The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-12-12

cured in recent years from the ruins Of
buried Nineveh is conclusive that these
ancients OF the East saw beyond the
emblem to the Reality. Their concep-
ton of Deity, while not comparable to
the Jehovah of the Hebrews, much less
to the Father of the Christians. was true
and grand, 1t is not rejected, but alb
sorbed by the larger, and profounder
doctrine of our modern ages. When
ever we say. GOD is light" we profess
the creed of the Parsees. The creed is
true; yet not all the truth.
1t has been too long an un-Christian
fashion in Christendom to characterize
all religions other than that Of Israel
and the New Testament, as worthy only
of rejection and condemnation. A bet
ter fashion is being learned, namely,
recognition of the good in all the great
religions. and the combination of all
truth in comprehensive faith.
The Magi who came to Jesus were
astrologers; yet not exactly in the mod
ern sense of that word. They were
| evidently sincere followers of the best
wisdom to which they had been able to
attain. They were heirs of the great ma
| tons of Assyria, Babylonia, Medea, and
of the better days of Persia. They we're,
| it is fair to assume worthy of the ven-
GRAFTON with which they are mentioned
in the Gospels.
How are we to construe the saying of
the Magi concerning the Infant Christ,
| We sdW has star IN the east and are
come to aoorship him? To interpret
these words as signifying that the Magi
had been led to Jerusalem by wander
ing star, as company of men may in
the night be led by a guide with Ian
tern, is to apprehend neither their literal
nor their poetical import. While in
the East they had, as we read, seen his
star rise in the east. They had followed
the star in the east westward. 1t evil
IDENTIFY means that they had, by their
star-reading as applied to the political
situation, seen indications that Prince
was to appear in Judea. of the lineage of
David, and that he was to rise to power
and wide distinction.
Such an expectation was not to them
peculiar. The Jews. from the time of
the Babylonan captivity, had been nu-
merous in the East; and these Jews of
the Orient would naturally cherish in a
peculiar degree the hope of the coming
| Messiah. Farrar says: I'VE are informed
by Tacitus, by Suetonius, and by Jose
phus, that there prevailed throughout
| the entire East, at this time. an intense
| conviction, derived from ancient proph-
ecies, that ere long powerful monarch
would arise in Judea, and gain dominion
over the world" Lyman Abbott says:
"Confucius, in China, had prophesied
| the appearance of such Deliverer, and
a deputation of his followers, going forth
10 search of him, where the means of
introducing Buddhism into China"
That there may have been, according
to the calculation of Upham, a conjunc-
ton of Jupiter and Saturn about this
| time,-such as comes only once in eight
| hundred years,-is not unlikely. But
that either the planet Jupiter or the
planet Saturn literally went before the
Magi and stood over the exact place
where Jesus was with his mother, is
utterly impossible of intelligent belief.
That these Magi shared the expectation
which SO largely prevailed in the East,
OF Messiah to be born in Judea, that
they had POLITICALLY seen his star ascend
ing in the Orient, it is no strain of faith
to believe.
1t is not. furthermore, unlikely, that
meteor or comet appearing at this
time may have been accepted, by these
destiny, as giving confirmation to the
prevalent prophecy.
Some such reason ii was that prompt
ed the wise men to leave their home and
journey nearly five hundred miles across
the desert, to bring greetings and gifts
to the Coming King.
2. The Fright of HerOd,
"At the time when the magi arrived
in Jerusalem" says Geikie. "Herod, now
an old man. was sinking in the last
stages of disease. but was still as jealous
and afraid of attempts against his throne
as ever"
He is the Herod who rebuilt the tenn
pie. yet who had stepped himself in
blood guiltiness. he was the founder of
the family OF Herod, infamous for mis-
rule in Judea.
"Now in his old age" continues Geikie,
"he sat alone in his new palace, amidst
splendor Of architecture greater if pos.
sible than that of the temple. lonely,
hated and hating, his subjects waiting
impatiently 10 yelled rebellion for his
death. In his own court shortly before
a plot had been discovered which had
filled all Jerusalem with commotiou.
The Pharisees to the number of six
thousand had refused to take the oath
of allegiance, and their leaders. whom
the people believed gifted with the
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