in front, so that everybody can see into them. Yet Mary and
Joseph, after all their long journey from Nazareth, could not find even
an empty _leewan_ to lie down in.

[Illustration: The shepherd's care.]

Near that inn there was a place in which asses and camels were kept.
It was perhaps a cave in the side of the hill. And because there was
no room for them in the inn, Mary and Joseph had to go into that stable
to sleep, and in that stable Jesus Christ was born. Mary wrapped Him
in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in the manger in the place where the
animals' food was kept.

On the hill where Bethlehem stands there are green places where
shepherds feed their flocks. There are wild animals in Palestine; and
all night long the shepherds of Bethlehem watched to see that no harm
happened to their sheep. One night an angel of the Lord stood by them
and a bright light shown round about them. The shepherds were afraid;
but the angel said, 'FEAR NOT; FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD TIDINGS (OR
NEWS) OF GREAT JOY, WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE. FOR UNTO YOU IS BORN
THIS DAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID A SAVIOUR, WHICH is CHRIST THE LORD.'
And suddenly there was seen with the angel a number of the angels of
heaven. And they praised God, and said, 'GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST,
AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN.'

When the light faded, and the song ended, and the angels had gone back
into heaven, the shepherds climbed quickly over the hillside to
Bethlehem. And there, in the stable near the inn, they found Mary and
Joseph, and the Babe lying in the manger, as the angels had said.

Jesus was the eldest son of His mother. And the eldest sons in Jewish
houses, when they were forty days old, were taken to the Temple, and
given to God.

So now, when Jesus was nearly six weeks old, He was brought from
Bethlehem by Mary and Joseph to the Temple at Jerusalem. The mothers
used to take a lamb with them, or two pigeons, as a sacrifice to God.
Mary took two pigeons. She was not rich enough to buy a lamb.

A long way on the eastern side of the Jordan, there were countries
where the people used to watch the sun and the moon and the stars very
carefully. If they saw anything new and strange in the heavens, they
thought it meant that something wonderful was going to happen. But
some of them knew and had heard from the Jews about God, and about the
Messiah who was coming; and they, like the Jews, were longing for Jesus.

One day t