Evening star., 1928-12-24
CHRIST'S BIRTHPLACE CALLED
TOWN OF STONE AND SEVERITY
Bethlehem on Christmas Mornings Is Des-
cribed by Guardian of Church
of the Nativity.

and Bismarck, men who filled the world
with terror or with admiration. Time
has borne them away. Others took their
places. They disappeared in turn.
Hardly year has passed since came
to Bethlehem 68 years ago but some
new war broke out.
Humanity has suffered perhaps more
gruesome wars the last so years than
ever before.
New Power at Work.
And still, am thankful to have lived
till this day. There is-who will deny
it?-a new and mysterious power at
work There is will to peace, a strong
desire to have done with barbariSm.
America is no stranger to this stirring
of new hope in the hearts of men.
That a people so powerful and mighty
as America should place herself at the
head of a worldwide peace movement
is something that looks to a man who
believes in Gods direct concern and
direction of the world and His creatures
as something significant and gladdening
There is only one danger, as we
strangers and foreigners see it, and I
make the remark with humility and
with heart filled with love and ad-
miration for the American people. The
danger seems to be that nation grown
strong and powerful might be led to
enforce its desires and ideals upon the
rest of humanity.
If Americans believe that their
grandeur lies in marvellous machinery
and steel vaults and towering buildings,
her ambitions are vain. Other great
and greater peoples have been on this
earth. Their place knoweth them no
more today. When we, who have faith
in America, think of her rising influence
in the world we look across the maze
of worldly things and we look at the
luminous figures of Lincoln and Wood
row Wilson, spiritual giants, men who
reckoned no. cost too great to help in
making the world better and happier.
Can Attain Outward Peace.
If America sets her heart on peace,
we shall have peace. That is outward
peace. Inner peace can come only if
on Christmas morning men and women
allow the Savior to be born again in
their hearts.
Before I conclude this letter I cannot
refrain from saying that in the past
year we have made discoveries here in
Bethlehem which go a long way to
TeIuLe JIle QOuDCS anu CTlClClSIn Oh
those who maintain that Christ was
not born near the site where now
stands the Church of the Nativity.
When necessary repairs to the founda-
ton of the church were made in June
we broke away a section of the flooring.
From the aperture emanated an odor
of dead air Armed with torches we
descended into the opening, and to
our surprise we found ourselves in a
grotto, of the kind and type that are
found in the neighborhood of Jeru-
salem, and which are used by shep-
herds on stormy nights for shelter for
themselves and their fiocks.
All we know from the Scriptures is
that Christ was laid in a manager; that
is to say in stable. Here in Bethle-
hem the grottoes are the stables till
this day. There can be no doubt any
longer on the correctness of this site
| The more since the columns of the first
primitive Christian chapel that stooc
on this place before the pagan EN-.
peror Hadrian destroyed it and in.
stalled a grove to the lascivious god.
dess Adonis, are still lying about
crumbled and worn in the subterranear
crypt, faithful witnesses of the past.
| (Ccpyright, 1929