Walking the Point

posted by Writer on Dec 24

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day?”

“And why is it that, among the swarming myriads of our population, thousands and tens of thousands among us, abstaining, under the dictate of religious principle, from the commemoration of that birth-day of Him, who brought life and immortality to light, yet unite with all their brethren of this community, year after year, in celebrating this, the birth-day of the nation?

Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?” (1)

John Quincy Adams believed there was a connection between the 4th of July and Christmas and said so in a speech he delivered on July 4, 1837. He stated that his father John, along with the other Founders, “simply took the precepts of Christ which came into the world through His birth and incorporated those principles into civil government.” (2) Take time to think about what he said.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a safe, prosperous NEW YEAR!

(1) Adams, John Quincy, “An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport, at their request On The Sixty-Fisrt Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence” July 4, 1837 wallbuilders.com; (2) Barton, David, 4th of July Article, wallbuilders.com