to his account, he too was brought within
sight of the Christ, and summoned to yield his usurped dominion to the
true King How different this old man's reception of the tidings of the
nativity from Simeon's! His hostility, in its cruelty, its blundering
cunning and its impotence, is a type of the relations of the world-power
to Christ. 'The rulers take counsel together, ... against His anointed.
... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.'

V. We have next the discovery of the King. The reappearing star becomes
the guide to the humble house. It cannot have been an ordinary star, for
no such could have pointed the precise house among all the homes of
Bethlehem. The burst of joy at its reappearance vividly suggests the
perplexity of the recent days, and the support given by its welcome beam
to the faith which had accepted, not perhaps without some misgivings
caused by the indifference of the teachers, the teaching of the
prophecy. Surely that faith would be more than ever tried by the humble
poverty in which they found the King. The great paradox of Christianity,
the manifestation of divinest power in uttermost weakness, was forced
upon them in its most startling form. 'This child on His mother's lap,
with none to do Him homage, and in poverty which makes our costly gifts
seem out of place,--this is the King, whose coming set stars ablaze and
drew us hither. Is this all?' Their Eastern religions were not
unfamiliar with the idea of incarnation. Their Eastern monarchies were
splendid. They must have felt a shock at the contrast between what they
expected and what they found. They learned the lesson which all have to
learn, that Christ disappoints as well as fulfils the expectations of
men, that the mightiest power is robed in lowliness, and the highest
manifestation of God begins with a helpless infant on His mother's knee.
These wise men were not repelled. Our modern 'wise men are not all as
wise as they.

VI. Adoration and offering follow discovery. The 'worship' of the Magi
cannot have been adoration in the strict sense. We attribute too much to
them if we suppose them aware of Christ's divinity. But it was clearly
more than mere reverence for an earthly King. It hovered on the
border-line, and meant an indefinite submission and homage to a
partially discerned superiority, in which the presence of God was in
some sort special. The old mediaeval interpretation of the offered gold
as signifying recognition of His ki