In Sunday school I used to hear of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and other places in the Bible, but I hadno idea then that there were any such places with people living in them to-day. But there are. We call the land where these places are Bible Land, because so much is told about them in the Bible. Bible Land is at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern part of Bible Land is called Syria, the southern part is called the Holy Land, or Palestine.

There are a great many cities in Syria and Palestine that were alive when Christ was born and are still living, and there are a great many places that are now dead—nothing left of them but ruins. But there is a city mentioned in the Bible that was a thousand years old when Christ was born and yetis still very much alive. It is the oldest city. Its name is Damascus.

The main street in Damascus was called “Straight,” because it was not quite as crooked as its other streets. On both sides of Straight Street are shops, for Damascus was once the greatest shopping city in the East; the shops are called bazaars. Some of the bazaars are not big enough to hold a piano. One department store in New York would hold all the bazaars in Damascus many times over. In these bazaars the people of Damascus used to sell only things they made themselves. They sold gold and silver jewelry, rugs, shawls, swords, and silks, and they made everything by hand, for there was no machinery. Now there is machinery to make all these things, but it is not in Damascus. Many of these things are now made by machinery in England and sent to Damascus to be sold.