The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1943-12-24
Many American Soldiers
Join Throngs of Pill
grims This Year
LILLIAN McGAFFN
, AP Features

men tonight to worship Win re-
ioicinp hearts on the hallowed
ground five and a half miles south
of Jerusalem where the Prince OF
Peace was born nearly 1000 years
ago.
Their hearts are full of hope and
they sing with exceeding joy as
blacked-out world observes its fifth
Christmas of the war. For this
wear there is a promise in Allied
victories that it will not be long
tie angels message can be reaffirm-
ed. peace on earth, good i0it TO-
,urod men
Even the stars in the eternal
heavens, once brilliant with Won
drous tidings, seem to shine more
brightly as the glad refrains OF the
old songs float up from the cheer-
full mortals below "Hark the her
aid angels sing" they carol as they
crowd about. the ancient stone
Church Of the Nativity which Con-
stantine puilt on the site OF the
Holy Manager in the year 800.
Greatest News Story
For this is the anniversary OF a
miracle, the greatest news story
the world ever has known. And
it marks the nearing emergence OF
the world from its greatest war.
silent night, holy night " F." 8" the
winter cir is crisp and their breaths
Gene white as they stand singing
on this hill Of Judea about the
weatherbeaten gray stone church
which is built in the shape OF
cross.
Let us enter the church. You
must stoop low there for it is but
tiny door, the Eye of the Needle
they cali it. 1t was made small,
they say, to prevent rioting crowds
from sweeping inside on their
camsls and donkeys to continue
their fights within. The Holy Land,
you are reminded, is a sacred place
to more than one religion.
The air is heavy with incense.
AS you look up you see that the
church is rooted with wood. Along
either side of the nave are heavy
marble columns Moving about in
the lights and shadows are long
bearded priests. The Greek Ortho-
dox (which observes Christmas IL
days later, Armenian and Roman
Catholic churches share this holy
structure and the three adjoining
converts.
Let us go forward to the choir
now and descend the stone stems
to the grotto below which is hol-
lowed out OF solid rock In gray
marble recess on the right hand
side as we enter is silver star
sunk in the floor This marks the
actual place of the birth and is
in addition symbolic of the star
which guided the three wise men.
A few feet away on the left is
another marble recess marking the
place of the Manager where Jesus
was laid. The grotto is hung with
Gil lamps and red tapestries and
religious pictures. The original
manger is now in Rome, you are
told. Rome 8 the war
your thoughts sweep back. Then
you resume your reverie over the
Christmas story.
And she brought forth her first
born son. and wrapped him In
sl0addling clothes, and laid him in
a manager because there Das no
rCcm for them in the inn
There is no inn in modern Bethle
hem. In nearby Jerusalem, how
ever, there are fine hotels, but it
is almost impossible to get a room
in them. Two thousand years later
and still no room in the inn. There
has been progress, though, for this
time, if it were happening again.
Joseph and Mary could go to
marvellous modern hospital, the
Hadassah Rothschild University
Hospital, on Mount Soups
There are various reminders of
the American influence in this holy
city, aside from the soldier tour
ists-whose favorite purchases, ac-
cording to the shopkeepers, are
Bibles bound in mother of pearl,
and rosaries There is, for ex-
ample, the white shell which the
shopkeepers prize as the finest shell
for the manufacture of souvenirs.
1t comes from California. And
there is the model of the Church
of the Nativity, painstakingly con-
structed out of $4,000 pieces of
mother OF pearl and intended for
&xhibition at the New York Worlds
Mlra project doomed by the war.
Modern Bethlehem
If Christ were to return today
to His city He would find many
changes as might be expected after
1000 years. But his spirit still
prevails and never more so than
today on this fifth-and most hope
ful-Christmas of the war.
The little shops which crowd the
quiet, narrow streets about the
Christian Church of the Nativity
are mostly run by Arabs-but they
are Christian Arabs.
The physical appearance of Beth