The Portland daily press., 1883-12-25
The Sphinx and the Star.
Written for the Press.
BY ADAM NEwBEGIN.

Written for the Press.]
There is a charming French picture which
represents Joseph and Mary hating in Egypt.
The ass is tethered close by, and the infant
Jesus is Graded between the outstretched paws
of sphinx, while the stars burning in a
cloudless sky look down upon the New Dis.
pensation in the arms of the Old. 1t leads US
back reverently to the thought of that first
Christmas when the Kingdom of Peace was
introduced among those nations whose every
creed was mingled with war and violence; to
that first Christmas, when the gates were ajar,
and men heard the actual songs OF heaven,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men,"
Has tradition preserved any strain of that
heavenly music? Perhaps it may live in
some of the grand old church anthems, or it
may have come as an inspiration to the soul of
some composer, as Adelaide Proctor's 'Lost
Chord" came,
"Like the sound of great Amen
It seems almost as if the image of stone
recognized the holy infant. That this coming
was the secret which he had kept for twenty
centuries, that this was the mystery which
looked out of those calm eyes that had gazed
down so long upon the passions of humanity,
upon war, pestlence, famine, ruin and desola-
ton, knowing that Shiloh must come.
The Egyptians may have had this tradition
as well as the Hebrews The custom of en-
balming their dead seems to point to belief
in general resurrection, and the custom and
tradition may both have come from an earlier
source, akin to the Hebrew. The wise men of
the East also had the tradition, for, though
they arrived twelve days after Christmas, they
had come more than twelve days journey,
probably twenty days. The Magi were Aryans
of Media, and held, with Zoroaster, in the re-
surrection, which implies the coming of the
Lord. This similarity of belief was what in .
clined the heart of Cyrus toward the Jews in
the time of the captivity. The wise men must
have had some prophetic warning besides the
appearance of the star, and as they were after
wards warned of Herod Sin a dream,'' we may
infer that their first notice was given in a
similar way, after the manner OF the divine
communication with Samuel and other Hebrew
prophets.
It has been claimed that the Star which the
wise man followed was the same star that
sopeia in 1872, as reported by Tycho Brahe
and Cornelius Comma, and that it would
appear again at the second coming. This
is only repetition of an old fancy and comes
from curious misleading of the phrase "For
we have seen his star in the east, and are come
to worship him" II the wise men had fol-
lowed a star in Cassiopeia it would have led
them 10 Samarcand in Independent TarJary.
If they had followed star due east, suppos-
ing them to start from Ispahan, it would have
led them to Thibet Song and story always
speak of it as the "Star in the East" Bishop
Heber sings:
"Star in the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
But what they really followed was star in
the west, if they started from the neighbof-
hood of Ispahan,o little to the south of west
if from as high up as Pad IN Ara m tive original
home of Abraham. When they lott Herod.
the star stood over Bethlehem, which is south
of Jerusalem. This star could not have been
them familiarly, and their ancestors had
known them for two thousand years or more: it
is more likely, therefore, to have been comet
approachingsthe sun, as they were long con-
sidered as portents and warnings.
The wise men brought gifts to their infant
king. In ancient times ali who approached
monarchs brought gifts. Twelfth Day, or
Epiphauy was deemed part of the Christmas
festival by the Eastern Church, and this beau
tiful custom of bearing gifts is preserved as a
part of Christmas, except that now they are
given unto the little ones ia the name Of the
Christ-child.