rite and rubric, “Is this a law of the God of Jacob?” and if it be
not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.
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