SUNDAY READING.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11539, 16 January 1932, Page 2

SUNDAY READING.

(By the Rev,*,.Janies Aitken, ALA-) EPIPHANY.

The until "Epilihuny” Is simply « GinoU -worii w'lnoli i Jffoaus i ‘'«Ui)wui^-, ; , anil the* Foust of.,the, Einphaiij coinmeuloratee, tho sliewiUtf of Christ ™ the Gentiles. It is the l^norml, n 1 llio visit OF the Mug-1 to BctlilcJlein, when they fell down and worshipped -the- infalft Jesus and opening their treasures, offered iiiito .Hf} gifts, gold and frank ilieOllse iiffd ’story k is a very beautiful one, nolle tin* less beautiful and suggestive Unit it k somewhat, vague Who were the Magi? Where did they come from ? ’ Wind prompted them to make the journey? ! Whate was the star that guided . them/ _ M hat wore the results of their visit when thev. returned "to their own land? Those are questions which the Scripture. account does, not answer: hut tradition has been busy .with its guesswork. The Afagi were lungs, we are'told., and there were three oi them, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar. Melchoir was an old man, with hoarv lock's and. long white hoard: and ' lhs was the offering of gold. Balthazar, was, a black man; Jus countenance, smooth of chin; it was he who brought the frankincense. Gaspar was but a yoiitli* ruddy of gift...of: myrrh, was an omen .01 Christ’s death. The star which they followed • was said to have shone with amazing brilliancy, with the sun and moon and othqr stars a,s its attendants ; and, ,iu, the .heart ol it. glowed a vision of the virgin and child they were to seek, or, as.some said, tho figure of a . young . child carrying a ■ cross. So the legends have it"that in after days the three kings were baptised by the Apostle Thomas. Their bodies wore discovered somewhere in the East and brought to Constantinople in the fourth century. Later they .were transferred to -Milan. When Frederick Barbarossa conquered that city in 1162 ho carried them off as booty and deposited them in the cathedral at Cologne, where the devout tourist can still do homage to their bones.

Those traditions have, of course, iio historic value. But they serve to show, how lovingly the mind of the church <bas brooded over the story of the Epiphany, and how the manifestation of Christ to the representatives of the Gentile world, kindled her. imagination. The Magi of the ancient world were not kings at all. They wero the descendants or at least the successors of the ancient Zoroastrian priests. 'What thenown religious faith land practice were, it is hard to say: the faith of their fathers suffered sore corruption as the generations passed. But wo can be pretty certain that those Magi weip in their day custodians ol tho learning of the East. Now.that is a fact of great interest, and very suggestive—the fact that the Magi of tho East were the learned men of the East. They were tho physicians, the philosophers, the. men of science, of their land and time. And it was their interest iu science and in learning generally that ultimalelv brought them (o the feet of Christ. They had seen, they suid, his star jn tho" East, Some astronomical phenomenon had attracted their attention. It may have been that the planets Jupiter and Saturn wore in conjunction: that was. Kipler’s idea and ho showed that those, planets were close together three times in one year a little while before Christ’s birth. Or it may have been that a peculiarly brilliant temporary star shone for a few months in the sky. Chinese records speak of such ail appearance about this. time. What it actuully was docs not matter. The point of interest is that those Magi saw it. and thought it worthy of study and inquiry. They were scientific men. Only scientific men would have noticed it. If there were a conjunction cf tile planets to-night, or if a new star appeared in the heavens tonight few of us wouhl bo any the wiser. The astronomers would see it though. And those astronomers of old • saw the star in the East. According' lo the ideas of (lie time they took for granted that such a phenomenon in the heavens, portended some great and important event on the earth: and they set about inquiring wliat this might he. ‘ In the course of their inquiries they learned something from the Jews. There were Jews scattered all over the East then as there arc, now. The Magi, wherever their home was, had Jewish neighbors. From these. Jewish neighbors they learned of the ifneiemt hope of Israel, that God would send His anointed, His Messiah, to he the deliverer, of His people. And their information and their . reasoning led them to conclude that the appearance of the star proclaimed the coming of the King. And so across the desert they, came, a .camel caravan, and made the long toilsome journey to Jerusalem and Bethlehem ; “and they came into the house anil saw the young Child with. Mary Ilis mother : and they fell down and worshipped Him. and, opening their treasures, they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

There then is the story of the Epiphany. It suggests a great many lessons for us. Let us '.select one or two to-night. 1. It is a very foolish attitude ol mind that. looks" contemptuously on human learning. “Of all vanities the worst is the vanity of ignorance.” It is common enough to hear learning decried (and especially scientific learning) as. if it were opposed to religion. If that ■ simply meant that science is not the same as religion, or that many scientific men are not avowed Christians, it would lie to seme extent true. But when it means as it often doe-, mean—-that learning is.a positive, encumbrance and. hindrance to religion, then it is emphatically not true. To say. that science is hostile to faith is to, say that the God of Nature is not tho God of grace; and that the more you .study the Creator’s works, tho further you are led away from Himself.

What is the true spirit?; It was described by Thomas Huxley. who was in his day looked upon as the ai;ch enemy of Christianity. It is tho spirit that .sits' down before a fact, liumhlv and . reverently and seeks only to knew what it is. It lays aside all prejudices, all prejudgments. Jt does not ask that the fact fits in to any preconceived' theory. It is willing to abandon all its preconceptions, and to reconstruct all its - theories 'in view of the fact. Its one and only desiro is to know tho truth. It has absolute and ,implicit faith in the truth. Humble, reverent, -truth-loving, that; is tho .true scientific: spirit, and it is that spirit that has enlarged our knowledge and increased our command of Naturo, widened :our view of-the universe ,and is .leading the world todav to the recognition of the spiritual as the ultimate reality. But is hot that spirit a religious' spirit ? Is i(; : not . a Christian-. spirit ? Humble, reverent,.,, truth-loving,—that was-:the spirit that led tho .Magi to Christ, and that is .the spirit that is leading tho world to-daiy .back to God. The hope of religion dies in the spread of that spirit through the rank and file of men. Nature is the handiwork, of Gpd: I; to study nature is to studyftlie revelation ,of .God in His works and so to learn to know Hini better; Ho is a very foolish man who is afraid of ■ science, or who imagines for a moment that the revelation of God

in nature can ever obscure His revelation in history, in the human heart or in Christ. 2. Another lesson—one ‘ ; ’-i a very different kind, 'llio story of the-Ep J phuuv reminds us tjiat' Christ is loi everybody, lie is for all the nations, for Gentile as well as Jew, ior, the East us well as.for the \)cst. He is for aIF mankind, the Saviour of tlio world, la a sense we have learned that lesson tojday. Nolle ef .u« would question that Christ has a revelation to give and a salvation to offer, to Asia and Alriea as well as to Europe and America. And so wo send our missionaries to Jndia and China, to make Him known to UiO peoples, oi these lands, .and - 'Jo i®joico in every (report that tells us how Ho wins His way among them. We do not doubt that the day i" coming when 110 -shall reign from pole to pole, and ,<*ll mankind shall do Him homage.

Nor do wo doubt that Jesus Christ is For ail kinds of people, rich and poor, learned and simple, respectable . and disreputable, that Ho is able to bring to all sorts of folk the pardon. the comfort the strength and hope they need, ho n for living and dying. General .Booth, is said fq have confessed, m the early days of the Army that ‘die was forced to maike a choice “No man’s arms are long enough, lie said” to reach out to give a hand to the 'rich man and- to the people «t the depths.” No doubt that is true. Ilut Christ’s arms are long enough. Christ ..is not confined to a class He for everybody. and everybody needs Him.

3. And that bring- me to this point iu closing. Christ is ior you and me. \Ye need Him, all of us, to make better men and women of ns. to' save us from our sins, to present us in the end before tile throne ol God without blemish, and without spot. I think we all recognise our need. I .do not believe there is ony of us who imagines lie could not he, or need not he. better than lie is; Nor is there any of us who, in. his inmost heart, docs not desire to bo better than lie is. There is an idea before us we fain would reach and yet, try as., we like, we cannot. No man e*an save himself.. We need help from beyond ourselves. \t o need inspiration, encouragement, the touch of another spirit upon ours, to giro reality and' perseverance. our’striving and to: bring us to victory at last. There then the Christ stands ready to help us, calling us to come to Him. That call of Christ, that offer of Salvation, are real. These are not empty or unmeaning words we speak of Him. They represent a great reality in the experience of men. May our 'response to Him b c a reality too. May wc come to Him—-come ,to Him by any route we please,. But come to Him and bring Him our gifts of gold and frankincense and rnyrrli, jour gifts of fail'll and love, and devotion. Ho will not fail-, us., if only 'we tyust Him and are loyal to Him, How can. we begin this New Year better than by pledging to Him afresh our confidence and loyalty ?■ u ; y.