Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1893 — STAR OF BETHLEHEM. [ARTICLE]

STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

A Christmas Homily on an OldTime Theme. The Ra<H«nt Herald of the Coming Dawn a Symbol of a Saviour'* Lnvt—Dr. Talmagec’a Sermon. The Brooklyn Tabernacle was beautifully decorated with evergreens last Sunday, and the pastor spoke to a great audience. Dr. Talmage’s subject was “The Star of Bethlehem.” Text—Rev. xxii, 16: “I am the bright and morning star.” He said: This is Christmas eve. Our attention and the attention of the world is drawn to the star that pointed down to the caravansary where Christ was born. But do not let us forget that Christ himself was a star. To that luminous fact my text calls us. •

Have you £Ver seen the morning star advantageously? If it was on your way home from a. night’s carousal, you saw none of its beauty. If you merely turned over on your pillow in the darkness, glancing out of the window you know nothing abo„t the cheerful influence of that star. But there are many in this house to-night who in great passes of their life, some of them far out at sea, have gazed at that star and been thrilled through with indscribable gladness. That star comes trembling as though with the perils of the darkness and vet bright with the anticipation of the day. It seems emotional with all tenderness, its eyes filled with the tears-of many sorrows. It is the gem on the hand of the morning thrust up to signal its coming. In the first place, Christ heralded the coming of the creation. There was a time when there was no order, no sound of beauty. No word was uttered. No wing stirred. No light sped. As far as God could look up, as far down, as far out, there was nothing. Immeasurable solitude. Height and- d eptfa ~an cT Te rigth an d breadth of nothingness. Did Christ then exist? Oh, yes. “By him were all things made that are made — things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth..” Yes, He antedated the creation. He led forth Arcturus and his sons. He shone before the first morning. His voice was heard in the concert when the morning stars serenaded the advent of our infant earth, when, wrapped in swadling clothes of light, it lay in the arms of the great Jehovah. He saw the first foundation laid. He saw the first light kindled. That hand which was afterward crushed upon the cross was thrust into chaos, and it brought out one world and swung it in that orbit, and brought out another world and swung it in another orbit; and brought out all the worlds and swung them m their particular orbits. They came like sheep at the call of a shepherd. They knew his voice and He called them all by their names. . ~ /j^*#*®** Again, Christ heralds the dawn of comfort in a Christian soul. Sometimes we come to passes in life where all kinds of tribulations meet us. You are building up some great enterprise. You have built the foundation—the wall. You are about to put on the capstone, when everything is demolished. You have a heart all strung for sweetest accord,and some great agony crushes it?. There is a little voice hushed in the households Blue eyes closed. Color dashed out of the cheek. The foot still. Instead of the quick feet in the hall, the heavy tread of those who march to the grave. Oh, what are people to do amid all these sorrows. Some know not which way to- turn. But not so the Christian man. He looks up toward the heavens. He sees a bright appearance in the heavens. Can it be only a falling star? Can it be only a delusion? Nav, nay. The longer he looks the more distinct it becomes, until after a while he cries

out, “A star, a morning star, a star of comfort, a star of grace, a star of peace, the star of the Redeemer!” Peace for all trouble. Balm for all wounds. Life for all dead. Now ! Jesus, the great Healer, comes into our home. Peace—peace that pass-c-th all undei-standing. We look up through our tears, are comforted. It is the morning star of the Redeemer. I would like to have my deathbed under the evangelistic star —I would like to have my eye on that star, so I could be assured of the morning. Then the dash ot the surf of the sea of death would only be the billowing up of the promise. “When thou passest through the water I will be with thee, and the rivers, they shall , not overflow thee.” All other lights will fail—the light that falls from the scroll of fame, the light that flashes from the gem in the beautiful apparel, the light that flames from the burning lamps of a banquet—but this light burns on and burns on. Paul kept his eyes on that .morning st at- until be could say, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.” Edward Payson kept his eye oh that star until be could say, “The breezes of heaven fan me.” Again, Christ heralds the dawn of millenial glory. It is night in Chine, night io India, night in Siberia, night for the vast majority of the world’s population. But it soemc to me thehe are some intimations of the msornibg. AH Spain is to he brohght under the influence of the gospel What is that -light 1 j*£ e breaking

over the top of the Pyrenees? The morning. Yea, all Italy shall receive the gospel. - She shall have her schools, and her colleges,' and her churches. Her vast population shall surrender themselves to Christ, t What is that light I see breakiug over the top of the Alps? The morning. All India shall come to God. Her idols shall be cast down. Her J uggernauts shall be broken. Her temples of iniquity shall -be demolished. What is that light I see breaking over the top of the Himalayas? The morning. The empurpled clouds shall gild the path of the conquering day. The Hottentot wilt come put of his mud hovel to look at the dawn; the Chinaman will come up on the granite cliffs; the Norwegian will get up on the rocks, and all the beach of heavea will be crowded with celestial inhabitants come out to see the sun rise over the ocean of the world’s agony. With lanterns and torches and a guide we went down in the Mammoth cave of Kentucky. You may walk fourteen miles and sco no sunlight. It is a stupendous place* In some places the roof the cive is 100 feet high. The grottoes filled with weird echoes; cascades falling’ from unseen height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave; stalactites descending from the roof, joining each other and making pillars of the Almighty's sculpturing. -There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As the guide carries his lantern anead of you the shadows have an appearance supernatural and spectral. The darkness is fearful. Two people, getting lost from their guide only for a few hours, years ago, were demented and for yenrs sat in their insanity. You feel like holding your breath as you walk across bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his calcium light down into the caverns, and the light rolls and tosses from rock to rock and from depth, to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the awful power that could have made such a place as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon you-as -you think- that you are 250 feet in a straight line from the sunlit surface of the earth. The guide after awhile takes you into what is called the “Star Chamber,” and then he says to you, “Sit here.”'and then he takes the lantern and goes down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker until the night is so thick that the hand an inch from the eye is unobservable. And then bv kindling one of the lanterns and placing it iu a cleft in the rocks, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and there are stars coming out in constellations — a brilliant night heavens —and you involuntarily exclaim: “Beautiful! Beautiful!” Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of the cavern, and wanders on, and wanders off, until he comes up from behind the rocks gradually, and it seems* like the dawn of the morning, and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is all gone, and ".you stand congratulating yourself over the wonderful spectacle. Well, there are a great many people who look down into the grave as a great cavern. They think it a thousand miles subterraneous, and all the echoes seem to be the voices of despair, and the cascades seem to be the falling tears that always fall, and the gloom of earth seems com-

ing up in a stalagmite, and the gloom of the eternal world seems descending in the stalactite, making pillars of indescribable horror. The grave is no such place as that to me," thank God. Our divine guide takes us down into the great caverns, and we have the lamp to our feet and the light in ; our path, and all the echoes lin the rifts of the rock are ! anthems, and allthe falling waj ters are fountains of salvation, and after awhile we look up and behold—the cavern of the tomb has become a king’s chamber! And while we are looking at the pomp of it an everlasting morning begins to rise, and all the tears of each ervs- ] talizes into stalagmite, rising up in a ; pillar on one side, and all the glories of heaven seem to be descending in stalactite, making a pillar on the other side, and you push against the gate that swings between the two pillars, and as the gate flashes open you find it is one of the twelve gates which are thrive pearls. Blessed be God that through this gospel the mammoth cave of the sepulcher has become the illumined star chamber of the king! I I would God that if my sermon to- | day does not lead you to Christ that i before morning, looking out of the window, the astronomy of the night heavens might lead you to the feet of Jesus. Hark, hark! To God the chorus breaks From every host, from every (tern; But oue alone, the Saviour speaks— It Is the Star of Bethlehem. The first counterfeiting was done in 1758 by a man named Richard William Vaugh. Ex-President McCosh says in the Evangelist: “I think the time has ; come for a conference of i professors and parents, to consider •now the benefits may be secured from manly exercises without the accompanying evils.” | The late Guillaume Guizot, the French scholar, was learned from bis youth up. At twenty he had writteh a work bn “Menander and Greek C which was crowned by the Academy; and at thisjy-fh'ree he had a chair in the College of : France,