BETHLEHEM:

ITS FIRST APPEARANCE.

HE first appearance of Bethlehem is very striking, in whatever direction it is approached. It is built upon a ridge of considerable elevation, and has a rapid descent to the north and east. The white stone of which the hill is composed and of which the town is built, makes it very hot, and gives it a dusty appearance. It is surrounded by small valleys or depressions, devoted to the culture of the olive and the vine, and has, in the distance, a massive and imposing appearance. There can be no doubt that the town is the Bethlehem of Scripture-"not the least among the princes of Judah."

THE TOWN

exhibits an appearance of beauty and stateliness, as viewed from without. And although, like other Eastern towns, it somewhat disappoints, when fairly entered, the expectations which the exterior view awakens, the streets are found to be, although narrow and steep, more regular than is usual in the towns of Palestine, and of remarkable cleanness. The houses, even the meanest, are all well roofed; and those small cupolas abound, which give to the towns and to the houses of the Holy Land an air of comfort, and even of importance, in strong and agreeable contrast with the uniform flat roofs and the roofless mud-walls of Egypt. At the easternmost extremity of Bethlehem, on the edge of a steep rock overhanging a plain of several miles in extent, stands

THE CONVENT OF THE NATIVITY,

containing within its precincts what is said to be the place where the Saviour was born into the world. In the plain to the eastward, a little less than a mile from the convent walls, is what is asserted to be the field where the shepherds received the glad tidings of the Saviour's birth. The convent is built in the most adorned style of Byzantine architecture; having, from without, the appearance of a rude fortress, and being well adapted for defence against ali the means of attack with which it could be threatened in the middle ages, or which could now be brought against it by its only enemies, the wandering Arabs, who might visit it for plunder.

THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

is contained within the convent. Its chief nave has a noble aspect, adorned with four rows of marble pillars, the splendour of which, however, no longer dazzles. The roof is not arched, but rests upon a framework of beams of Lebanon cedarsthough some say of cypress-wood. The walls are unadorned; but they have the appearance of having been divested of some former decorations. In the arches of

the windows may be discerned glittering remains of the beautiful mosaics of golden glass, which still adorn the mosque of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, and other ancient ecclesiastical buildings. The whole of the nave of this cross-shaped building is deserted and waste, the wings only of the cross being in use; and of these the Latins possess the smallest portion, in their little church of St. Catherine. From this church a subterranean passage leads into the sanctuary, which lies fifteen steps below the high altar of the Armenian and Greek church. This sanctuary is a low rocky cavern, arched at the roof, its floor paved with white marble, and its marble walls hung with silken draperies. In a niche, between the two flights of steps which lead up to the high altar, lies the spot which is revered as the birth-place of the Redeemer. The flames of many silver lamps light up the place, night and day. A small marble table or slab, supported by low pillars, serves as an altar; in front of it, a spot upon the floor is distinguished by a glory of inlaid jasper, and inscribed with the words, Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est. "Here was Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary." The place, which is called THE PRESEPIO, is within a few yards. Into this one descends by a few low steps. It contains an alabaster trough, or hollowed bed, made to represent the manger and to replace it. Adjoining to the cave of the Nativity is shown

THE CHAPEL, AND SEPULCHRE OF THE INNOCENTS

slain by order of Herod, and a preserved tongue, set forth as a relic of one of the infants. There is another cavern, a few hundred yards to the eastward of the convent, which is shown as the place where Mary and her husband secreted the infant Saviour during the massacre of the young children of the country around. It is hollowed in a chalky rock. About this grotto only one word need be said, which is, that it is clear from Matt. ii. 13, that being beforehand warned of God in a dream, Joseph had already removed the young child to Egypt, before the time of the massacre, and therefore did not require the concealment which this tradition provides. Of the town itself little remains to be said.

THE INHABITANTS

are mostly nominally Christians-Greeks and Catholics in nearly equal numbers. The dress of the Christian women here is singularly graceful and becoming; probably but little varied in fashion from those of Naomi and her daughter-in-law, poor Ruth, who "clave unto her," and said, "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." The young women wear a light veil, or rather hood, not covering the features, like the Turkish or Egyptian cimaar, but descending on each side of the face, and closed across the bosom, and showing the front of a low but handsome head-dress, usually composed of strings of silver wires plaited in among the hair, and hanging down below the chin as a sort of necklace. The mothers and aged women wear a larger and darker robe.

FIELDS NEAR BETHLEHEM.

Immediately east of the town-beyond the rocky shelvings on which it standsis the small plain in which it is believed that the birth of Christ was announced tc

the shepherds. It is now, like other fields in the neighbourhood, under cultivation. The neighbouring village of Beit Sahur is said to be that in which the shepherds lived. It is now inhabited principally, or solely, by Christians.— Abridged from KITTO's Land of Promise.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE.

Luke, the writer of the Gospel which bears his name, is generally allowed to have been the "beloved physician" mentioned by Pau (Col. iv. 14). According to the testimony of some of the Fathers, he was a native of Antioch. He would appear, from his intimate acquaintance with the Greek language, as well as from his Greek name Loukas, to have been of Gentile extraction. But, from the Hebrew terms occurring in his writings, and from his accurate knowledge of the Jewish religion, ceremonies, and customs, it is highly probable that he was in early life a Jewish proselyte; and, having afterwards embraced the Gospel, he became a faithful and zealous companion of Paul in many of his labours and travels (Acts xvi. 10; xx. 5, &c). We learn from Acts xxviii. 15, and Philem. 24, that he was with the apostle at the time of his first captivity at Rome; and from 2 Tim. iv. 11, that, during his second imprisonment, Luke alone remained by his side.

Luke is generally supposed to have been a scholar. His style is more classical than that of the other evangelists. Being a physician, his description of diseases, and his accounts of cures wrought by the Saviour and His apostles, have more of technical definiteness than the other Gospels.

With regard to the questions when and where this Gospel was written, there is no certain information. Some suppose that it was written during the time that Luke was in Paul's company, probably during his confinement at Rome, about the year 62 or 63 A.D. Others give it an earlier date, and suppose it to have been written at Philippi, about 57 A.D. (see 2 Cor. viii. 18-21). But, however that may be, it is evident that it was originally written for Gentile readers, as that of Matthew was originally designed for Jews. He has always before his eyes the salvation prepared for all people,”- a light to lighten the Gentiles (ii. 31, 32); and, as writing for heathen who had departed so widely from God, he has been careful to record the Lord's declarations concerning the free mercy of God to the greatest sinners (vii. 36-50; xv.; xviii. 10—14; xix. 5—10; xxiii. 40—43,

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&c.).

The Gospel of Luke is generally considered to be more of a regular biography than any of the others. He appears to have preserved the chronological order of his main facts; closing the various periods of his history with a number of incidental circumstances and discourses, which belong to that division of time, but the exact sequence of which he is not careful to specify.

The numerous and important additional facts which Luke has

supplied, give to his Gospel a peculiar value. He relates with remarkable clearness the conversations of Jesus, with the incidents which gave rise to them, the remarks of those who were present, and their results. Though containing information supplementary to that given by Matthew, his Gospel has not the character of a supplemental document; but is evidently an independent and original work. Generally, the parables and discourses of Luke's Gospel are less full than those of Matthew.-DR. ANGUS' Bible Handbook.

Cheerfulness.

A PART OF THE TEACHER'S ART.

BY REV. THOMAS ISLIP.

OOKING back through the years, our early impression of schools and school duties is that they were of what a modern young lady might call an "awfully serious" type. The teacher of that day often settled down to his work with an admirably conscientious, but dogged kind of purpose. He was then in the discharge of duty, to do his own unflinchingly, to see likewise that his scholars did theirs; with the most sincere and benevolent aims he associated the spirit of rigid requirement in the way of his own demeanour, and that of the children. Conscience in excess of other qualities often converted the teacher into the spiritual policeman. In this atmosphere severity sometimes became ascendant, and as always in the day school of the period, so not unfrequently in some Sunday schools, the cane came in in aid of the failing discipline.

In justice to the teacher of that day, let us remember that he acted under a sense of the necessity of this chastisement, and that he suffered far more deeply often in its infliction than the offender did beneath it. All the transgressions, in a very true sense, came home, punished or not punished, to himself as to their last resort. The burden of the waywardness, the ignorance, and the depravity settled down finally in his own heart. In prayer alone he found an alleviation of his trouble and a renewal of his courage.

It is obvious that this temper of mind, however admirable in its way, tends to create hopelessness, and to diminish a teacher's resources. The faith that could work under it might be very deep-seated, but was not rieh in the direction of adaptedness. It ignored half the aspects of the work itself. There was no play of faculty about it. It was suited to the battle-field of struggle against adult and constituted evil, to bear the brunt of disappointment, to take its turn in all the current phases of martyrdom, to resist if needs be even unto blood. But it brought to the task of dealing with children only the same heavy artillery with which it battled with the evils of adult society, and with conscientious remorselessness too often fired off its heaviest discharges against their amazed