The Newtown bee., 1908-01-03
.Newtown. Friday, January 3, 1908.

IL WOulu Dc very lutCIcSIluR lO dwell upon the lives and characters of Joseph and Mary; to trace their ances- try; to note their social conditions; and to read some of the many things said about them. The records are very brief, but the glimpses we get of them appeal most powerfully to the imagi- nation! They were no doubt, common people as the world would class them. They were not rich, nor very poor. Good they were most surely. And common, good people are the rank and file of the armies of God, the world over-the heart, head, and strong right hand of the Kingdom of heaven among men. All the great movements of the world depend upon the common peo- pie. It was the common people who heard Him glacly-it is the common people who follow Him to-day, in the glorious conquest of this world for God.
 Joseph is simply described as "a just man." And .thatssis enough. He was good, and upright in the sight of God, and of men. When the Lord de- scribes man, it is not to tell how much money he has, but to show what he is, or what good he has done. From the divine standpoint it is character and conduct which make life beauti- full and noteworthy. He and Mary be- lcnged to the royal family of the house of David. The best blood of all Israel coursed in their veins, and they had every reason to feel proud of their family history. But they were only common people in the eyes of the world; and Joseph was a carpenter in little country town, and earned his daily bread by his labor. Perhaps they owned a cottage and garden.
 It is said of Mary that "To charms of feature and person were added oth- CTS more undefnable- an air of purity which only the soul can impart, and of abstraction natural to such as think much of things impalpable.'
 Evidently they came to Bethlehem at evening, weary from the days trav- el, but filled with holy and happy as- sociations such as cluster about the home of ones ancestors. And we'll might Mary repeat, at that moment, what she had before uttered, in the words of the Magnifcat: My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. " Blessed Virgin, indeed The mother hood of the world must ever rejoice with thee, and find its holiest inspira- tion in the mystery of the incarnation
 They came to the inn, and it was full. There was no room for them. If l we reflect that most of the people then living in Palestine, who were born in Bethlehem, had already come, like themselves, to be enrolled, we shall not wonder that the little Town was crowded with it's children. We must not think of the inn as being like 2 modern hotel. It was simply fenced inclosure, sometimes without any house or even shed. Indeed some of then did not even have gate to shut. They were simply shelters and places o. safety on the great caravan routeI extending through the country.
 It must have been a matter O
 grave anxiety to Joseph. The night
 were cold upon the hills. Shelter wa an urgent necessity. But there wa
 only one last resort for them, and the were kindly taken to the cave in tn | limestone bluff overlooking the inn O
 the west. It was, or had been sta 7 ble for cattle or sheep. It was not
 strange thing in that land. They wer 1 the descendants of race of herdsmen and it is said that, Tn keeping wit
 a custom derived from Abraham, tn
 tent of the Beduoin yet shelters hi
 horse and hls children alike."
 , So humble, as the birth of the Sc 7 of Man, the Son of God, Our Saviour So common were the circumstances { Il His earthly life, that "all sorts al
 conditions of men" might feel ar
 claim His Kinship with them! Sougl
 of the wise-men guided by a star; u hope of the prophet-taught, and the i
 spired of every land; the expectati'
 of the devout ones in Isreal-born in
 stable and cradled in manager; q