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After the Custom of the Feast.DR. A. SPAETH.Otlhhaitleisid-stawaiaiaiitbtltifrm4 Iarp*atJedi01kidlt;b}oislithnlt; •«1uithInheararthfasctetrthsoPiCOceFirst Sunday after Kpiphany. —Luke 2 :41 52.Our pericopes still linger at the second chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. What a precious storehouse that chapter is with all that it contains on the history of Christ’s birth and infancy ! The Gospels for the festival of Christmas (vs. 1*14), for the day after Christmas (vs. 15-22), forthe Day of Circumcision (v. 21) for the Sunday after Christmas (vs. 33-40), are all taken from this chapter. It furnishes two of the grandest hymns or canticles, which th Ohu'ot. has never grown wearjy •• oi uiog in her services, the Gloria |in Gxcelsis and the Nunc Dimittis. , ^ And the narrative from the boyhood of Christ, the one event recorded out of the thirty years between his infancy and His public mmistrv, is likewise taken from that chapter It forms the Gospel of the first Sunday after Epiphany. It describes the first visit of the boy Jesus, in the twelfth year of His life, in the temple of Jerusalem, at the time of the great Jewish festival, the Passover.His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the pass-over. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusa lem, alter the custom of the feast.*’ This custom of the feast, as the Evangelist calls it, was a powerful bond of union for the Jews, scat-0terfed abfoad throughout all lands, or beid in bondage in Palestine wnder the rule of a foreign. power.At such a passover season one might see the whole country covered with caravans of pilgrims, all bound for Jerusalem. The air was .filled with their festive songs and psalms. At the sight of the Holy City they would sing that beautiful one hundred and twenty-seccnd Psalm : I was glad when they.said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand withiu thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is bufided a city that is compact together : whithertribes go up. thfcjyrjbe,m m __Lord, unto be testimony of Isr to give thanks unto the name ofthe Lord.”- * ~Now this “custom of the feast” was strictly observed in the house ot Juiph ol N .zarelh. Though by the letter of the Law only the males ol Israel svtre bound to appeat before the Lord, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, aud in the feast of taber-:tiaoli - (Deli er nomy 16:16), we .find that, even under the Old Testament, there were found devout 'women who would accompany ’their husbands on those pilgrimagessauetuaiy of Israel, as for Instance Hanna, the mother of ISamuel. From their twelfth year ■on the Jewish male children wrere •called “the sons of the Law” and :accompanied their fathers to the .temple in Jerusalem. The youth lt;of JeMis also i-. bound to this cus-ttom. It is one of the elementary »nd fundamental features in the religious life of Him who was true man born ol the Virgin Mary, and a true Isrue ite born of the seed of David. Tuere was no quesliou raised at N.tzarelh under the humble rooi ot the carpenter, Shall we go this time^ or stay at home, or who shall go and who shall remain? They all went “after the custom of toe fea-i.“ The festivals, the .ten.pie, it services with songs and psalms, with sacrifices, aud offer iings of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving belonged to the religious lile cl the little family at Nazarethas it iii'trumcutalities and manifest it tuns.Who a blessed and powerful thing even in the New Testament Church is such a sacred custom 1 Ways, and practices, habits and manners, firmly rooted in the life of the family, in the order of the Church 1 Not to speak of the ordinances of God’s means of grace, the sacraments, we have our cate-chizatiou for the young Christians, our confirmation, our lestivals of Advent, Christmas, Easter, etc., the whole beautiful order of the Church Year. Let us keep them, in spirit and in truth, after the custom of the Feast.— The Lutheran.ylt;thththofli|asspoltamwlt;vethesacarfofosoceb(hinlt;sc01otkiccbi\\wtlalsiscpiaib;blt;eluialWb«ninhlt;CJealbU 1
Newspaper Details
Martinsburg American Union
Martinsburg, West Virginia, US
Thu, Jul 11, 1861
Page 3
Full Page
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GB 13 Jun 2021
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