XIV. THE HOMAGE OF THE WISE MEN. MATTHEW ii, 1–12. the East. Matt. ii, 1, 2. NEARLY nineteen hundred years ago, in the The Star in first year of grace, a party of travelers were wending their way to Judea. They are from the far-off east-from Arabia, or Persia, or Chaldea, or Parthia, or it may be the very land where once stood the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death. They are Magian sages, men renowned for their mastery of a hoary, occult wisdom. Disciples of the purest and most spiritual religion of heathen antiquity, followers of Zoroaster, worshipers of Ormuzd (God of Light), watchers of the heavenly hosts they have left their far-off eastern home, and, after, it may be, months of weary travel, have reached the city of the great King. What has been guiding them in their long journey? mysterious star. Respecting the nature of this star we know nothing, and therefore little should be said. The opinions concerning it may be divided into two classes. A bly Natural. First, the star may have been simply a natural The Star possiphenomenon. Let it not be supposed, however, that those who hold this opinion are necessarily to be ranked with skeptics. A heartier believer in Holy Writ or a devouter spirit never lived than the illustrious astronomer who first advanced this opinion-John Kepler. Feeling that Omnipotence itself would not work a miracle where a natural phenomenon would equally subserve the divine purpose, Kepler reverentially inquired whether there are any indications to show that the star in the east was a natural phenomenon. His investigations, corrected by others who succeeded him, have led to the following interesting result: In the year of Rome 747-the year fixed on by many scholars as the year of our Lord's birth-a remarkably brilliant planetary conjunction took place in the constellation Pisces, that constellation being the astrological symbol of Judea. In May, September, and December of that year, Jupiter and Saturn came into conjunction. Supposing, now, that the Magians, who belonged to an order renowned for their devotion to astronomy, having been arrested by the first planetary conjunction which occurred in May and in the Judean constellation of Pisces, immediately began their journey westward, the interval between the first conjunction in May and the third conjunction in December would more than cover the time ordinarily required in passing from Chaldea to Judea. This coincidence of the conjunctions with Matthew's account of the star is certainly quite remarkable; and it is easy to see why such an explanation of the strange star would seem satisfactory and fascinating to scholars devoutly inclined. Nevertheless, in spite of the weighty names The Star probably Superwhich may be cited in defense of this view, natural. I am constrained to believe that the star in question was purely supernatural. It certainly appears so on the surface of the sacred narrative. Besides, Professor Pritchard has shown that Jupiter and Saturn, at their conjunctions, were never seen as a single star, but, at their nearest, were at the very considerable distance of double the moon's diameter. Again: It is difficult to see how a planet or star could be said to go before the wise men, and then suddenly come to a stand-still over a precise. spot. Once more: Most of the other exceptional events recorded in connection with the nativity were supernatural; for example, an angel ap- Matt. i, 20; peared to Zacharias in the temple, to Mary and to Joseph at Nazareth, to the shepherds near Bethlehem. The incarnation itself—the birth of Deity into humanity through the overshadowing by the Luke i, 35. Holy Spirit-what was it but the miracle of miracles? He who can believe the miracle of the incarnation 'can easily believe the miracle of the star. Besides, we know not what mystic links of sympathy bind together matter and spirit, earth Luke i, 11, 26, 27; ii, 9. and heaven. If nature felt the curse when Adam Gen. iii, 18. fell, if darkness was over all the land from the Matt. xxvii, 45. sixth hour to the ninth when the Lord of nature died, if the sun shall be darkened and the moon Matt. xxiv, 29. shall withdraw her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken when the Lord of nature returns, we can not wonder that a new star jeweled the heavens when the Lord of nature was born. Whether the Daniel ix. star was actually a new orb, suddenly appearing and as suddenly vanishing, like Tycho Brahe's star in 1572, or Kepler's star in 1664; or whether it was a resplendent meteoric body, ever and anon hovering in the atmospheric heavens; or whether, as I am inclined to believe, it was the reappearance in a new form of the ancient Shechinah which, embodied in the pillar of fire-cloud, had marshaled Israel from Egypt into Canaan, we know not. All we know about this is that a star in the east guided the Magians to Bethlehem of Judea. But what has prompted the wise men to yield to the guidance of this wonderful star? I know not. Perhaps it is the expectation, strange, undefined, which has been prevailing in the east that a mighty and blessed portent is about to occur in the land of Abraham. Perhaps it is the knowledge diffused through the east by the dispersed Jews of the ten lost tribes. Perhaps it is the traditional remembrance of Daniel's famous Messianic prophecy, uttered more than five centuries before, when that interpreter of dreams and inspector of the Magian order stood before the courts of Babylon and Persia. Perhaps it is a traditional reminiscence floating down the stream of fifteen centuries of the mysterious prophecy of Balaam, son of Beor-himself a dweller in or near the land whence these Oriental sages have comeNum. xxiv, 17. when, falling down in prophetic trance, he saw a star coming out of Jacob, and a scepter rising out of Israel. Perhaps it is a combination of these mystic reminiscences with the yearnings of their own devout natures and the inspiration of the Holy - |