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But as she was thus proclaiming to the faithful in the Holy City the Advent of their King, pilgrims and worshippers were drawing near from far different and far distant lands. A short time after Joseph and Mary had returned to Bethlehem, there appeared certain travel-stained pilgrims, whose arrival stirred Jerusalem to its very centre. In their native home in Arabia or Persia, their attention had been directed to a luminous body in the sky, which had guided them to Palestine, and they now enquired where was He that was born King of the Jews202, and declared that they had seen His star in the East, and had come to worship Him. The arrival of these Magi203, as they were called in their own land, was quickly announced to Herod, and the enquiry respecting an hereditary King of the Jews roused the alarm and suspicion of one so jealous for the integrity of his own dynasty204. Hastily convening a formal assembly of the Chief Priests and Scribes, he enquired where, according to the prophetical books, the long-expected Messiah was to be born. Without the least hesitation they pointed to the words of the prophet Micah (v.2), which declared Bethlehem in Judæa to be the favoured place. On this the monarch sought a private interview with the Magi (Mtt. ii.7), and made diligent enquiries respecting the time of the appearance of the Star, and then bade them repair to Bethlehem and seek diligently for the young Child, declaring his intention, if they found Him, to come himself and lay his honours at the feet of the heir of David’s throne.