A GLANCE at the few Christmas sermons and drafts for sermons by
Schleiermacher which have survived from the years 1790-1810 shows
that so far as is known he preached three times on the text, Galati s
4.4. ¹ The content of these three sermons leaves no doubt that what
interested him in this text was the clause 'when the fulness of the time
was come' (∘+’′τε δη+̀ ð+̓+̑λΘεν τò πλð+́ρωμα τ∘υ+̑ ξΆóνυ). There he believed
that he found an expression of the truth that the advent of Christ must
be understood as the result of the continuous direction of this world
by divine Providence, or in other words as an historical necessity.

'The circumstances of the birth of Jesus, both the great and the
small': the land, the race, the time, the position of his parents, the
shepherds, Simeon, Herod -- 'all become important to us because they
have an effect, directly or indirectly, on Jesus and on his character;
because they all had to occur together in order to make him that which
he had to be. This insight excites in my soul a great increase of love for
Jesus. . . . The more necessary the extraordinary guidance of Providence,
the dearer he becomes to us. . . the more freely and deeply we rejoice
that he is and that he is exactly what he is.' So we hear in 1790.

Why so? Because the experience is universal, because in the Christ-
mas message, when it is so understood, we have the rule which governs
ourselves and our whole lives. In 1795 Schleiermacher declared: for
something good to befall us, the time must be fulfilled; everything
follows the law of nature; everything is subject to rule. And in 1802 he
said with only a slight variation: God's benefits come to men when the
time is fulfilled, occurring (here the historical sequence is emphasized
instead of the natural) according to the rule of justice and order.

The question naturally arises of how the specific festival theme of
Christmas is related to the theme of universal truth which is dominant

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