time to time ordered a census to be
taken of the empire that he might know its resources and reap from it a
richer harvest of taxes. It was probably between the months of December
and March, B.C. 5-4, that such a census was being taken in the province
of Syria.

In accordance with ancient Jewish usage, all citizens repaired to the
tribe and village from which they were descended, and were there
enrolled. In the town of Nazareth in the north lived Joseph, a village
carpenter, and Mary, his espoused wife, who though a virgin was great
with child, having been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and the mystery
having been revealed to her and her betrothed husband. They were both
descended from the royal line of David, and therefore to Bethlehem they
must go. With us such a journey of eighty miles would mean no more than
stepping on a railway car at nine o'clock in the morning and stepping
off at noon. But with them it meant a toilsome journey on foot of
several days. Slowly they wended their way southward, led on by the
irresistible hand of Caesar, far away on his throne. The ancient Hebrew
prophecy of Micah and the imperial decree of Caesar thus marvelously
fitted into each other and worked together. Mary must have known of this
prophecy, and we know not with what a sense of mystery and fear and joy
she drew near to the predicted place where the Messiah was to be born.

Bethlehem sits like a crown on its rocky ridge. At length its walls and
towers loomed in the distance, and then presently up the steep road
climbed the carpenter and his espoused wife and passed through the gate
into the village. When they came to the inn, it was already crowded with
visitors, driven thither by the decree of Caesar that had set all
Palestine in commotion. In connection with the inn, generally the
central space of its four-square inclosure, but probably in this case a
cave in the limestone rock, was a stable, or place for the camels and
horses and cattle of the guests. Among these oriental people it was (and
is) no uncommon thing for travelers, when the chambers of the inn were
fully occupied, to make a bed of straw and spend the night in this
place. In this stable, possibly the very cave where now stands the
Church of the Nativity, Mary and Joseph found lodgings for the night. It
was not a mark of degradation or social inferiority for them to do this,
though it was an indication of their meager means, as wealthy visitors
would doubtless have