The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-01-09
THE STAR IN THE EAST.
Christmastide Discourse by Rev
It. Dewitt Talmage.
New Lessons to be Learned by the Con-
temptation of the Divine Advent
Come, See the Place where
the Infant Jesus Lay.

temptation of the Divine Advent
Come, See the Place where
the Infant Jesus Lay.
The following discourse, appropriate
to the Christmastide festivities, was de-
livered by Rev. t. Dewitt Talmage in
Brooklyn and New York City from the
text:
Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.-Luke
H., Is.
Amid thousand mercies we give each
other holiday congratulations BY long
established custom we exhort each other
to healthful merriment. By gift, by
Christmas trees which blossom and fruit
in one night, by early morning surprise,
by clusters of lighted candles, by chill
dren's procession, by sound of instru-
ments sometimes more blatant than
musical, we wake up the night and pro-
long the day. l wish you all, in the
grandest, noblest and best sense, merry
Christmas. The event commemorated
is the gladdest of the centuries Christ's
cradle was as wonderful as His cross.
Persuade me of the first and / am not
surprised at the last The door by which
He entered was as tremendous as the
door by which He went out
was last winter at the house where
Jesus lived while He was in Africa 1t
was in Cairo, Egypt, the terminus of
that terrible journey which He took
when Joseph and Mary fed with Him
from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the
massacre of Herod. All tradition as
well as all history point out this house
in Cair nc xnrhf
fugitives lived while in Africa. The
room is nine steps down from the level
of the street. measured the room, and
found it twenty feet long and seven and
one-half feet high. There are three
shelvings of rock, one of which think
was the cradle of our Lord. There is
no window, and all the light must have
come from lantern or candle. The three
| arrived here from Bethlehem, having
crossed the desert.
On the Mediterranean steamer going
| from Athens to Alexandria / met the
eminent scholar and theologian, DIR.
Lansing, who for thirty-five years has
been resident of Cairo, and he told me
that he had been all over the road that
| the three fugitives took from Bethlehem
to Egypt. He says it is a desert way,
and that the forced journey of the in
FAINT Christ must have been a terrible
| journey. Going up from Egypt, DIR.
Lansing met people from Bethlehem,
their tongues swollen and hanging ont
from the Inflammation of thirst, and al
| though his party had but one goat-skin
of water left, and that was important
for themselves, he was so moved with
the spectacle of thirst in these poor pill
grims that, though it excited the indig-
nation of his fellow-travelers, he gave
water to the strangers. Over this
dreadful route Joseph and Mary
started for this land of Egypt. No
time to make much preparation. Herod
was after them, and what were these
peasants before an irate King. Joseph,
the husband and father, one night
sprang up from his mattress in great
alarm, the beads of sweat on his fore
head and his whole frame qualSing. He
had dreamed of massacres of his wife
and babe. They must' be off, that
night, right away. Mary put up few
things hastily, and Joseph brought TO
the door the beast of burden, and helped
his wife and child to mount. Why,
those loaves of bread are not enough;
those bottles of water will not last for
such long way. But there is no time
to get any thing more. Out and on.
Goodbye to the dear home they expect
never again to see. Their hearts break.
1t does not need that ours be al big
house in order to made us sorry to leave
it. r
Over the hills and down through the
deep gorge they urge their way. BY He
bron, by GAIA, through hot sand, under a
blistering sun, the babe crying, the
mother faint, the father exhausted. How
slowly the days and weeks pass. VIII
the weary three ever reach the banks of
the Nile? VIII they ever see Cairo?
VIII the desert ever end? When at last
they cross the line beyond which old
Herod has no right to pursue, their JOY
is unbounded. Free at last. Let them
dismount and rest. Now they resume
their way with less anxiety. They will
find a place somewhere for shelter and
the earning of their bread. Here they
are at Cairo, Egypt.
They wind through the crooked
streets, which are about ten feet wide,
and enter the humble house where |
have been to-day, But the terminus of
the journey of these three fugitives
was not as humble as their starting
point at Bethlehem. If that journey
across the desert ended in n cellar, it
started from a barn. In and around
that barn in Bethleham we tarry to-
day. .s
Every thing humble around the barn,
but every thing glorious overhead.
Christ's advent was in the history called
the House of Chin Ham; the night with
diamonded finger pointing down to the
place; the door of Heaven set wide open
to look out; from orchestral batons of
light dripping the oratorios of the Mes
siah;" on lowest doorstep of Heaven the
minstrels of God discoursing of glory
and good will Soon after the white
bearded astrologists kneel, and from
leathern pouch chink the sheckels,
and from open sacks exhale the
frankincense and rustic out the
bundles of myrrh. The loosened star;
the escaped doxology of celestials;
the chill December night afush
with May morn; our world a lost star,
and another star rushing down the sky
that night to beclzon the wanderer home
again, shall yet make all nations keep
Christmas.
Are there no new lessons from the
story not yet hackneyed by oft repeat
al? Oh, sideral appearance that led the
way. Why not a black cloud in the
shape of hand or finger pointing Gown
to the sacred birthplace? a cloud
u l.. H.-,l