The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-08

may hold the brightest star that ever
shone from the heavens.
Although these Soloronic gardens are
in ruins, there are now growing there
flowers that are to be found nowhere
else in the Holy Land. How do I ac-
count for that? Solomon sent out his
ships and robbed the gardens of the
whole earth for flowers and planted
those exotics here, and these particular
flowers are direct descendants of the
foreign plants he supported. Mr.. Me-
shullum, a Christian Israelite, on the
very site of these royal gardens, has in
our day, by putting in his spade, dem
onstrated that the ground is only wait
ing for the right call to yield as much
luxuriance and splendor eighteen hun
dred years after Christ, as it yielded
Solomon one thousand years before
Christ So all Palestine is waiting to
become the richest scene of horticulG-
ure, arboriculture and agriculture.
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, mot sheltered by
a palace, but covered by barn, not
presided over by Princess, but lowered
over by peasant girl; yet cradle the
canopy of which is angelic wings, and
the lullaby of which is the first Christ
mas carol ever sung, and from which all
the events of the future have and must
take date as being B. G. or A. DIE
fore 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 conse-
quences.
said to the tourist companies plan
ming our Oriental Journey: Put us in
Bethlehem in December, the place and
the month of our Lords BIRTH and we
had our wish. l am the only man who
has ever attempted to tell how Beth
lehem looked at the season 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 anemones and ranunculus
are flushed as though from attempting
to climb the sleeps, and lark and bull
finch are flooding the air with bird or
ehestra. But was there in December,
winter month, the barren beach be-
tween the two oceans of redolenee /
was told must not go there at that
season, told so before l started, told so
in Egypt; the books told me so; all trav-
elers that ] consulted about it told me
so. But l was determined to see
Bethlehem the same month in which
Jesus arrived, and nothing could dis
suade me. Was l not right in wanting
to know how the Holy Land looked
when Jesus came to it? He did not land
amid flowers and song. When the an
gels chanted on the famous birthnight,
all the fields of Palestine we're silent
The glowing skies were answered by
gray rocks. AS Bethlehem stood against
bleak wintry sky, 1 climbed up to
it, as through bleak, wintry sky Je-
sus descended upon it. His way down
was from warmth to chill, from bloom
to barrenness, from everlasting June to
a sterile December. If were going to
Palestine as a botanist, and to study the
flora of the land, l would go in March,
but / went as minister of Christ to
study Jesus. and so I went in December.
l wanted to see how the worlds front
door looked when the heavenly stranger
entered it.
The town of Bethlehem, to my sur
prise, is in the shape of horseshoe,
the houses extending clear on to the
prongs of the horseshoe. The whole
scene more rough and rude than can
be imagined. Verify, Christ did not
choose a soft, genial place in which to
be born. The gate through which our
Lord entered this world was
gate of rock, a hard, cold gate
and the gate through which He
departed was swing-gate of
sharpened spears. We enter gloomy
church built by Constantine over the
place in which Jesus was born Fifteen
lamps burning day and night and from
century to century, light our way to the
spot which all authorities, Christian
and Jew and Mohammedan, agree upon
as being the place of our Saviour's
birth, and covered by marble slab
marked by silver star sent from
Vienna and the words: Here Jesus
Christ was born of the Virgin Mary
But standing there, thought, though
this is the place of the nativity, how
different the surroundings of the wintry
night in which Jesus came! At that
time it was khan or a cattle pen. /
visited one of these khans now stand
ing and looking just as in Christ's time.
We rode in under the arched entrance
and dismounted. We found the building
of stone and around an open square
without roof. The building is more
than two thousand years old. 1t is two
stories high. In 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 &C
commodate a whole herd of cattle,
flock of sheep, or caravan of camels. The
neighboring Redouins here find market |
for their hay, straw and meats Of |
from this center there are twelve rooms |
for human habitation. The only light |
is from the door. l went into one of |
these rooms and found woman cooking |
the evening meal There were six |