They were therefore broad-minded men whose horizon was wider than their own deserts, or they never would have overleaped their national piety and patriotism and prejudice into search and reverence for a Jewish king.  But something told them that the new King, though born a Jew, was of universal interest and was more than human; they forefelt his divinity.  Therefore they were come to the King, not to gratify their curiosity, not to speculate and debate and frame a new creed, but to worship him.  There was no war between the science and the theology of these wise men.  Their science did not kill their religion, and their religion did not strangle their science.  The stars, according to their simple-minded way of thinking, did not crowd God out of his universe.  Knowledge and reverence made one music in their minds as both science and faith grew from more to more.

A religion that could not stand the most searching and pitiless light of scholarship could not live.  Science kills pagan faiths as with a stroke of lightning.  But the gospel lives, because wise men go to Bethlehem and find there, not fiction, but fact.  It welcomes and inspires the profoundest science and philosophy.  God in his Word is not afraid of God in his works.  The tallest intellects in all these centuries have bowed at the side of this manger.

XV.  A Frightened King

The inquiry of the wise men startled Jerusalem and frightened Herod.  The proud metropolis had not yet heard the news.  The immortal honor of having given birth to the Christ had been denied to her haughty brow and had become humble Bethlehem’s imperishable crown.  The very name of king gave Herod a terrible shock.  He was a usurper steeped in crime and was ever trembling on his throne.  No hunted, white-faced, Russian Czar ever feared nihilist’s bomb more than he feared rebellion’s revolt and assassin’s knife.  Rebel after rebel he had crushed into spattered brains and blood, and here was rumor of another Rival born under the shadow of his throne.  Herod was troubled and his terror sent a strange wave and shudder of fear through the city.  So the same gospel that made angels sing and wise men worship and started good news out over the world, created consternation and trouble up in Herod’s palace and in his city.  Christ came to give peace and joy, but his gospel is a sword to some.  The good man’s presence is always the bad man’s condemnation and stirs hatred in his heart.  Every good influence that falls upon us, according as we use it, brings either more joy or trouble, and the gospel itself is either a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death.

XVI.  An Impotent Destroyer