Excerpt from Jesus of Nazareth

A long time ago there was a carpenter who lived in a little town called Nazareth. His tools were simple and few, and the wood he had to work with was poor, so that he could not do the fine work carpenters do nowadays. His name was Joseph, and he was quite poor. But he married a girl named Mary, and lived humbly and contentedly in his little house in Nazareth. Mary would do the simple housework and would spin flax or grind barley, while Joseph worked busily with his tools, and so they got along quite nicely.

One day Mary was made very happy by God whispering in her heart that she should very soon have a little child. That was good news to Mary, and, as she thought about it, she determined that she would name her baby Jesus.

Now, some t1me after Mary had learned this good news, Joseph came home one day and said they should have to go to Bethlehem, another town, on some matter of business. SO he saddled his patient little donkey, and put Mary on its back, and took his staff, and set out for Bethlehem. But when they reached Bethlehem, he found that there was no room for them in any house or at the inn. So he went into a little stable of the inn, where the cattle lived, and he and Mary lay down in the sweet hay to sleep. That very night, as they lay sleeping on the hay in the stable, the little baby was born.

The good news had at last come true, and Mary was very happy indeed. She laid her little baby-boy in a manger, a trough out of which the animals ate their hay and grain, which made a very cosy crib for him.

Meanwhile a company of shepherds, who were watching over their sheep in the pasture outside of the town, were greatly startled to hear a wonderful voice which seemed to come to them out of the sky, and which told them that Jesus was tobe born that very night. They determined to go at once and see this baby. SO they found the stable, and were the first persons to give their welcome to the little child Jesus.

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