stars of faith were eclipsed by a worldly
spirit--but when they emerged from the city the star once more led them
on and stood over where the young Child was. God has put many stars in
our sky to lead us on to Christ. The stars themselves are as vocal with
divine messages as though every one of them were a golden bell hung in
the dome of the night to ring out some good news from God. The Bible is
a great constellation in which every promise and precept is a star, and
all its stars stand over Christ. All the Christian centuries are starred
with events and achievements that point to Christ as King.

XVII. Splendid Gifts

"And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his
mother; and they fell down and worshipped him; and opening their
treasures they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh."
Is there anything more beautiful in the Bible, or in all literature? The
imagination of painter or poet may well kindle at the scene. There are
the wondering mother, the worshiping wise men bowing down, the shining
fragrant gifts, and in the midst, as the center and glory of it all, the
young Child. This Child, which even in its infancy subordinates mother
and wise men and gold to itself, is indeed a King. Worship is the
expression of reverence, and reverence is the root of all worth and
divineness in life. The human soul is a poor and pitiful fragment until
it is completed and crowned with worship, a lost child until it finds
its Father. The wise men found a King to worship; they were not
following a false guide across weary wastes into nothingness. Our
instinct of worship is not false, but is true and is matched with its
appropriate satisfaction. Christ completes our human childhood with
divine Fatherhood. He that hath seen him hath seen the father.

These Persian scholars were forerunners of other wise men going to
Bethlehem. Through all the Christian centuries men of genius have been
laying their most precious gifts at the feet of Christ. Columbus had no
sooner set foot on a new shore than he named it San Salvador, Holy
Saviour; and thus he laid his great discovery, America, at the feet of
Jesus. Leonardo da Vinci swept the golden goblets from the table of his
"Last Supper" because he feared their splendor would distract attention
from and dim the glory of the Master himself. The hand that rounded St.
Peter's dome reared it in adoration to Christ, and Raphael in painting
the Transfiguratio