Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-22


 to his birthplace, he might feel him self a stranger in a strange and dread full country.
 lt is . sad commentary on the worlds acceptance of the Christmas gospel that conditions like these can prevail on the very. soil where Christ liyed and did his marvellous deeds and spoke his matchless words. When we reflect that. within the last two years, ir this part of Asia, million human beings have suffered death in forms that may be called violent, and that other millions are at this minute fac ing starvation all because of mans iirhumanity to man, we realize that there is neither peace on earth nor good will among men, +s.~-- The immediate view is gloomy enough, but therea1is another side to the picture-a brighter one. We may yet behold the very wrath of men back all the countless slain, and only prompt assistance can, save the liv- ing. Only in the world beyond this present one can answer be made to some very hard questions We be- iseve that such answer will come and that, meanwhile, the only safety is in the faith. that, somehow, good sh2l
 be the final goal of all this ill. With the historian Bancroft, we must see that Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations. work ing in patient continuity through the ages, never falting and never l its oversight and ever effecting it's will, though mortals may siumber in
 apathy or oppose with madness"
 The swift events of these months ton long deyontly and properly wished by the whole world that calls itself Christian. A thrill of joy will belt the world when it is reported that the British army has taken Je-- 1 usalem, that city around which wars ] have ragged for more than 5000 years and which, for 13 almost unbroken
 centuries, has been in the hasds of l On the score Of military strategy 1 the motive of the thrust into Pales- 1 tine is readily explained. Experts 1 tell us it is to drive a permanent l wedge between the seat of the Turk fish Empire and the Mohammedan ,of Mecca and Medina: The Turks i hold upon Islam rests mainly upon l possession of these cities. If he
 should lose them, his control of the deserts would become very precari- Eous, 1 Who could not wish to see the "un- 1 speakable Turk as Gladstone Itruls rope. and closely confined in Asia ! He has grown old in crime. His hands are red with the blood of successive generations of. his subjects. He has run amuck these past two years if
 even more dastardly fashion thar lever before. Unless the world were sated with horrors. it would stand taghast at his new chapters. in ini- tdnfty. He richly deserves the doom
 that is shaping for issm. X -,... Amid all the crash of war stand: Bethlehem with its narrow streets land it's mud -walled houses. It ii | among the least impressive outwardlS of all the locations about which ths fighting eenters- 1t is hardly men fioned in the press dispatches, in com lpariepn with it's bigger nsighber ts l tEe north. But ; it has aizgfory tha time can never dim. It is the birth place not alone of a nians~ but- of ths l worlds hopes So ensiarinedT witl i l remain when captainss and kings de. tpart and when guns have rusteds bacl to mother earth. Still the Christian world will sing: ,ss a--f.a s-s s~-.'4
 I O little town of Bethlehem. how stil ! we see thee lie;
 l Above thy deep and dfeamless sleeI the silent stars go. by.s-e4h s.s
 Yet in. thy dark streets sf1ineth thu l .S everlasting Iight::s fs.-ss Ses. The hopes and fears of sM the year. | are met in thee tonight. -.S>s x s- sssstIE .PAKSoN.-