The San Francisco call., 1898-12-18

I 1oS0, II was 10 go 10 dIeS-
 S tine, there to come into per
 sonal contact with those
 spots sanctified by the pres ence of the Savior when He trod the earth.
 l went to Jerusalem and saw that Via DolOrosa along which He made His weary way toward Calvary. I saw Calvary itself and all the sacred spots in the neighborhood, Gethsemane and its garden, Bethany and its tomb. But l reserved for Christmas my visit to Bethlehem, that little spot destined to immortality because of the birth of the Savior within it's confines.
 On the day before Christmas, accom- panied by the French Consul, depart ed from Jerusalem toward Bethlehem, resolved to see that place and it's sane tified grotto on the anniversary or the very night when Jesus the Christ first opened his eyes upon the world which He had come to save. But alas, for the emotions which filled my being, could not have chosen more unfor- tunate time. As we were on our way l noticed great crowds of people of every nation on the face of the globe hurrying in the same direction, anXiously, eagerly, as if they feared to miss some part of an exhibition. We arrived in Bethlehem, and through the influence of the Consul were permitted to pass the night in the very grotto in which Christ was born.
 Throng at the Savior's Birthplace.
 To my surprise and horror I found a seething mass of men and women surg ing around the place trying to push each other aside and see-they knew not what. l was infinitely shocked, for it seemed to me that these thou sands lacked all reverence for this, the holiest place on earth to a believing Christian. l had hoped, burying my self in reflection upon the Wondrous nativity, to pass the night in prayer and meditation. I hardly dared to do more than peep at the place in which the Virgin had borne the worlds Re deemer-but these people, this mob, ap- peared to lack all sense and sentiment; I wondered how much they understood, how deeply they reverenced the Savior. I was glad when the night was past; l would have made my escape at once had 1t been possible to pass through that curious, pushing, jostling crowd l determined never to come to Bethle- hem when 1t was being so polluted.
 The next year QSSD 1 again passed Christmas eve in Palestine, but it was
 
 1 there was deep sentiment and holy : reverence. Never can l forget the ser mon preached in the chapel by a truly devout priest of Him whom he glori- fled. What an inspiration in the very soil on which the preacher stood What other subject could he choose but that of the Christ? How his voice touched every heart as with extended , finger he said: "A stones throw from here He was buried little further ! on He was crucified. Through that city ; He walked to His death. Just over : the hills He was taken prisoner after i lis agony in the garden, and in that ; direction (pointing to Bethlehem) He first saw the light"
 In the Virgins Steps.
 The holy pleasure of visiting Beth lehem under proper condition I enjoyed a short time after my first unpleasant experience. l followed the path which leads from Nazareth to that town to which Mary and Joseph had come at that critical time in their career It is walk of three days from one town to the other, but it is worth far more than the fatigue which must be en- dured to feel that one is walking in the very footsteps of the Virgin.
 Bethleen, or Bethlehem. is also known by the Hebrew name of Flu thrata. These words mean the House O1 bIedu ana tne lanQ' or country" ]" It was indeed to be a House of Bread" in great and spiritual sense after the birth of the Savior there. The Arabs give 1t another name resembling the first; for they call it Bait-Lahen or inc House of Meat" The town itself dates from the most remote antiol1itv Moses speak of it in the thirty-fiftb chapter of Genesis in connection with the birth of Benjamin. which took place, he tells us. when his parents had but a little way to come through Euthrath (which is the same as Beth lehem). Rachel dying immediately af- terward.
 When Palestine was conquered bv Joshua. Bethlehem. like Jerusalem. was inhabited by the idolatrous Canaanites. and in the division of the conquered districts it fell to the lot of the tribes of Juda.
 The situation of Bethlehem is indeed most beautiful. Built on the crest of the mountains of Judea, about two leagues to the south of Jerusalem. it's form is that of Q crescent. one end of which is marked by the Wells of David. the other by the Grottos of the Nativ- ity. Between the two horns of the crescent stretches a fertile valley the Wady-el The descent Of