sers-by. This sort of thing would never be allowed in any Western
country, and, as we are not accustomed to it, it strikes us as very
distressing. Then we come out into an open space where there is a great
building so irregular and piled up that it is difficult to recognise it
as a church. Here are seated on the pavement numerous gaily clothed men
with crucifixes and mementoes of the Holy Land for sale. They spread
their wares out on the paving-stones.

Passing them all we go inside the church and find a darkened atmosphere
where red lamps burn always.

We are led up steps and down steps and this way and that, and have many
things pointed out to us. We are shown, for instance, the slab on which
Christ's body lay and the sepulchre hewn in the rock where He was
buried, and though we know that neither of these things can be true,
still we feel we are in a more sacred place than any we have ever yet
visited. For centuries men of all races and all nations have come here
to worship and pray, as the shepherds and Wise Men came to worship and
pray at the manger in Bethlehem. The slab of the marble is worn away by
the soft lips of adoring pilgrims, who fall prostrate before it and kiss
it while tears roll down their cheeks. Of all that come from far the
Russian pilgrims are the most devout. These poor people, worse off than
any English labourers, save their pence from year to year, and then
tramp hundreds of miles from their country homes to the seaport of
Odessa in Russia in order to come across to see the Holy Land. They live
on the charity of other poor villagers as they go, or they carry sacks
of bread-crusts, getting more and more mouldy every week. Thousands
arrive at the Holy Land every year just before Easter, old and frail men
and women who have undergone incredible hardships. They say, "What does
it matter what happens to our bodies?" and many of them die
uncomplainingly. They are so good and simple that they believe
everything that is told them, and almost faint with joy to think they
have at last arrived at the holy places. The air seems to glow with
their wonderful faith and love and kindliness to one another. If,
indeed, this is not the real sepulchre, at least it is a very holy
place.

After this the guide leads us through so many churches of all sorts that
we are quite bewildered, until at last we come out on a high open place
where all is quiet, and in the midst there stands a huge church quite
different from