New Britain Herald Newspaper, December 28, 1918, Page 10

Market scene in the city of Bethlehem in the square in front of. the Church of the Nativity By Charles W. Duke f “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Sa which is Christ the Lord.” HRISTIAN and women the worl rejoice this Christmas that the Holy Land, where the Saviour "was born, lived, taught, bled and died after coming to earth as the herald of Peace on zood will to has been reclaimed Turkish dominion in the great war now ending. After y seven centuries of Moslem control, the sa- cred places of Palestine and Syria that knew Jesus when He was rth find themselves this momentous Christ- mas under the banners of the Chris- tian nations of the earth—the Cross triumphant over the C cent—with all the world on the threshold of “peace on carth, good will to men. There is @ new enchantment thi: year in the Church of the Nativity over there in Palestine that marks the traditional spot where the Son of God was born. Likewise, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of Golgotha, carries a new message to the Crusaders who have come up from the far corners of the earth to bring back to Christendom the home of the Saviour. Every mother who mourns for her son lost in battle may gain inspiration from that reclaimea Via Dolorosa along which Christ toiled under the Cross on the way to death. Our men ve died these last few years that the world might be freed of militarism and go forward to the era of ‘“peace on earth”; and out of the maelstrom of war, as part of t material benefits, has come the re: toration of the Holy Land to the place it has not occupied since the days of the Crusaders, nearly seven centuries ago. men over men,” from world earth, entirel, near on e Capture of Jerusalem Hearts were glad at Christmas time a year ago at the proclamation or Gen- eral Allenb triumphal entry into Jerusalem as a climax to the campaizn that had been carried on from the banks of the Nile, in pt, where Joseph and Mary had fled more than 1900 years ago with their Babe to es- cape persecution at the hands of srerod. The capture of Jerusalem was as the a ury of im: and The joy was heightened, too, by knowledge of the fact that General Allenby and his crusaders had fought 8o carefully and so humanely that not a sacred spot in the City of David had been marred ng shells, Jerusalem was spared in its entirety, So far as the Allies concernea, and it has yet to be 1y proved that the Turk mutiiated or de- the sacred before re by any ravd were substant oyed relics treating. But this ye com 1l deeds of complete Christmas ondersf the from to the more montl climax the t subjugation of the Turk Jaff to Aleppo; the total collapse of cruel domain; his abject surrender to the mighty forces of democracy. After in the valley twelve his Jerusalem came Jericho, of the Jordan, Moses Joshua, which (¢ raveled on h up to Roman Jer burial place of Herod was once the rty of Clec the Zgyptian queen, made a veritable, paradise. The dis- trict about Jericho in these modera days has iong been the personal prop- umous in the days of and the city through ney was the prope by W i Sultan of Turkey—but nosw nece and th it Nt the stories the Good erty of the the flags of England, Fr Allicd nations float ov gospels, Jericho figures in of Bartimeus, Zaccheus and Samaritan. he sweep to Jericho from Jerusalem took in Bethany, where the democrac, upon the traditional tomb of Lazarus, the house of the leper and the home of Martha and Mary. It on the Mount of Olives, was the lodging place of Christ when in Jerusalem. It was here Lazarus wa sed from the dead, and it was here, or t Beth " as St. Luke records it, that the tool: place armics of came stands and sension Along the Jordan River From Dead democracy extended northward along the line of the River Jordan. DMany years be Christ knew Gideon, ind aman directed to wash thic Sea the forces of their campaign ore Joshua Blijah ha 1 was g0 in the Jordan to cure his leprosy. It was at the Baptist first Bethlehem of the Saviour v where the Jordan that John the preached and baptized. next fell into %the Here it hands was the On the plains watched their > the outposts armies keep vigil this In ear r da it w. Bethlehem that Rachel was buried. Ruth settled with her husband, Bosz deliverers epherds flocks by night years of the Allied Christmas 1 there second . The Philistines held it as garrison during the outlawry of David. The birth of the Me: 1 in Bethlehem was prophesied many years before His coming. After His birth Herod sent here seeking the new- born Christ, and when he could not find Him ordered the massacre of in- fants. Allenby lehem t1 founded by restored by the Nativity, markit e where the Holy crusaders basilica of onst found at Beth- the Nativity, bout 300 and 500. Here in Grotto of the traditional spot Virgin 2 birth to thie Saviour 1 into a crypt with its two ¢ steps leading down to the bottom of the grotto, the crypt lighted by fift amps. Fine white marble cc the floor, and paving a shining ver- the Jesus, mtine stinian ir old city is the umns o into th is fittec milion star. Surrounding it are words, “Hic de ne Maria, capturing Holy Land, to disturh their cus- liberality of the Chris- rious i of tly ave orders not tonrs. In return Moslems in tians to with the Turks, the Allied commander permit- ted the followers of Mohammed to re- tain their stronghold in the for the permitting hare Jerusalem Mosque of It is to be presumed the same ndition of affaivs maintained and so on this else- stmas it is Grotto of the Na- the lamps about Holy Crypt still burn for the and six that in the tivity in the star in the Latins for the Bethlehem of the same five for the Arm order—four nia Bethlehem of Today ve it A ta on the Allied 2rica ¢ n ponder at thouxz] in the mind. nd this ien of the Chri ger in la her new-born and where the angels, came to worship the Messiah; or by tiee aitar of the Magi, that com- memorates the visitation of the Wise shepherds, directed by o) LK. st, who were guided by a star to the spot where the Babe lay in the stable of Bethichem. To the Christian Bethlehem means more in 1918 than ever the h tory of the world. preading northward from the drawn through Jerusalem from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea the battle campaign of General Allenby since last Christmas next encompassed the city of Nablus. This is in the land of the tribe of Benjamin, that at the disruption of Israel was the only tribe that cleaved to Judah. The warriors bound from Jerusalem for Nablus swept through Mizpah, where Samuel was born, lived and died. They took lIso the town Bethel, where Jacob on his way {0 Mesopotamia in search of a wife, beheld the ladder reaching from earth to sky as he dreamed while asleep with his head pillowed on a stone. They hurled the Turk bac over the site of Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant wa Men from the before in line established Campaignir orthward While fighting their way into Nablus the twentieth century Jacol’s Well and the Tomb of Joseph Nablus, or Shechem, as it was known of old, was one of tk most pic- turesque of Palestine standix at the nce of a narvow defile be- tween the basin of the Mcditerranean and the Jo It became the capital of the Samaritans. Christianity early took a strong hold in this city. Here some of 1 “hed and well r ime the announcement that »urst forth upon Iraelon, knowa “Battlefield of Armaseddon.” Great interest was stirred by this an- cuncement in view of the reference in the Apocalypse (Rev. xvi, 16) as the place “where in the final struggle be- tween good and evil the greatest of citi entr aoking alem as it To H. the H: Corsright, Underwood & Underwood Proclamation read 1o the populace in Jerusalem from the steps of the Tower of David after the British occupied the Holy City L tles would plajn s and be Galilec fough from location Samaris on a fr much through all be its highway fcught-over the ages. auent became a battleground Gideon’s Midianites made their gallant Philistine army southwest se Josepn the Bgyptian set up his camp on draelon. Tere “picked there. S: army” route 1 ana stand against the Mount Gilboa. In ion of tne plain defeated and slain my. Rolofernes this plain of Es- came Pompey, Mark Antony 1 Titus. Vespasian routed the near Mount Tabor. The 1 titanic battles of the crusades were fought over this historic ground by Saladin and bis army. Napoleon came along hundreds of The Bubble THE time that Germany plunged Joni on was also TJews the world into war four years ago, the area of her empire in Furope was 208,780 square 1 —targer than that of any other nation in Continental rope save her vassal, Austriz-Hun- a4 , and Rus tion at home of nearly 70,000,000, while mil- She had a popula. - colontal empire, exceeding lion square mil>s, had an additional population of more than 14,003,000, But she was not content. Germany, says a bulletin of the National Geographic Society, claimed as her right the following: “All of I3urove save Portugal, Spain, the uniny “tion of Irance Dritish the vet u quered - portions of Russia. In brief, she wants in Europe 1,196,000 square miles of the total continental area of 3,872,000 square miles and 270,000,000 of the 464,000,000 inhabitants. “All of South America save the twe recent s and Underwood & Underwood. city of the modern appears to tourist of today the left—General Sir Edmund Allenby, the Deliverer of Jerusalem later and but was so badly to retire on years the 1rks, t he had defeated battered th Acre withe ing his dream of ri Alexander the Great as the conqueror P a In striking compar se with which Allenb, swept Armaged- don, driving the 1 lilee. In Galilee today came the sprung the human ance In Nazareth over wk into the crusaders of plac tors of into whence Jesus Christ. Jesus grew to nignhood. It was here He was brought by*his parents from pt, to which land they had fled following the mirac- ulous birth, when advised that Herod sought the life of the child. Writers maintain Nazareth was in reality the home of Christianity, since Bethlehem the boy The Holy Sepulchre, considered the holiest of all the holy places in the Holy Land the ur the accidental ana saler imply be it and nter of world. It was battle of zareth that the world heard of the capture of 'd the occupa tion of Beirut. the capital of Syria, ober 1 and Arabian forces in birthplace of city o the the was political Tewish religious not 1 after the Damascus Damas was captured Oc sccupied by British and With French naval port city of Beirut the stage was set for the advance on Aleppo, the Turk stronghold of the north, con- I the line running from Consta the famed Berlin-to-Bagdad railw Damascus was a trade center and 1t for in many to the days necting up Bagdad to inople, ever great (herefore a prize fou hard battles dating back of David. Taul was converted at escaped there from over a wall in a ned after his Arabian retirement, The Crusaders succeeded in getting a strong- us and it has remained Moslem center. Hebron the the world. and fas- Damas retas by being sket a lowered later retu never hold in Dama the s disputes the oldest city in hed in the brilliant scenes of the Arabian nights. city is the tomb of Saladin, the former Kaiser of Ger- throug ages a with title of 1t flour: cinatin In the upen which many hung 10 when he was dreaming as Napo- t dreamed a wreath some few vears leon and Alexander the Gr corld empire. The Fall of Aleppo troops of ched the end of has generally known as the Holy extending from the nds of the Nile in the south to the ts of Lebanon in the north. But <igencics called for the con- of the British armies of Aleppo, the great , and since the cap- ture of Dam and occupation of the er . morthern Syrian district made the fall of Aleppo inevitable, the general surprised to learn sh Aleppo At Damascus the Gen- 1| Allenby had re been Land. ced mil the ction Turco-German bas public was not rtly before the armistice that the conclusion had fallen in of a mighty campaign that had the Turk completely of the Land of Pal ind Syria Now that the war has ended and the Hold Land has come under the pro- toctorate of the Allied ions, the question of the future Jerusalem looms minds. When the hosts of Islam overran P Syria and Pales- tine they took the tem- ple area in Jerusalem and transformed out in many sia possession of () 1. F.8 the church into the beautiful Mosque of Omar. leaving the Christians in pos- session of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Mohammed had drawn much of his teachings from the Chris- During the four cen- Moslem uest of stine 1til the ecru Chris- tian, Jew and Moslem lived in peace. Then along came Peter the Hermit and the Crusaders. The second had been forecast The any c: Christian through tians and Jews. turies from the des, together Christ vear 1000. without an era of that held the world safe year 1033, the anniversary of Crucifixion. Peter the Hermit vailed upon Pope Urban 1T to sanction the first crusa It proved a success- ful venture, for Jerusalem cap- tured July 14, 1099, and Godfrey ot Bouillon elected King of Jerusalem. At the Peace Conference adin became master of Egypt and Syria toward the end of the twelfth century, after defeating the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin, in 1187, cap- turing the most treasured of relics, a piece of the true Cross. This pro- voked the third crusade, led by Rich- ard Coeur de Lion, and commemorated in Scott’s novel, “The Talisman.” The Crusaders captured Constantinople for the Venetians, but failed of the entire conquest of Palestine. The fifth cru- sade, under Frederick II, regained pos- session of Jerusalem, only to be driven out by the Moslems in 1244. Moslem power over Palestine was completed before the dawn of another century, and since that time the Crescent has held the balance of power in the Holy Land. Before mentous coming of for this passing of tastropns piety the the pre- the vear awakened was another Christmas the mo- question of the future of Palestine will in all likelihood be scttled. Turkey has been whipped, and the uni al cry is for the banish- ment of the Turk. It has been pro- posed to make of Constantinople an in- ternational and to set up a Jewish State in Palestine under an au- tonomous form of government. These things are to come out of the peace conference, and will likely be de- termined by another Christmas. In the meantime, the minds of men are speculating on the new and free archeological explorations in the Holy Land that are likely to follow in the ke of Christian rule, the possibility of Solomon’s temple being restored and the many secrets of the ages re- vealed, now that the hand of the bar- barian has been set aside for the light of the new civilization of democracy. center, That Burst—Prussia’s Pan-German Dream tish and aspirations in than 7,400,000 1l continental miles and population of inconsequential colonies of B French Guiana. Her here include more » miles of the to 570,000 of the squa total modest claims em- miles of the square miles. s £ 000,000 square her sister nations. The tory which Ger- many claims in this part of the world maintains a population of 85,000,000 inhabitants, with only 67,000,000 for the continent. “Considering tinent, would for her, land to which like that in Africa, waste. With Russian India, China, vassal Turke; a her 40,000 sq compared the pemainder of the extent of the con- Germany’s Aslan aspirations amazingly conservative much of the waives seem were it not that she claim s, unproductive Turkestan, and the an and she Empire would miles of this population of And there figures the by right over square alms of Persia areas Mohammedan T Afghanistan—t wants—the Central have 5,662,000 square contine sustainin a approximately 775,000,000. should be added to these Dutch East Indies, Germany of might of ger nation: smaller neighbors — 735,000 miles and 38,000,000 people. “Ali of Australia, with an 4,581 miles and a popula- tion of nearly 5,000,000 people. Teu- ton expectations in this continent have been revealed very recently in the un- Llushing confessions of Herr Thysson. “Of North America the Pan-Ger- mans profess to covet only Cuba, Cen- tral America and Canada at the p ent time, but some of her futurists ‘the American people conquered Dby the victorious German spirit, so that in a hundred years the United States will present an enormous German Em- pire’ However, Cuba, the Central which area of square see American republics and the British Dominion would add 13,500,000 to the population of Germany-Over-All and an area equal to more than elghteen times her European empire at the out- break of the world war. “Thus it will be seen that the lands and peoples which German statesmen and would-be empire builders actually, claim as their right equal 29,000,000 square miles, or more than one-half of the earths surface, and 1,245,000,000 inhabitants—three-fourths of all the people on the globe. “If we should add to these figures the United States, concerning which certain bold Teutonic spirits have al- ready expressed themselves, and the Russian Empire, which Germany un- doubtedly will subjugate unless Amer- ica and the Entente Allies crush her, the grand total of Kulturland would be 40,000,000 square miles, more than 70 per cent of the earth's land area, and 1,459,000,000 people, all human beings who breathe save 237,000,000, «