The Journey of the Magi

        Journey of the Magi
Oil on Canvas, 1894
James Tissot 

       "And this was the Savior they had come so far to find!

       Yet they worshipped without a doubt.

       Why?

       Their faith rested upon the signs sent them by him whom we have since come to know as the Father; and they were of the kind to whom his promises were so all-sufficient that they asked nothing about his ways. Few there were who had seen the signs and heard the promises--the Mother and Joseph, the shepherds, and the Three--yet they all believed alike; that is to say, in this period of the plan of salvation, God was all and the Child nothing. But look forward, O reader! A time will come when the signs will all proceed from the Son. Happy they who then believe in him!

          Let us wait that period."

--Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: a Tale of the Christ