Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-23

There is almost an endless succession OF
professions winding In and about the halls
and corridors OF the great church, wor-
shipping at the various sacred shrines,
But each sect ignores q sacred place pc
culiar to another and denies strenuously
the authenticity of the traditions Of the
other sects.
The Holy Sepulchre stands in the center
OF the great rotunda, which is the principal
feature OF the edifice. This rotunda is the
common property Of all Christians, oriental
ana occidental. orthodox and hetrodox; 1t
Is the one place in the Christian world
where all sectarianism is forgotten and the
Christian pilgrim is free to come and wor-
snip according to the dictates OF his own
conscience.
Whatever may be ones W religious be-
lief or unbelief, the heir OF twenty CEN
turtles of christian civilization cannot look
upon that Sepulchre without emotion. It's
dirty marble, its soiled tinsel, It's forty
three twinkling lamps, stand not in the
way or the imagination. For here is the
place which faith has long accepted as
the spot where was laid the body Of the
CrUcified Jesus, the spot where He arose
from the dead and where He made unto
the world His supreme revelation. This is
the spot for the possession OF which Chris
tan Europe for two long centuries battled
In vain. This is the spot which was the
inspiration Of that most remarkable Of all
psychological folk-movements, the Cru
sades. This is the spot so holy that
never has 1t passed from the ownership and
control OF the Christian church, for even
when the Crusaders sought to deliver the
Sspulchre from the dominion Of the Sara
Gems, although unknown to Europe, this
church was safely in the hands Of the
Oriental Christians.
Here come annually tens of thousands of
pilgrims from every quarter Of the Chris
tian world. Russian peasants In compa-
MES of several hundreds, at the expense
of every bodily comfort, make the great
necessary to bring them to the
HOLY land. And here, at the tomb Of the
Lord, one sees them PROSTATE themselves
and kiss the holy stones in a passion Of
religious fervor and zeal which must i'm
press the American onlooker with the fact
that to the miserable Russian mouiik the
consolation Of the Christian religion is a
very real and potent thing. Here comes
a cowled friar from the mountains OF
Spain who has begged his way
along the long journey with a faith that
rivals the passion of Peter the Hermit
himself. Here comes a prelate Of the
Church of Rome, who has been laboring
for the cause of Christ in ~far-away
who thanks his God at the alter
of Constantine that wherever Christ was
buried He lives everywhere today in the
OF man. Here comes an Ethiopian
with skin black as night, from the heart
of Africa, q priest in the Church of Abye-
sinia against which all the powers of
Islam and Of paganism have not prevailed.
Here comes a HISTORIAN pilgrim from
Chinese East Turkestan, a representative
of the tiny remnant Of that once great
Christian church which held sway over
all Asia, even unto China and Japan. Here
comes, in the uniform of a Twentieth CEN
fury Crusader, a Salvation army captain
from the east end of London, whose zeal
equals and whose morals are far above
those of the good English soldiers Of the
Cross, who followed Richard of the Lion
Heart, into battle against Saladin. Here
comes from the United States the presi-
dent of the woman's university, who here,
amid this homogeneous convention OF all
of Christians, gives thanks unto
her Risen Lord for her own country in
which the teachings of Jesus Christ have
in the emancipation of her sex.
One wishes that the church was clean,
one shudders to think that Moslem swords
must preserve the peace between the bick-
erlng factions of those who follow the
Nazarene, one is depressed by the
sQualor and the superstitions; but one is
to remember that the religion of
Jesus Christ is for all men of every shade
Of opinion, of every race and color, of
every age and century. No armor OF ma
terialism, no defense of rationalism, no
argument of reason is potent to with
the powerful emotional influence of
the spot which is after all, to Christians,
the center of the world.
By FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.
Tomorrow-THE HOLY LAND-Bethel.
hem OF Judea.