A Christmas Sermon Preached Many Years Ago bj) the World-Famed Preacher DR. T . DE W IT T TALMAGE
sar, had issued a decree for an estim ate of th e resources, and an enum eration of th e people, of th e many provinces th a t composed his empire. Ostensibly, this census was tak en for th e purpose of fix ing th e levies of th e tax which m ight equitably be tak en for th e dependencies of th e Roman governm ent; b u t its appli cation to Jud ea seems to have been ra th e r an in itial act, under God, tow ard th e fulfilment of Micah’s prophecy: “And thon, Bethlehem , in th e la n d of Jn d ah , a r t n o t th e le a st among th e princes of Ju d a h ; fo r o u t of th ee shall come a governor th a t sh all ru le my people Israel.” At the tim e th e decree was published, Judea was not publicly recognized as a Roman province, bu t ra th e r as a de pendency. Herod was nom inally king of Judea, b u t in fact he was only a vice roy and a Roman subject, who had to observe th e edicts of Caesar. In order to give th e appearance of independence, he recognized Jew ish customs, and therefore, in obeying th e decree he is sued an o rder th a t every fam ily w ithin his government should proceed for en rollm ent to th e place where th e ir re spective genealogical records were kept. As both Mary arid Joseph were of the lineage of David, in pursuance of H er od’s o rder they proceeded to Bethlehem for registration. Thus the edict of A ugustus Caesar, issued when the world was a t peace, and w ithou t any app aren t reason for tak ing an enum eration (since th e taxes were collected in Judea by Herod, who in tu rn paid th e fixed trib u te to Caesar, ap pears conclusively to have been an in-
OW painfully and wearily o n e ' thousand years of the world’s existence r o l l e d along and no Christ. Two thousand years, and no Christ. T h r e e thousand years, and no Christ. F ou r
thousand years, and no Christ. “ Give us a Christ,” had cried Assyrian, and P ersian and Chaldean, and Egyptian civilizations, b u t th e lips of th e earth and th e lips of th e sky made no answer. The world had already been affluent of genius. Among poets had appeared Homer, and Thespis, and A ristophanes, and Sophocles, and Euripides, and Alex is Aeschylus; yet no Christ to be the most poetic figure of the centuries. Among historians had appeared Herodo tus, and Xenophon, and Thucydides; b u t no Christ from whom all history was to date backward and forw ard—KB. C, and A. D. Among conquerors Camil- lus, and Manlius, and Regulus, and Hannibal, and Scipio, and Pompey, and Caesar; yet no Christ, who was to be conqueror of earth and heaven. But th e slow century, and th e slow year, and the slow month, and th e slow hou r a t la st arrived. The world had had m atins, or concerts in th e morning, and vespers, or concerts in the evening, bu t now it was to have a concert a t m id night. The black w indow -shutters of n igh t were throw n open, and some of th e best singers of th e worlfl stood there, and, pu tting back th e drapery of cloud, chanted a peace anthem , un til all th e echoes of hill and valley applaud ed and encored th e h allelu jah chorus. The Roman emperor, Augustus Cae
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs