V7J iMfc . : ! (',' , ' W J . S5r.'-?Vri KrW I '-4" ! -ivij i i 'ti mM' HpKfeUfcwA if I l (of ,Icus.! It" J I fliSuMk tortSMp of y (By William Ordway Pardrlge.) place where the Boy Christ pushed Hl Kings have waged warfare, armies lost plane over the work bench, while Ills father battle bolts long yearn ami won Tyrants their have hurled But lo! the Virgin and her little Hon HUH rule the world. K ATK1N A THASK 1 ID YOU ever And a larks' nest hld- III den among the wheat T If so, you may understand how the quiet and E t d of , return to the b beautiful city of Nazareth nestles cUy (hftt )ook( out upon p,aln down among the hills of Gall lee. If Palestine was the country of all the world for the Messiah to come to, then was Nazareth, of all the cities of the an cient civilization, the very one for Illm to be born In. You must cross the great plains of Es draelon, you must go over the shoulder of Ollbna, where Saul fought that last fatal stood silently regarding the work and measuring the ability of his Son to follow him In his chosen craft. We know very little from history, from written facts, of that life after birth In the hillsides of Bethlehem, of the flight Into beautiful of Es- draelon, which for centuries has been the granary of Palestine. But, as Aristotle somewhere says, "Poetry is truer than his tory," and when one visits the spot and Is taken possession of by the Christ that is still alive In the Holy Land, one may per haps divine thoughts of that life which are closer to reality than If some historians like Joeephua and others had jotted them . ... , , , . . . . . - aw- lino riwruuuB mm uiui-i unu juhom . v " battle, and keep along at the right of the . ,,,.,,, , tm . ... . , . . . . down from the standpoint of the Roman or great plain which had been the granary .. of Palestine for 11,000 years before the coming of the Matter, and seems to lose Greek world. You must watch the little boys at their mouth to carry his voice over the hills, that there Is only one God and Mohammed Is his greatest prophet one minaret alone tells the traveler and the artist that the little town is now a Mohammedan posses sion. All about us are signs of the Chris tian faith. The most interesting spot per haps of any Is the small chapel built over the workshop of Joseph on a height which commands the surrounding country to the south and north and from the threshold of which the Christ Child could see the distant bills of Samaria, where in later life He was to stop and talk with the woman at the well and to Impress upon her the fact of His divinity. Krene of the Nativity. The happiest painting of the past years that has been made Is, perhaps, that of Hoffman, of the boy Christ disputing with the doctors. But It Is not a great work of art and it is not true to the conditions that existed at that time, nor in coBtume or guise to the Child It represents. It is slings of woven cord, throw stones for you ln no Ben"e ""eniai or eastern, oui is a with the accuracy that Oavid had In the use painting made In the studio of the artist. nappy lu conception. u appeals iu ma popular sense because the painter has In fused Into the face of the Child something of the divine life He possessed. But this is an age that demands truth; it Is no longer satisfied with flowing draperies and trains of following angels and stsge scenery and I count It a happy thing that the age demands not only truth, but character; It shows that man Is coming Into closer re lationship with the Author of all truth God Himself. When we think, for Instance, of the Child being born In the stable ln Bethlehem, the Anglo-Saxon imagination thinks of such a stable as we see here on the east or west side apart from the dwell ing and surrounded by coarse attendants and by the accessories which go to make up the-modern stable. But In the east, at that time, the stable portion of the non. nf It. fertility when other narts of P'ay along the hillsides, see how gracefully Galilee and Judah are sterile and their they move their flowing Rarments. have vineyards a matter of history. 1111 you come em ioiiow your norse ana, wnn meir to the little quiet village of Naln. Here you ret the flritt ellmnsn of the minaret and Christian towers of Nazareth. t his little sling of the same order, to un A grent deal has been written by learned derstand what that boyhood was like. The men about the childhood of Christ, Its en- does -.ot change, and in 2,000 years, de vlronment, and the city of Nazareth, where P'te the armies that have devastated Pal that boyhiod was largely spent. But after estlne. that roadway of the ancient world the traveler has been upon the spot Itself, which on'? r' miles ln length and and has spprrached It with a feeling of perhaps eighty miles in width, it has re reverence and that strange stirring ot the nialned the same country. The same skies, soul that comes when one Is In the presence the same flowers, the sweet May pink that of the hills and valleys which once knew smiled into the face of the Master smiles His footsteps, the picture drawn by learned In your face today, and. above all. Mount and literary men Is Inadequate, and must be Hernion looms beyond, covered with eternal relegated to the book shelf and the en- snows as It was when the Christ Child saw cyclopaedia. tDe ,uu over 11 '000 7' Tlsaot had the rare privilege of traveling ltrmi irtar Fuind 1st Types, through the Holy Land with a man who pos sessed not only great Intelligence, but who We must take that Child out of the hands had lived as many years In that land as 'f the old masters, out of the conventional did the Master Himself Herbert B. Clark, draperies that have been wrapped about nn...i . Tt.ru.n1nm In the last few Him and place Him lu the llgbt-tlowing m.v. .., t thl article has had garment that the Arab and Bedouin boy was merely a division or the opportunity of vUltln this quiet, un- wears tolay. He must have His hair flow- large khan, or Inn, where the traveler assuming little town of Nazareth, nestled Ing In the wind or bound about with the stopped for rest and refreshment, and so sweetly among the hills cf Galilee, and cloth of cotton which He may at will draw which one sees In Italy and other countries has seen with his own eyes the places where over His face to protect Him from the today. A large space Is Inclosed by a wall, the Christ Child played and worked and wind or burning sun. We must look Into with huge gates for an entrance, which are dreamed cf that kingdom which was not to the blue eyes which one meets occasionally shut at night to keep out marauders snd be built with hands today and which were not uncommon in brigands. The divisions between the trav- lre-.. of the hrlst rhlM. he days wheu Nazareth was a Roman pos- eler and his camel or donkey are of a session. We must abandon the Idea of His fragile nature. It is not so much learning that Is going dllipulln( wn the doi.,ors In the Temple One can see such a khan on the road from to make us understand the childhood or the UIlder,tan(J (nat He mi.rely talked as Jericho to Jerusalem, known as the Inn of most wonderful personality that the world d)j today )n he oute, courti (he Oood SamBritani where. In truth, re- has ever knewn as It Is sympathetic appre- ulon mU(,n ,ha, hafJ conie down t0 freibment i, furnished to man and beast, elation of-perhaps I may call It dreaming ambolll,al way that the Arab And no doubt the ipot that potted out oveir-the spots whers those little feet chu,ch of the Nat,v,ty M mereiy passe,i so ugnuy ... - . . ,. ,.r.hw nla.,. of .he . portion or a part of a khan, where the for the sheep on the bins anove wu thousands of Bedouins with their trsveler rested his horse or donkey, and then a town of no 11 tie '"'-- Tot go.t."t Twho have had their camp- either at. alongside of his beast or in an LWd-.:". ng ground theVfrom prehistoric times, adjoining room that had no door for ul- shepherd s staff and looking '"m the ireat i g v but mprely a ,.,, column or csravan route far out upon the great plain Tbey have been ul 7 to ..rensthen the roof. Let us. then. ot Esdraelon. ln rev Child by the great masters deVlng ths Pictures of the Christ they have been strong enough sgaln to get forget our modern Idea of a stable and v the great master, on. must ac- possession of the land which they felt b.- think of th, , b rthp,.ce . :.ur u ,u . knowledge a lack of th. reality .chthe "Ztewi YnXnglng! One any child might have been born except that present age demands. Even In th. Dresden well P" "' J " JMB"Mt the o( , Roman prince or one of the Roman Madonna, said to be th. greatest painting lonely minaret, from wnu n at "" V .,i.locracy It might be well to do awar In th. world, which has been multiplied a sheik call. th. few Mohammedan, who . " '':, el' ? "7 .. . .w. I. .hi. rhriuii.n oitv to orarer. sua u It closer to our own childhood and our own children. The poem hangs on the berry bush When comes the poet's eye. And the whole street Is one masquerade. When Shakespeare passes by. Every child life Is miraculous, it we have the Insight to see it. That He was a re markable child cannot be doubted, and yet we muBt remember that at the age of 12 In the eaet a girl Is given ln marriage and a boy Is often as far developed as a man of 20 ln our land. He does not have to con tend with the physical sciences; be does not have thrust upon him bouks and pamphlets without number, to confuse and distract hi plain and simple thinking. Christ was educated as were all the children of His time, first by the lovely and lowly Mary, His mother, a beautiful type of the purest and most gentle womanhood, and a type that the Roman church has used to dignify woman, so that her place has risen from that of a slave or toy to that of a com panion and helpmate of man. His father was a man of more than ordinary ability. Tradition, which lives for thousands of years In the east, represents him as a seri ous, hard-working man, whose interest was largely In his workbench and In develop ing his children to the best of his ability. Workshop ot Joseph. But to return to this simple work shop, where the Chr'st Child spent many hours ot His day, when His brothers were tending the Bhecp upon the hillside. He brought his wonder ful creative ability to bear upon the simple workmanship which was produced by Jo seph, His fnther. In those days the craft ot the carpenter was very different from what It Is today. Today He would be called a master workman, for then men cared for the impress of the hand upon the work, and each carpenter could turn out all the de tails of the house and bring to bis work the art and training that were necessary to lift him above a mere Bedouin berdtsman or a soldier In the armies of Rome. There is one picture here represented, ex ecuted by Murlllo, who never visited the Holy Land, but who, through his creative genius, and that divine idealism which Is the artist's birthright, gave to It that won derful touch which must make it live for ever. But the face is not intense or for cible enough. The boys of Nazareth have keen, sharp faces, deep set eyes, smooth brows, black or blocd and reddish hair, and aro quick to learn any word that may serve them In the direction of their work. The frequent allusions in the New Testament to the shepherd and his sheep go to prove that the Master was familiar with every detail of the shepherd's life, and one can scarcely understand that unless he climbs over the bills with their olive trees and sycamores, and here and th ere . mprad grove, and watches some boy of 10 or 12 call to his sheep and sees them turn sud denly from their grazing and follow bim, or dart in another direction with the precision of the shepherd dogs of the Scotch High landers. The "sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me" and we know that those little footsteps went in quest frequently of a lost lamb bleating upon the hills which had strayed from His father's flock. Pope ,ro'a Gift a Wonderful Picture. Pope Leo XIII gave to that simple chapel, presided over by the Capuchin monks, a wonderful picture to the author's thinking the most remarkable one and the most ac curate delineation of the subject that has been produced In modern times. Reproduc tion can give only a faint idea ot Its beauty and color and meaning. In the center stands the Chrlct Child, with face turned toward the spectator, working intently with a ground plane upon what appears to be a cross. We know that the cross dates back at least 3,000 years B. C, to the Babylonian and Egyptian kings. At first it meant power since the days of the crucifixion It has come to mean sacrifice. There, then, Is the Christ Child at work. On the right stands bis father, looking In tently at the work, and the artist has fore shadowed in a most happy way the Christ that Is to be that is, we see that the head of the father is like the heads of the Christ that have come down to us through the ages not the conventional head, but the traditional bead, and the head that one sees now and again on the high roads of Galilee today. The father Is Intent upon the work, but cn the other side of the canvas, seated upon the steps of slone and stucco that lead to an upper sleeping apart ment, sits Mary, the mother, with the hand loom arrested for the moment, gazing In tently upon her child, her heart bent upon hereon, dreaming half sadly of His future, with a subconscious thought possessing her or foreboding of the sacrifice and 111 that must betide her child. The artist has made a most happy con trast between the mother snd the father. Ou the ground are some doves picking up bits of straw and the wheat that has fallen from the manger close at hand, wbere the donkey is kept which was necessary for any man who made journeys over the hills to Samaria, or on to Jerusalem, or down to the Great Plain and back again. The simple-hearted monk permitted me to sit there quietly and study this picture and seemed surprised that I cared to linger where the average traveler glanced about, consulted his Baedeker and moved on. The artist had come down to Nazareth, had walked over Its hills, had watched the children at their play or following the sheep patiently as they grazed from hillock to hilltop. Renan and a few German critics have done their utmost to discredit the historical accuracy of these spots that tradition has held to as the birthplace, the workshop and the place of crucifixion of the Master, but when all Is told they only give you their own opinion or what M. Renan thinks or believes, and for my part I prefer, with the men who have loved this life and these holy places, to believe the traditions and the feeling that possesses the poet and the artist as be lingers on these sacred spots. I prefer to believe, Indeed, that "poetry is truer than history." With th Womem at the Kuuulaln. The atternoon Is wearing away, the flocks are coming in from the hillside and the (Continued on Twelfth Page.)