The Story of the Other Wise Man
1895
What if the Fourth Wise Man never reached Bethlehem? Henry Van Dyke tells the achingly beautiful story of Artaban, a Magian priest who sees the star and sets out to honor the newborn King. But when he pauses to aid a dying stranger, he misses the caravan. And so begins a pilgrimage that will last thirty-three years, as Artaban trades his precious gifts, gems meant for the King, one by one to feed the hungry, heal the sick, shelter the fugitive. He never finds the King in the way he expected. Yet on a hill outside Jerusalem, in the final hours of a carpenter from Nazareth, Artaban finally understands: he has been serving the King all along, in every stranger's face. This is a story about the radical idea that love, given freely, is itself the gift. It will linger in your chest long after you've turned the last page.
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“Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;While he who walks in love may wander far,Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But this I know. Those who seek Him will do well to look among the poor and the lowly, the sorrowful and the oppressed.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“He knew that all was well, because he had done the best that he could, from day to day. He had been true to the light that had been given to him. He had looked for more. And if he had not found it, if a failure was all that came out of his life, doubtless that was the best that was possible. He had not seen the revelation of "life everlasting, incorruptible and immortal." But he knew that even if he could live his earthly life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“…there was a saying that Marlon Brando changed the way actors acted, James Dean changed the way people lived. I believe that.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But it is better to follow even the shadow of the best than to remain content with the worst.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But the light for which the world is waiting is a new light, the glory that shall rise out of patient and triumphant suffering. And the kingdom which is to be established forever is a new kingdom, the royalty of perfect and unconquerable love.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“Should he risk the great reward of his divine faith for the sake of a single deed of human love?””
— Henry Van Dyke
“behold, an azure spark was born out of the darkness beneath, rounding itself with purple splendours to a crimson sphere, and spiring upward through rays of saffron and orange into a point of white radiance. Tiny and infinitely remote, yet perfect in every part, it pulsated in the enormous vault as if the three jewels in the Magian's breast had mingled and been transformed into a living heart of light. He bowed his head. He covered his brow with his hands. "It is the sign," he said. "The King is coming, and I will go to meet him.””
— Henry Van Dyke
