News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-01-01

Wise Men of the East and the West
Bow to Him.
BROOKLYN, Dec 2S.-Dr Talmage's
sermon today was appropriate to the
season. Its subject was the Christmas
jubilee. A crowd which filled the
Academy of Music in every part list
ened to it in the morning, and another
enormous audience thronged the New
York Academy of Music to hear it in
the evening, when the doctor preached
under the auspices of The Christian
Herald His text was Luke ii, Is:
'Let us now go even unto Bethlehem"
Amid q thousand mercies we give
each other holiday congratulations.
By long established custom we eX-
hort each other to healthful merri-
ment. By gift, by Christmas trees
which blossom and fruit in one night,
by early morning surprise, by clusters
of lighted candles, by children's process
sion, by sound of instruments some
times more blatant than musical, we
wake up the night and prolOng the day.
l wish you all in the grandest, noblest
and best sense a merry Christmas. The
event concentrated is the gladdest OF
the centuries Christ's cradle was as
wonderful as his cross. Persuade Inc
of the first and 1 am not surprised at
the last. The door by which he en-
tered 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 fled with him
from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape
the massacre of Herod. All tradition,
as well as all history, points out this
house in Cairo as the one in which
these three fugitives lived while in At
RIGA The room is nine steps down
from the level of the street. | meas
ured the room and found it twenty
feet long and seven and a half feet
high. There are three shelvings of
rock. one of which l think was the
cradle of our Lord. There is no win
dow, and all the light must have come
from lantern or candle. The three ar
rived here from Bethlehem, having
crossed the awful desert.
TERRIBLE JOURNEY.
On the Mediterranean steamer going
from Athens to Alexandria [ met the
eminent scholar and theOlOgian, DR..
Lansing, who for thirty-fve 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 Beth
lehem to Egypt. He says it is desert
way, and that the forced journey of the
infant Christ must have been a terrible
Journey Going up from Egypt, DR.
Lansing met people from Bethlehem,
their tongues swollen and hanging out
from the Inflammation of thirst, and
although his party had but one goat
skin Of water left, and that was inn
portant for themselves, he was so
moved with the spectacle of thirst in
these poor pilgrims that, though it ex-
cited the Indignation of his fellow tray
elers, 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 king2
Joseph, the husband and father, one
night sprang up from his mattress in
great alarm the beads of sweat on his
forehead and his whole frame quak-
ing. He had dreamed of massacres of
his wife and babe. They must be off,
that night, right away. Mary put up
a few things hastily, and Joseph
brought to the door the beast of bur
den, 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 anything more
Out and on. Good-by to the dear
home they expect never again to see.
Their hearts break. 1t does not need
that ours be a big house in order to
make US sorry to leave it.
Over the hills and down through the
deep gorge they urge their way. By
Hebron, by GAIA, through hot sand,
under 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? VIII they ever see
Cairo? Will the desert ever end
When at last they cross the line beyond
which old Hcrod has no right to pur-
sue, their joy is unbounded Free at
lastl Let them dismount and rest.
Now they resume their way with less
anxiety. They will find a place some
where for shelter and the earning of
their bread. Here they are at Cairo,
Egypt.
FROM BARN TO A CELLAR.
They wind through the crooked
streets, which are about ten feet wide,
and enter the humble house where !
have been today 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 cellar it started from
u barn Everything humble around
that barn, but everything glorious
overhead. Christ's advent was in the
hostelry called the house of Chin Ham
the night with diamond finger point
ing down to the place the door OfheaveI
set wide open to look out; from orches-
trail batons of light dripping the
OratOrios of the Messiah; ON lowest
doorstep of heaven the MINISTRIES OF
God discoursing of glory and good will
Soon after the white bearded astrolo.
gists kneel, and from leathen pouch
chink the sh4Eels, and from open sacks
exhale the frankincense and rustic out
the bundles of Inyrrh. The loosened
star, the escaped doxology of celes-
tails, the chill December night ahush
with May morn, our world a lost star,
and another star rushing down the sky
that night to beckon 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
all Oh, yes. Know, in the first place,
1t was a sidereal appearance that led
the way. Why not a black cloud in
the shape of a hand or finger pointing
down to the sacred birthplace? A cloud
means trouble, and the world had had
trouble enough. Why not a shaft of
lightning quivering and flashing and
striking down to the sacred birthplace?
Lightning means destruction, a shat
tering and consuming power, and the
world wanted no more destruction.
THE STAR OF THE EAST.
But it was a star, and that means
Joy, that means hope, that means good