‘Can it be that a star has burst and fallen?’ asked another, his tongue faltering.
‘When a star falls its light goes out.’
After that there was silence on the housetop, broken but once again while the mystery continued.
‘Brethren!’ exclaimed a Jew of venerable mien, ‘what we see is the ladder our father Jacob saw in his dream. Blessed be the Lord God of Our Fathers!’”
Meanwhile the Wise Men from the East, as described in the same story, were travelling over the desert, on the alert for the apparition of the star, whose coming had been revealed to them.
“Suddenly, in the air before them, not farther up than a low hill-top,” writes Lew Wallace, “flared a lambent flame; as they looked at it, the apparition contracted into a focus of dazzling lustre. Their hearts beat fast; their souls thrilled; and they shouted as with one voice: ‘The Star! the Star! God is with us!’”
GREAT EVENTS LINKED WITH
COMETS SINCE CHRIST
Since the time of Christ, thanks to the spread of Christianity and learning, with the growing zeal for keeping records and studying the stars, a far greater number of Comets and events connected therewith have been recorded.
A number of learned writers have made a special study of the history of Comets and their effect upon man. Long before Lubienitius’ ponderous work on the subject there were other histories written in Latin and Arabic, with references to which his book abounds.