of Hebrew shepherds, farmers, and such like: what oppressions they
endured; how they were delivered; and above all what ideals of
righteousness and truth and mercy they cherished, and how they came to
think and feel about God. It makes little difference to us what
particular idler at any particular time sat in the palace at Jerusalem
sending forth tax-collectors to raise funds for his luxuries. It is of
very great interest and concern to us if there were daughters like
Ruth in the barley fields of Bethlehem, if shepherds tended their
flocks in that same country who were so fine in heart and simple in
faith that to them or their children visions of angels might appear
telling of a Saviour of the world. On such as these, in this study,
let us as far as possible fix our attention.




CHAPTER I

SHEPHERDS ON THE BORDER OF THE DESERT


Ancient Arabia is the home of that branch of the white race known as
the Semitic. Here on the fertile fringes of well-watered land
surrounding the great central desert lived the Phoenicians, the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Canaanites who, before the
Hebrews, inhabited Palestine. So little intermixing of races has there
been that the Arabs of to-day, like those of the time of Abraham, are
Semites.

The Hebrew people are an offshoot of this same Semitic group. They