The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-24


BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
Tz===5@TlOR a year the Sunday schools
Ea of the whole world have
@ been studying the Life OF
Christ. Now on Christ
mas day it is concluded by
backward look over those
thirty-three wonderful years; and by
a fresh contemplation of this life that
gives to mankind its Christmas. For
Christmas is the Christ-day. in the
Christ-spirit; it is an emblem and an
expression of love, an embodiment or
the teachings of the Master.
am writing these lines in the land
which, since the feet of Jesus trod 1t,
IS known universally as the Holy
Land. The smallness and natural in
significance of the territory has been
freshly impressed upon me. BY 1t
self, it is one of the least consider
able of the provinces of the turkish
empire. The extreme limits of the
tourneyings of Jesus can be Travelled
by horse in five or six days. Any
visitor may read the land which is as
an inspired book, in two or three
weeks The country is great chiefly
and secular history are more than
matched in many other parts of the
earth. Because Jesus lived there, how
ever, every foot of the territory has
transforms a commonplace life into
one of beauty and power
A Village as World Capital.
There is a stimulus for the magma
ton in the thought that, as Christ
mas comes round once more. COM
monplace Syrian village becomes the
capital of human hearts over all the
world. London and Paris ana PETERS
burg and Berlin must give way TO
Bethlehem. All their brilliance pales
in the light that shines over rude
oriental khan; and their riches are
forgotten in the spiritual wealth OF
hone and peace and joy that clusters
about the manger which the baby
Guest shares with the gentle cattle
All the pomp and trappings and cere-
mony of worldly state are absent from
this supreme event, as II TO MAXI
it near and Ineligible TO an sorIs
and classes of people everywhere a
Babes rude couch becomes the COM
mon meeting place of all mankind.
Yesterday I saw, by a Judean road
side. a carpenter, with his saw las
tened to his donkey, and his young
wife and infant son resting from the
noontide heat. They represented the
primitive simplicity which is a mes
sage of the holy family to TINS weary
world over-laden with much goods. II
is not things that make life. The an
cient human relations of the nome,
+ha endurance of the daily lot, and
seusitiveness to the spiritual realm
are more important than all materlaI
possessions of state. II there pc any
who desDise the poor man for his pow
ertv. let them make pilgrimage in splr-
it this day to Bethlehem and Nazareth
and learn the Christmas lesson Jhal
Gods greatness was made plain
through the lowly.
\ Syrian Boys Bequest.
The little boys of Nazareth play
marbles and eapfrog in the narrow
streets and as I watched them, realiz-
l., the games Oh
the children of this land and how
much less blithesome their childhood
than is the case in Christian America
7 realized what a bequest that dreamy
eyed syrian Boy OF Two tIlousd1iu ears
go has left to the world ch1ldfen-
because of him, childhood is today
given a place such as it never before
nossessed The Bethlehem manager
exalts all infancy; and the Nazareth
Rov has brought liberty and happi-
ness and enlightenment to millions OF
other lads.
The women. young and old. still
bear Jars of water on their heads from
the one village spring OF Nazareth, as
they did in Mary's day; but in the
wide world what change has taken
Mace in the lot of womanhood! The
heavy physical burdens have been
lifted from womanhood in Christian
lands. and Mary's Son has oeen the
emancipation of wOmankind in man
ner which the freed themselves scarce
" recognize.
These thoughts of the difference
which that earthly life which was
begun on Christmas has made to the
world throng upon every traveller IN
the HOLY Land. In a Nazareth car
penter shop where the workman seat
cd on the ground hewed out of wood
plougfls and yokes, even as his Pred
ecessor did two thousands years ago,
and talking with him concerning the
economic conditions which have sent
several of his relatives to America,
suddenly realized that this western
world, discovered and settled by men
led by the Christ impulse, and dom
mated today by his ideals, is one of
the beduests of the Carpenter to man
kind. He is responsible for the new
ideals of manhood's rights. He kin
died the flames of liberty, equality,
fraternity. which are sweeping like
forest fires over the earth. He lifted
UP the workers head to a sense of
his dignity and rights. What man
dare call labor common or contemp
tibIe. since the Redeemer toiled in
the Nazareth shop and travelled. on
his own feet. over the dusty roads
of Palestine. sharing the meagre lot
of the toiling poor?
Where People Need Healing.
One of the most pathetic sights of
Palestine, to this day, is the number
of sore ewes one meets. AT a rough
guess [ would say that fourth or
third of the people have bad eyes. The
blind are legion. In the fine Scotch