Spurgeon and Xmas

I admit it. For the second time I have purchased the wares of a women who opposes my religious beliefs. Yes, the one I blogged about before. At this very moment I'm wearing the flannel pants she made, underneath a long skirt, and it's incredible how warm and cozy I feel on this cold and rainy day.

Once again, my order arrived with a stack of literature. There didn't seem to be much hope that I'd get another anti-Christmas tract-- but I did! This one is titled simply "Xmas", and it isn't as firey as the first was. But at the end it offers an unexpected delight: a quote from C. H. Spurgeon's exposition of Psalm 81:

"Blow the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day." (v.3) 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.... Those who plead this passage as an 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.... When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide and other Popish festivals were 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."

Now here's what amuses me about this. A few years ago for Christmas I gave my mom a book of Spurgeon's sermons, entitled... are you ready for this?... "Spurgeon's sermons on Christmas and Easter"! Yes, his sermons on the birth and resurrection of Jesus have been assembled into a book to celebrate two man-appointed, Rome-ordained feasts! Poor guy must be turning over in his grave.