The Russellville Democrat., 1891-01-08
THE STAR IN THE EAST.
Christmastide Discourse by Rev.
 T. Dewitt Talmage.
New Lessons to be Learned by the Con- tcmplatlon of the Divine Advent Come, See the Place where
 the Infant Jesus Lay.

10 the ChristmaStlde festivities, was ue-
 livered by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in
 Brooklyn and New York City from the
 text:
 Let us now go even unto BethIehem.-Iuke
 it., i5.
 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, a 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 I 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. It was in Cairo, Egypt the terminus of
 that terrible journey which He took
 when Joseph and Mary fled with Him from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the
 massacre of Herod. All tradition as
 well as all history point out this house
 in Cairo as the one in which these three fugitives lived while in Africa. The room is nine steps down from the level of the street. l 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 l from Athens to Alexandria I met the 1 eminent scholar and theologian, Dr. 1 Lansing, who for thirty-five years has | been a resident of Cairo, and he told me that he had been all over the road that | the three fugitives took from Bethlehem 1 to Egypt. He says it is a desert way,
 and that the forced journey of the in | fant Christ must have been terrible | journey. Going up from Egypt, Dr. Lansing met people from Bethlehem, | their tongues swollen and hanging out l from the inflammation of thirst, and all | though his party had but one goat-slsin 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. Nc
 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 quaking. He l had dreamed of massacres of his wife and babe. They must be off, that
 night, right away. Mary put mp 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. | It does not need that ours be a big house in order to made us sorry to leave | it.
 Over the hills and down through the deep gorge they urge their way. By He. | bron, by Gaza, through hot sand, under a | blistering sun, the babe crying, the mother faint, the father exhausted. How | slowly the days and weeks pass. Will | the weary three ever reach the banks of
 the Nile? Win they ever see Csiroq Will 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 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 l
 have been to-day, But the terminus of the jonrney of these three fugitives
 was not as humble as their starting point at Bethlehem. If that journey
 across the desert ended in cellar, it
 started from barn. In and around
 that barn in Bethleham we tarry to- | day.
 Every thing humble around the barn,
 but every thing glorious overhead. | Christ's advent was in the history called the House of Chim 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 ffanldncense 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 lost star, and another star rushing down the sky that night to beelSon 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 black cloud in the
 shape of a hand or finger pointing down
 to the sacred birth-plaee2 A cloud
 means trouble, and the world had had
 trouble enough. Why not shaft of
 lightning, quivering and flashing and
 striking down to the sacred birthplace?
 Lightning means destruction, a shatter-
 ing and consuming power and the
 world wanted no more destruction.
 But it was star, and that means joy,
 that means hope, that means good
 cheer, that means aseendency. A starr
 That means creative power, for did not
 the morning stars sing together when
 the portfolio of the worlds was opened9
 A star! That means defense, for did
 not the stars fight in their courses