1956-12-15 — Page 4

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( THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1956.

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AQUAMPRINE

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•

LIPSTICK NAIL ENAMEL MANICURE SET

BETHLEHEM

IN HISTORY

NR

By CHARLES BRADLEY

"O one knows for how Ruth was the great grand- At the time of Christ's birth, many thousands of mother of David, the greatest of David or even Rul would have the Hebrew kings and nearly, been quite at home in the perhaps, the greatest of the village, ved in Bethlehem. Hebrew poets.

years

have men

Christ, so the story goes, was

It Was there- tiny

AL was from Bethlehem, the born in manger located in a triangle of stone houses village of his birth, that David cave (the New Testunen: Is not spreading easily over limestone hill six from

Jerusalem

at went forth as a water boy on clear about the cave) while, in miles the dreadful day that Saul and the nearby felds, according

his men inced Goliath and the St Luke, angels appeared to when

Philistine army. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt.

COLIATH dared any man to

face him and no man, at first dared.

"certain poor shepherds watch- ing their flocks by night."

For reasons which are now d.Mult to follow, the chroniclers of Christ's birth seem 10 have one out of their way to cm- phasise the paverly of the situa- tion.

An ancient prople, will only dimly known to archaeologists, had named it Ephrata. The Jews, when they came to the promised land. named it David, the youngest, smallest The cave.

in the limestone, Bethlehem, or house of bread.

least impressive

was no doubt simple enough, They did not, apparently, lurge and important family, did and no doubt It was used by reflect long over the choice of care, because he had faith in the the thrifty villagers as a natural tightness of hly chuse arki

stabil

the nume.

1

ان

a

But St Luke appears to have been misled about the "poor shepherds." Historians are con- vinced that, then as; now, the felda were rich and gret cong. 1 entirely unlikely that the shepherds were watching their flocks just there.

MO

on

was the

[ORE likely, they were

watching their Blocks the hu which sloper down behind the village to the plain. "Poor" probably intended to designate fact that they were unimpo, «ant, humble men and to emphasise the significance of Christ's mis- sion by making it clear that it was to ordinary men that the angels chose to reveal them- selves.

There is, too, a story to the effect that Christ, in fact, was a descendant of David and of Ruth. If true, it would establish an interesting continuity both in the history of the Bible and

the history of Bethlehem,

Tho records do not, however, confirm or deny the story, and since Joseph and Mary were driven stay in stable it

reasonable, seems

at least, 10 conclude that neither had any close relatives in the village.

Littic

heard of mnote ls Bethlehem until the year 127 when

the Emperor Hadrian interested in it. He ap- that the

believed

itself, had some strange mystical signincance.

In any case he had a grove Planted for the worship of Adonis, over the cave in which he believed Christ was born.

The Grove of Adonis remain

ed until the year 330 whẹn

what he believed to be a seribus

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Behind the Scenes

in Washington

The Story behind a Crisis

in the Far East

TARTLING disclosures of behind-the-scenes manoeuvres on the sliplomatic front in Washington, many of which had an important bearing on major issues of policy, both

Constantine determined to erase British and American, in the Far East, are contained in

blasphemy. The STOVA

was the next instalment of THE BURGESS STORY in the Maicon down and a church bulle SUNDAY POST-HERALD this coming Sunday."

on the site,

A view of modern-day Bethlehem. Top of page: A shopherd tends his flock on a hill above Bethlehem- the scene has not changed since shephards on the Came hillside were told of the first Christmas.

God would) sce It appears to be a simple believed that translation of old Ephrata.

him through, Perhaps the namo came The same sense of security originally from the richness of and of the fitness of things THER

cornfelds below. There which ruris through the Bookk

tha

Christian churches and several monasteries

the dia was always bread in Bethlehem, of Ruth seems to have infected followed until, now,

I had not change of Ruth

at all by David.

tinguishing mark of the vil

18 tho abundance: of Perhaps he understood that loge the time of the

simple communlly In Christian fastitutions. Gradua one of the litrary gems of the the

of Bethlehem The Book

was better left ly, too, the villagers became Old Testamen

100, undisturbed. In any

case, Chrisidans until now they are simple more after Ruth the story of

after he became king, he did Christian almost to a man, a young widow returned to Bethlehem in order not, as other kings had done, The Anal chapter in the his to be with her husband's people, glorify his native village or tory of the village came with to build

It Into

n. the arrival of St. Jerome, Jeromo and who tolled amid the alien endeavour

was determined to tre

to translate the corn" to support her mother-in great city,

It strange fact, that Bible into Latin,

*** Baiḥlošam never did become an His stately, exact Latin Important town. From its hil, flocks the calm and quiet of the we learn 1 commands a great plain arti village, and the continuity of

wa main

To a milliary which runs through his

Dossiblilules,

Both

ben

from the

good and

mares of the

served to

cated factioľní Lond. Befalles “

tical

ST

of

trinisiatibi paralels the he must have found there in his „bare study,

Once, indeed in a remote in code of moral by wala mid period never properly identified, "could live with

with a the Philisines did build a rolf, die mus have been able to feel

theros dong not however,

Old" and Have Tastes long.

minimum

It seems curious, now, to think prom" to

New

of the

of the rich and important The Explanation seems to be Probably, no other village in Bost marrying Buth In to that it was ret apart. As far, the world has been the soone of do Ɛ his duty by his decessed back as the Book of Ruth at to much history and no other brothers but it was on arrange Somst, I had u hoiritual algal has changed the world wilts?ho

Lige und webhot to be tam- little change in the own doma

The period dealt with is that preceding and during the Korean war and, for the first time, the background story of the many differences in British 'and- Ameri- can policy, particularly on the Far East, is related.

Guy Burgess, the British diplomat.. whose disappearance with Donald Maclean behind the Iron Curtain is still a topic of discussion, alto tells in the the riotorious SUNDAY POST-HERALD this Sunday of the work "China Lobby, in Washington.

Healio recalls his analysis for the British Foreign Office of the Chinese Communist movement and its effect on Hong Kang, both proved correct by subsequent events.

Make sure of your SUNDAY

POST HERALD. To mor.