Show J a W V Z al tm 4 4 1 journey of three wise men As I 1 it if now appears anneals xa ak in retrospect now when jesus was born bom in bethlehem of judea in the days of herod the icing behold there came cam wise men from the cast to jerusalem saying where is ho he that is born king of the jews for we have seen ills his star in the east cast and are come to worship him herod could be compared to abdullah the ruler of dan today in some respects herod whose racial origin was arab was a ruler in the homeland of the jews by suffer sufferance aneG of a foreign power in his case it was rome once he was driven out of palestine he took refuge in rome made friends and went back under romes protection bearing an appointment from marc anthony whereupon he proceeded to make himself master of judea and Jer when herod the king had heard all these things he was troubled and all jerusalem with him and w when hen ho he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he demanded ed of them where christ should be born and they said unto him it in bethlehem of judea for thus it is written by the prophets and thou bethlehem in the land of judea axe are not the I 1 least e ast among the princes of juda for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people israel it has been remarked as peculiar that bethlehem which was the place where david the great ideal king hero and poet of the jewish people was bom and grew up and which had other cherished associations never rose to an influence or remained an ordinary village there seemed no particular reason why instead hebron on jerusalem became the capital though more isolated than those two places bethlehem was no more so than gibeon R ramah amah and 0 others similarly situated which became famous nevertheless it was unimportant and small 0 little town of bethlehem in that year by tho the roman calendar then herod who had privately i called the wise men inquired in quiren of them diligently what time the star appeared and he sent them to bethlehem and aalde go and search diligent ly for the young child and vv when c n ye have found him bring the me word again that I 1 may come aw and worship him also when they had heard the king icing they departed and to lo the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was wag many conjectures have been offered regarding this unique star of bethlehem that it was IL a conjunction of mara jupiter and saturn that it was a comet that it was a nova or exploding star but it may just ag aa well have been what christians prefer to believe a miracle that occurred once and will not occur again a mystery just as aa precious pre clous and anax to m mankind as the blakla of grass is to darwin when they saw sav the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and when they came into uie the house they saw the young clitia with mary his mother and fou down and worshipped wor shipped him and anal when they had opened treasures they presented pr resented unto him gifts gold and and myrrh Acci according to one tradition these wise men or magi were named gasper melchoir and balthazar in the c cast as t of that ti alme nae such perfumes and incense As myrrh and frankincense were wem like apices as precious as gold I 1 luxuries only for the rich anti and royalty but the tha guts gifts also haid haa an intentional symbolism gold dolfl was the emblem of ro yaler frankincense a token of davini di divinity vini Y and myrrh was prophetic allua allba ter ion to tha persecution until death which awaited the man of sorrows t the distance was covered with mary riding a donkey ana anat joseph leading it they were permitted cheum the lise of the stable al aj an inn here after much persuasion the inn keeper was reluctant to let them use use it because animals were stabled there they came here two nr dr three days ago the inn keeper said mary la is of humble origin in it la said while her husband la is a oe te ascendant ant of king david the psalmist 17 the eagle urges you to attend church on Christ christmas nus |