The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 316

Oh, what a lesson is this wonderful story of Bethlehem! How it
rebukes our unbelief, our pride and self-sufficiency. How it warns us to
beware, lest by our criminal indifference we also fail to discern the signs
of the times, and therefore know not the day of our visitation.
It was not alone upon the hills of Judea, not among the lowly
shepherds only, that angels found the watchers for Messiah’s coming.
In the land of the heathen also were those that looked for Him; they
were wise men, rich and noble, the philosophers of the East. Students
of nature, the Magi had seen God in His handiwork. From the Hebrew
Scriptures they had learned of the Star to arise out of Jacob, and with
eager desire they awaited His coming, who should be not only the
“Consolation of Israel,” but a “Light to lighten the Gentiles,” and “for
salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Luke 2:25, 32; Acts 13:47. They
were seekers for light, and light from the throne of God illumined
the path for their feet. While the priests and rabbis of Jerusalem, the
appointed guardians and expounders of the truth, were shrouded in
darkness, the Heaven-sent star guided these Gentile strangers to the
birthplace of the newborn King.
It is “unto them that look for Him” that Christ is to “appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28. Like the
tidings of the Saviour’s birth, the message of the second advent was
not committed to the religious leaders of the people. They had failed to
preserve their connection with God, and had refused light from heaven;
therefore they were not of the number described by the apostle Paul:
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you
as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we
are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5.
The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should have been the first
to catch the tidings of the Saviour’s advent, the first to lift their voices
to proclaim Him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for His
coming. But they were at ease,

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