Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-21

| IlsziEN17sySlND SUDDENLY lHefe was
lggH &II with the angel a multitude Of
IEN the heavenly host praislng
| III u God, and saying Glory toAGod
| IU& MI in the highest, and on earth
lsS44zEaJ peace, good will toward men,"
This. the first Christmas
| greeting, finds echo this week in the
| hearts Of millions of Christians in all
| parts of the world who celebrate the
! birthday of Jesus Christ, the Savior.
/ To each one of these Palestine, that
! portion of Syria in which is situated
Bethlehem, where Jesus was born;
! Nazareth where he grew to manhood; ;
and Jerusalem, where he met his death,
is the Holy Land. 1t is also the Holy
Land to the millions of Jews who do
not accept the faith of the greatest
| of the Jews. for Jerusalem is now,
as it has been since the day of David,
| the capital and the holy city of Israel.
Palestine Is also the Holy Land to the
| followers of Mohammed, for Islam, as
we'll as Christianity and Jewry, is
! builded upon the faith of Abraham,
who offered up as a sacrifice his son
Isaac upon the Mount Moriah. the hill
where stood the Temple of Solomon,
| where Jesus taught, from which Mo-
! hammed ascended into heaven, and
| where today stands the noble dome of
the Mosque of omar.
In the world today there are 4S0, 900 900
Christians, 1SOO00,OO0 Mohammedans
and 12,000000 Jews, making together
| One-half Of the total population of the
world and more than a third of the
| civilized world. who look upon Pales-
| tine as the Holy Land. 1t is tiny bit
of country. perhaps n hundred and
| fifty miles long and fifty or sixty miles
wide. Within this narrow compass is
contained a startling variety of topo-
graphical wonders From the noun
! tains of Lebanon at the north. stretch
! ing to the desert which girts Mount
! Sinai at the south, the country is di-
| vided into four narrow strips. Along
| the coast a ribbon of green beauty;
| then a rugged range of brown hills
whose verdure has long since been
| stripped away; then the depressed
river valley leading down into the
! abysmal horrors of the Dead sea.
and beyond that the purple peaks of
| those mountains whereon stood Moses
when he was vouchsafed that one
! glimpse Of the Promised Land which
was to him forbidden.
| 1t is difficult for the twentieth CEN
| tury man, be he Jew or Gentle, to
| realize how small was the stage upon
! which was enacted those great events
which have shaped religious belief and
which have nodded political action in
| all the Occidental world for nearly two
| thousand years. II is even more diff
cult to realize that Palestine today is
| the home of the miserable descendants
of those same people who were there
| when IL became, by successive dramas.
the Holy Land of Israel. Christendom
and Islam: and that those people now
are engaged in a struggle for political
! freedom which has for the first time
united many men of many faiths in
| this country Of religious strife.
1t is difficult for Christians in Amer
! lea, hearing at this glad holiday season
| the ever new message announcing the
birth of the Prince of Peace, to realize
that in the Holy Land it is necessary
every hour of every d9y for Moham-
medan soldiers to stand on guard in
Christian churches TO prevent the rival
sects of the followers of the lowly
Jesus from cutting each others threats
| and from Staying the Jews in their own
city.
1t is difficult in this modern day to
realize why the physical misery and
degradation of the Holy Land should
not be overcome and alleviated by the
hosts of Christian pilgrims who an
nually make the journey TO the scenes
of the everyday life of their Savior.
country. where was revealed the reli-
gion Of cleanliness, mortal men should
be more dirty than in any other place
on earth. 1t is difficult TO realize that
in this land, where the Great Physician
healed the lepers and restored sight
to the blind there should be more
lepers and more blind men than in any
other country. 1t is difficult to realize
that in Palestine, whence came
the inspiration for the three religions
which have made possible every pro-
gressive step in the western world, men
live and have their being amid condi-
tions practically unchanged from those
which obtained two thousand years
ago. 1t is difficult to realize that
among all the people Of all the world
the people of Palestine should be least
responsive to the civilizing influence Of
the railroad and the refining influence
of the telegraph.
But at this particular Christmas
season in the year of Our Lord nine
teen hundred and nine, the Christian
world. the remnant of Israel and the
household of the Prophet of Allah may
rejoice together for the first time In