BETHLEHEM 
In every age of Christianity Bethlehem has held a solemn place in the recollections 
of mankind. The history of which it witnessed the commencement can have no equal 
in its grandeur or in its purpose, for it extends to all the generations of the earth, 
and it proclaims mercy to all. The magnitude of the Gospel is so vast, that all 
human greatness disappears in its presence ; its heights are sublime above all the 
imaginations of created beings; its depths ai’e profound beyond all their penetration. 
To have shared in the progress of this mighty minister of good, to have been 
visited by its visible presence, to have borne the vestiges of its early wonders, gives 
a title to the noblest honours which can be demanded by memory, or paid by gratitude. 
The very caverns and forests which echoed the Divine voice; the hills and waters 
which witnessed its power over Nature; the very dust of the Divine feet — all are 
consecrated. We feel that God has been there, and we involuntarily deem that His 
presence has not altogether departed. 
“ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice 
in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and 
this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness .” 1 
The place of the Nativity was distinctly marked in prophecy. “ But thou, Beth-lehem 
Ephratali, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall 
He come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been 
of old, from everlasting.” 2 
Humanly speaking, nothing could be more improbable than that Bethlehem should 
be the birth-place of the Son of Mary: for the country of Joseph was in the northern 
province of Palestine, and it was also expressly prophesied that this northern province 
should be the chief scene of his existence, and even the very first which was to acknowledge 
his glory. 
“ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond 
Jordan, in Galilee of the nations; the people that walked in darkness have seen a 
great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the 
light shined.” 3 
Yet the prophecy which assigned the place of Nativity was so distinct, as to fix 
the unanimous expectation of all the Jewish authorities on Bethlehem. When the 
Magi came to Jerusalem, perhaps conjecturing that the King was to be born in his 
own royal city, the “ chief priests and scribes of the people,” being gathered together 
by order of Herod to determine the birth-place, “ said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea, 
for thus it is written by the prophet.” 4 And in Bethlehem he was sought, and found. 
Jerem. xxiii. 5 , 6. : Micah, v. 2. 3 Isaiah, ix. 1, 2. Matt. iv. 16. 4 Matt. ii. 4, 5. 
