“After this”—­went on Heliobas—­“came a long period of prefigurements; types and suggestions, that, running through all the various religions that sprang up swiftly and as swiftly decayed, hinted vaguely at the birth of a child,—­offspring of a pure Virgin—­a miraculously generated God-in-Man—­an absolutely Sinless One, who should be sent to remind Humanity of its intended final high destiny, and who should, by precept and example, draw the Earth nearer to Heaven.  I would here ask you to note what most people seem to forget,—­namely, that since Christ came, all these shadowy types and prefigurements have ceased; a notable fact, even to skeptical minds.  The world waited dimly for something, it knew not what,—­the various Fraternities of the Cross waited also, feeling conscious that some great era of hope and happiness was about to dawn for all men.  When the Star in the East arose announcing the Redeemer’s birth, there were some forty or fifty of these Fraternities existing, three in the ancient province of Chaldea, from whence a company of the wisest seers and sages were sent to acknowledge by their immediate homage the Divinity born in Bethlehem.  These were the ‘wise men out of the East’ mentioned in the Gospel.  We knew—­I say we, because I am descended directly from one of these men, and have always belonged to their Brotherhood—­we knew it was divinity that had come amongst us,—­ and in our parchment chronicles there is a long account of how the deserts of Arabia rang with music that holy night—­what wealth of flowers sprang up in places that had hither to lain waste and dry —­how the sky blazed with rings of roseate radiance,—­how fair and wondrous shapes were seen flitting across the heavens,—­the road of communication between men and Angels being opened at a touch by the Saviour’s advent.”

Again he paused,—­and after a little silence resumed: 

“Then we added the Star to our existing Symbol, the Cross, and became the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.  As such, after the Redeemer’s birth, we put all other matters from us, and set ourselves to chronicle His life and actions, to pray and wait, unknowing what might be the course of His work or will.  One Day He came to us,—­ah! happy those whom He found watching, and whose privilege it was to receive their Divine Guest!”

His voice had a passionate thrill within it, as of tears,—­and Alwyn’s heart beat fast,—­what a wonderful new chapter was here revealed of the old, old story of the Only Perfect Life on earth!

“One of the Fraternities,” went on Heliobas, “had its habitation in the wilderness where, some years later, the Master wandered fasting forty days and forty nights.  To that solitary abode of prayerful men He came, when He was about twenty-three earthly years of age; the record of His visit has been reverently penned and preserved, and from it we know how fair and strong He was,—­ how stately and like a King—­how gracious and