359. The Star

The Star

Mat_2:9 : ’93And lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.’94

The old sexton of the village church is about to put his hand on the rope of the bell. The cylinder of the chime of the city belfry is being readjusted. All around the world the air will vibrate with sweetest tintinnabulation punctuated with the roar of cathedral tower, the jingle of the lighter metal submerged by the overmastering boom. When this afternoon at thirty-eight minutes past four o’92clock the sun sets, there will come on a night of jubilant commemoration.

Two plain people centuries ago hoteled in a village barn after a walk of eighty miles, too long a trudge for one in poor health. No lords of state awaiting in antechamber as when other kings are born, no messengers mounted at the doorway ready to herald the advent from city to city, no medical skill in attendance, no satin-lined cradle to receive the infantile guest; but a monarch born in the hostelry called the house of Chim Ham; the night with diamonded finger pointing down to the place; the door of heaven set wide open to look out; from orchestral batons of light dripping the oratorios of the Messiah; on lowest doorstep of heaven the minstrels of God discoursing of glory and good cheer. Soon after the white-bearded astrologists kneel, and from leathern pouch chink the shekels and from open sacks exhale the frankincense and rustle out the bundles of myrrh. The loosened star the escaped doxology of celestials; the chill December night a-flush with May morn; our world a lost star, and another star rushing down the sky that night to beckon the wanderer home again shall yet make all nations keep Christmas.

Are there no new lessons from the story not yet hackneyed by oft repetition? Oh, yes. Notice in the first place, it was a sidereal appearance that led the way. ’93Lo, the star which they saw in the East went before them.’94 Why not a black cloud in the shape of a hand or finger pointing down to the sacred birthplace? A cloud means trouble, and the world had had trouble enough. Why not a shaft of lightning quivering and flashing and striking down to the sacred birthplace? Lightning means destruction and shattering and consuming power, and the world wanted no more destruction. But it was a star, and that means joy, that means hope, that means good cheer, that means ascendancy. A star! That means creative power, for did not the morning stars sing together when the portfolio of the worlds was opened? A star! That means defense, for did not the stars fight in their course against Sisera and for the Lord’92s people? A star! That means brilliant continuance, for are not the righteous to shine as the stars forever and ever? A star! That means the opening of eternal joy. The Day Star in the heart. The morning star of the Redeemer.

The unusual appearance that night may have been a strange conjunction of worlds. As this recent transit of Venus was foretold many years ago by astronomers, and astronomers can tell what will be the conjunction of worlds a thousand years from now, so they can calculate backward; and even infidel astronomers have been compelled to testify that about the year I there was a very unusual appearance in the heavens. The Chinese record, of course entirely independent of the Word of God, gives as a matter of history that about the year 1 there was a strange and unaccountable appearance in the heavens. But it may have been a meteor, such as you and I have seen flash to the horizon. Only a few nights ago I saw in the northern sky a star shoot and fall with such brilliancy and precision that if I had been on a hill as high as that of Bethlehem, on which the shepherds stood, I could have marked within a short distance the place of the alighting. The University of Iowa and the British Museum have specimens of meteoric stones picked up in the fields, fragments flung off from other worlds, leaving a fiery trail on the sky. So that it is not to me at all improbable, the stellar or the meteoric appearance on that night of which we speak. I only care to know that it was bright, that it was silvery, that it flashed and swayed and swung and halted with joy celestial, as though Christ in haste to save our world had rushed down without his coronet, and the angels of God had hurled it after him. Not a black night of threat, but a gleaming star of hope is our glorious Christianity. One glimpse of that stellar appearance kindled up the soul of the sick and dying college student until the words flashed from his fingers and the star seemed to pour its light from his white lips as Kirke White wrote these immortal words:

When marshaled on the nightly plain

The glittering hosts bestud the sky,

One star alone of all the train

Can fix the sinner’92s wandering eye.

Hark, hark to God, the chorus breaks,

From every host, from every gem,

But one alone, the Saviour speaks,

It is the Star of Bethlehem.

Once on the raging seas I rode,

The storm was loud’97the night was dark,

The ocean yawned and rudely blowed

The wind that tossed my foundering bark;

Deep horror then my vitals froze,

Death struck, I ceased the tide to stem;

When suddenly a star arose,

It was the Star of Bethlehem.

Notice, also, in this scene, that other worlds seemed to honor our Lord and Master. Bright star of the night, wheel on in thine orbit. ’93No!’94 says the star, ’93I must come nearer and I must bend and I must watch and see what you do with Jesus.’94 Another world that night joined our world in worship. That star made a bow of obeisance. I sometimes hear people talk of Christ’92s dominion as though it were to be merely the few thousand miles of the world’92s circumference; but I believe the millions and the billions and the quadrillions of worlds are all inhabited’97if not by such creatures as we are, still such creatures as God designed to make, and that all these worlds are a part of Christ’92s dominion. Isaac Newton and Kepler and Herschel only went on Columbus’92 voyage to find these continents of our King’92s domain. I think all worlds were loyal but this. The great organ of the universe, its pedals and its pipes and its keys all one great harmony save one broken stop, save one injured pedal’97the vox humana of the human race, the world, the disloyal world. Now, you know that however grand the instrument may be, if there be one key out of order, it spoils the harmony. And Christ must mend this key. He must restore this broken stop. You know with what bleeding hand and with what pierced side and with what crushed foot he did the work. But the world shall be attuned and all worlds will be yet accordant. Isle of Wight larger in comparison with the British Empire than our island of a world is compared with Christ’92s vast domain. If not, why that celestial escort? If not, why that sentinel with blazing badge above the caravansary? If not, why that midnight watchman in the balcony of heaven? Astronomy surrendered that night to Christ. This planet for Christ. The solar system for Christ. Worlds ablaze and worlds burnt out’97all worlds for Christ.

Intensest microscope cannot see the one side of that domain. Farthest reaching telescope cannot find the other side of that domain. But I will tell you how the universe is bounded. It is bounded on the north and south and east and west and above and beneath by God, and that God is Christ and that Christ is God and that God is ours. Oh, does it not enlarge your ideas of a Saviour’92s dominion when I tell you that all the worlds are only sparks struck from his anvil? that all the worlds are only the fleecy flocks following the one Shepherd? that all the islands of light in immensity are one great archipelago belonging to our King?

But this scene of the text also impresses me with the fact that the wise men of the East came to Christ. They were not fools; they were not imbeciles. The record distinctly says that they were wise men. We say they were the magi or they were the alchemists or they were the astrologists and astronomers, and we say it with depreciating accentuation. Why, they were the most splendid and magnificent men of the century. They were the naturalists and the scientists. They knew all that was known. You must remember that astrology was the mother of astronomy, and that alchemy was the mother of chemistry, and because children are brighter than the mother you do not despise the mother. It was the lifelong business of these astrologers to study the stars. Twenty-two hundred and fifty years before Christ was born the wise men knew the procession of the equinoxes, and they had calculated the orbit and the return of the comets. Professor Smith declares that he thinks they understood the description of the world from the map. We find in the book of Job that the men of olden time did not suppose the world was flat, as some have said, but that he knew and the men of his time knew the world was globular. The pyramids prove that there had been great progress in astrological and astronomical study.

Then the alchemists spent their lives in the study of metals and gases and liquids and solids and in filling the world’92s library with their wonderful discoveries. They were vastly wise men who came to the East. They understood embalmment as our most scientific men cannot understand it. After they had gone on in studying hundreds and thousands of years, they only came up to the point where some of them began to forget. The lost arts may be as mighty as the living arts.

They were wise men that came from the East, and tradition says the three wisest came, Caspar, a young man; Balthazar, a man in mid-life, and Melchior, an octogenarian. The three wisest men of all the century. They came to the manger. So it has always been’97the wisest men come to Christ, the brainiest men come to the manger. Who was the greatest metaphysician this country ever has produced? Jonathan Edwards, the Christian. Who was the greatest astronomer of the world? Herschel, the Christian. Who was the greatest poet ever produced? John Milton, the Christian. Who was the wisest writer on law? Blackstone, the Christian. Who was the mightiest intellect in Great Britain in modern times? Gladstone, the Christian. Why is it that every college and university in the land has a chapel? They must have a place for the wise men to worship.

Come, now, let us understand in ounces and by inches this whole matter. In post-mortem examination the brain of distinguished men has been examined, and I will find the largest, the heaviest, the mightiest brain ever produced in America, and I will ask what that brain thought of Christ. Here it is, the brain weighing fifty-eight ounces, the largest brain ever produced in America. Now let me find what that brain thought of Christ. In the dying moment that man said: ’93Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Whatever else I do, Almighty God, receive me to thyself for Christ’92s sake. This night I shall be in life and joy and blessedness.’94 So Daniel Webster came to the manger. The wise men of the East followed by the wise men of the West.

Know, also, in this scene that it was a winter month that God chose for his Son’92s nativity. Had he been born in the month of May’97that is the season of blossoms; had he been born in the month of June’97that is the season of roses; had he been born in the month of July’97that is the season of great harvest; had he been born, in the month of September’97that is the season of ripe orchards; had he been born in the month of October’97that is the season of upholstered forests. But he was born in the month of December, when there are no flowers blooming out-of-doors, and when all the harvests that have not been gathered up have perished, and when there are no fruits ripening on the hill, and when the leaves are drifted over earth. It was in closing December that he was born to show that this is a Christ for people in sharp blast, for people under clouded sky, for people with frosted hopes, for people with thermometer below zero, for people snowed under. That is the reason he is so often found among the destitute. You can find him on any night coming off the moors. You can see him any night coming through the dark lanes of the city. You can see him putting his hand under the fainting head in the pauper’92s cabin. He remembers how the wind whistled around the caravansary in Bethlehem that December night, and he is in sympathy with all those who in their poverty hear the shutters clatter on a cold night. It was this December Christ that Washington and his army worshiped at Valley Forge, when without blankets they lay down in the December snow. It was this Christ that the Pilgrim Fathers appealed to when the Mayflower wharfed at Plymouth Rock, and in the years that went by the graves digged were more in number than the houses built. We want a December Christ, not a Christ for fair weather, but a Christ for dark days, clouded with sickness and chilling with disappointment and suffocating with bereavement and terrific with wide open graves. Not a springtime Christ, not a summer Christ, not an autumnal Christ, but a winter Christ. Oh, this suffering and struggling world needs to be hushed and soothed and rocked and lullabied in the arms of sympathetic omnipotence. No mother ever with more tenderness put her foot on the rocker of the cradle of a sick child than Christ comes down to us, to this invalid world, and he rocks it into slumber and quietness as he says: ’93My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’94 O you brokenhearted, O you persecuted and tried souls, O you burden bearers, this day I declare unto you a December Christ.

Notice, also, a fact which no one seems to notice, that this Christ was born among the sheep and the cattle and the horses and the camels, in order that he might be an alleviating influence to the whole animal creation. It means mercy for the overdriven, underfed, poorly sheltered, galled, and maltreated brute creation. Hath the Christ who compared himself to a dove no care for the cruelties of the pigeon shooting? Hath the Christ who compared himself to a lamb no care for the sheep that are tied and contorted, and with neck over the sharp edge of the butcher’92s cart, or the cattle train in hot weather from Omaha to New York, with no water’97fifteen hundred miles of agony? Hath the Christ, whose tax was paid by a fish, the coin taken from its mouth, no care for the tossing fins in the fish market? Hath the Christ who strung with his own hand the nerves of dog and cat no indignation for the horrors of vivisection? Hath the Christ who said, ’93Behold the fowl of the air,’94 himself never beheld the outrages heaped upon the brute creation which cannot articulate its grief? This Christ came not only to lift the human race out of its trouble, but to lift out of pang and hardship the animal creation. In the glorious millennial time the child shall lead the lion and play with the cockatrice only because brute and reptile shall have no more wrongs to avenge. To alleviate the condition of the brute creation Christ was born in the cattle-pen. The first bleat of the Lamb of God heard amid the tired flocks of the Bethlehem shepherds. The White Horse of eternal victory stabled in a barn.

But notice, also, in this account the three Christmas presents that are brought to the manger’97gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold to Christ; that means all the affluence of the world brought to Christ. For lack of money no more asylums limping on their way like the cripples whom they helped, feeling their slow way like the blind people whom they sheltered. Millions of dollars for Christ where there are now thousands for Christ. Railroads owned by Christian stockholders and governed by Christian directors and carrying passengers and freight at Christian prices. George Peabodys and Abbott Lawrences and James Lenoxes no rarity. Bank of England, Bourse of France, United States Treasury, all the moneyed institutions of the world for Christ. The gold for Christ. Gold not merely paid the way for Joseph and Mary and the divine fugitive into Egypt, but it was typical of the fact that Christ’92s way shall be paid all around the world. The gold for Christ, the silver for Christ, the jewels for Christ. Australia, Nevada, and Golconda for Christ. The bright, round, beautiful jewel of a world set like a solitaire on the bosom of Christ!

But I notice that these wise men also shook out from their sacks the myrrh. The cattle came and they snuffed at it. They did not eat it because it was bitter. The pungent gum resin of Abyssinia called myrrh brought to the feet of Christ. That means bitterness. Bitter betrayal, bitter persecution, bitter days of suffering, bitter nights of woe. Myrrh. That is what they put into his cup when he was dying. Myrrh. That is what they put under his head in the wilderness. Myrrh. That is what they strewed his path with all the way from the cattle-pen in Bethlehem to the mausoleum at Joseph’92s country seat. Myrrh. ’93Yea,’94 says some one, ’93all thy garments smell of myrrh.’94 That is what the wise men wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the babe That is what the Maries wrapped in the shroud of a crucified Christ. The myrrh. Oh, the height, the depth, the length, the breadth of the Saviour’92s sorrow. Well might the wise men shake out the myrrh.

But I notice, also, from another sack they shake out the frankincense. Clear up to the rafters of the barn the air is filled with perfume, and the hostlers and the camel drivers in the farthest part of the building inhale it, and it floats out upon the air until passers-by wonder who in that rough place could have by accident dropped a box of alabaster. Frankincense. That is what they burned in the censer in the ancient temple. Frankincense. That means worship. Frankincense. That is to fill all the homes and all the churches and all the capitals and all the nations from cellar of stalactited cave clear up to the silvery rafters of the starlit dome. Frankincense. That is what we shake out from our hearts today, so that the nostrils of Christ once crimsoned with the hemorrhage of the cross, shall be flooded with the perfume of a world’92s adoration. Frankincense. Frankincense in song and sermon and offertory and handshaking and decoration. Praise him, mountains and hills, valleys and seas, and skies and earth and heaven’97cyclone with your trumpets, northern lights with your flaming ensign, morning with your castles of cloud, and evening with your billowing clouds of sunset.

Do you know how they used to hold the censer in the olden time, and what it was made of? Here is a metal pan and the handle by which it was held. In the inside of this metal pan were put living coals, on the top of them a perforated cover. In a square box the frankincense was brought to the temple. This frankincense was taken out and sprinkled over the living coals, and then the perforated cover was put on, and when they were all ready for worship, then the cover was lifted from this censer and the covers were lifted from all the other censers, and the perfumed smoke arose until it hung amid all the folds and dropped amid all the altars, and then rose in great columns of praise outside or above the temple, rising clear up toward the throne of God. So we have two censers today of Christmas frankincense. Here is the one censer of earthly frankincense. On that we put our thanks for the mercies of the past year, the mercies of all our past lives, individual mercies, family mercies, social mercies, national mercies, and our hearts burning with gratitude send aloft the incense of praise toward the throne of Christ. Bring on more incense, and higher and higher let the columns of praise ascend. Let them wreathe all these pillars and hover amid all these arches and then soar to the throne. But here is the other censer of heavenly thanksgiving and worship. Let them bring all their frankincense’97the cherubim bring theirs and the seraphim theirs, and the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand theirs, and all the eternities let them smoke with perfume on this heavenly censer until the cloud canopies the throne of God. Then I take these two censers’97the censer of earthly frankincense and the censer of heavenly frankincense’97and I swing them before the throne, and then I clash them together in one great hallelujah unto him to whom all the wise men of the East brought the gold and the myrrh and the frankincense as the star in the East went before them.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage