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fUpssfnflpr Vol. 39 SPELMAN SEMINARY, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, DECEMBER, 1922. No. 3 The Lord is my Shepherd. Ps. 23. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want for rest, for He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: I shall not want for refreshment, for He leadeth me beside the still waters: I shall not want for forgiveness, for He restoreth my soul: I shall not want for guidance, for He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake: I shall not wantfor companionship, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, . Thou art with me: I shall not want for comfort, for Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me: I shall not want for sustenance, for Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: I shall not want for joy, for Thou anointest my head with oil and my cup runneth over: I shall not want for anything in this life, for surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: I shall not want for anything in the life to come, for I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Arranged by John R. Mott, 2 SPELMAN MESSENGER. THE GREAT DAY. Since Christmas came, the true measure In Bethlehem the children are nearly all of a man has been that which is, or may Christmas is a lot of trouble. It is very, poor. They have no Christmas stockings be, within him, and come an to oh, very expensive! It is extravagant. It thereby has hang up, and no turkey for dinner. immense is tiring. But it is worth it all—all the appreciation of the value of men. (But sometimes there is halauwa, honey¬ They are “hands” no ed money, all the effort, all the pains; for it longer; they are in¬ pastry; and if they’re very lucky, a dividuals, each with a great roast is the great day in all the year. The Fourth possibility of pigeon stuffed with young wheat.) value. To of July, Washington’s Day, Lincoln’s Day, ignore or neglect them, or fail Some of the boys and girls have to sleep in Memorial Day all stand for patriotism, and doing what we can to benefit them, may in the single-room belt (house) along with be to miss a treasure Labor Day stands for rest, and New Year’s by oversight, and the goats and sheep, and the family donkey. blear our own vision to There are stands for a fresh start, but Christmas by failure discern. perhaps a thousand beits in stands for everything: for the love of Perhaps that is why we make as much Bethlehem; most of them wee white lime¬ as we can of stone affairs with a country and the love of man, for work and everybody at Christmas single window, which is often rest and a fresh start, for the life that is time, and neglecting our ordinary pursuits, margined with blue, in honor of and the life that is to be, for hope, for joy, give gifts where we can, spread feasts the Virgin Mary. where we for civilization. can, give such evidence as we I have seen a good many children in the Moreover, it stands for fulness of life. may that everybody whom we can reach villages of Palestine, but I doubt if any are is to us, so attractive as those of the little town It is no pinched-up festival. The full important and that there is love in our own hearts. stockings and the full stomachs, with five miles from Jerusalem. I remember “Peace on earth, good-will to men” that Christmas which some of us celebrate it, have a good morning coming across a deal of fitness, material tokens though seems a long time coming, but no one need couple of youngsters playing marbles. wait for its universal sway. It has come With dried they are, of matters chiefly spiritual. “It figs! to every one On the is true, ’ ’ says a recent writer, ‘ ‘that Jesus who feels it within him. It way to the church of the Nativity, has been brought to earth, and there it is we Christ offers the example of an absolute passed two or three inns outside of for the taking, and never was a time when which renunciation of much that makes up the kneeling camels chewed complacent reachers out for it seemed so life of the greater proportion of mankind; many. cuds. The church itself was not crowded, but it is done for the sake of the life.” Merry Christmas to all of them, and to but the “cave” underneath the main audi¬ all mankind ! For the sake of the life; that there should torium was hectic with pushing, strident Ediu. S. Martin in The Youth’s be more, not less; that it should be better Companion. people who had come from many places to to live and better worth living, but valu¬ see or to offer incense. There were Bed¬ able and livable in spite of privation, or ouins, with aquiline noses and the keen falcon even at times by dint of it. eyes of desert men; suave Poilus in It was that enormous revaluation of life horizon blue; Ozzies, plumes a-waving: that came to earth on the first Christmas Italian soldiers, also, with gay feathers in Day that makes that day the most impor¬ their hats; stately, erect Bethlehem women tant in all human history; that makes the CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM. wearing a steeple-like headgear draped over with a white writer just quoted find it reasonable to The little gray leaves of the olive groves shawl, and vivid em¬ aver that history, in the real sense of it, twinkledin the palliddawnlight that Christ¬ broidery of purple and crimson and gold on the only begins with the birth of Christ, since mas morning as I rode into Bethlehem. bosom; drab-uniformed Tommies the people that have not yet claimed It had been raining most of the night; the making cockney comments on the show. There were Christianity have no true history, but a road seemed to flow with mud, and I felt priests, too, Armenian, mere chronicle of ruling dynasties, butch, chilled and gloomy. But after a few min¬ Catholic, Greek; and incessant bowings and eries, and the like. utes of leading my horse down the twist¬ chattings. At one side of the bediz¬ The great knowledge that it belongs to ing, cobbled street, I arrived at the Lu¬ ened cave was a silver star that was the us to acquire is the knowledge of Christ¬ theran pastor’s house, where I was able cause, so it is said, of the Crimean war. One sect of mas; what its spirit is, what it stands for, to get warmed up by his hospitable stove. priests had stolen it from an¬ what was the new idea it brought to earth. He was a solemn but kindly-faced Syrian, other; the diplomats had got to work on it. * * * However that Round that idea our present world re¬ loyal to the Germans (he owed his ed¬ may be, many lives had been lost within the volves. Our civilization is based on it, ucation to them), and obviously aged by cave, in other re¬ moving forward as it accords with it, hes¬ the war. ligious fracases. And on this Christmas itating or receding as it conflicts with it. I wanted a guide who should pom*- out morning, the first since the armistice, at least two British Tommies had to stand on The problem of our politics and of our ec¬ the necessary things in the Church of the onomics is the infusion of the spirit of Nativity. He provided one, his 11-year-old guard with fixed bayonets,—to keep the Greek Christ into the relations of men. Of daughter, the most charming of drago¬ priests from massacring the Ar¬ menian course that is an enormous task. Men mans. Nayeeda had that happy eagerness priests, or vice versa. This, in the cave stable where the Prince of Peace have been working on it for nineteen cen¬ and sympathy which make Syrian children was born! turies, and it seems sometimes as if they so appealing. She insisted on filling one of My guide, Nayeeda, must have sensed how had only begun. There goes on intermin¬ my pockets with Christmas eggs, dyed suffocating, how blasphemous was all this sectarian ably the conflict between “It is good to red and blue, and etched by her own hand pomp, pride and have, to rule, to compel,” and “It may with naive likenesses of the wise men, the ceremony; for, as if to divert me, she call¬ ed be better to forego, to serve, to yield.” star, and the shepherds. Nayeeda had su¬ my attention to the little wax bambino that It is not having or foregoing that is im¬ perior advantages—shoes, for example, lay in a gaudy manger (the “true” one had been carried off to portant; it is that within us that is helped high buttoned ones. German she could Europe years and developed, now by having, and again speak like Arabic, and good English. She before). by going without. That is what is im¬ knew her Christmas hymns and Lutheran “That is the baby!” she said. “The portant—that which is within us. traditions. ignorant—they think it grows a wee bit SPELMAN MESSENGER. 3 bigger every hind a day from Christmas. But yoke of placid brown oxen.