252 ; BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

Bethlehem has long been regarded.as one of the earth’s
most hallowed shrines. Over the place where Jesus was
born, devout souls have built a magnificent church. The
stately edifice is supported on forty-eight Corinthian columns,
seventeen feet high. The lamps in this sacred church of the
nativity are never quenched.

What city of the earth has such grand _ historic memo-
riesP We pay glad pilgrimages to the birthplaces of the
great, but what birthplace is so dear to the world as Beth-

lehem ?
They sing to me of princely Tyre,
That old Phceenician gem,
Great Sidon’s daughter of the North,
But I will sing of Bethlehem!

They speak of Rome and Babylon,
What can compare to them?

So let them praise their pride and pomp, _
But Iwill speak of Bethlehem!

They praise the hundred-gated Thebes,
Old Mizraim’s diadem;

The city of the sand-girt Nile,
But I will sing of Bethlehem!

They speak of Athens, star of Greece,
Her hill of Mars, her academe,

Haunts of old wisdom and fair art,
But I will speak of Bethlehem!

Dear city where heaven met with earth,
Whence sprang the rod of Jesse’s stem,

Where Jacob’s star first shone;—of thee
I'll sing, O happy Bethlehem!

When Joseph and Mary reached the end of their long jour-
ney, they found Bethlehem so crowded that they had to be con-
tent with very inferior accommodation. The one large hotel,
or Khan, was fully occupied. ‘There was no room for them
in the inn.” And so it came to pass that Jesus was born,