he sees God; visions possess him; compassion streams from his heart over all humanity, over enemies and wrongdoers, in overflowing tenderness.

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and drive you out..."

But why should Jesus withdraw from men, when he has been sent to bring good tidings?! Sedition is aflame in the land of Galilee; it trembles with the violence of its anger: the rich suck the poor dry, the strong assault the weak, and good has been mingled with evil...! Yes — it cries out for a savior... Let him go down to his people once more, to bring the poor the good news of the kingdom of heaven:

"Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..."

***

O true apostle, who preached those immortal principles — where is the West from your pure nature?! Where is it from your sublime saying: "Whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the left also; and if any man will sue you and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also"?! It takes not merely the coat and the cloak: it seizes homelands and rights, strangles liberties, and drowns the world in a flood of blood and tears and pain...

Or are those the rites of the sublime message?! Or has true Christianity been disfigured since it passed to the West, as the Mahatma Gandhi declared at the Asian Conference...?!

***

You who celebrate Christmas at tables where peoples and consciences are sold and free men enslaved: light no candles, and sing no more the hymns of peace and love; celebrate instead the death of consciences, the trampling of principles, and the victory of falsehood....

Judas Iscariot sold Christ to his enemies — for the Jews' pieces of silver — two thousand years ago, all but a little; and here you are, selling his cradle and the birthplace of his message in the twentieth century. You are not of him, and he is not of you. He was raised up in the East... and his immortal message shall remain there...

***

You who drink of the blood of peoples, who dance upon the corpses of the victims, who celebrate the death of justice — yes... enough... Ring no more the bells of peace, and sing no more with Christ: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace" — for you have filled the earth with nothing but sedition and turmoil, and with oppressions before which foreheads bow, and which brand you with the stigma of history....

***

... O marching processions bearing the majesty of sacrifice, O blazing hearts holding the truth of certainty, O thundering voices carrying the power of right — call humanity to witness, call God to witness: that right will find what it seeks, will raise its banner, will bring its light to fullness... in Palestine....

Nablus — Palestine