The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-27
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
BY THE REV. FRANK DE WITT rALMAaE. D. D.

oE WITT TALMAoE. Q. D.
 whether there is any truth among the many legends that are told about those noted travellers. this fact Is certain-they were wise men. The Bible distinctly states that ''there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where Is he that Is born king of the Jews?'
 Most Intellectual of Their Time.
 We have seen hundreds of pictures de- scriptive of the wise men coming to the manager, in every one of which the artist has tried to put the highest intelligence into the faces of the men who were ri T. ing upon camel back or trudging afoot over the deserts sands; but though it Is significant that the first seekers after Christ were the wisest men of their tlme the fact need not astonish us. In every age since that epoch the mightiest intel lects of the world have been found among the followers of Christ, the wisest of men have entered that Bethlehem eard- Vansary to learn of him. About the manager SS Leo. Chrysostom and Der hard, John Wesley Faber, Bourdaloue, Massilon, Rowland Hill, Sturgeon, Jo- seph Parker, Dwight L. Moody have preached their mightiest sermons The greatest hymnologists, Charles Wesley Ttate, Byron, Bishops Heber and kebe, have written their poetic masterpieces The greatest painters, Murillo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Guido, Michael An gelo, Giotto. Lippi. Andrea. Montequa. PPerugino, Paul Veronese, Correggio and a host of others have exhausted their genius to reproduce a stable not palace; a stone crypt, not a canoped crib. Among all the compositions of Guck, Mendels- sohn, Schubert Chopin Mozart, Haydn, Wagner and Beethoven there is not a greater than Handels Messiah" For one Handel surpassed Handel. Study tho history of William E. Gladstone, Isaac Newton, Agassiz, Sir William Hamilton, Hugh Miller, Sir William Jones, Wash ington, the Adamses, Sir Walter Scott, John Calvin. Thomas Chalmers and it will easily be seen that the wise men of all times have been willing to bow at the manager. Oh. my brother. never again in your presence let the infides and agnos- tics sheer at the mentality of the manager Worshipers when you and I bow at the foot of the infant Christ, we are lowing in goody company. We are lowing with the intellectual giants of the present and of the immortal past
 Followed the Cleaning Star.
 Where did the wise men come from? The far east? The word least" Is very indefinite. It might mean eastern Asia or China. It might and probably does mean Persia or India. At all events the east was far off. It was so far off that these strange travellers must have startled the inhabitants of the western capital with their peculiar garb and their foreign accent. It was so far off that in all prob l ability the wise men would have been un- able to have found the Jerusalem capital had they not been led by that wonderful star the star of the east. An, yes, the magi, in order to find the manager had many weary days march, Travelling in their time had to be done on foot or on horse or camel back. They had to tramp through the parched deserts. They had to climb the loftiest of mountains and fathom many a deep valley. How tired they must have become If Melchior was old in all probability he would not have reached the manager but for the strong arms of his two friends. But wherever the three wise men hailed from, that cleaning star would beckon them on and on and on.
 And yet, my friends, though the wise men had to travel a long distance, they did not have to go any farther than some sinners will have to travel to find Christ My, my. my. how long distance some of us have wandered forth into the land of sin! Ten, twenty thirty years ago we started. Young man, you have not worshiped at the manager since your mother died Young woman you have not felt the touch of the manager since the day you almost gave your heart to Christ in the village revival-almost, but refused. Old man. for a quarter of a cen tury you have never uttered the name of Christ except in blasphemy. Yes, yes, the sinner will have a long distance to travel to find the manager. He must travel back over the crooked paths of many sinful year. But this Christmas, if he will he can find the manger-fnd 1t beckoning q. af ..t.. the star in the east guided the three wise men to the infant Christ.
 A Hope For Emigration.
 Oh, that today we might see a great emigration from the far off land of sin toward the manager. Oh, that today the prodigals in the far country might seek the old homestead of mercy, even as the Bethlehem caravansary was sought of old. In imagination we can picture how the wise men started Perhaps weeks, perhaps months before that first of all Chrstmases these oriental sages were working diligently at their allotted tasks. One in studying in one part of the house, another in another, and the third in still another. Perhaps Melchior, the aged as- trologer, with an astronomical glass is silently and earnestly studying the heav- ems Patiently the aged scientist is watch ing and waiting for the stars to change their relative positions. Suddenly tre- nor of excitement shakes his frame. Si- lently swiftly, awfully, diviney, there passes before thelens strange light It does not look much like star as great orb of light, like a diamond glitter ing upon the finger of God, beckingoning always beckoning. In great excitement the old man staggers to his feet and calls his two comrades. Caspar, the smooth faced sage, rushes quickly into the room because he is younger than the swarthy middle aged Moor. At first the three say nothing. They are too absorbed to speak. Then Balthasar opens a musty