Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/311

Rh as tradition goes, it points to this spot, and to no other. Justin Martyr, who was born at the beginning of the second century, but a few years after John, the last of the Apostles, was in his grave, speaks of the birth of Christ as having taken place in a cave near. Bethlehem. Origen, who was born in the latter part of the second century, refers to it as a matter about which there was no dispute. And here in the fourth century was erected the great basilica, in everlasting commemoration of the event. In the latter part of that century, Jerome fixed his residence on this spot, to be near the birthplace of his Lord, while he wrought upon his great work of the translation of the Scriptures from the Hebrew and Greek into the Latin tongue. Against this concurrence of tradition there is only a vague uncertainty, so that the balance of probabilities may be said to incline in its favor.

With such a leaning towards belief, it was with a deep feeling that I descended the steps, and found myself in the Grotto of the Nativity. It is like any grotto or cavern, with low roof, only ten feet high, and would be quite dark but for the number of lamps, that cast their light on the marble pavement, in which the most brilliant object is a silver star under the altar, that is supposed to mark the very spot where our Lord came into the world. Encircling it is the inscription: Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est [Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary]. Opposite to this, and but a few feet distant, three steps lower, is another altar, covering the supposed place of the manger.

Had I been wholly incredulous as to the spot, I could not but be moved, if it were only by sympathy with the emotion it awakened in others. It was just before the Holy Week, and Bethlehem as well as Jerusalem was thronged with pilgrims. Here they came in crowds, and