The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-06

Christ. Jesus was born in real stable. It was not the birth airy portico which some of the great paint CTS have liked to draw on canvas. II was not the clean, nicely painted bootl with the neat, tidy manager that men would wish it were. It was plan rough stall, the house for a mule or g COW. The only clean thing about il was the feed trough--the cradle fol the only really pure man ever born oi woman.
 It is significant that there are SC few of the incidents and events of thu early life of Christ told in his bio graphies.
 The Shepherds
 First to worship him were the shep herds. They came and offered what little they had-that little which IS st great when offered in love. They brought the things peculiar to theii vocation, milk, cheese, wool and lamb.
 Soon after this came the wise men Dr. Henry Vandyke says they came iron Ecbatana. They had come to bow down before king. They found, ac cording to their own wisdom, nursing baby with the meagtrest layett anC hidden within a stable. About thou sand years before this, queen haC come from the same country to Judet to see the then greatest king who hat ever reigned in Jerusalem. She wal the queen of Sheba. She had brough a caravan of camels loaded down witt gifts of gold and perfumes and silk and precious stones. How differen was the splendor found by the differ ent visitors from the East. More i'm portant still, how different was th' real kingship to which the differen visitors fro mthe East paid homage.
 The Wise Men
 The wise men brought gold which this king was to tread under foot. They brought frankincense. Certainly this was not to relieve the stench of tht stable. They brought myrrh. May be in their wisdom, they knew thii boy would die young. Maybe, the! even knew that the women should brin, spices early on the Sunday morning O the resurrection, and find that the! were too late,
 fl0TUU
 The next chapter in this biOgraph! naturally introduces Herod-nOt HerOC the Jew, nor Greek, nor Roman, bu Herod the barbarian monster. He wal a half-civilized Arab. This provincial governor was the son of traitor. Ht was a usurper. He murdered his wife Marianne. He caused her brother-in law to be treacherOusly drowned. Ht put his own mother to death. H' amused himself with burning alive Jud' and Mathew, and later, lest his som should avenge his murdering thei mother, he had them strangled.
 This Herod heard of the strang' star that had guided the wise men. H. ordered them to bring him report 0 what they found. When they failed t return he issued decree that all tn boy babies of Bethlehem should be kill ed. Tradition says that among tn slaughtered innocents there was a lit tie son of HerOd who was at nurse il Bethlehem.
 The Flight
 Mary could not sleep while the temp est of the slaughter ragged. When nigh came on the mother snatches the Tiff away from Herod's butchery, saves hope for the people, and pressing he man-child to her bosom, she steals ava. like a fugitive.
 Soon the fugitive family came bacl from Egypt. Now they settled at Nag areth, and the next chapter in the su preme biography of the ages, tells hoV the lost boy was found.
 For more than a thousand years tn Jews had celebrated the occasion of tn last plague visited upon the Egyptian pharaoh, the visit of the death ange who smote the first-bOrn in every hom where the blood was missing from tn dOor-post..
 When Jesus was boy twelve year old, he went with Joseph and Mary t Jerusalem to this same feast of tn | passover. This is the first time h ever saw the holy city and the temple He was so thrilled with the magnifi | cence, and the historic interest and tn traditions of the place that when was time to go home he stayed be hind.
 People travelling fro mthe out-lyin districts to the great city always wen in large groups or cOmpanys for pro tection. On this occasion perhap many children in the company rompe and played together along the road sometimes running ahead of the mai body of travellers, and at other time lettering behind.
 When night came the boy could no be found. Naturally his mother wa alarmed.
 The next day Joseph and Mary lief their company and hurride back to tn city searching for the missing chilC On the following day having sought hir in every likely place. they went up t the temple. There they found him sit ting in a company of teachers, listen | ing to their discussion of the law an asking them questions.
 And when his mother remonstrate with him, he replied with the immorts question, Did you not know that must be about my Fathers house. The wise teachers were struck by tn mysterious question. Even Mary di not understand it. But she oftel thought about that question after wards.
 Though this uncommon child wa wise beyond years, he was obedient an dutiful to Joseph and his mother in al 1 things.
 As the years went on he grew fror boyhood to manhood. And as he grey i in body, he grew in mind and eharac l ter; there was no knowledge nor wis dom like his. The esteem and goo will, and respect and confidence of al who knew him was absolute. Blu better than this, the record says h grew in the grace of God" ! What a remarkable carpenter-bo