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was hastening on so swiftly, but off there in
the hill country there was this little band of
men who watched and prayed for the coming
of the Lord. Day by day they watched and time
drew on apace and one night as the midnight
began to soften into the early twilight they
heard the sound of strange voices and saw
strange forms walking on the hills, and then
there sounded in their ears that message for
which they had waited so long, "Behold I bring
you good tidings of great joy which shall be
unto all people, for unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord, and this shall be a sign unto you. Ye
shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger."
And the shepherds arose and wrapped their
cloaks about them and took up their long shepherd
crooks and went down the mountain side
toward the distant lights of the village. And
there they found the Lord in a sheep fold, the
place of all the world that they knew best and
loved best.
"Why was Jesus born in a sheep-fold. There
is nothing that just happens in the plan of God?
I love to believe that it was Heaven's tribute to
the only men in the nation who were really
watching for his coming. If the Lord had been
born in a palace there would have been no
place for the poor shepherds there. Their hopes
and their prayers would have been doomed to
disappointment. So the Lord of life came to a
sheep fold and was cradled in a manger and
there the shepherds came and worshipped him
and went back to the hills to wait for the setting
up of his Kingdom.
The second band of worshippers that we see
in Bethlghem were the Magi.
The Jews were not the only people who had
,v their Messianic prophecies. There was hardlv
a nation of antiquity that did not have its own
hopes of a world Redeemer. The Latin poet
Vergil sung you re(v I of One who was coming
to usher in the Go* j n Age. Off in Mesopotamia
the old patriarch Job said, "I know that my
Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the
latter day upon the earth." But there was
another prediction that was more widely known.
It was the prediction of Baalam the heathen
Moabite, and is one of the most sublime of the
Messianic prophecies. These are his words, "I
shall see Him but not now; I shall behold Him
but not nigh; there shall come a star out of
Jacob."
The words of Baalam were treasured far and
wide in the Orient and particluarly among the
Magi of Persia and India.
These wise men of the East believed that
some time there was a star to rise that would
tell of the coming to earth of the blessed Prince
of Peace. Generation after generation passed
and they were still waiting and watching for
the rising of the star. Fathers would die and
bequeath the hope to their sons, and bid them
to be prepared, and so it went on down the long
ages. But one night there was a new light in
the sky. It was an unknown star and it moved
across the sky toward the West. At last the
Magi know that the time had come. Quickly
they mounted their camels and turned their
faces toward the setting sun across the
L desert following the guidance of the star. WestI
ward and ever westward they went till they
came to the land of Palestine.
Tradition gives to us the picture of Herod
the Great "walking one morning nineteen centuries
ago in the outer courts of the great temple
which he had built. From its high porticoes
he could see far away over the land of Judea.
Suddenly he started. A caravan was drawing
near to the gate of the city. At its head there
k i 14 v
PRESBYTERIAN OF TBS S G
was a group of venerable strangers. They were
covered with dust and there was that about them
that told him that they had been a long time
upon the road. But Herod was not deceived.
He could see plainly that they were kings. The
splendid garments that they wore, the jewels
about their necks and the majestic bearing of
the strangers all told him that they were men
who were used to power; and Herod trembled,
for he too, heathen though he was, had heard
the priests in the temple chant the Messianic
prophecies of their race."
Then he spoke to them, "What seek ye?"
They made reply: "We have come from a far
country seeking him who is born King of the
Jews, for we have seen his star in the East and
have come to worship him." Then they told
him how for ages they had been waiting the
rising of the star, how it had suddenly flashed
across their vision pointing to the West, and
how they had followed it to lay at the feet of
the Messiah the dominion of thp "E?c+
And from Herod they went on to Bethlehem
where the child was born and where they worshipped
him.
Hasn't it sometimes seemed strange to you
that these Magi saw what millions of others upon
earth failed to see and found what others seeking
failed to find? It was because these men
lived in two worlds. They were kings upo'?
earth but they were also kings unto God. They
ruled their earthly kingdoms and cared for
their earthly subjects, and yet had time to live
in the unseen world and to wrestle mightily with
God. Their eyes were ever watching for the
unseen and their ears ever ready for the sound
of heavenly harmonies. If this had not been
so the light of the star of Bethlehem would
have been no more to them than the flicker cf
the firefly in the darkness, and the sound of
heavenly music no more than the moaning of
the night wind as it passed. The eye must
be open and turned to heaven to see the erlorv
that is there revealed.
What did it all mean?the adoration of the
Magi? Just a moment ago we saw the shepherds
coming to worship at the feet of the babe of
Bethlehem, and now we see Gentile kings coming
to kneel there beside the shepherds; Jew
and Gentile side by side at the feet of their
common Lord and Redeemer. Was not that
scene that Christmas night so long ago a prophecy
and a pledge of that hlessed day that is com
ing, when at the name of Jesus every knee shall
bow, of things on earth, and things in heaven,
and things under the earth, and every tongue
confess that he is Christ to the glory of God
the Father.
But there was another part to that circle of
adoring ones who gathered about the cradle of
the world's Redeemer. They needed no light
in that cave that night, for the glory of God
lightened it. There was there a group of shin
mg ones whose radiant faces and flashing gar
ments made all the place bright with the splendor
of heaven.
Luke tells us that there with them that night
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, good will to men." That word,
"heavenly host" opens to me a new vision of
the incarnation. What were the "heavenly
hostt" They were the spirits of just men made
perfect, those who had lived on the earth and
are now among the redeemed in heaven T like
to believe that God gave the honor of bringing
the glad news to earth to those who while here
had done the most and suffered the most to make
the world ready for him.
One of them may have been Abraham, to
whom God has promised that in him "should
all the nations of the earth be blessed." An'
) U X H [December 27, 1911
other may have been Moses, who had "esteemed
the reproach of Christ greater riches than all
the treasures of Egypt." And another, David,
who in those very hills of Bethlehem had with
his harp sung to the morning stars the Messianic
songs of his race; and Isaiah too, whose prophecies
had for seven hundred venrs hppn tlio ?
ing point of his people. To these men, who had
not received the promises, but had died in faith,
having seen them from afar, to them it may be
was intrusted the message of light and of hope
to a dying world.
The circle of adoration is now complete.
First, the shepherds; then the Magi, and last
the heavenly host. The Jew, and the Gentile,
and the redeemed, joined together in the celebration
of that first Christmas eve. Now we
begin to see what Paul meant when he wrote
years after, telling of that blessed day that is
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shall bow upon earth and in Heaven, and every
tongue confess that he is Chrfet to the glory of
God the Father.
I thank God for the Christmas promise of
that day. It comes like a flash of light in the
darkness, like a refreshing draught in the desert
as we journey on our way.
"And ye beneath life's crushing load,
' Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow?
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing."
PREDESTINATION.
REV. J. W. MOSELEY, SR.
In all those cases reviewed in the last article
we find two distinct classes brought out plainly
to view. This is not done accidentally, but
designedly; for predestination always makes a
good class permanently separated from the bad.
And when God exhibits the two classes, it shows
his grace is effectually at work. Abel was good
and full of faith, Cain an unbeliever and a murderer
at heart. Gen. 4:11-12. Enoch, Paul
tells as, was a man of faith (Heb. 11:5), and
was translated as a testimony of his righteousness
and that he pleased God. But who made
him righteous and acceptable in the midst of
a wicked and perverse generation? Only God
and the Holy Spirit could do this. Already the
world was preparing itself for the flood. Enoch
begat Methusaleh and he begat Lameeh, and
Lamech, Noah, the hero of his age. Again, God
reiusecl to accept Ishmael, although Abraham
pleaded that he might take the place of Isaac.
No, said Jehovah, the child of Sarah shall be
mine heir, with him shall I make a perpetual
covenant. "Cast out the bondwoman and her
child." Gal. 4:30.
Isaac had two sons; but Esau was rejected
before he was born and Jacob made a prince
in the house of Israel. (Rom. 9:11, etc.). Then
the grace and glory of Jacob was transferred
to Joseph, and he by divine power made preeminent
above not only his own family, but
above the principalities and powers of Egypt.
In his youth God visited him by dreams divinely
instructing him with regard to his future glory.
i\ua tnese visitations of tiod were continued to
the very last act of his life. (Heb. 11:22.)
(a) It is a long leap from Joseph to Moses,
perhaps 400 years, and it may be asked who
those predestinated were during this long period.
The divine oracles are silent, but as there
is an eternal veracity in the divine procedure,
we can only say we know there was an "election
of grace."
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy