New Paths through Old Palestine

Chapter 4: I GO OVER TO BETHLEHEM

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About This Book

A traveler's series of pilgrimage sketches recounts journeys across Palestine, blending sensory descriptions of landscape, ruins, and local customs with observations of modern changes such as railroads, motor vehicles, and aeroplanes. Each chapter visits a holy site—Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, Bethany, the Mount of Olives, the Garden, and crossings into Egypt and the Dead Sea region—pairing biblical memory with wartime scars and everyday rural life. The narrative contrasts ancient traditions and sacred geography with technological progress and reflects on possibilities for the land's social and spiritual future.

I GO OVER TO BETHLEHEM

There was a baby born in Bethlehem.
I know they say
That this and that’s in doubt, and, for the rest
That learned men who surely should know best
Explain how myths crept in, and followers’ tales confused the truth.

I know—but anyway
There was a baby born in Bethlehem
Who lived and grew and loved and healed and taught
And died—but not to me.
When Christmas comes I see Him still arise,
The gentle, the compassionate, the wise,
Wiping Earth’s tears away, stilling her strife;
Calling, “My path is Peace; My way is Life!”
—Author Unknown.