T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
December, 1941
sand dollars and his fruitless trip to Bethlehem. “ Oh, but laddie, ye’re on the ir.ua track entirely,” said the. old lady. ‘"Hie Star o’ Bethlehem’s in the auld Buik. I ken it’s no the fashion to read it these days, but the 'worruld lost sight of a lot besides the things it wanted to forget when it set out to put its Bibles awa! Hunt up yer Mither’s Bible, lad, and study it out. The star arose in the East, ye ken, and the folks who saw it first was those that was lookin’ fer its arisin’. “The star’s na lost. It led to the little King, ye ken, an’ it’ll always lead to the King if a body seeks with all the heirt, fer that is the promise: ‘An’ ye shall find. Me, when ye shall seek fer Me with all yer heirts.’ May like the puir buddy who wrote the bit lines in the paper was longin’ fer the King his- self an’ wanted the star to guide him, but ye ken ye can’t purchase the gifts of God wi’ silver ner gold. The mon may lay his ten thousand baubles at the fut of the throne, but he’ll find he must go his own self across the desert, before he’ll ever see the shinin’ of the Star. “But you’ll not turn back yerself now you’ve started, laddie! Go find the King; fer yerself. Look in the Gospels an’ read the story. It’s passin’ wonder ful an’ lovely. This is my station now, and I’ll b e . leavin’ ye, but it’ll be a glad Christmas time fer you ef you find the little King, an’ ye’ll find Him sure, if ye seek on with all yer heirt.” i The doorway to the fine old Hamilton mansion on Harvard Place was be sieged from morning, to night all that week by aspirants wishing to speak with the Master, but to all of them the grave and dignified servitor who an swered the door replied: “My master is away. He cannot speak with you. until the time appointed. If any then have found the lost treasure, they may come and claim the reward. But they must come bringing it with them. None others need present them selves.” Even the Bishop had not been able to gain admittance. He was much an noyed about it. He was afraid others would get ahead of him. He was very certain that if he could have audience first all would be well. He was sure he could explain the philosophy of life and the mystery of the star quite satisfactorily and soothingly. [ Continued on Page 468]
by means of a pocket flashlight. More than one young student worked into the small hours of the night w ith.ref erence books scattered about him, writing a many-paged treatise on the Star of Stars, some to prove that the star was a myth, and others that it was still in existence and would one day appear again as bright as of old. Even the police, coming suddenly upon lurking stargazers far toward morning, began to question what had taken hold of the town. Coming home on the late train from a fruitless search for an unknown quantity which was not there, John Powers sat wearily back in his dusty seat. The lost Star of Bethlehem! What could it be ? He had searched the steel city from end to end without finding so much as a trace of tradition or story about a star in connection with that town, and he was dog-weary and utterly discouraged. If only he had not written that hopeful letter to Mary in the morning! Now perhaps she would already be planning to have the wedding soon, and where was the money coming from to provide the little home? 1 Of course it just might happen that, after all, the star had been lost up in the city, else why should the adver tisement have been put in the city paper and not in the Bethlehem local? But, even so, he had hoped great things from this trip to Bethlehem, and now he had only wasted a day and the car fare, and had gotten nowhere at all. Yet before long, John found himself asking his seat mate ;the old question again: "You say you are from Bethlehem? Did you ever hear of a star in connec tion with that town?' Was there any memorial tablet or monument or em blem or anything in the shape of a star, that had been stolen away? Star of Bethlehem it was called; do you know anything about it? ” The stranger stared blankly and shook his head: “ Sounds to me as if it might be a song, or a book mebbe. Ever been a Mason? Might be some kind o f•a Ma sonic badge, mightn’t it?” The man got out at the next station, and Powers leaned back wearily and thought of how he had failed. An old lady in a queer bonnet leaned over suddenly and touched him on the shoulder: “Laddie, hae ye tried the auld Buik?” she asked timidly. “I’m thinkin’ ye’ll find it all there.” “I beg your pardon!” said Powers, lifting his hat courteously and thinking how the blue of her eyes had a light like that in Mary’s eyes.
“Ha, ha!’’ he said as his eye traveled down the column idly and paused at the Lost and Found, "Listen to this, Bella. Poor old George has got ’em again. He probably thinks he is going to die this time. I’ll just step in and have a little talk on theology with him this morning and set his mind at rest. No need for that ten thousand ‘dollars to go out of the church. We might as well have it as some home for the feeble minded.” Bella left her coffee and came around to read the advertisement, her face lighting intelligently: “ Oh, Basil! Do you think you can work it?” she cried delightedly. “Why, sure, he's just a little daffy on religion now because he’s been sick. The last time I saw him he asked me how we could know any of the creeds, were true when they were all so dif ferent. I’ll smooth it all out for him, and make him give another ten thou sand or so to the social service work of our church, and he’ll come across handsomely, you’ll see. I’d better go at once. It won’t do to wait; there are too many kinds of crooks on the lookout for just such a soft ten thousand as, this.” And he took his hat and coat and hurried out. The Professor at his meager :break fast table, worrying about his sick wife and how he could afford to keep his eldest son in college, happened on the item. He set down his coffee cup untasted and stepped to his book shelves, taking down several wise treatises on Astron omy. À sweet-faced saint in an invalid chair read and1pondered and murmured thoughtfully: “Poor soul! What’s hap pened to the man’s Bible?” Before night the one little shop in the city that made a specialty of as tronomical instruments had been drain ed of everything, in the shape o f a searcher of- the heavens, and a rush , order had gone on to New York by telegraph for more telescopes of va rious sizes and prices, while a boy in the back office was busy making a copy of the advertisement to fasten up in the plate glass window, with a note below: . "Come in and order your telescope now before they are all gone, and get into line for the great sky prize! We have ’em! All prices!” Far into ' the evening the crowd con tinued around that window, and many who had glasses at home hurried away to search for them. Even before the day was half over, the office of the University was be sieged by eager visitors come to ques tion wise ones, a folded newspaper fur tively held under each applicant’s arm. As evening drew on, shadowy figures stole fQrth to high places and might have been seen scanning the heavens, and now and then consulting a book
He arose from his seat and went back to sit beside her. Then somehow the blue of her eyes made him unafraid, and he told her all about .the ten thou¿SB
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