The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-25

What did their visit mean The word here
translated wise men is the same as that
elsewhere is translated magicians. The
magicians formed q sacred caste. or col
lege, under the Medo-Persian kings and
under the Chaldeans. Their position was a
high one-they were the teachers and
priests of the people and the leading
philosophers for many ages. 1t was con-
sidered necessary part of q princely
education among the Median kings, and
afterward among the Medo-Persians, that
the young prince should be instructed in
the peculiar wisdom of the Magians, and
none but the scions of royal houses were
permitted to know all the mysterious learn
ing they had acquired. This learning emit
braced everything in the higher culture OF
those ages, and was known in it's legal de-
velopment as the law of the Modes and
Persians, which changed not The laws
of these eastern nations were the fruit and
outgrowth of the culture and civilization
of the people, and the very highest culture
and civilization. Daniel did not hesitate to
become the chief OF the Magians when, at
the court of Observation-Disclosures, who had
called him to the head of their college, he
undertook the office and filled it nobly
There can be no question that these
oriental philosophers represented the very
highest culture of the land in which they
lived. Their studies included astronomy,
connecting with it astrology; for then men
believed that the stars had specific in
] Huauca on the cOurSa of Inn 1ifa
might be used to prognosticate the
future. The stars were believed to
foreten or accompany great political
changes, the rise and fall of empires, and
the birth of great princes who should be of
vast Importance in the history of civiIiza-
ton. These were the ''wise men" who saw
''His star in the east' and came unto Jeru-
salem ''to worship Him." These men came
as ambassadors from the heather world.
They brought with them not only myrrh
and frankincense and gold, but the long
treasured anticipations of ages, going on
from century to century, first under the
influence of the earlier prophesies of the
Bible, and then under the combined inf1u-
ence of all science and learning and art.
These wise men cane because God sent
them, to see the new light that was to
dawn upon the nations in the day of their
deepest darkness. For them this star.
that they saw in the east, as they were
watching the courses of the planets in the
study of astronomy, this star was the voice
of God: 'Arise, shine, for thy light is
come and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee.'
Brightest and best of the SOILS of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid :;
Star of the East, the horizon adjoining,
Point where our blessed Redeemer is laid ~
We are told that kings and queens used
to come from north and south, and east and
west to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
In that humble cradle at Bethlehem lay
wiser than Solomon, and under the guild
ance of the star, the wise men from the
east came, the type of all wise men; they
brought their gifts, the type of all the
worlds riches; their frankincense, the
highest offering that could be made before
the temple of any god; myrrh, which en-
balms and preserves the remains of those
we cherish; gold, the embodiment of all
value. They brought all these and offered
them before the cradle of the infant Jesus.
Do we not find here the lesson for the
church that all learning and culture. all
growth in civilization and advancement in
taste, should be made tributary to the pro
gress of Christianity? Do we not find here
typified the union of science and religion.
and what God has put together let no man
put asunder. It is one of the best signs of
our time that the best educated and most
scientific men are religious and godly men /:
that the highest intellects have been Chris
tian intellects. The great discoveries in
science have been made by men who be-
lieved in God and Christ Newton, the
most magnificent intellect that has ever
shown, came, like these wise men of the
east, child-like and humbly to the Lord
Jesus, with all the vast treasures of his
noble thought. Who was Bacon? Who
was Livingston? Who was Moss.
Let US learn on this Christmas day to
take all our learning, art and cultivation to
the foot of the cross; and then when any
proposition is presented which shall di-
vorce Christianity from learning. art and
cultivation, proposition for school with
out Bible university without prayer
remember that the wise men came from the
east to Jerusalem and Bethlehem with their
frankincense, myrrh and gold and laid all
before the infant Christ. For we have
seen His star in the east and are come to
worship Him.
1tC, AxA2