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MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1957.
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The Day Christ was Born
Continuing the dramatic hour-by-hour account
by GEORGE GALE
"WHAT does truth mean?” Pilate was to ask 33 years later of the man who now lay still unborn inside Mary
on the Bethlehem slope.
Pilate did not wait for an answer; no answer may
be possible; Jesus did not give it then. There is mystory
in all things, in ordinary birth, in love, in beauty, in faith; there are no simple explanations,
There is a mystery locked
terrified; but the angel had been gentle and bad said: "Don't be afrald, Zacharlas, for your peti- tion has been granted and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You have to call him John. He will go out like Elijah, to childron, reconcile Lathers and
to make the disobedient into good men, and to make tho people prepare for the Lord."
Gabriel
Zacharina slood in the heady
dark; outside, the people prayed "How am I to know that in Mary's womb as she walls, villages, low-built agglomera- on
is so?" he said to the [heavy, pallent, weary.
ilors of houses clutching the this sides of hilta,.discase ran. Men angol, "I am an oid man; my were blind, deaf, dumb; were wije is getting us in years." lopers; were epileptica ond
"I am Gabriel," the angel paralytica
said, "I have been sent to speak. w you and tell you this good news. But because you haven't believed me, you will be dumb and you won't be able to speak a word until the day that
In the mind of Joseph, too, are restles questionings, In the minds and imaginaions of thousands of Jews around these hills, and in the further hills of Gallice to the north, are pro- phecies and portents, unnamed dreads and fierce hopes.
The deliverer would come; the deliverer would come from Galilee.
"Hear yu Low, house of The land was soft but as I David; is it a small thing for have said, not the poople. That you to weary men, but will yo my God also?" had year, in the Gallinan hills that weary
"Therefore, the Mary and Joseph had left a few written laatab. weeks carlier.
bad Lord himself shall give you a outlawe
a sign Behold, a young woman under grouped themselves man called Judas of Gailles, shall conceive, and bear a son, aball call hla Kako Rand They bided their time.
Immanuel."
Three years later they were to rald Sepphoris, coyital of Galilee, and equip
themselves with weapons.
It
Messiah
was here, among these outlaws, and among the fisher- men on the Sea of Galilee, who helped them and fed them, that they remembered most strongly that this was the land of Israel; and that out of it would come Messiah, an anointed one, a son of David, who would dellver the
country from foreign oppression,
Joseph and Mary belonged to these hills. Joseph was not one of the outlaws, he had his trade; but they knew, both of them, the history of their race, and they believed in the pre- served saying of the prophets,
They knew; too, us all did, the of the times. distempers
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The Jews walted for another Joshua, a Messiah: that is, for a new Jesus and a Christ. And on the hillside, this wintry day outside Bethlehem, Mary reats with Joseph, and about her is his cloak.
Joseph;
Matthew tells us of Luke tells us of Mary. The two stories do not add together; the truth cannot be deduced out of their accounts, but the faith can; the belief can,
Let Joseph think of the story Matthew was later to tell; and Mary of Luke's tale, while the sun briefly warns the slope, and all about them the Jews suffer and comfort themselves their with their prophets and hopes.
The dream
SO,
not
Joseph been Then they
Nine moaths
he had reflooted, married; only engaged. one day.
shortly before were married, Mary had come and said she was pregnant,
Joseph smiles at the recolles- tion; his first instinct had been to break off the engagement.
Then, he remembered the day well, he had fallen asleep, hla mind in a turmoil. He lind always been devout, and also kindly, and loved the girl be hoped to marry. How could he почт
Ho slept uncaally that might, and his mind was full of dreams. Then he dreamed that an angel came and said to him: "Joseph, son of David, do not
| be⋅ afraid to accept Mary_as your wife, for the child she has ponotired has been consolved through the Holy Spiri Bha will bear you a Bom. You are to call in Jesus, the Saviour, tor He will savO His people from their sins."
Joseph woke up. Illa mind was clear, the doubts had gone. He accepted Mary as his wife, Then they had had to come ali way from Nazareth · to Bethlehem, to register in
hl: family home, and here they ware, resting on the slope,
The priest
Mary now, too, between the paina
which come more fre- quently, drowsed. She la glad that soon the baby will come.
It didn't roully begin with mô, sho reflected. It bema with my exictly aunt, Elizabeth, and old Zacharias, har husband. Thoy had been married a long time; neliber of them ever thought they would have any children.
One Zacharias was a priest, day when he was at the altar burning incenso the people worshipping woro oūkaido, praying, les
Zacharias prayed, and · sud- denly on his right-he WENT BE angal. The old nclesi had hew
it happens. Be sure it will all happen
in due course.
Outside, the prayers had stop- ped. Everybody was what wondering
kept the priest s0 Then long Inside.
the old man came out. He could not peak. He gestured to the people, they saw him trying to make signs, but he could not speak. He still had a few days of duty to do
of that one day in
Bethlehem that
changed the
of the world
history of the
in the temple, then he went happen as you say." home, still dumb.
angel had gone away,
became.
Elizabeth Shortly
She had no doubts, pregnant.
"How good was wholly glad. the Lard is to me," she would гедоре щу say, "dockding to disgrace,**
Mary smiled, remembering Elizabeth's sample pleasure, Sho had not known of all this for Ave or six months. She was living not far off in Nazareth, a young girl, and she had just dear become engaged to this man Joseph,
One day. Mary recalled, the had been sitting alone in her father's home. Suddenly before ler, coming in through the door, there had been an angel,
you
tre
"Greetings, Mary. highly favoured!" he had said to her. Mary did not like this What did he language at all
mean?
"Don't be alarmed," he said, "God loves you. You are going mother of a son, and to be a you are to call Him Jesus. He will be a great man, He will be known as the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of. His ancestor, David, and He will be King over the people of Jacob. His reign shall never end.".
"How can this be so?" Mary remembered saying. "I am not married."
The
answered
her.
angel "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. That is why your child will be called Holy, the Son of God Look: your aunt Elizabeth has conceived a son and she is in her old age. She was called barren and now she is in her sixth month; nothing whatever is impossible to God."
And the
Mary's visit
Mary smiled; she remembered it all brightly, so clearly.
She had straightaway got Bome travelling things together
and hurried off across the plain of
to Esdracion
Judea, where Elizabeth Lived.
ber way. went
the
of house Zacharias,
Rand
Everybody was amazed at his decision, and even more amazed subsequently, lor he suddenly
ogalo; began speaking tongue was no longer auf," and he began prophesying:-
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and zedeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation house of HK for us in the
thou, David....And servant child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt to before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their
1135...
She knew вся straight Elizabeth and
She shouted "Hello" to Elizabeth
who had not seen Elizabeth,
The child inside her, started.
So John the Baptist was her leapod.
born, He lived in the wilder- Elizabeth saw Mary in the mess, so we are told, until the doorway and suddenly called time came for him to preach the
coming of the Chrlat,
oul
*Blessed
are and you
This is blessed is your child!
to have G indeed an honour, visit from the mother
of my Lord!"
In the rain
Outside Bethlehem the brief un had gone. A sudden squall of rain hits the faces of Mary and Joseph.
in it."
Mary had stayed with Eliza- months, both for about three end indeed Elizabeth was almost about to have her baby when decided to return to Mary
"We had better get back to Joseph and to Nazareth.
Elizabeth, Mary had heard, the village" says Joseph. "The had had her child and called radh gets heavier. There le hall him John; and there again, it
The neigh- They wrap their clothes about had been strange. bours had all expected him to them. Two simple people, a be called Zacharles, after his carpenter, and this young wife,
and at the raming father,
he holding her shoulder, trudge ceremony, after the infant had
back to the village through the been circumcised, they all olive fields. Her pains are casumed he would be so called, getting worse.
"No," But Elizabeth was firra.
called she said, "he is to be John."
The Baptist
The neighbours signalled to Zacharias, who still had not spoken since that day in the for his temple, asking him opinion. He motioned for 1 tablet, and wrote "His name is "Lot it John."
"I belong to the Lord, body and soul," said Mary,
son
OLD LOWS ALMANACK
"We must hurry. You must lie down," says Joseph. His arm la round her shoulders, taking some of the weight. has been a long time, these nine months. It is almost over,
TOMORROW: No room at the inn
Revolution breaks out among middle-class zansculattes after Thomeycrofts proposal of a wages. policy is rejected by Trade Union leaders as Socialism. "Let en eat cake Isays Pompadour Ted HU.
It
: PROPHECIES FOR 1958 waria Copyrigne by ktranaredne with the Meskehezten du mariah;