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    The Story of the Other Wise Man
    The Story of the Other Wise Man
    The Story of the Other Wise Man
    Ebook58 pages43 minutes

    The Story of the Other Wise Man

    By Henry van Dyke

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1955
    Author

    Henry van Dyke

    Henry Van Dyke (1928–2011) was born in Allegan, Michigan, and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, where his parents were professors at Alabama State College. He served in the Army in occupied Germany, playing flute in the 427th Marching Band. There he abandoned his early ambition to become a concert pianist and began to write. In 1958, after attending the University of Michigan on the G.I. Bill and living in Ann Arbor, he moved to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. Henry taught creative writing part-time at Kent State University from 1969 until his retirement in 1993, and was the author of four novels, including Blood of Strawberries, a sequel to Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes.

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    Reviews for The Story of the Other Wise Man

    4/5

    90 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I don't know how I missed this short novel/long short story until now. The legend was mentioned in a Christmas special I was watching and I searched it to see if there were more. I found this and I am so glad I did.The version I read was the original one, transcribed through Project Gutenberg. It definitely shows its Victorian roots in its flowery language. I think sometimes I am a misplaced Victorian spinster, so I loved it. The descriptions transported me to an earlier time.This is certainly a Christmas story and as such it does have a message, but it far transcends finding the baby Jesus. Would that we could all live the life Artaban lived. I did need a tissue at the end, but I get emotional easily.Who would like it? Anyone who loves Christmas. It isn't that long and could easily be read to your family, should you wish to start a tradition.
    • 5/5
      Can't say enough about this book. It is the truth about living a good, meaningful life.
    • 3/5
      I read this short book/story for a challenge "a book set during Christmas." But it turned out to have a deeper and really nice message :)
    • 4/5
      "But it is better to follow even the shadow of the best than to remain content with the worst. And those who would see wonderful things must often be ready to travel alone."Artaban is all prepared to join three of his Magi companions to go and present gifts to a new King whose coming is declared by the heavens. But Artaban's trip encounters delays, profoundly altering his quest in The Story of the Other Wise Man by author Henry van Dyke.I'd never heard of this classic before I came across it some weeks ago. No, it didn't hold groundbreaking revelations or unimaginable surprises for me.But even having a good idea ahead of time about where such a tale would go didn't stop the tale from being beautiful to me. Beautiful in its atmospheric detail as well as in its compelling message about what's important to the King. Yes, the story has some old-fashioned quirks, like the fact that some of the characters speak in "King James" now and then, but the message itself is timeless.Not at all hard to see why this tale is indeed a classic.
    • 5/5
      Nearly everyone is familiar with the story of the Wise Men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Tradition numbers them at three and names them Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthazar. But did you know the story of “The Other Wise Man”? Artaban, a leader of the Persian Magi, learns from heavenly signs that the time is at hand for the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy about the birth among the Hebrews of a holy Prince and Deliverer of Man. Hastening to join three fellow Magi for the long journey into Judaea, he pauses to help a dying man in Babylon and is left behind. And so Artaban begins his pilgrimage alone. Artaban then makes it to Bethlehem but finds that he has just missed both his friends and the young child. But before he can hope to catch up with Joseph, Mary, and their child on their way to Egypt, he stops to assist a mother whose child is in danger of being killed by Herod’s troops. After searching for His quest in Egypt and not finding it, he then travels from place to place, visiting the oppressed, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, tending the sick, and comforting the captive. After 33 years, he ends up, an aged, white-haired man, in Jerusalem on the day of the Passover. Just as he thinks that he might find the object of his search who is being led away to be crucified, he is beseeched by a young girl from his native Parthia who is being sold into slavery to pay her father’s debts. Will he ever see the King for whom He has looked these many years? Henry Jackson van Dyke (1852–1933) was a Presbyterian minister, professor at Princeton University, President Woodrow Wilson’s ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and a noted author who wrote the hymn, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” set to the “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Van Dyke said, "I do not know where this little story came from--out of the air, perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. It was a gift, and it seemed to me as if I knew the Giver." He first read The Story of The Other Wise Man aloud to his New York congregation after writing it and then had it published in written form. It is, in essence, a parable that shows what seeking for Jesus in life is really all about. We did it as a family read aloud, and everyone was moved by the story.
    • 5/5
      A marvelously told tale of the other wiseman who was too late to travel with his friends to find the baby Jesus; he ended up finding what he was searching for in an unexpected way.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful and heartwarming story. It examines our hearts and motives and those which God values.I expected this to be a sappy, sentimental story. Instead, I discovered a touching parable. So glad I found it in the hotel to read (the Weaverville Hotel, in Weaverville, CA, has an exceptional bookshelf to borrow from). Two thoughts from the book which deserve pondering:"Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soulMay keep the path, but not reach the goal;While he who walks in love may wander far,Yet God will bring him where the blessed are."Also: "Is a lie ever justifiable? Perhaps not. But may it not sometimes seem inevitable? And if it were a sin, might not a man confess it, and be pardoned for it more easily than for the greater sin of spiritualselfishness, or indifference, or the betrayal of innocent blood?"

    Book preview

    The Story of the Other Wise Man - Henry van Dyke

    The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the Other Wise Man, by Henry van Dyke

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: The Story of the Other Wise Man

    Author: Henry van Dyke

    Release Date: January 11, 2004 [eBook #10679]

    Language: English

    ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE OTHER WISE MAN***

    E-text prepared by Margaret Macaskill, David Garcia,

    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

    Editorial note:   While the original illustrations are listed, none are included in this e-book.

    THE STORY OF THE OTHER WISE MAN

    BY

    HENRY VAN DYKE

    CONTENTS

    INTRODUCTION

    THE SIGN IN THE SKY

    BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON

    FOR THE SAKE OF A LITTLE CHILD

    IN THE HIDDEN WAY OF SORROW

    A PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

    ILLUSTRATIONS

    'IT IS THE SIGN,' HE SAID

    HE CAUGHT IT UP AND READ

    'THERE IS NONE HERE SAVE ME'

    HE HEALED THE SICK

    THE OLD MAN FOLLOWED THE MULTITUDE

    THE OTHER WISE MAN HAD FOUND THE KING

    THE STORY OF OTHER WISE MAN.

    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.

    You know the story of the Three Wise Men of the East, and how they travelled from far away to offer their gifts at the manger-cradle in Bethlehem. But have you ever heard the story of the Other Wise Man, who also saw the star in its rising, and set out to follow it, yet did not arrive with his brethren in the presence of the young child Jesus? Of the great desire of this fourth pilgrim, and how it was denied, yet accomplished in the denial; of his many wanderings and the probations of his soul; of the long way of his seeking, and the strange way of his finding, the One whom he sought—I would tell the tale as I have heard fragments of it in the Hall of Dreams, in the palace of the Heart of Man.

    THE SIGN IN THE SKY

    In the days when Augustus Caesar was master of many kings and Herod reigned in Jerusalem, there lived in the city of Ecbatana, among the mountains of Persia, a certain man named Artaban, the Median. His house stood close to the outermost of the seven walls which encircled the royal treasury. From his roof he could look over the rising battlements of black and white and crimson and blue and red and silver and gold, to the hill where the summer palace of the Parthian emperors glittered like a jewel in a sevenfold crown.

    Around the dwelling of Artaban spread a fair garden, a tangle of flowers and fruit-trees, watered by a score of streams descending from the slopes of Mount Orontes, and made musical by innumerable birds. But all colour was lost in the soft and odorous darkness of the late September night, and all sounds were hushed in the deep charm of its silence, save the plashing of the water, like a voice half sobbing and half laughing under the shadows. High above the trees a dim glow of light shone through the curtained arches of the upper chamber, where the master of the house was holding council with his friends.

    He stood by the doorway to greet his guests—a tall, dark man of about forty years, with

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