The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 61

Vers. 1-12.-The happy misnomer of the Wise Men ojthe East. Once on a time our Saviour warned persons of far inferior privilege to our own that men would come from. the east, and west, and north, and south, who should rise up in the judgment against them. The present passage of sacred history tells us most emphatically how men from the East did arrive very early, to upbraid, not in word, but with all the force of deed, though without any direct intention of doing so, those among whom, unexpected, unwelcomed visitors as they were, they arrived. The passage is crowded with sug- gestions of practical use; and, far from being novelties, they rather waken the echoes of our deepest heart and long-past experience and observaUon. From lesson and sug- gestion and reminders of our own experiences, to suggestion and lesson and reminders of our own experiences again, do the contents of this history lead us, some lying on the- very surface and others deeper down. Let ns observe, then,a notable instance of how- l. THOSE WHO LIVE FURTHEST OFF FROM ZION ARE OFTEN THE EARLIEST AND MOST' PUNCTUAL TO ARRIVE THERE. No city, town, or village church or school but has witnessed this phenomenon times without number. The very type of all these lesser instances, yet instances so deeply significant of spiritual fact and history, is here. Very little can be said to be known about these Wise Men of the East, of whom the passage speaks. It is not difficult to make more than one account of them, which might hold together very well and seem sufficiently consistent to pass for truth. We are reading well-attested inspired history, or we might imagine we bad come a.cross the path of the fable and entered the region, not of Eastern wisdom, but of Eastern myth. But it is not so. 'l'here were these men called wise indeed, likelier to have been really good, who ventured on the long fanatic pilgrimage, and who are the first to knock at Jeru- salem's gates for the Messiah, at the temple doors-yes, and at the weaker, the trembling doors of King Herod's and many another heart of Jerusalem's regular inhabitants. II. THE SPIRIT BLOWETH WHERE HE LISTETH. The impulse for these pilgrims from the East cannot be set down to anything less than the Divine. There are some things that are certainly known and that help to throw light on the substance, if not on the form of what is here recorded. It is true that there was a rumour prevalent over the whol~ of the East, and not concentrated even as much as it should have been in Judma, that the time was approaching for the appearance of a great King, a King of a small people-the Jews. He was to be One of whom great things should come to pass. There is nothing for a moment to hinder our supposing that the Wise Men had got hold of this vague rumour at least, and were working upon it. But were there not thousands of others into the hearing of whose cars the same things entered, yet to be powerless over their heart? By whom was this "thing secretly brought" to the Wise Men, and their "ear received a little thereof"? Perhaps "in thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men." It was brought by the Author of all good counsel. Ill. THE.BE IS .A CERTAlli HARMONY IN THE WORK OF THAT SPmIT WHERE HIS PBE- BE1'CE BE.ALLY IS, .AND wmcn 18 OFTEN VERY TRACEABLE, Perhaps we cannot ea:r why the Spirit moved so remarkably those Wise Men of the East. It _helps_ sustam_ our persuasion that he was the prime Mover when we observe ~he special gu~dance give:° to them. 'l'hey were almost for certain Chaldeans, or Persians, or Arabians. Their very natural we.y of allusion to the star as "his star" receives a.ccordingly all the easier ex1,lanation. They 11tudied astrology, and thought divinely of their study. They cm. u. 1-23.] THE GOSJ:EL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 49