The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Christmas Celebrations, by Theodore Parker

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Title: Two Christmas Celebrations

Author: Theodore Parker

Release Date: November 5, 2005 [EBook #17006]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS ***

Produced by Jared Fuller

THE TWO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS,

A.D. I. and MDCCCLV.

A Christmas Story for MDCCCLVI.

By Theodore Parker,

Minister of the 28th Congregational Society of Boston.

Two Christmas Celebrations.

A great many years ago, Augustus Caesar, then Emperor of Rome, ordered
his mighty realm to be taxed; and so, in Judea, it is said, men went
to the towns where their families belonged, to be registered for
assessment. From Nazareth, a little town in the north of Judea, to
Bethlehem, another little but more famous town in the south, there went
one Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife Mary,--obscure and poor people,
both of them, as the story goes. At Bethlehem they lodged in a stable;
for there were many persons in the town, and the tavern was full. Then
and there a little boy was born, the son of this Joseph and Mary; they
named him JEHOSHUA, a common Hebrew name, which we commonly call Joshua;
but, in his case, we pronounce it JESUS. They laid him in the crib of
the cattle, which was his first cradle. That was the first Christmas,
kept thus in a barn, 1856 years ago. Nobody knows the day or the month;
nay, the year itself is not certain.

After a while the parents went home to Nazareth, where they had other
sons,--_James_, _Joses_, _Simon_, and _Judas_,--and daughters also;
nobody knows how many. There the boy JESUS grew up, and it seems
followed the calling of his father; it is said, in special, that he made
yokes, ploughs, and other farm-tools. Little is known about his early
life and means of education. His outside advantages were, no doubt,
small and poor; but he learned to read and write, and it seems became
familiar with the chief religious books of his nation, which are still
preserved in the Old Testament.

At that time there were three languages used in Judea, beside the
Latin, which was confined t