We spoze this church wuz built on the site of the tarven where our Lord wuz born. Goin' down the windin' staircase we come to the Grotto of the Nativity, which is a cave in the rock. There are several holy chapels here, but this one where they say Christ wuz born is about thirty-eight feet long and ten or eleven feet wide, and covered inside with costly carving and sculpture. A star in the floor shows the place where the manger wuz where the Holy Child wuz born, a silver star glitters above it and around the star sixteen lights are burning night and day. All about here the caves in the rocks are used as stables, specially when the tarvens are full, as the Bible expressly states they wuz the night our Lord wuz born. 'Tennyrate, way back almost to the time He wuz born, historians accepted this spot as the place of His birth. But as I said more formerly, what if it wuz not this very spot, or some other nigh by, we know that it wuz in this little city our Lord wuz born. It wuz of this city that centuries before the prophets said: "And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little amongst the thousands of Judea, yet out of thee shall he come forth that shall be ruler of Israel, whose goings forth has been from old everlasting."

Then and there wuz founded on earth that invisible and spiritual kingdom so much stronger and mightier than any visible kingdom that wuz ever thought on. The gorgeous throne of Herod and the long line of kings and emperors since him have crumbled into dust, but that lowly cradle in the stable of Bethlehem is onmoved. The winds and storms of eighteen hundred years have not been able to blow a straw away from that little bed where the Baby Christ lay. The crowns of kings and emperors have disappeared, covered by the dust of time, but the rays of light that shone round that Baby's brow grow brighter and brighter as the centuries sweep by. The deepest love, the strongest emotions of the hearts of an uncounted host keep that Bethlehem birthplace green and changeless. The Herods, the Pilates, the Caesars are dead and buried under the driftin' centuries, but our Lord's throne stands more firm and powerful to-day than ever before. Hatred, malice, the cross of agony, the dark tomb could not touch that immortal life. Great monarch and tender, overturnin' and upbuildin' empires at will, blowing away cruel and unjust armies by a wave of his fingers, helping the poor slave bear his heavy burden by pouring love into his heart, wiping the widow's tears, soothing the baby's cries, marking even the sparrow's fall.

Oh, what a kingdom! foretold by ages, begun on earth in that little rocky stable that December night in Bethlehem. And it is secure; it cannot be moved, its white pillers are enthroned in the secret chambers of the soul.

And how strong and changeless his prime ministers, Love, Justice and Mercy, are, who carry his messages and do his will. How quiet and peaceable and yet how strong, makin' no fuss and show; but what majesty is writ down on their forwards as they mirror the will of their Master. How firm they stand, jest as they've stood for ages; no wobblin', no turnin' this way and that to git adherents and followers.

No, calm and mighty and holy they stand before that sacred throne jest as they did at Jerusalem before Herod and Pilate.

Oh, how many emotions I did have as I stood in that sacred spot, twice as many at least as I ever had in the same length of time in any other place. I didn't want to speak, I didn't want to see even my dear Josiah. No, I wanted to be silent, to think, to meditate, to pray "Thy kingdom come." Nigh by in the same grotto is what they call the tomb of a relation of ourn on both sides. Yes, they say Adam, our grandpa (removed) wuz buried here. I felt considerable sceptical about that, but Josiah beheld it complacently, and I hearn him say to Tommy:

"Yes, here Adam lays, poor creeter!" And sez Josiah, puttin' down his cane kinder hard, "Oh, what a difference it would have made to Jonesville and the world at large if Adam had put his foot right down just as I put my cane to-day, and not let his pardner eat that apple, nor tease him into eatin' it, too."

And Tommy looked at him in wonder, "Did the apple make him sick, grandpa?"

"Yes, Tommy, it made him sick as death, sin-sick, and he knowed it would."

"Well, then what made him eat it, grandpa?"

And Josiah said, "These things are too deep for you to understand now; when you git a little older grandpa will explain 'em all out to you."

And Arvilly sez, "I'd love to be there when you explained it, Josiah Allen. Layin' the blame onto the wimmen, jest as men do from Adam and Alpha to Omega."

Sez Josiah, "We'll walk out, Tommy, and see how it looks on the outside."

But Arvilly kept mutterin' and kinder scoldin' about it long after they had departed. "Why didn't Adam take the apple away from her and throw it away? He hankered after it jest as much as she did, that's why. Cowardly piece of bizness, layin' it all to her."

And she sniffed and stepped round sort o' nervous like, but sweet Dorothy drawed her attention off onto sunthin' else.

On the pleasant hills about the village shepards could be seen tendin'

their flocks as they did on the night when the angels and the mult.i.tude of the heavenly hosts appeared to them bearing tidings of great joy that that night a Saviour wuz born.

"Glory to G.o.d in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill to men."

We felt that we must see Nazareth, where our Lord's early years wuz spent, and we set off on a pleasant day; we approached it from the north by way of Cana. The road wuz hard and rocky, but on turning a corner we see the little town like a city set on a hill, only this wuz on the side of the hill with hills above it and below it. Nazareth has only a few hundred houses, but they are white and clean looking, mostly square and flat roofed. As we drew nigh we see the tall minaret of a mosque, the great convent buildings and the neat houses of the village looking out of gardens of figs and olives with white doves playing about the roofs; there wuz great hedges of p.r.i.c.kly pears and white orange blossoms and scarlet pomgranites to make it pleasant.

On the road we wuz travelin' the child Jesus no doubt often pa.s.sed in play with other children or at work. I wonder how he felt as he stood amongst his playmates and if a shadow of what wuz to come rested on his young heart? I spoze so, for he wuz only twelve when he reasoned with the wise doctors.

There is one fountain that supplies the town and always has, and we see stately dark-eyed wimmen carryin' tall jars of water on their heads (how under the sun they ever do it is a mystery to me; I should spill every drop), but they seem to carry 'em easy enough. Children often ran along at their sides. And I knew that in this place the young child Jesus must often have come with his mother after water.

Stood right here where we stood! what emotions I had as I thought on't. Dorothy and Robert looked reverently about them and dipped their hands in the clear water just as Joseph and Mary might when they wuz young and couldn't look into the futer.

Miss Meechim said she had a tract to home that dealt on this spot and wished she had brought it, she would have liked to read it here on the spot.

Arvilly said she wuz glad enough to see that they had plenty of good, pure water here and didn't have to depend on anything stronger.

And Josiah said in his opinion the water would make crackin' good coffee, and he wished he had a good cup and a dozen or so of my nut-cakes.

CHAPTER XXV

We visited a carpenter shop which wuz, I spoze, about like the shop of Joseph, lots of different tools on shelves and nails on the side on't, some like Jonesville shops.

But carpenter there has a different meaning from what it has in Jonesville, it means different kinds of work, carving, making furniture, plows, shovels, as well as buildin' houses. In some such a shop as this our Lord worked with achin' back and blistered hands no doubt, for He worked faithful and stiddy when He wuz subject to his father, Joseph. I suppose his dress wuz much like other Jewish peasantry save in one thing he wore, and this wuz the seamless garment, suggestive, I spoze, of wholeness, holiness. As I thought on't I instinctively murmured these words of our poet:

"The healing of that seamless dress Is by our beds of pain, We feel it in life's care and stress-- And we are strong again."

I looked up to the brow of the hill whereon this city is built, and my mind wuz all wrought up thinkin' of how the Christ stood up in the synagogue and told for the first time of his mission in these incomparable words so dear to-day to all true ministers and lovers of G.o.d's words, and all earnest reformers from that day down:

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."

Oh, what a divine mission! not to the great and lofty and happy, but to the poor, the broken-hearted, the bruised and the blind. How his heart yearned over them even as it duz to-day. And how did the world receive it? Just as Truth is received to-day, anon or oftener; they thrust Him out of the synagogue, dragged Him to the brow of this very hill that they might cast Him off. But we read that He pa.s.sed through the midst of them and went his way, just as Truth will and must. It can't be slain by its opposers; though they may turn it out of their high places by force, it will appear to 'em agin as an accuser.

But oh, what feelin's I felt as I looked on that very hill, the very ground where He pa.s.sed through their midst unharmed! I had a great number of emotions, and I guess Josiah did, although his wuz softened down some and dissipated by hunger, and Tommy, dear little lamb! he too wuz hungry, so we all went to a little tarven where we got some food, not over good, but better than nothin'.

The roads all about Nazareth and Jerusalem are very stony and rocky, so we can see how hard it wuz, in a physical sense, for our Lord to perform the journeys He did, for they wuz almost always on foot.

Well, that evenin' at the tarven in Jerusalem, Miss Meechim and Dorothy and I wuz in the settin' room, and Dorothy set down to the little piano and played and sung some real sweet pieces, and several of the English people who had come on the steamer with us gathered round her to hear the music, and amongst them wuz two young gentlemen we had got acquainted with--real bright, handsome young chaps they wuz--and they looked dretful admirin' at Dorothy, and I didn't wonder at it, for she looked as pretty as a new-blown rose, and her voice had the sweetness and freshness of a June mornin' in it, when the air is full and runnin' over with the song of bird and bee, and the soft murmur of the southern breeze amongst the dewy flowers. She wuz singin' old Scottish and English ballads, and more than one eye wuz wet as she sang about "Auld Joe Nicholson's Bonnie Nannie," and "I'm Wearin' Away, Jean," and the dear old "Annie Laurie."

Miss Meechim looked worried and anxious, and sez she: "Oh, how I do wish Robert Strong wuz here. Oh, dear! what a trial it is to keep young folks apart."

And I sez: "What makes you try to? It is jest as nateral for 'em to like each other's company as it is for bluebirds and robins to fly round together in the spring of the year, and no more hurt in it, as I can see."

Sez she impressively: "Haven't I told you, Josiah Allen's wife, my wearing anxiety, my haunting fear that in spite of all my efforts and labors Dorothy will marry some one in spite of me? You know how invincibly opposed I am to matrimony. And you can see for yourself just how much admiration she gits everywhere, and one of those young men," sez she, frowning darkly on a handsome young Englishman, "I am sure is in earnest. See the expression of his face--it is simply worship. He would throw himself on his knees in front of her this minute if there were not so many round. Oh, why don't Robert come and protect her?"

Her face looked fairly haggard with anxiety, but even as I looked the anxious lines wuz smoothed from her worried face like magic, and I see Robert Strong come in and approach the group at the piano.

Miss Meechim leaned back in her chair in a restful, luxurious att.i.tude, and sez she: "Oh, what a relief! What a burden has rolled off from me! Robert knows just how I feel; he will protect her from matrimony. Now I can converse with ease and comfort," and she turned the subject round on missionary teas and socials and the best way to get 'em up.

The next mornin' Arvilly didn't appear to breakfast. I waited some time for her, for I wanted her to go sightseeing with me, and Arvilly wuz as punctual as the sun himself about gittin' up in the mornin', and about as early.

I thought to myself: "Is Arvilly a-goin' to come up missin', as our dear Aronette did?" I wuz agitated. I sent to her room, but no answer.

My agitation increased. I then went to her room myself, but my knock at her door elicited no reply. I then spoke in anxious, appealin'

axents:

"Arvilly, are you there? And are you sick a-bed? Or are you dead?

Answer me, Arvilly, if either of my conjectures are true!"

My axent was such that she answered to once, "I hain't dead, Josiah Allen's wife, and I hain't sick, only heart-sick."

Sez I, "Let me in then; I can't have you there alone, Arvilly."

"I hain't alone!" sez she. "Grief is here, and everlastin' shame for my country."

It come to me in a minute, this wuz the anniversary of her husband's death, the day our govermunt's pardner, the licensed saloon, had murdered him down in Cuba.