The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-12-21


Washington, d. G.
~ ONE with me this bright Sunday
morning, only "a few days before
- Christmas. for a walk in the foot
steps of Jesus, the child During my
several trips to Palestine, l have spent
many weeks in travelling over the coun-
try. taking pictures and making notes of
the places. ! have visited Bethlehem,
where our Savior was born, and have
lived for days in Nazareth. where his
boyhood was spent. l nave gone over
much of the road that Joseph and Mary
travelled when they carried the child into
Egypt, and have crossed the mountains
of Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem,
where He went as a boy of II and was
found teaching the doctrine in Solomon s
temple.
have even climbed the hills and gone
into the wilderness where our Lord was
tempted of the devil after those 40 days
of hunger and thirst, and at Caper-
naum. | saw the recently eXcavated
marble synagogue where some of His
first preaching was done. l have
climbed to the top of the hill above the
Sea of Galilee, where He delivered the
Sermon of the Mount and have picked
flowers from the rolling green sward be-
low. where the miracle IF the loaves and
fishes occurred. Not far from that place,
on the opposite side of the water may
be seen a steep hill down which the
swim ran when our Savior had cast the
devils out of the man and they entered
them. | have been in Bethany, where
lived Mary and Martha, and have sat
under the trees in the Garden of Geth-
semane, where Christ spent that night
of terrible agony before He was betrayed
by Judas with kiss, | have also seen
tho various places which the several aus
thorities have picked out as the scene of
the erucifiXion. In this letter, however
l shall write only of the places asso-
ciated with Jesus, the child
Many of the localities are about the
same as they were when our Savior was
alive. Some have been covered with
churches and converts, but the warning
sects of Christians have not been able
to change the bright sky. Nature is the
same no was it was then. The same
flowers bloom and the same birds sing
and besides it is not so long, after ALL
Jesus was born in Bethlehem only 1918
years ago. DO you know what that
means? The ordinary lifetime of man
is not much more than was that of our
Savior. He lived 80 years. 1t would take
only IS such lifetimes to cover the period
between now and the birth of Christ.
Every one of us knows IS men who are
80 years of age. Bunch their lives to-
gether and you have all the time between
now and the beginning of the Christmas
era. Each of us has relative who is
perhaps s. years old. The lives of 30
such men would, if patched together,
reach back to the days of King Herod.
We shall start on our travels at Beth
lehem. II is little iowa situated in the
mountains about $500 feet above the sea
and With mo miles of She Mediterranean.
Ii is about IA miles from the Dead sea
ca nd
wastes Ct the Arabian desert begin. The
country is limestone. The greater part
of 1t is covered with rocks with patches
OF green showing out of the stone. Here
and there the rocks have been gathered
together and you see pastures and fields.
The field upon which the shepherds lay
and watched their flocks when the star
appeared is from a quarter to a half
mile from the town proper. 1T lies far
below it, and the shepherds had TO climb
to get to the stable where Jesus was
born.
The holy city of Jerusalem is at the
north. a distance of about seven miles.
have ridden it on horseback in less than
an hour. Ny last tra1ip between the
two places was made in Il carriage. and a
boy on donkey gallopsd beside us al
lrost al the way. The road has been
inacu an.2ed. 1t is uphill and down, but
IT, -. ii it is so smooth that with
OBI car you GOulO easily make
-..lce from Jerusalem in - min
have enough time to put in a
l.. 100 on the way. The Wise Men from
tbs East probably came over that road.
They are supposed to have ridden on
camels, ard If they had the racing va
riety they probably reached Bethlehem
il less than an hour after leaving King
Herod, who, you may remember, was
anxious to know all about where Christ
should be born.
My last trip to Bethlehem was made
in the spring. The hills were dotted with
olive groves, and their leaves shone like
frosted silver under the bright Palestine
sun The fields between the rocks We're
covered with grass as green as that Of
old Ireland, and, [ could see the shep-
herds watching their Ilocks of white
sheep and black goats mere and there.
At one place l stopped and photo
graphed a shepherd with lamb in his
arms, and, at others T saw women and
children who might have been part of
the Holy Family. | met Abraham. Isaac
sfud Jacob in the long-bearded sheks
who were walking toward Jerusalem. and
an old turbaned Syrian, who rode a dom
key, made me wonder if he was not a sec
ond BALKAN, and whether his long-eared
beast would not soon open its mouth and
speak Away off at the north ! was
where Saul was anointed king while he
was but hunting his fathers asses, and l
passed within few miles of the spot
where David slew the mighty Goliath.
1t was between Jerusalem and Bethe-
hem that Boaz had his farm when Ruth
got her job in the wheat fields and finally
married her master At one place along
the way is the tomb of Rachael the
wife of Jacob who is said to have died
there when she gave birth to Benjamin.
Climbing the hill and coming into the
town, you find yourself in maze of box
like one, two and three-story houses,
They are made of limestone and they
stand close to the edges of winding
streets. which are here and there arched
over to shut out the sun. The town has
about 10000 or 1900 inhabitants and is
probably 10 times as large as it was when
Christ was born. Its chief source of reve-
nue. comes from the Christian religion
and the fact that Christ was born there.
There are thousands of tourists who visit
the birthplace of the Saviour every year.