THE WAYNESVILLE MOUNTAINEER
By Rev. Howard V. Lane.
Nothing is so delightful as child
hood. Children are the brightness of
the borne, the givers of joy, the mak
ers of mirth, the dispensers of hap
piness. They are the gladness of a
world that were dreary without them.
They are bird-song, and flowers, and
' .? . i . i
God s golden sunsnme, ana unspeax
ibly'aore than all this to millions
0f human hearts. How good then that
and should take the forrn of a help-
ies babe;that the Omnipotent Himself
.should be wrapped lor us in swad
rflinir bands and laid in a manger!
"And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us.'
This was He for whom all the gen
.rations had been singing. Beautiful
;v the church has summed up their
.ongings in the inspired words of the
poet-prophet Isaias: "Drop down dew,
ye heave&s, from above; ana let the
ilouds rain the just; let the earth be
opened and bud forth a saviour,"
rare as the dw thai uescenus from
heaven, and silently falls into the
silver fleece, did He tome to the Vir
jrin Mother fair as the first rose-bud
yf the year, did He lie on the soft
white corpora! Mary's virgin hands
and spread over the straws of the
"owly Crib. Tenderly, with out
stretched arrrfr,, He received from
ter the sweet embrace of love and
adoration. In the Kkies without were
angel choirs, that brought the glad
tidings to the shepherds, keeping
watch over their flocks on Bethle
hem's hills, while at the manger stood
the ox and the ass, in homage to crea
tion's Lord and Master of all living
things. And there, rapt in happi
ness and heavenly worship, knelt by
the" side of the new-born Babe, Mary
ami Joseph, the adoring heart of the
world. The great hour of history had
:ruik.
""in all its completeness was now to
be fulfilled the Angel's promise to
Mary regarding the sublime mission
of that Child conceived oi ner oy me
Holy Ghost
He Rhall be Great, and shall be call-
d the son of the Most High; and the
Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of David, his father; and he
shall reign in the house 01 Jacob lor
ever.
And of his kingdom there shall be
no end. (Luke 1:32, 38.)
Venite Adoremus! Come, let us too
adore Him: sweet Babe, sweet Christ,
-weet Child of Mary, our Brother,
King and God.
The expected of the nations had
come, the desired of the Patriachs and
the Prophets, the hope of all the world
wa8 here. Dimly He had been fore
shadowed in the first great prophecy
made to Adam and Eve when, the
tears for the transgression were still
moist upon their checks. Dimly they
Had foreseen Him, a rainbow of hope
n the clouded sky, a vision of fu
ture happiness revealed to them m
the promise of a great mother who,
with her offspring, would be in re
lentless opposition to Satan and his
wiles:
I will put enmities between thee and
the woman, and thy seed and her
seed: she shall crush thy head, and
thou shalt he in wait for her neei.
"Gen. 111:15.)
Literally, the reference here is to
Eve; typically, it is most certainly
to Mary, the Mother of all who by
grace shall live in Christ. So the
whole church has understood it. Her
offspring, as mentioned in this great
prophecy, is not our Saviour only,
?ut all the just who through Him
shall triumph over the tempter, and
so shall crush the serpent's head,
giving the mortal wound to sin and
Satan.
So complete, we know, was to be
hat enmity between Mary and man
kind's deadliest foe, the infernal Ser
pent, that it began with the very
moment of her Immaculate Concep
tion. Hell was not to claim one single
victory over her, such as the concep
tion in original sin would have im
plied. Only the all-pure among wom
en might worthily bear the God of
purity. How far our first parents
'."Jld then have understood the full
leaning of this prophecy we do not
Know, But sufficient was the know!
edge it gave them to keep hope alive
n their breast. Even the Rabbinic
literature of later years say in it the
near promise ot the Messias to be
born as the Child of the ereat Mother
here announced in this "protevangel."
out if. that first promise of the
-Mother and her Child may have suf
ficed for the generation that pre
ceded the Deluge, the prophetic
visions of the birth of the future
Messias became ever more distinct
in the days that now followed. From
among the sons of Noe one was point
ed out under whose tents the Almighty
Himself 6hould come to dwell: "Bless
ed be the Lord God of Sem." And so
wore and more definite became the
prophecies of mankind again multi
plied and increased. Not merely was
the Divine Child to be descendant of
Sem, a member of his family, but he
was further to trace His line through
Abraham, through Isaac and through
Jacob. All this was made plain by
successive prophecies in regard to
each of these Patriarchs.
"In thee shall all the. kindreds of
rhe earth be blessed," God foretold to
Abraham. This promise, it .wag fur-
men pointed out, would be fulfilled m
Abraham's offspring. (Gen, xxvi:4.)
It was repeated to Isaac, and again
to Jacob. It was rendered in the
prophecy of the Gentile soothsayer,
Balaam, who had consecrated himself
to the true God, though he proved un
faithful to Him. Yet through the
mouth of thig unworthy messenger
the Almighty was pleased to rearfirm
"is great promise in those striking
worls w-hich are especially associat
ed in our minds with the Christ Child.
A star shall rise out of Jacob,
. And a sceptre shall spring up from
Israel. (Num. xxiv:17.
Balaam thus prophesied that a
rukr should come from the family of
Jacob and the aired Patriarch him
self, pointed with equally prophetic
vision to the one- among his sons from
whom the Messias was to spring. He
would rise, the brethren were told,
from Juda's line. Then came Nathan,
t.'ie prophet, and out of all the de
scendants of Juda he identified David
as the one chosen of God :o be the
inheritor of the great promises, in
whose line the Saviour shfru-d be
born. The Messias, the Jews were
now further told, would be of David's
blood, and His reign would be without
emi. His coming ir.m the House ot
Davie would remain certain under
every circumstance; and He would
nioieovtr be the Son of God no less
than the Son of David: "And 1 will
establish the throne of His kingdom
i'jrevcr." tlx kins vii:lo.) Such
.. .... ,,. i... .. . i,.r ... .. w.
iU lc ill- uaw mu, .-nuun.1 ue
From
the DromLses 'vf the Lord
to David we turn to the prophecy of
Jtremias, foretelling the birth of
this Heavenly Child and describing
the blessings He was to bring.
Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, ti;at 1 wili pci-form the good
word that I have spoken to the house
of lsi a..-!, and to the house of Juda.
In ti.o.-i. days and at that time, 1 will
make the bud of justice to spring forth
unto David, and he shall do judgment
and justice in the earth. In those
days shall Juda be saved, and Jeru
salem shall dwell securely, and this
in the name that they shall call him:
The Lord, our just one. (.ler. .xii:
lt;.). In the Hebrew text, "Yaweh oui
justice" is given as the name by which
the character of this wonderful Child,
that was to be born of the house of
David, could with accuracy be de
scribed. For how can we bitter de
fine the results of the Redemption
than in that title which makes of
Christ the soune of all our super
natural graces? He is in truth our
Justice.
Nothing mole was needed now to
complete the details of the piophecy
than to mention the place of the
Saviour's birth, and the time in which
He would come. Of these two cir
cumstanc.es the first was supplied in
clearest terms by the prophet
Micheas.
And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art
a little one among the thousands of
Juda: and out of thee shall come
forth unto me He that is to be the
ruler in Israel, and Hi going forth
is from the beginning, from the days
of eternity. (Mich. v:2.)
Here is pointed out, in words that
no one could mistake, the city -f
the Saviour's birth: Bethlehem, in
the land of Juda. But lest it might
be thought that the Messias would be
merely man, because born in a tem
poral birth, the prophet further tells of.
His eternal generation, from the be
ginning, from the days of eternity.
That Child, to be born in time of hu
man Mother, existed as God betore
the heavens and the earth were ere
atd. His temporal going forth would
be in Bethlehem, but His eternal
birth was from the bosom of the Fath
er. The Babe of Bethlehem, here
foretold, was therefore, to be both God
and man.
That the Jews themselves under
stood this prophecy is plain from the
fact that when . Herod inquired into
the birthplace of the Messias, the
priests and scribes, without any du
ficilty, answered him: "In Bethle
hem of Juda. For so it is written by
the prophet." (Math. ii:5.) Not merely
the priests and the learned in the law,
but the people themselves fully under,
stood this, truth. When the multitude
was gathered in Jerusalem for the cel
ebration of a high feast they discuss
ed the birth of the Messias, and at
once they demanded, as St. John re
counts: "Does not the scripture say
that the Christ cometh of the seed of
David and from Bethlehem, the town
where David was?" (John vii;42.)
Thus revelation after revelation had
constantly defined more perfectly the
circumstances of the Saviour's birth,
until an expectant world had been told
that He should come of David's royal
house; that He should be born in
David's native, city; that He should I
have .i two-fold birth; one in time?
and the other from the days of etern
ity." To these prophecies we must
now add those others that define the
very period set for the temporal
coming of that Divine Babe of Bethle;
hem, in whom the world was to be
blessed. This date had already, in
general terms, been pointed out by
the dying Patriarch Jacob, when, as
his sons were gathered around him, he
singled out Juda and said to him with
the voice of inspiration: "Juda, thee
shall thy brethren praise. From
him indeed was the Messias to spring.
But it was not to be in the day when
Juda's house reached the zenith of its
glory in David and in Solomon that
the Saviour was to come. But when
the sceptre should have passed away
from their line, and a stranger would
sit on their royal throne. That time
was at hand when the noblest of all
the descendants of Juda's and of
David's line were Joseph, the lowly
carpenter of Nazareth, and Mary the
unknown handmaid of the Lord. Here
are the words of Jacob's prophecy
and they wenjt into fulfillment when
Christ was born at Bethlehem and
the manger formed his throne.
The sceptre shall not be taken
away from Juda,
Nor a ruler from his thigh,
Till he come that is to be sent,
And he shall be the expectation of
the nations. (Gen. xlixilO.)
But still fnore definitely was the
date of the Saviour's birth to be made
plain when there stood before the
Prophet Daniel the very messenger
of God, the Angel Gabriel, who more
than four centuries later was to ap
pear to Mary and make known to her
that God had chosen her for the
Mother of the Great Redeemer. But
the special coming of the Saviour
referred to in Daniel's prophecy is
not the time of His birth, but of His
public appearance, when He was to
be hrotized in the waiters of the
Jordan. The "weeks" spoken of in
the Hebrew text are "weeks of
years;" i. e. periods of seven years
each. This was a familiar method
of expression among the ancient
Jews, and can be found in their Jaw
of the Saboath and of the Jubilee
year. The fact and time of the
"slaying"' of Christ is also given by
the prophet, and the consequent de
struction of Jerusalem is predicte'd.
Having prayed to God for pardon
ol the sins of His people, and to look
:n mervy upon the:r ru:nea sanctuary,
Daniel is told by the Angel:
Seventy weeks are shortened upor.
iiy people, and upon thy holy city,
.hat transgression may be finished,
nd sin may may have an end, and
iniquity may be abolished, and ever
lasting justice may be brought, and
vision and prophecy may be fulfilled,
md the Saint of Saints may be an
nointed. Know thou, therefore, and
fJikf ruttli'j that t'fi-i m f hu iwt ifii'
I ; . . . ..
loith ol the word to build up Jeru
sn;em again unto Chris: the Prince,
ihere shall be seven weeks and sixty
two weeks, and the street shall be built
again, and walls in straitness of
limes. After sixty-; wo weeks Christ
shall be slain, and the people that
hal: deny Him shall not be His. And
i. people with their leader that shall
tome shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary, and the end thereof shal)
be' waste, and after the end of the
war the appointed dossolation. (Dan.
i.::'4-ae.)
"The going forth of the world"
alludes to a royal decree granting
leave to restore the city, from which
edict the prophet recons his week of
years. The date of this document
was then well understood by all, and
the prophetls cantejmporarievsV could
reckon with exactness the date of
Messias' public coming, after sixty
nine weeks of years, as likewise of
His violent death which the prophet
foretold should follow in the seven
tieth week.
Thus men might compute with suf
ficient exactness when the Saviour's
birth was to be expected, since they I
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clearly knew the date of His public
appearance. That the advent of the
Messias was really exte..-ted by the
Jews at the very time of Christ's
ivming into th:s world is certain be
yond all doubt, both from the secular
histtrians, such as Tacitus and
Suetonius, and from many passages
of the New Testament. But else
where, too, over the face of the earth.
there vjas a myeripus stitTipg.
Many of the ancient nations awaited
a great Teacher, a Redeemer. "O
Alcibiades," are the words put by
Plato upon the lips of Socrates, " ask
nothing of the gods; let u. wait until
the- One sen; from heaven comes to
teach us our duties towards gods and
men, and let us hope that H is com
ing is not far distant."
Passing over Ezechiel's piophecy
of "a tender twig" that should be
cropt from the royal cedar of David,
and the words of the Lord to Aggeus:
"Yet one little while and the desired
glance at the prophecy shall come,"
we need now but cast final glance
at the prophecy of Isaias predicting
the wonderful ways of God in the
Virgin Birth of the Christ to be:
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and his name shall be
called Emanuel. (Is. vii : 14. )
Of a pure virgin only is the word
almah ever used in the Sacred Scrip
tures and is here applied In a literal
sense to the Maiden Mother of the
Christ, Emanuel, "God with us." To
thin same Son of the Virgin the pro
phet refers in the ninth chapter, as
the Child through whom salvation is
come to Juda; and in the eleventh
chapter he describes Him as the red
that shall spring from the root of
Jesse, the most glorious scion of the
royal house of David, who will bring
God's peace to all the earth and
possess the remnant of the chosen
piople.
Here finally are the names the pro
phet enumerates as accurately set
ting forth the sublime attributes of
this future Messias:
For a Child is born to us, and a
Son is given to us. and the govern
ment is upon His shoulders; and His
Our Hearty Good Wishes for
and a New Year of Contin
ued Peace and Happiness
name shall be called Wonderful, God,
the Mighty, the Father of the world
to come, the Prince of Peace. His
empire shall be multiplied, and there
sha!'. be no end of peace; he shall sit
upon the throne of David, and upon
his kingdom to establish and strength
en it with judgment and with justice,
from henceforth and forever. (Ia.
AH Cood Wishes
For your Happiness u( Christmas Time ajwt
Throughout the New Year
Ernest L. Withers And Co.
PHONE
K. L. Withers
Season's Greetings
ix;6-7.)
Such is to be the eternal kingdom
over which th Christ Child would
come to reign. The names given Him
are in the original Hebrew grouped
so as to read: Wonderful Counsellor,
mighty God, Father of the age to
come, Prince of Peace. Thus the ravs
(Continued on pajje six.)
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Henry
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