to the
past. "Christmas" (says Dean Stanley) "brings before us the relations
of the Christian religion to the religions which went before; for the
birth at Bethlehem was itself a link with the past. The coming of
Jesus Christ was not unheralded or unforeseen. Even in the heathen
world there had been anticipations of an event of a character not
unlike this. In Plato's Dialogue bright ideals had been drawn of the
just man; in Virgil's Eclogues there had been a vision of a new and
peaceful order of things. But it was in the Jewish nation that these
anticipations were most distinct. That wonderful people in all its
history had looked, not backward, but forward. The appearance of Jesus
Christ was not merely the accomplishment of certain predictions; it
was the fulfilment of this wide and deep expectation of a whole
people, and that people the most remarkable in the ancient world."
Thus Dean Stanley links Christianity with the older religions of the
world, as other writers have connected the festival of Christmas with
the festivals of paganism and Judaism. The first Christians were
exposed to the dissolute habits and idolatrous practices of
heathenism, as well as the superstitious ceremonials of Judaism, and
it is in these influences that we must seek the true origin of many of
the usages and institutions of Christianity. The old hall of Roman
justice and exchange--an edifice expressive of the popular life of
Greece and Rome--was not deemed too secular to be used as the first
Christian place of worship: pagan statues were preserved as objects of
adoration, being changed but in name; names describing the functions
of Church officers were copied from the civil vocabulary of the time;
the ceremonies of Christian worship were accommodated as far as
possible to those of the heathen, that new converts might not be much
startled at the change, and at the Christmas festival Christians
indulged in revels closely resembling those of the _Saturnalia_.

[Illustration: ANCIENT ROMAN ILLUSTRATIONS.]

CHRISTMAS IN TIMES OF PERSECUTION.

It is known that the Feast of the Nativity was observed as early as
the first century, and that it was kept by the primitive Christians
even in dark days of persecution. "They wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Heb. xi. 38). Yet they
were faithful to Christ, and the Catacombs of Rome contain evidence
that they celebrated the Nativity.

The opening up of these