Lyman Abbott 
The Star of Bethlehem. Old Testament shadows of New Testament truths 

The Old Testament is more full of parables than the New. Its history is prophetic. Its stories are parables in real life. The chronicles of Israel are full of God’s foreshadowings of the redemption of the world. From the Fall in Eden to the restoration of the Jews under Ezra, there are, all along the way, fingerposts that point to the Cross of Christ. Their inscriptions are sometimes so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. They are sometimes so obscured that the heedless traveler notes them not. These finger-posts Iare what the author seeks to decipher, these parables to interpret. The light that shines from the Old Testament is that of the Star of Bethlehem, which conducts the reader to the manger of his Incarnate Lord. There is a vividness in Mr. Abbotts descriptions that is delightful. The old fields, that have been culled by so many gleaners, are vitalized into reproductiveness.