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CHAPTER II.

I. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

1. WISE MEN FROM THE EAST.

B.C. 4.
Jan. and Feb.
THE WISE

MEN FROM
THE EAST.

LIBRARY. -"The Wise Men; Who they Were," by Prof. Francis W. Upham; "The Star of the Wise Men," by Arbp. Trench; "The Other Wise Man," a reverent and beautiful story, by Dr. Henry Van Dyke.

LEGENDS OF THE WISE MEN.-" Many who have read Gen. Wallace's Ben Hur' have wondered how much of foundation he had for his vivid descriptions of the meeting of the three wise men before the birth of the Saviour. A writer in a recent number of the Critic has this concerning the point in question: I find in my Lord Lindsay's 'History of Christian Art,' p. xlvi., that the names of the Magi, or Wise Men, were Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, the first sixty, the second forty, and the third twenty years of age; that they were of kingly, or at least of princely, rank; that, starting from three different points and traveling apart, they met, notwithstanding, at the same moment at the spot where three roads joined, and thus proceeded together to Jerusalem. His lordship gives this as taken from the Second Homily on the first chapter of St. Matthew, in a Commentary by an uncertain author (but a Latin and an Arian, flourishing at the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century), printed among the spurious works of St. Chrysostom, edit. Benedict 1718, tom. 6, p. xxviii, at the end of the volume."

"Bede, indeed, is able to tell us that Melchior was an old man, with long white hair and a sweeping beard, and that he gave the gold as to a king; that Gaspar was a beardless youth, with a ruddy face, and that he presented the frankincense as a gift worthy of God; while Balthasar was a swarthy, strong-bearded man, and gave the myrrh for the burial.”—Geikie.

2. Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

B.C. 4.

Jan. and Feb.
THE WISE
MEN FROM

THE EAST.

2. THE EXPECtation of a Deliverer, a MESSIAH." We are informed by Tacitus, by Suëtonius, and by Josephus, that there prevailed throughout the entire East, at this time, an intense conviction, derived from ancient prophecies, that ere long a powerful monarch would arise in Judea, and gain dominion over the world."-Farrar.

'VIRGIL, who lived a little before this, owns (fourth Eclogue) that a child from heaven was looked for, who should restore the golden age, and take away sin."—Jacobus.

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Socrates

and

Four hundred years before Christ, Socrates, in Greece, entertained an expectation of the near advent of some supernatural being to be a teacher of men. He said: We must wait till some one comes from God to instruct us how to behave toward the divinity and toward man.' A few years later Plato, following his great teacher, spoke his own similar expectation, declaring: It is necessary that a lawgiver be sent from heaven to instruct us. ... O, how greatly do I desire to see that man, and who he is.' And in his 'Republic' Plato has recorded one of the clearest of the unconscious pagan delineations of Christ in his famous ideal description of the just man. 'Without doing any wrong,' says the philosopher, ' he will assume the appearance of being unjust; yea, he shall be scourged, tortured, fettered,

Plato.

.. and after having endured all possible suffering, will be fastened to a post, and will restore again the beginning and prototype of righteousness.'

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Pagan

It

"About the same time, in China, Confucius was predicting to his disciples: A new religion will sometime come from the West. will pierce to the uttermost parts of China, where ships have never gone.' 'In the West the true saint must be looked for and found.' This seems a wonderful prevision of the approach of the Christian religion from the West, and of the coming of Christ to China from that quarter.

"

Foregleams.

'In the oldest sacred writings of the Hindus, dating back to a period long anterior to the advent of Christ, we find this prophecy :

'Some day a religion will come from the West that shall be under the protection of the sword, but which shall spread by persuasion.' It is a fact that the Hindus interpret these words as referring to Christianity, advancing as it does under the armed protection of Great Britain, but making its conquests by the persuasion of missionaries."--Rev. I. C. Jackson, Ph.D.

Zoroaster's
Forecast.

"But the clearest of all these prophecies was one by Zoroaster. The Nestorians say that Zoroaster was a disciple of Jeremiah, from whom he learned about the Messiah, and taught of him to his disciples. As their tradition is remarkably corroborated by Abulpharagius, I will quote his language: Zoroaster taught the Persians concerning Christ. He declared that in the latter days a pure virgin should conceive, and that, as soon as the child was born, a star would appear, blazing, even at noonday with undiminished lustre.' 'You, my sons,' exclaimed the venerable seer,' will perceive its rising before any other nation. As soon as you see the star follow it wheresoever it leads you, and adore the mysterious child, offering your gifts to him with the profoundest humility. He is the Almighty Word which created the heavens.'"-Memoir of Mrs. Judith S. Grant, Missionary to Persia.

WHENCE AROSE THIS EXPECTATION ?-Without doubt from the Jews, who were scattered everywhere, with their Scriptures and their hopes, since the Babylonish captivity. Daniel himself was a prince, and chief among this very class of wise men. His prophecies were made known to them; and the calculations by which he pointed to the very time when Christ should be born became, through the Book of Daniel, a part of their ancient literature.

Nearly all the ancient religions "are confessions of need, and Christianity is the supply of the need. Their sacrifices proclaim man's need of reconciliation. Their stories of the gods coming down in the likeness of men speak of his longing for a manifestation of God in the flesh. The cradle and the cross are heaven's answer to their sad questions."-Maclaren.

LIBRARY." Christ the Desire of all Nations; or, The Unconscious Prophecies of Heathenism," by Arbp. Trench; parts of Wallace's "Ben Hur"; the splendid prophecy in the "Fourth Eclogue of Virgil."

B.C. 4.

Jan. and Feb.
THE WISE

MEN FROM

THE EAST.

The Star in

the East.

WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST.-AStronomers have called our attention to some very strange phenomena occurring about the time of Christ's birth, which are very interesting, and which may have awakened the attention of these Oriental magi. We learn from astronomical calculations that a remarkable conjunction of the planets of our system took place a short time before the birth of our Lord. In December, 1604, the great astronomer Kepler saw a strange sight in the heavens,—a sight which occurs only once (or rather, is repeated two or three times at one period) in 800 years. It was the conjunction of the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn, close together at one point of the heavens. Five months later, in the following May, the wonder was repeated in a more wonderful way: Mars joined with Jupiter and Saturn, a fiery trygon in the constellation Pisces. The attention of the whole astronomical world was called to the sight; and this seemed to draw notice to another sight-the appearing of a new star in the constellation of the Serpent. First seen in October, 1604, it grew more and more brilliant, till it glowed like a planet; then its lustre waned, its white light turned to yellow, then to red, grew duller and dimmer, and finally, at the end of two years, had vanished altogether. These unusual occurrences led Prof. Kepler, who was as religious as he was scientific, to think that they might help to explain the strange star which the wise men saw in the east. The conjunction could occur but once in 800 years; take twice 800 years, and it brings us to within Junction of one or two years of the date of Christ's birth, the exact date of which is unknown. Several great astronomers, since Kepler's day, have made the same calculations, particularly Prof. Pritchard, of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Encke; and it rests on assured grounds that, about the time of Christ's birth, in the month of May, occurred this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, rising about three hours before sunrise, and therefore seen in the east. Suppose these wise men of Persia, the far East, seeing this wonderful sight in their clear skies, had started on their journey about the end of May, it would require at least seven months. The planets were observed to separate slowly till the end of July, when they slowly drew together again, and were in conjunction in September, when the wise men would have reached the nearer East, on the border of the desert. "At that time there can be no doubt that Jupiter would

The Con

Planets.

present to astronomers a very brilliant spectacle. It was then at its most brilliant apparition, for it was at its nearest approach both to the sun and the earth. The glorious spectacle continued almost unaltered for several days, when the planets again slowly separated, came to a halt, and then Jupiter again approached to a conjunction for the third time with Saturn, just at the time the magi may be supposed to have entered the holy city, in December. And to complete the fascination of the tale, if they performed the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the evening, as is implied, then, about half an hour after sunset, the two planets might be seen from Jerusalem, hanging, as it were, in the meridian, and suspended over Bethlehem in the distance."-Condensed from Prof. Upham's “Wise Men: Who they Were."

THE CONJUNCTION may have been the John the Baptist that heralded the true "Star out of Jacob," miraculously shown over Bethlehem. "The correctness of the views held by Encke and others as to the time and circumstances of these conjunctions, in so far as we know, are unquestioned by modern astronomers, including so high an authority as the late Astronomer Royal of England." But they do not think these conjunctions could properly be called a star within the meaning of Matthew's account.--Prof. Wm. W. Payne.

NEW STARS-TEMPORARY STARS.-In the matter of new or temporary stars, the records contain something of interest. By a new or temporary star is meant one that suddenly flashes out where none has been noticed before, and as suddenly dwindles away to a telescopic star, or disappears altogether. There is probably not another new or known variable star that has so wonderful a record as that which bears the name of Tycho Brahe. His own words best describe impressions at first sight, as follows:

Tycho Brahe's

new Star.

"Raising my eyes, as usual, during one of my walks, to the wellknown vault of heaven, I observed with indescribable astonishment near the zenith in Cassiopeia, a radiant fixed star, of a magnitude never before seen. In my amazement I doubted the evidence of my senses. However, to convince myself that it was no illusion, and to have the testimony of others, I summoned my assistants from the laboratory, and inquired of them, and of the country people that passed by, if they also observed the star that had thus suddenly burst forth." Going

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