The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-25
The Day Spring From on High
By J. Mavuin Niclhois.

Devotion is . natural instinct. It isn't peculiar to Christian civilization. Men will worship Something. AS the centuries have como and gone. tthe Christ of the ages has become more and more the object of universal adoratioh. Back in the dim and distant past, wan dering tribes looked forward to the ay-spring from on high. Around the camp fires they oft retold to the new est born the prophetic hope of each dying generation. There is chapter in Genesis that Is pathetic and tragic. Jacob, the tribal father of all the clans, makes his last will and testa- ment The old seer. conscious of death,s approaching shadows gives his final charge. Generations destined to wear crowns would spring from his ioins. Judah was the Hons whelp; from his ancestral line should come the line of the tribe of Judah. sThe expiring father of . royal line breath. ed out the words which have. through all the ages, .khrobbed1 in every human breast. The Nscepter should not depart from Judah. nor lawfiyer from be. tween his feet. until Shiloh come; and unto him should the gathering of the people be. On this prophetic utterance, as on . pivot. the destiny of . world turned. To this day, as it 10 told over and over again, the sweet old story fans every heart into lambert flame.
 Through successive generations; prophets, priests ana kings watched the signs of the times. Under starIess skies the millions tarried for the dawr- ing light. Thrones and scepters. tenn ples and monuments. songs and tablets of stone swords and sacrihcial aitars ----all made their contribution to make deathless the dying breath of Jacob. fn the time of Egyptian captivity, m A. Al A1fffRh dering. in the seasons of vast dominion, in the almost endless enslavement fe heather powers--through all these vi- cissitudes a broken hearted nation ulned for the "fuIlness of time" Worn Ind weary, they sat by the rivers and hung their harps upon the willows. They could not sing the psalms of Da- vid fin a strange land. The harp strings had long since been stiHed !. Israel wept and wept. Forty centuries rolled by once the twelve tribes burned sweet Incense in the courts or the ancient tabernacle. The vast host had dwindled to remnant or the ehosen--the tribe of Judah Ages oI captivity had destroyed national iife and supremacy. The heel of Roman dominion was on the neck of him who dared oppose the onward march or world over. Israel--the royal house was c by-word.
 The hour drew nigh. Hope was Weii
 nigh hopeless. The remnant Of a once mighty nation wept over the tombs or prophets and the shrines of kinss The land was In the stiffness of its sium- bers. As in the hours of all the other nights, 1t was reveiling in the dreams of a coming and rebuilded Jerusalem. The blue vault, ovefarching the plains of Bethlehem and the Judean hills. was resnlendent with far-off gieaming stars. Flocks of sheep lay still and quiet on ail the hills. Even the dull ears or drowsy shepherds caught strains oI distant and unearthly music. Beyond tha stars the first glow of inefable light began to fiji the traokless waste; Across the heavens an invisible hand flung celestial highway that iookea like belts of fire. The spell Of forty centuries was broken. Deliverance nad coma al last. Through all these Tour thousand years it had been tSn one cros: ssu. Ana siready we've spent near 2.oOo years year in our journeying from the Cross o"S Xnovs the indescribable roll of mu- sic the shepherds caught the angelic