man from Galilee opened his mouth in Jerusalem, his speech betrayed him. The Galileans derived at least one advantage from their intercourse with foreigners; it made them less exclusive, and prepared them in a degree for a religion which should be addressed to Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus Christ, when he began his ministry, did not address crowds in Jerusalem, nor seek disciples from among the Scribes and Pharisees, but came into the towns of Galilee, and called fishermen from their humble occupation.
The prophecy in Micah led the Jews to look to Bethlehem Ephrathah as the destined birth-place of the Messiah; and it was made an objection to the claims of Jesus of Nazareth that his home was in Galilee.
Bethlehem is a long white town on a ridge, with terraced olive groves, at a distance of 6 miles from Jerusalem. Here, enclosed within the walls of the Greek convent, is the venerable Church of the Nativity, now parcelled out among the Greek, Latin, and Armenian monks, who house together from necessity in different quarters of the convent. The church, built by Helena, the mother of Constantine, is one of the oldest in the world; and the cave beneath it under the choir is the traditional Cave of the Nativity. It is mentioned by Justin Martyr in the second century; and Origen, in the fourth, says that "there is shown at Bethlehem the cave where He was born, and the manger in the cave." "It is the only sacred place, as far as I know (says Conder), which is mentioned before the establishment of Christianity by Constantine; yet it is remarkable that Jerome found it no longer in possession of the Christians. "Bethlehem," he says, "is now overshadowed by the grove of Tammuz, who is Adonis; and in the cave where Christ wailed as a babe the paramour of Venus now is mourned."
Mr Bartlett, in his "Walks about Jerusalem," deems the
