The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-11-13

Cairo, Egypt and artificial teeth on gold
plates found by Belzoni in the tombs of de-
parted nations We have been taught that
Harvey discovered the circulation of the
blood so late as the seventeenth century.
Oh, mol Solomon announces it In Eccleslas.
ties, where first having shown that he UNI
derstood the spinal cord, silver colored as IL
Is and that II relaxes in old age-"the silver
cord be loosed,N goes on 10 compare the
heart 10 pitcher at a well, for the three
canals OF the heart do receive the blood like
pitcher, "or the pitcher be broken at the
fountain" What is that but the circulation
OF the blood, found out twenty-six hundred
years before Harvey was bornf After many
centuries OF exploration and calculation as
tronomy finds out that the world was round.
Why, Isaiah knew 1t was round thousands of
years before when in the Bible he said: "rhe
Lord sittsth upon the circle of the earthn
Scientists toiled on for centuries and found
out refraction or that the rays Of light when
touching the earth We're not straight, but
bent or curved. Why, job knew that when
ages before in the Bible he wrote of the light:
1T is turned as clay to the SEAL"
In the old cathedrals of England modern
painters in the repair OF windows are trying
TO make something as good as the window
painting OF four hundred years ago, and
always failing by the unanimous verdict OF
all who examine and compare The color OF
iiodtin ldltS III my years, Nhio
the color of the old masters is as well pre-
served after five hundred years as after one
year. | saw last winter on the walls of eS-
humed Pompeii paintings with color as fresh
as though made the day before, though they
were buried eighteen hundred years ago.
The making of Tyrian purple is an impossi-
bility now In our modern potteries we are
trying hard to make cups and pitchers and
bowels as exquisitely as those exnumei from
Herculaneum, and our artificers are at.
tempting to make jewelry for ear
and neck and finger equal to that
brought up from tae mausoleums OF two
thousand years before Christ. We have in
our time glass in all shapes and all colors,
but Pliny, more than eighteen hundred years
ago, described maleabe glass which, IL
thrown upon the ground and denied, could
he pounded straight again by the hammer or
could be twisted around the wrists, and that
confounds all the glass manufacturers of
our own time. | tried in Damascus, Syria,
to buy Damascus blade, one of those swords
that could be bent double or tied in a knot
without breaking. | could not get one.
Why? The Nineteenth century cannot make
a Damascus blade. If we go on charging
our cities we may after while get city as
large as Babylon, which was five times tbs
size of London.
These aqueducts of Solomon that visit to
day, finding them in good condition three
Thousand wears dlltT COnSbt iith5 Iio
think that the world may have forgotten
more than it now knows The great honor
of our age is not machinery, for the aucients
had some styles of it more wonderful nor
art. for the ancieats had art more exquisite
and durable; nor architecture for Roman
Coliseum and Grecian Acropolis surpass all
modern architecture; nor cities, for some of
the ancient cities were larger than ours in
the sweep of their pomp. But our attempts
| L n
victory. lii that we have already surpassed
them, and in that direction let the ages push
on. Let us brag less of worldly achievement
and thank God for moral opportunity.
More good men and good women is what the
world wants. Toward moral elevation and
spiritual attainment let the chief struggle
be. The source of all that | will show you
before shutdown of this day on which we have
visited the pools of Solomon and the gardens
of the king.
We are on this December afternoon on the
way to the cradle of Him who called Himself
greater than Solomon. We are coming upon
the chief cradle of all the world, not lined
with satin, but strewn with straw; not
sheltered by palace, but covered by a barn;
not presided over by princess, but lowered
over by a peasant girl yeta cradle the
canopy of which is angelic wings, and the
/ lullaby of which is the first Christmas carol
ever sung, ami from which all the events of
the past and all the events of the future have
and must take date as being b. G. or A. D.
before Christ or after Christ. All eternity
past occupied in getting ready for this cradle,
and all eternity to come to be employed In
celebrating its consequences.
| said to the tourist companies planning
our oriental journey, "Put us in Bethle-
hem in December, the place and the month
of our Lords birth" and we had our wish.
l am thu only man WHO has ever attempted
to tell how Bethlehem looked at the sea-
son Jesus was born. Tourists and writer's
are there in February, or March, or April,
when the valleys are an embroidered sheet
of wild flowers, and anenones and ranun-
| culus are flushed as though from attsn pting
| to climb the sleeps, and lark and bull
| finch are flooding the air with bird orches-
| ira. But | was there in December, winter
month, the barren beach between the two
oceans OF redolence. l was toll must
not go there at that season, told 50 before
| started, told so in Egypt; thu books told
me so; all travellers that | consulted about
it tod me SO. But l was determined to
see Bethlehem the same month in which
Jesus arrived, and nothing could dissuade
me. Was not right in wanting to know
how the Holy Land looEel when Jesus came
to it. He did not land amid flowers and
song. When the angels chanted on the
famous birthnight all the fields of Palestine
were silent. The glowing skies were an.
swered by gray rocks. As Bethlehem stood
against bleak wntry sky | climbed up to
it. as through bleak wintry sky Jesus de-
scendei upon it. His way down was from
warmth to chill, from bloom to barrenness,
from everl ,stin June to sterile December.
If were going to Palestine as botanist and
to study the fora of the land | would go in
March; but | went as a minister OF Cnrist to
study Jesus and SO l Went in December. L
waured to see how the worl IS front door
looked when the heavenly Stranger entered
it.
The town If Bethlehem to my surprise, is
in the shape of a Horseshoe, the houses e1-
tending clear onto the pcougs OF the horse
SHOE tAe whole scene more rough and rude
than can be imagined Verify, Christ did
not choose soft, genial pla.e III which to be
born The gate through which our Lort ell
tered this world was a gate of rock. hard,
cold gate, ami the gate through which he de
parted was swing gate of sharpensd spears.
We enter gloomy church built oy Constan-
tine over the place in which Jesus was born.
Fifteen lamps burning day AMI night and
from century to century light or way to the
spot which all authorities. Christian and ,Tev
and Moaammedan, agree upon rs being Ia
place of our Saviour's birth, and covered by
a marble slab, marked by silver star sen
from Vienna, and the words: Here Jesu
Christ was born OF the Virgin Mary"
But standing there Thought, though thi
is the place of the nativity, how different to-
surroundings of the wintrv night in which
Jesus came! At that time it was khan, OF
q cattle pen. | visited one OF these khans
now stsuiing and looking just as in Chrst's
time. We rode in under tn archsi entrance
and dismounted. We found the building o.
stone, and around an open square without
roof The building is more than two thou
sand years old. 1t is two stories high: il
the center are camels horses and mules
Caravans halt here for the night or during
a long storm. The open square is large
enough to accommodate whole herd of cat.
tie, a fioca OF sheep or caravan of camels
The neighboring Beiouins here find marke:
for their hay; straw and MEATS, Of from
this center there are twelve rooms for hu
man habitation. The only light is from tn
door. | went into one OF these rooms anC
found a woman cooking the evening meal
There were six cows in the same room. Or
a little elevation there was some ST. aw wher,
the people sat and slept when they wished Il
rest. 1t was in a room similar to that oul
Lord was horn