Their entanglements are tragic, but they are not trumpery or accidental.

Everything has a meaning; they are loyal to great names as men are loyal to great nations; they have differences about which they feel bound to dispute to the death; but in their death they are not divided.
Jerusalem is a small town of big things; and the average modern city is a big town full of small things.

All the most important and interesting powers in history are here gathered within the area of a quiet village; and if they are not always friends, at least they are necessarily neighbours.

This is a point of intellectual interest, and even intensity, that is far too little realised.

It is a matter of modern complaint that in a place like Jerusalem the Christian groups do not always regard each other with Christian feelings.
It is said that they fight each other; but at least they meet each other.
In a great industrial city like London or Liverpool, how often do they even meet each other?
In a large town men live in small cliques, which are much narrower than classes; but in this small town they live at least by large contacts, even if they are conflicts.
Nor is it really true, in the daily humours of human life, that they are only conflicts.