"The full pathos of the scene" by Rev. James Stalker

Reverend James Stalker, M.A., D.D. (1848-1929)

From The Life of Jesus Christ, Revised Edition. London: Fleming H. Revell, 1909, p. 10.

"No friendly house opened its door to receive them, and they were fain to clear for their lodging a corner in the inn-yard, else occupied by the beasts of the numerous travelers. There, that very night, she brought forth her first-born Son; and because there was neither womanly hand to assist her nor couch to receive Him, she wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes and laid Him in a manger.
"Such was the manner of the birth of Jesus. I never felt the full pathos of the scene, till, standing one day in a room of an old inn in the market-town of Eisleben, in Central Germany, I was told that on that very spot, four centuries ago, amidst the noise of a market-day and the bustle of a public-house, the wife of the poor miner, Hans Luther, who happened to be there on business, being surprised like Mary with sudden distress, brought forth in sorrow and poverty the child who was to become Martin Luther, the hero of the Reformation and the maker of modern Europe."

"The full pathos of the scene" by Rev. James Stalker