The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-10-01
The Lovely Surroundings of the
Advent and the Signs i'm the
Heavens--Detaiis OF Christ's
Separate Walks from Beth
iehem to Calvary.

BROOKLYN, Sept. 27.-This Is Sacra-
nent Sunday at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle. The services as usual on these
occasions were very solemn and impress
sive. The morning service opened with
the Long Meter Doxology. The grand
offertory by Grison was exquisitely
rendered by Professor Henry Eyre
Browne, and the service closed with
the majestic Coronation" hymn. DR..
Talmage's discourse was On 1.-The March
Of Christ Through the Centuries" and
his text Revelation xix, 12, ION his
head were many crowns"
May your ears be alert and your
thoughts sconcentered, and all the powers
of your soul aroused, while l speak to
you Of ''the march of Christ through
the centuries. You say, give us then
a good start, in rooms of vermilion and
on floor of mosaic and amid corridors
of porphyry and under canopies dyed in
all the splendors of the setting sum-"
You can have no such starting place
AT the time our Chieftain was born,
there were castles on the beach Of Cali
lee, and palaces at Jerusalem, and i'm
perial bathrooms at Jericho, and obe-
lisks at Cairo, and the Pantheon at
Rome, with it's corinthian portico and
its sixteen granite columns; and the
Parthenon at Athens, with its glistening
coronet of temples; and there were
mountains of fine architecture in many
| parts of the world. But none Of IT,
| ~..--s,fr,s pace OF the
Chieftain celebrate.
A cows stall, winter month, an at
mosphere In which are the moan of
camels, and the baaing of sheep. and
| the barking of dogs, and the rough
banter of hostleries. He takes his first
| journey before he could walk. Armed
desperadoes with hands of blood were
ready to snatch him down into butch
cry. Rev William II. Thompson, the
veteran and beloved missionary whom
l saw this last month in Denver, In his
eigllty-sixth year, has described In his
volume entitled. ''The Land and the
Book" Bethlehem as he saw it. Win
ter before last l walked up and down
the gray hills of Jura limestone on
which the village now rests.
The fact that King David had been
born there had not during ages ele-
waited the village into any special at
tention The other fact that it waf
the birthplace of our Chieftain did moi
keep the place in after years from sps
cial dishonor, for Hadrian built there
the Grove of Adonis and for one hun
dred and eighty years the religion there
observed was the most abhorrent de
bauchery the world has ever seen. Oul
Chieftain was considered dangeroul
from the start The world had pu
suspicious eyes upon him because a
the time of his birth, the astrologer
had seen stellar connections, a worle
out of its place and shooting down to
ward caravansary. Star divinatiol
was science. As late as the Eight
eenth century it had its votaries. A
the court of Catharine de Medici it wa
!, honored. .Kepler, one of the wises
philosophers that the world ever saw
declared it was a true science.
As late as the reign of Charles II
Lilly, an astrologer, was called befor
the house of commons in England +
give bis opinion as to future events
For ages the bright appearance @
Mars meant war; of Jupiter, mean
power; of the Pleiades. meant storm
: at sea. And as history moves in eli
cles, l do not know but that afte
awhile 1t may be found that as til
moon lifts the tides of the sea and th
sun affects the growth or blasting {
crops, other worlds besides those tw
worlds may have something to do wit
!, the destiny of individuals and nation
In this world.
! THE SYMPATHETIC STARS.
| do not wonder that the COMING
tions In the heavens excited the wis
men on the night our Chieftain wa
born. AS he came from another worl
and after thirty-three years was agai
i to exchange worlds, 1t does not seel
strange to me that astronomy shoul
have felt the effect of his coming. An
r instead of being unbelieving about tt
!: one star that stopped, wonder tia
all the worlds in the heavens did M
that Christmas night make some specii
!; demonstration. Why should they ieay
to one world or meteor the bearing I
the news of the humanization of Chris
q Where. was Mars that night that 1t d
not indicate the mighty wars that we
to come between righteousness an
iniquityf Where was Jupiter tn
! night that it did not celebrate omnip
Z tence incarnatedi Where were Il
Pleiades that night that they did n
announce the storms of persecutit
!, that would assail our Chieftainf
II In watching this march of Chri
through the centuries, we must n
walk before himor beside him, for th
would not be reverential or worshi
full. So we walk behind him. We Il
! low him while not yet In his teens, up
Jerusalem terrace. to building I
! hundred feet long and six hundred f
wide and under the lowering splond
of ga1eNnyay md ~ = plllax croWnl