Lands of Sacred Story, Lands of Sacred Story, SKETCHES OF TRAVEL And Personal Experiences which appeared in The Christian Union during 1908-1909. BY JAMES T. NICHOLS, Editor Christian Union. Introduction by CHARLES S. MEDBURY. DES MOINES. IOWA THE CHRISTIAN UNION PRESS 1910 Copyright 1910 by JAMES T. NICHOLS. INTRODUCTION. It is a pleasure to introduce a man one loves, to speak upon a theme of sacred interest. The very introduction gives one a sort of fellowship with the message that is borne to the people, and he feels a selfish joy in the good that is done. Such is the feeling of the writer of these lines as he speaks to the public of James T. Nichols and the new book, "The Lands of Sacred Story." Mr. Nichols as editor of the Christian Union, has proven himself a writer of rare power. God has given him the ability to say much in little space. His editorials have taken rank as among the very best things that have been said for our people's distinctive work and in the advocacy of the gen- eral advance movement of the religious world. Many of us have felt that his writings should have a far wider field than that afforded by a State paper, even if the latter be of exceptional value and of large circulation. But when this man of God turns to the narrative of his own travels in the land made sacred by the ministry of Jesus, he is at his best, Of reverent faith and discerning judgment, he enters so sympathetically into the narrative that one feels the story of the land even as he sees the land declare it. It is to be noted, too, that the writer of this book had exceptional opportunities in his journey through the countries of the East. He did not go with a cruise party with fixed schedule and 2018743 trying limits of time. Mr. Nichols traveled in- dependently and much of the time alone. He tar- ried at his pleasure, at points in the journey that impressed him deeply, and was able thus to absorb the rich things the trip affords for the life of meditation and the heart of deep feeling. More than that, by reason of his traveling in the way he did, he had experiences wholly unusual some- times humorous, sometimes perilous. These he has sketched in the work before us in a way to quicken interest greatly. As a last word let me commend this book not only to travelers themselves, who will delight to refresh their minds by this interesting study, but let me even more especially commend it to men and women, young and old, who feel that they may never have the privilege of foreign travel. I believe Mr. Nichols will prove to such, a guide in sacred pathways who will be a blessing indeed. He will make real the lands of the Bible. He will make the incidents of the long ago live. He will bring face to face with the Lord. He will answer questions and quiet doubts. He will broaden the horizon and deepen the faith of his readers. I could wish that thousands of young people might follow this devoted servant of the Lord in his happy, helpful journeyings through "The Lands of Sacred Story." CHAS. S. MEDBURY. INDEX TO CHAPTERS. Introduction 5 CHAPTER I. Glimpses of Life on an Ocean Steamship 17 A Floating Palace Coal Supply In the Re- frigerator With the Stokers Life Boats Five Meals a Day A Storm at Sea "Thank the Lord they are Swearing yet" Trouble with Steerage Passengers Wireless Telegraphy. CHAPTER II. Montreal to London 22 Agreeable Companions The EmeraJd Isle Giants Causeway Liverpool English Trains A Fast Ride. CHAPTER III. Rambles Through London 27 A World in itself St. Paul's Cathedral with its Whispering Gallery Westminster Abbey Horn- sey Tabernacle Spurgeon's Tabernacle Wesley's Chapel A Jewish Synagogue Royal Albert Hall The Monument The Black Death. CHAPTER IV. Rambles Through London (Continued) 41 The Gunpowder Plot The tower Dr. Barn- ardo's Homes British Museum The Royal Mint. CHAPTER V. Rambles Through London (Continued) 57 Alone and Lost A few incidents The Royal Exchange Scan's Museum Madam Tussand's Wax Works The National Gallery London's Greatest Curse In the Slums at Midnight. CHAPTER VI. In the Shadow of Mt. Vesuvius 67 Landing at Naples An Italian Guide Tomb of ' Virgil. CHAPTER VII. In the Track of an Apostle 73 On an Italian Ship The City that was doomed Halting at Syracuse Malta Paul's Three Months at Malta. CHAPTER VIII. The Front Door of Egypt 82 Alexandria Pompey's Pillar Hypatia Alex- andrianean Library. CHAPTER IX. The Playground of Moses 85 Cairo City of Antiquity Yankee Doodle The Pyramids The Sphynx. CHAPTER X. Egypt to Syria 98 Quarantined Beyrout Visiting the Asylum. CHAPTER XI. Damascus 103 Over the Mountains of Lebanon The Immortal City The Old Wall Baalbek The Great Stone Noah's Ark The Mountaineers. CHAPTER XII. Beyrout to Nazareth no Tyre Haifa On to Nazareth. CHAPTER XIII. The Home of the Carpenter 117 The Food Problem Fined Joseph's Work- shop A Divided Church A Wonderful View. CHAPTER XIV. Across the World's Greatest Battlefield 126 Endor Nain Shunem It is Well JezreeiK Jezebel gets the Vineyard Naboth Condemned Jezebel's Death. CHAPTER XV. Jenin to Jerusalem 136 Hill of Samaria Nablotis Jacob's Well Plain of Shiloh. CHAPTER XVI. City of the Great King 142 David Sinned Angel with a Drawn Sword- Mount Calvary In the Tomb Into the City Jews' Wailing Place Cleaning up the City The Sorrowful Way. CHAPTER XVII. Temple of Solomon 154 The Great Rock Permission to Enter Some Traditions. CHAPTER XVIII. Quite an Experience 1 50 Disguised Disappointed. CHAPTER XIX. Rebuilding the Temple 166 The King's Offer Power of Wine Power of Kings Power of Women Power of Truth Per- mission from the King. CHAPTER XX. The Gates of the City 1/4 Jaffa Gate Zion's Gate Golden Gate. CHAPTER XXI. Around the City of Jerusalem 177 Down the Valley of, Hinnom Up Valley of Jehosaphat Mount of Olives Tomb of Lazarus Tombs of the Kings. ..,... .-I- '! CHAPTER XXII. The Siege of Jerusalem 185 General Vespasian Building Breast Works Terrible Suffering Silence of Death. CHAPTER XXIII. On the Way to Bethlehem IQ2 Crowds of People When Elijah Slept. CHAPTER XXIV. Homeward Bound T Q6 CHAPTER XXV. Athens * CHAPTER XXVI. Rome... 20r LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 17 CHAPTER I. GLIMPSES OF LIFE ON AN OCEAN STEAM- SHIP. A MODERN ocean steamship is a floating pal- ace. To get an idea of the size one must imagine a great building eight or nine stories high and seven hundred feet long. A ship like the Oceanic of the White Star Line (several are larger) has an ordinary population of 2,000. It takes 500 men to run the ship. On land the steel frame contains material enough to frame all the homes in a city of 3,000 people. Her bunkers would supply coal for such a city for two years. The above named ship has 96 furnaces and burns 12,000 bushels of coal every day. It takes 50 gallons of oil each day to keep the machinery running smoothly. The elec- tric plant would furnish light for a city of 3,000, and her engines would run machinery enough to keep all employed. The six blades in the pro- pellers of this ship are made of the best bronze and cost $6,000.00 each $36,000.00 in all. A look into the refrigerators is a relevation to the ordinary traveler. For one voyage the Oceanic carries 31,000 pounds fresh meat; 2,000 chickens and ducks; 50,000 pounds of potatoes; 150 barrels of flour ; 6,000 pounds ham and bacon ; 10,000 eggs ; 6,400 pounds sugar and other things in proportion. 18 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. Every good ship has an up to date public li- brary. Many of the passengers read a great deal. Games of various kinds are indulged in by the passengers. Throwing quoits is quite popular. Many play cards. Some gamble. Checkers suit a certain class. The smoking rooms are well patronized by the men and writing rooms by the ladies. When not too cold hundreds swarm the decks all day long and often far into the night. There are always musicians on board ship and the pianos are generally busy. Entertainments are gotten up occasionally. We crossed the ocean with the "Hungarian Parliament" on one occa- sion and they had lively times. On several occa- sions we have gotten acquainted with some of the Stewarts and officers who give us the inside of sea faring life. It is interesting to go down to the furnaces and get a glimpse of the stokers. They have a hard life. Every man has to work like a beaver. To go along the main steel shaft for a hundred feet and note the thoughtf ulness of the builders would almost interest a wooden man. They have pre- pared for almost every imaginable accident and emergency. If the great shaft were to break they have gigantic clamps which could be fastened in an hour or two so the ship could proceed as if nothing had happened. A ship is supposed to carry lifeboats sufficient to accommodate all the passengers. These boats are ready with food for several days packed in them all the time. The ships are constructed LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 19 with a false bottom and water tight compart- ments so if they should strike a rock which would go through the bottom the ship would not sink. On an ocean steamship people who are well generally eat five meals each day. In most cases they have nearly everything imaginable to eat. We will never forget our Sunday dinner. We had among other things "roast duck." It was well cooked but not well picked. An Irishman stood on deck leaning over the railing "feeding the fishes." The captain saw him and wanted to sympathize with him and said, "Pat, I notice you have a weak stomach." As soon as he could get his breath Pat said, "Faith sir, you are wrong. I am throwing it farther than any man on the ship." We were overtaken by a storm. It was an awful sight. Port holes were all closed and passengers warned to stay indoors. One man ventured out and lost his hat and soon came back wet as a drowned rat. The waves are almost mountain high when the sea is very rough. One moment the prow will be pointing towards the clouds and the next moment the propellers are out of the water, the ship trembling like a leaf and looks as though it were going to the bottom of the sea. Many stories are told about frightened passen- gers and how they act. One old minister, it is said, went to the captain and asked if he thought they would ever reach land again. Of course the captain laughed and told him there was no dan- 20 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. ger. In an hour or two the old minister appeared before the captain once more nearly frightened to death. The captain assured him they were in no danger and finally asked the minister to look down an opening and listen, when he heard the sailors swearing. Now said the captain, "As long as you hear these fellows swearing there is no danger, but if they go to praying you may be afermed." About midnight the old minister went on deck once more and listened until he could hear the sailors when he exclaimed, "Thank the Lord, they are swearing yet." Navigators have maps of the ocean as geo- graphers have maps of the land. If there is a rock, or a dangerous place the maps show it. If a derelict is sighted the captain must take his bear- ings and report it as soon as he touches land. One of the most exciting times we ever saw was one day when a water logged, abandoned vessel was sighted. We did not know until it was searched, how many dead persons were upon this floating derelict. At noon every day the officers take their bear- ings and in a few moments there is posted at the entrance of the saloons the chart showing the ex- act location of the ship, the number of miles traveled during the last twenty-four hours, etc. One day the steerage passengers became a regu- lar mob and threatened to kill the officers of the ship and run it to their liking. Some of us were a little alarmed too and we asked one of the chief officers what would be the result if these people LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 21 undertook to carry out their threats. At once the officer showed us little coils of rubber hose which had been placed ready for use. He said, "let them try it. In a moment we will have these hose coupled and throwing boiling water in their faces." On one occasion one giant had run all the sail- ors out of a large room and with a big knife in one hand, a revolver in the other, defied any man to come into the room. Immediately the captain was sent for. He was a large man and was not afraid of anything on earth. Many ex- pected that he would be killed by the ruffian. Opening the door the fearless captain sprang into the room and in less time than it takes to write these lines the boasting "Goliath" was disarmed and placed in chains and imprisoned and lived on bread and water during the remaining part of the voyage. Wireless telegraphy is about the greatest in- vention of the age. We have stood on the upper deck at the office for hours watching the delicate instruments receiving messages from some un- seen ship a hundred or more miles distant. We had a great race which lasted three days and which was the talk of all on board and yet we never saw the ship. The whole race was as in- teresting as though the two ships were ploughing the water side by side. 22 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER II. MONTREAL TO LONDON. THE TRIP from Montreal to Liverpool was made on a ship twenty-seven years old. She is now in the bottom of the sea. As it was early in July the captain decided to go through Belle Isle Straits. As we approached the straits great ice- bergs almost blocked the channel. Slowly the great ship began to turn around. Our captain had decided it was too dangerous to try to miss all the bergs. All were disappointed because it meant at least two days longer on the ship to go around Newfoundland. One young man cried as though his heart would break. It developed that the rea- son he took it so hard was the fact that he was to be married in England on a certain day and would miss the wedding. On this trip our companion was a Methodist preacher, Rev. R. I. Hoskings of Friedland, Can- ada. We had good times together. On Sunday we had divine services. The author preached at the morning service. The sea was so rough that we had to hold to an iron post with one hand. On Saturday evening we went down among the steerage passengers and invited them to the serv- ices the next day. They were so pleased over it that they entertained us with songs and speeches for an hour. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 23 On the morning of July 11, all was excitement on board ship. For twelve long days we had been on the sea and the cry "Land" made every one happy. We will never forget our first view of "The Emerald Isle" as we went around the north- ern coast toward Moville. The lighthouse, the high cliff, the green fields, the white cottages and the beautiful scenery comes before us as we write these lines like a grand panorama. Yonder are the ruins of an old castle. It must have been the home of some chief for its ruins are extensive. Now the pilot comes on board to take us safely to the city of Moville. Boats come out as soon as our ship is anchored to take the mail and passengers who wish to go ashore. On to Liverpool we are now going. To our right is the "Giant's Causeway." According to the legend, in days long gone by England and Ire- Jand were connected with each other by a narrow strip of land and a tunnel beneath through which the giants used to pass. The giants were contin- ually at war with each other and finally a portion of this highway was destroyed and the points of land on each side are now called "The Giants -Causeway." The "Giant's Organ" is a group of great col- .umns of stone so arranged that they have been given this name. The cliffs are sixty feet high in some places and the irregular hexagon shaped, close-fitting stone pillars are wonderful indeed. The ruins of several castles are on the crags high above the sea and in one place there is a swing- 24 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. ing bridge spanning a chasm eighty feet deep. We get only a glimpse of the city of Belfast. Here are located the largest ship yards in the world. To the left the Isle of Man is to be seen. The sea is as smooth as glass. Not a ripple any- where. It was difficult to leave the deck that July evening. At 5 o'clock in the morning nearly ev- ery passenger was on deck. The city of Birken- head was on the right. Scores of great ships were in sight. The great anchors were cast into the sea and in a short time the "red tape" officers had been satisfied and we were ready to land in the city of Liverpool. Getting through the custom house at Liverpool is not a difficult job. Some act sneaking and do not want to open their baggage. Of course these are the ones who suffer most. If one is frank and open and has baggage all ready they have no trouble at all. The officers are kind and cour- teous. , Liverpool was once a little fishing village, situ- ated in a marsh. It takes its name from one of the ponds or pools which owing to the great num- ber of "liver" birds about it continually, was called "liver-pool." Now it is a great city with miles and miles of docks and quays. We went up along the docks for several miles on the electric railway. , Soon we were on a special train bound for Lon- don. This journey was the fastest ride we ever had up to that date. The distance, the way we went is 219 miles and we made it in 240 minutes. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 25 We ran 200 miles without a stop. The engine takes water while running a mile a minute. There is a little trough filled with water in the center of the track at intervals and a device scoops it up until the tank is full. The engine has no cab. The engineer and fire- man have to stand up. We asked one of them what they did when it rained and quick as a flash he replied, "We get wet, sir." The railroad com- pany furnishes rubber coats, however. Wages are not half as high as in the United States. We understand that the new engines there now have cabs something like those in our own country., The coaches are very different from those in our country. The doors are in the sides of the cars. Each apartment has but two seats and half the passengers must ride backwards as they sit facing each other. The doors are locked so no one can get out. At the time we were there the coaches had no watertank or closet, but we are told the cars have been much improved lately. The ticket-taker does not go with the train, but remains at the station. Baggage is not checked each one must look after their own and see that it is placed on the train. There are no diners, but the railroad furnishes baskets with enough in each one for two persons and charge 50 cents per basket. Baskets are left in the train and collected at the end of the run. The ride from Liverpool to London is one of the finest imaginable. How we did enjoy it after spending two weeks on the sea. The birds sang 26 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. sweeter, the sun shone brighter and the grass looked greener than ever before. Now for many weeks we will "Ramble through London." LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 27 CHAPTER III. RAMBLES THROUGH LONDON. THE CITY of London is a world in itself. It contains more Irish than Dublin more Catholics than Rome and more Jews than Pales- tine. It has a greater population than Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kan- sas City, Denver, Salt Lake City and San Fran- cisco combined. It has more people than Iowa, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico. There are 120,000 people in London who have no homes; 60,000 sleep on the Thames embank- ment almost every night. In one respect London is like heaven for there is no night there. The busiest time in the day in "butchers' row" it is said, is at 3 o'clock in the morning. The writer was in the slums in the White Chapel district, the famous East End, after midnight, and there seemed to be no decrease in the throng of people at that late hour. Now we wish to make these articles practical BO we will just tell you where we stopped and how it was arranged. Before leaving home we wrote to Brother William Durban, whose articles have appeared in the Christian Evangelist for many years, and asked that he refer us to some mem- fcer of the church who would furnish lodging and 28 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. breakfast. He kindly referred us to Bro. Fred Paige, who lived on Melrose avenue, Woodgreen. and there we stopped for three weeks, and a happy time we had. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. We win begin our rambles through this great city by visiting the churches and the first one that attracts our attention is St. Paul's Cathedral. It is located in the heart of the city. From the days of Diocletian a church has been located upon the site where St. Paul's now stands. In fact the first building was destroyed in the days of the tyrant. The next church was built on this ground in the days of Constantine and destroyed by the early Saxons. The third building on the same ground dates as far back at 610, the fourth in 1000 and the present building was begun in 1675. It took 35 years to erect the present building and the cost was more than three million, seven hundred thousand dollars. The building is 510 feet from east to west and 282 feet from north to south. Walk around it and you have traveled nearly one-half a mile. The cross on the top is 404 feet from the ground. The great metal ball upon which is a cross, weighs 5,600 pounds; the cross itself weighing 3,660 pounds. The archi- tect was Sir Christopher Wren, and above the door is the motto, placed there by his hand, "If you would see my monument, look around you." We attended several services in this great cathedral. They were all very formal and we did LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 29 not enjoy them very much. There are some fea- tures of the service in all of these churches that are commendable. First, there is not a bit of whispering. No worshiper enters that does not sit down and bow his head in silent prayer. When the benediction is pronounced everyone sits down for a moment and then quietly gets up and goes from the building. There is no visiting. In this church is the famous "Whispering Gal- lery." This is up near the dome. The distance across the dome at this place is 112 feet. You enter and the attendant asks you to walk half way around and sit down. When you do so he, sitting by the door whispers and by the time his voice gets around where you are sitting it sounds like a loud halloo. It seemed impossible to be- lieve that the attendant was whispering and we asked the M. E. minister who was with us to re- main and we would go and sit down by the at- tendant and when the next party came in we would find out whether he was whispering or not. We did not have to wait long and sure enough he just whispered. Another interesting curiosity in this church is what is called the geometrical staircase that seems to hang without any support. There are thirteen bells in the building. The largest, called "Great Paul," weighs more than 32,000 pounds. This bell is rung every day at 12 o'clock and people seem to watch for its ringing every day. In this church are the tombs of many great men, such as 30 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. Lord Nelson, Duke of Wellington and many others. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Westminster Abbey is a great church building which is more than 600 years old. It is built in the shape of a cross. Its extreme length is more than 400 feet and it is more than 200 feet wide in the widest place. While it is a church it is also the greatest cemetery in the world. More great men are buried here than in any other spot on earth. The ground upon which this church building stands is historic. Before the church was built a monastery had been there for nearly a thousand years. The spot upon which it is built used to be called "The Isle of Thorns." There is a tradition that says St. Peter was there at one time. Near the church is the old palace yard where stood the Pillory. Here Sir Walter Raleigh was executed. It is hard to describe the inside of this church. There is what is called the nave (or middle part) , the transepts (or the arms of the cross) and the choir. The great pipe organ is in the gallery. There are almost a dozen chapels. In this church kings and queens have been crowned and great historical events have occurred. Here the West- minster confession of faith was made and the Bible -was translated and revised. We have already mentioned the fact that this is a great cemetery. In the north transept is "The Statesmen's Aisle." First we notice the LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 31 grave of William Pitt. Upon his monument which is 33 feet high, is this inscription : "Now Bacon, mind you do not turn author; stick to your chisel." Here is the grave of Sir Robert Peel, who brought about the repeal of the "corn laws." Here is the grave of William E. Gladstone, whose funeral was the first state funeral since that of William Pitt. Near the grave of William Pitt is that of his rival, Charles J. Fox, who was called the "Man of the People." He is represented dy- ing in the arms of Liberty; a negro, kneeling at his feet, is thanking him for his share in aboli- tion of the slave trade. In the west end of this Nave is the grave of William Pitt, Jr., who died insolvent and was buried at the public expense. After his death, parliament, in recognition of his services to the country, voted $200,000 to pay his debts. He is represented speaking, while history records his words and anarchy crouches in chains at his feet. In this portion are the graves of Sir Isaac New- ton, David Livingston and scores of the world's great men. The poet Ben Johnson was buried here standing upon his feet. He died in poverty and as there was but 18 inches square unoccupied he was placed in this portion standing up. In the portion called the choir it is quite natural that we should find the graves of the great hymn writers and musicians. Here are monuments erected to the memory of Isaac Watts and John Wesley. Of course we pause at the grave of the 32 LANDS OP SACRED STOEY. great Wilberforce, who it is said removed from England the guilt of the slave trade. In the South Transept is the famous "Poet's Corner," where lies the remains of Dryden and Longfellow and Chaucer and Spencer and Milton and Gray and Campbell and Southey and Shakes- peare and Burns and Goldsmith and Addition and Thackery and a host of others. Then we pass the grave of Charles Dickens and nearby is the grave of Thomas Parr, who lived one hundred fifty-two years. We next step into the chapel of Henry VIII. Here is the grave of Mary Queen of Scots, but we do not care to linger by its side. As we come to the grave of Good Queen Bess (Elizabeth) it is dif- ferent. When she died there was weeping, so it is said, such as had not been known in the mem- ory of man. Her funeral train was composed of 1,600 mourners. The graves of Henry VII, James I and II, Charles I and II, Oliver Cromwell and many others are in this chapel. In the chapel dedicated to St. Paul we have among other relics "The cloth in which the saint's head was wrapped after the execution (?)" etc., etc. The body of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, is here. In St. Nicholas Chapel is the most attractive monument in the whole world. It is of white marble and "death is represented starting from beneath and aiming his dart at Lady Elizabeth, who shrinks back into her hus- band's arms." It is said that a robber broke into the abbey one night and was so terrified at this LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 33 figure that he dropped his tools and fled from the building. In the "Chapel of the Kings," where so many of the English sovereigns are burned, is the famous coronation chair. In the seat of this chair is the "stone of destiny," which tradition says is the one upon which Jacob rested his head at Bethel. Jacob's sons carried it to Egypt and from there it was carried to Spain. About 700 years later it turned up in Ireland, where it was placed upon the sacred hill of Tara. When the Irish kings were seated upon it at their corona- tion the stone groaned aloud if he was of the royal race, but remained silent if he was a pre- tender. Next we hear of it in Scotland and when Edward I overran that country he found the stone and carried it to Westminster Abbey. In other parts of this great building there are many interesting monuments and inscriptions. On one gravestone there used to be, it is said, this inscription : "What I gave, I have ; what I spent I had; what I left I lost by not giving it." In one part of the building it is said there is a stone door with seven locks and lined with human skins. This can only be opened with permission and in the presence of officers of the government. HORNSEY TABERNACLE. One Sunday morning we went to one of our churches called Hornsey Tabernacle, Bro. Will- iam Durban, whose articles were in the Chris- tian Evangelist every week, was the pastor. We 34 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. found a very fine company gathered for the morn- ing worship. Brother Durban insisted on us preaching the sermon. After a short prayer meeting in the "elders' room" we spoke as best we could and it was a great delight to speak to such an appreciative audience. To our surprise the following note appeared in the next issue of the Christian Commonwealth: "James T. Nichols, pastor of the Christian church, Vin- ton, Iowa, is one of the many American preachers now in London as Christian Endeavorers. He preached on Sun- day morning at Hornsey Tabernacle to a deeply interested congregation. Mr. Nichols possesses the common Ameri- can merit of perfect fluency of speech, together with an unpretending ease of manner. He preached with great simplicity of language, but with considerable originality of thought, his subject being the gospel as commended by Paul to Timothy." SPURGEON'S TABERNACLE. Another Sunday morning we went to Spur- geon's Tabernacle. This is one of the greatest churches in London. The services were held that day in the basement of the new building, the audi- torium was not quite finished at that time. There was a great audience present. They had no choir and no organ. The pastor, Thomas Spurgeon, was on his vacation. A Rev. Williams preached the sermon. When time came for service to be- gin about twenty elders, nearly all grey headed, marched to the platform, led by the minister. Only the old songs were sung and everybody sang. LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 35 WESLEY'S CHAPEL. One of the interesting churches in the world's greatest city is Wesleys chapel. The building has been remodeled and enlarged but many things are just as they were when John Wesley was the reg- ular preacher. The main auditorium of this chapel is almost square. The gallery occupies three sides. The great pipe organ is divided, one-half being in the opposite corners of the pulpit, while the keyboard is down in front of the pulpit. The choir is in front of the speaker. The beautiful marble col- umns which support the gallery were gifts from the various branches of the Methodist church. In this chapel we heard an English minister preach an uplifting sermon on the subject of "Love." Among other things he said: "Before Christ came the way to perfect manhood was an unbeaten path, but Christ cleared out the thorns and briars and opened the way." "Many statues in the museum are rough and unfinished. We are the unfinished statues in the church." "As a king stood at the gate of a city an old knight hobbled up to him weeping because he could not go, but when he bid his seven sons good-by he re- joiced ; let us be like the old knight in the battle for the right. Love is the most beautiful gar- ment, in which the soul of man can be clad." In front of the chapel is a large statue of John Wesley and just back of the building is the ceme- tery where he is buried. The grave of Adam 36 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Clark is also in the burying ground. Adjoining the chapel is Wesley's Museum. Here are the rooms where the founder of Methodism lived, the bed in which he slept, the chairs, tables, etc., that were in his home and his books, portraits and personal relics. Just across the street from Wesley's chapel is the Bunhill Fields cemetery. Here lies all that is mortal of John Bunyan. Also the graves of Dr. Isaac Watts and the mother of Charles and John Wesley are in this cemetery. Just a little farther west is the Friends burial ground, in which is the grave of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. A JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. Among the interesting places of worship visited was a Jewish synagogue. The rabbi lived "hard by the synagogue." When we visited him in the afternoon he said he was very sorry but it was not a day that visitors were allowed in the build- ing. On learning that we were from America he said he was willing to break the rule and would gladly show us through the building and grounds. After visiting the synagogue we were taken back of the building to their booths where they observe the "Feast of the Tabernacles." When ready to leave the rabbi said he would be pleased to have us return to a service in the evening which invitation we accepted and will describe the meeting. The pulpit (as we will call it) was in the cen- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 37 ter of the room. In one end were the lamps that are never allowed to go out. The men keep their hats on. The rabbi explained to the writer be- forehand that if we wanted to respect the Jew to never remove our hat in a synagogue. Hebrew mottoes adorned the walls. The ladies sit in the gallery and are out of sight of most all of the men. As soon as we entered, the rabbi discovered us and had a servant bring us a Bible with Hebrew and English side by side. The service was all in Hebrew and the women kept silent. That was about the only religious service we ever attended where a woman's voice was not heard. The men did it all reading, praying, singing, etc. After the service the rabbi explained that a laymen led the service that night. He said lay- men were sometimes allowed to take the lead pro- vided there had been a death in the family during the past twelve months also, he said a layman felt that it was a great honor to be allowed to lead. Part of the lesson was read in concert and their prayers were all in concert and every man took part. After the service we visited with the rabbi for a half hour and it was a very pleasant visit. ROYAL ALBERT HALL. Another religious service that we enjoyed was a sacred concert in Royal Albert Hall. This hall has four galleries, one above the other, and will seat 10,000 people. The organ is one of the finest 38 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. in the world. It was here that the great Torry- Alexander meetings were held a few years ago. This hall is located at the edge of Hyde Park, one of the interesting places in London. This park covers 361 acres and is the resort of the most fashionable people in the city. Thousands of chairs are free to the public. THE MONUMENT. There are hundreds of monuments in London, but near the heart of the city is one that over- shadows all others. It is called "The Monument." it is 202 feet high on the top of which is an iron cage in which you stand while viewing the city. The screen that is there was not placed there at the beginning. Before it was screened nearly every morning there was a dead body on the pave- ment below suicides hence the screen. On the west side of the monument is a great emblematic design in bas-relief representing the destruction of the city, with Charles II surround- ed by Liberty, Genius and Science giving direc- tions for its rebuilding. This monument stands on the spot where the great London fire in 1666 started and was built in memory of that great calamity. This conflagration destroyed 13,000 homes, 89 churches and the property loss was $36,675,000. The fire began at Pudding Lane and was stopped at "Pye Corner," and one clergy- man took that as a pretext for saying the fire was sent upon the people for their greediness. THE BLACK DEATH. This great conflagration was a blessing in dis- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 39 guise. For one whole year the "Great Plague" had been raging in London. During 1665 more than 100,000 people died from this awful scourge. In a portion of the city all was silent but an occa- sional moan. Grass grew in the streets. Mourn- ing for the dead was seldom seen. Parents left their children in their fright and sometimes chil- dren ran away from their parents only to perish. It was an awful time. The only vehicles in the streets were the death carts and the hoarse com- mand, "Bring out your dead" was about the only words spoken. When a home was smitten with the scourge a great red cross was marked upon the door. Some- times the words "Lord have mercy upon us," were written beneath the cross. Sometimes the wicked in wild desperation attempted to sing and drink liquor but were smitten as they drank and went out and died. Some died entirely alone and mi' attended. Some were killed by nurses and robbed of what they had. Great fires were lit in the streets to purify the air but were as futile as though they had been lighted in the jungles of Africa. During this awful time the dead could not be buried. The bodies, some of which were hardly covered with clothing, were laid in the dead carts. Great trenches were dug and the carts backed up and the bodies dumped into them. Rich and poor went together. For awhile the dead were thus buried at night, but soon the nights were not long enough and they had to work night and day. 40 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. When the great fire broke out it baffled all at- tempts to stop it. It just seemed as an angel from the regions below was determined to burn the city. On and on the flames spread for three days and three nights. An attempt would be made to blow up houses that were in the pathway but before they could destroy them the flaming monster would overtake the workmen. The king's pale face showed his weakness and the lord mayor wrung his hands in despair. When the great fire was checked it was found that the awful plague- swept portion of the city was burned up and thus the awful calamity proved to be a blessing after all. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 41 CHAPTER IV. RAMBLES THROUGH LONDON. (Continued.) THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. THE HOUSES of parliament cover eight acres of ground. They contain 1,100 rooms. The buildings cost fifteen million dollars. The clock tower is 320 feet high and 40 feet square. The dial of the clock is 23 feet in diameter. In the tower there is a gigantic bell called "Big Ben," which weighs 26,000 pounds. The House of Lords seats 550 and of course it is a great room. The seats have no desks in front of them. Near by these buildings is the old palace yard, where stood the pillory. We will describe this later when we deal with the "Chamber of Hor- rors." Here Sir Walter Raleigh was executed. Here the "Gunpowder Plot" was hatched out and as this was one of the most daring and desperate plots in all history we will just give you a brief description of it. James I was king of England. He was a pro- testant and of course the Catholics did not like him. This plot was originated in the year 1604. Two Catholic nobles were at the bottom of the whole scheme, which was to place a whole train load of gunpowder under the house of parliament and when the king, lords and commons were in- 42 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. side, blow it to atoms. It was as cold-blooded a scheme as was ever conceived in the heart of man. The conspirators took into their confidence about twenty desperate men of whom one Guy Fawks was chosen as the leader. The plan was to hire a house next to the house of parliament and tunnel through, beneath the ground. After the house was secured it was discovered that the basement of the parliament house was for rent and securing this they were saved much trouble. They succeeded in getting thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into this basement without exciting suspicion. They kept these barrels well covered with rubbish and no one was the wiser. The time set for the opening of parliament was May 1605, and this was the time they planned to blow the building up. Fawks was to fire the pow- der. Every protestant noble who escaped was to be seized and a general uprising of the Catholics was to follow and protestantism was to be stamp- ed out in blood. It so happened that the opening of parliament was delayed several times. In the meantime the conspirators had not thought of the fact that there were some Catholics among the members of parliament and when the opening was postponed from time to time the truth dawned upon them. Somehow the Catholics must be warned and a disagreement arose among the plotters. Finally the 5th of November was the date LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 43 parliament was to be opened. Just a few days before one of the Catholics received an anony- mous letter giving him the warning. Of course it caused not a little excitement, as he at once told others. A few of the conspirators got wind of the fact that an investigation was to be made and skipped the country. Fawks was at his post. About midnight the night before the opening the searchers started into the basement and met Fawks in the door. In his possession was found a tinder box and touchwood. At once this mighty conspirator was seized and bound with his own garters. On taking away some rubbish they dis- covered the thirty-six bottles of powder, but the day was saved. Had this plot not been discov- ered the greatest catastrophe of all history would have taken place and the destiny of England, and perhaps the world, been changed. No wonder King James I was determined to give to the world an open Bible which always has been and always will be the doom of Catholicism. Soon after his arrest Fawks was taken before the king and answered questions sarcastically, but refused to implicate anyone but himself. Nearly all the conspirators were caught, however. On the 27th of January, 1606, they were tried and condemned to be hanged and quartered. Fawks was tortured but not a word would he utter. He was the last one to ascend the scaffold and died without a shudder. THE TOWER. About the most interesting place in London to 44 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. the lover of history is "The Tower." While it was first built for a "palace," it is best known as a "prison" or better still, as the "home of sor- row." Within this inclosure have occurred events that make one's blood run cold. To recount the deeds done here would chill a heart of steel. No wonder one of the buildings is called "bloody tower." Here kings and queens and nobles and princes, to say nothing of just common people, have been tortured and hanged and burned and smothered and starved and drowned and behead- ed and shot and killed in almost every imaginable way. It has been well said that "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn," and that "the curtains of history rise to present a weeping world." If the walls of "The Tower" could speak the whole world would stop to listen and even at this late date a wave of sorrow would encircle the earth. On the wall in a little cemetery near one of the chapels is a plate upon which are in- scribed these words: "In truth there is no sad- der spot on earth than this little cemetery. Death is here associated * * * with whatever is darkest in human nature and human destiny, with the savage triumph of implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted fame." The tower grounds cover an area of 13 acres and are surrounded by a wall and a deep moat. The oldest part, called the "White Tower," was begun LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 45 by William the Conqueror in 1078. This building is 100 feet square and 100 feet high. The walls are 15 feet thick. Although it has stood the storms of 800 years, it is seemingly as strong as the day it was finished. It was in this building that Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for 18 years and finally beheaded. It was here that the queen, Anne Boleyn was taken after a day's tor- ment and executed without the slightest hint of the nature of her accusations or warning of her fate and only the next day her monster husband, King Henry the VIII, married Jane Seymour. In this White Tower we saw the instruments of torture used in days gone by. Here are suits of old armour used in the different ages of English history. At the present time it is said there are arms enough in this building to stock an army of a million men. We trust that there will never be an occasion for their use. Walking through the great aisles among the equestrian figures and soldiers in full armour one gets a glimpse of the munitions of war. About the most interesting building is the "Record Tower." Its walls are 18 feet thick. Here are the crown jewels or regalia. The jewels in this tower are valued at $15,000,000. It is the richest collection perhaps in the world. We never expect to see so much wealth in one room again. The crown of Queen Victoria contains 2,783 dia- monds and 310 other gems. King Edward's crown is pure gold not a precious stone in it. One staff of gold is four and one-half feet long and 46 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. weighs 20 pounds. An Irishman by the name of Thomas Blood beat the custodian senseless and all but got away with some of the jewels, but an alarm was given and he was captured. Strange as it may seem this man Blood so terrified the king by warning him of the vengeance his friends would take in case he was executed that he was released and given a pension of $2,500 per year for life. DR. BARNARDO'S HOMES. One of the most interesting places in the world's greatest city is Dr. Bernardo's famous homes. They are situated in the White Chapel district the slums of the notorious "East End." This home is for orphans and children of drunken parents for the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. It was at the Sunday school hour on the Lord's day that we made the visit. About 400 of the worst of London's outcasts were there. Men had to stand only a few feet apart to watch them and in spite of their efforts to keep silence and order these boys actually fought over the seats while the scripture was being read. Dr. Barnardo was a hero, to give his life for the outcasts of London. When a young man he was a student in the London hospital, where he min- istered to the wants of those afflicted with cholera and other loathsome diseases. On Sundays he taught in the Ragged School which was held in a barn in London's East End. One chilly, bitter night after a hard day's work. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 47 just as he was ready to lock up, a little boy came into the room. His name was Jim Jarvis. This little fellow was bareheaded, shoeless and shirt- less. Just a few rags covered his shivering body. When Barnardo went to lock up the little waif pleaded to be allowed to stay all night, promising to do no harm, when the following conversation took place : "O no; run away home." "Got no home," was the boy's quick rejoinder. "Got no home!" exclaimed Barnardo. "Be off and go home to your mother ! Don't tell me" "Got no mother," repeated the boy. "Then go home to your father," Barnardo con- tinued. "Got no father," said the little fellow. "Got no father? But where are you friends? Where do you live?" "Don't live nowhere; got no friends," said the lonely lad. The above conversation made quite an impres- sion upon young Barnardo. Upon investigation he found that this case was only one in a thou- sand. In a humble way he began to plan to help them with one great object in view, viz. : to relieve their misery and alleviate their suffering. It was in that work he spent his noble life and died at his post only a short time ago. Some would say, "What is the use? What can one man do?" Barnardo did not ask such ques- tions, but went to work. Year by year the work grew. He redeemed 50,000 children from the 48 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. gutter. He collected and expended more than $15,000,000. He sent 17,000 children to Canada and 98 per cent of them have turned out well. Every year companies of boys and girls are brought to Canada and it is said that "on the average every child is applied for in Canada ten times over." The Morning Star in quoting from another pa- per, well says : "The great lesson of Dr. Barnardo's career is the profound influence that may be exerted by a single life. This young doctor, poor, friendless, unknown, set himself nearly forty years ago to a task which might have seemed utterly hopeless. All this labor he might very well have been told would be like a straw cast into a stream to stem the torrent. But he cast in the straw, and now he leaves his record behind him in the fact that he took 50,000 children from the gutter, fed them, clothed them, educated them and made an honest and useful life possible for all of them, and actual for the immense majority." BRITISH MUSEUM. The most interesting place in London to the student of history is the British Museum. We could hardly give a hint of its wonders in a dozen chapters. We should have had days to visit it where we only had hours. The museum dates from 1754. Since that time a dozen other museums have been combined with it until it has become the treasure house of the LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 49 world. It has eight different departments and is open free to the public almost every day in the year. In the department of inscriptions is the oldest extant roll of papyrus dating from B. C. 2500. Here are copies of the treatise of Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens and other literary works that had been lost for centuries. The copy- book of a school boy in the second century is among other interesting relics. The most interesting manuscript in the mu- seum to Bible students, however, is the Codex Alexandrinus, which is one of the three oldest copies of the Bible in existence. It is written in Greek on very thin vellum and dates from the fifth century. It was originally in Alexandria, Egypt, but was presented to an English sovereign nearly 300 years ago. Here also are Latin Bibles which date from the ninth century. St. Jerome's version and Wy- cliff's version, etc. etc. Here are photographs of the Magna Charta, seals of the English sovereigns from Edward the Confessor to Queen Victoria and a thousand other interesting seals and docu- ments. Among the Greek and Roman antiquities are in- scriptions referring to Alexander the Great and his conquests ; to the Temple of Diana in Ephesus ; relics from Xanthor, a town in Asia Minor, which was destroyed by the Persians 546 B. C. ; casts from the Temple of Jupiter which was built 460 50 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. B. C., many representatives of sacrifice, battles, plagues, etc., etc. In the Mausoleum room are the sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos, which were ex- cavated in 1857. When Mausolius, Prince of Caria, died 353 B. C., the widow built in memory of him, a monument of unequaled splendor. It was so rich and beautiful as well as so large that it was called one of the seven wonders of the world. It was in the form of a mighty pyramid, supported by thirty-six great Ionic columns which stood upon a lofty base. Upon the top of the gi- gantic pyramid was a four-horse chariot with colossal statues of Mausolus and his wife. This wonderful chariot group was white marble and as the monument was 140 feet high it could be seen for miles. One of the most interesting monuments in the British Museum if not in the whole world, is the "Rosetta Stone." This stone was found near Rosetta, Egypt, in the year 1799. Napoleon, with his armies, were on their way to the interior of Egypt. In dredging the river Nile this stone was found. The stone contained three kinds of writing. The first was the Hieroglyphic, which was the language of the Egyptian priests. The second was the Demotic or language of the common people of Egypt. The third was the Greek. From the first it was thought that each of the writings was a translation of the other, but no one could read anything but the Greek. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 51 For sixteen years no one could decipher the hieroglyphic characters until finally Dr. Young made out the word Ptolemy. In five years more another man had deciphered the word Cleopatra on an obelisk and another learned man had made out another name on the walls of Karnak and with the knowledge thus gained a man by the name of Champollion soon had the whole writing on the Rosetta Stone deciphered and it thus be- came the key that unlocked the history of Egypt, which had baffled the scholars of the ages. In the Egyptian rooms are mummies galore, not only of human beings, but of animals as well. Here are colossal heads of granite, mummy cases and coffins that were hoary with age before Abra- ham was born; figures in limestone, marble and wood which were buried with mummies to serve them in the other world; writing materials, wax tablets, earthenware, porcelain, bricks stamped with names of kings, musical instruments, silver- ware, ivory ornaments, toilet articles, gilded orna- ments, necklaces, rings, seals and a thousand other interesting relics. In the end of one of these Egyptian rooms is the Judgment Scene in the Book of the Dead, en- larged from a painting in the papyrus of Ani, which dates back 1500 years before Christ. We will give you the printed description of this scene : "The upper line represents gods seated as judges in order before a table of offerings. Below is the scene of the Weighing of the Conscience. The heart (or Conscience) of the dead man is weighed 52 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. in the balance against the Feather, symbolical of Law, Anubis (with the head of a jackal) exam- ines the tongue of the Balance. Opposite to Anubis stands Destiny; behind him are Fortune and the goddess of Birth. The human-headed bird is the soul of the dead man. Ani and his wife stand on the left in an attitude of devotion. On the right of the scene, Thoth, the scribe of the gods (with the head of an ibis) notes the result of the trial. Behind him is the monster Amemit, the Devourer, with the head of a crocodile, the middle parts of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Thoth pronounces judgment: 'The heart of Ani hath been weighed and his soul standeth as a witness for him. It hath been found true by trial in the great Balance.' The right- hand portion of the painting is occupied by a scene representing Ani being introduced by the god Horus into the presence of the god Osiris, judge of the dead." In another Egyptian room are found mummied animals which include bulls, gazellas, cats, croco- diles, dogs, apes and reptiles. While living these animals were kept in the sacred temples and care- fully looked after every day. After death they were embalmed and placed in tombs like human beings. It is thought by many that the idolatrous worship of the Golden Calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai was derived from the Egyptian worship of the Apisbull. In the Ephesian room are many relics from the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. Among other things LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 53 is a so-called head of Alexander the Great. This brings to mind the story that is told about Alex- ander offering to pay the entire cost of the build- ing if they would allow his name placed upon it in letters of gold, which they refused to do. The Temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders of the world. It was 440 feet long and 220 feet wide. It took 200 years to build it. Upon a gigantic elevation or base stood 127 pillars which were 60 feet high and upon which rested the temple. Paul evidently had this in mind when he said the church of the living God is the pillar and ground (support) of the truth. It is said that in this temple was a great flight of stairs cut out of a single grapevine. It is also said that there was one painting in this temple that cost nearly $200,000; that the treasures of all nations were kept here for safe deposit; that here fled criminals from all countries, for when they once reached this temple they were safe, it serving as a city of refuge. No wonder that peo- ple made souvenirs of the image, which was on the top, for sale, and cried out "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." One of the most interesting relics in the museum is the "Black Obelisk" of the Assyrian king, Shalamanezer. This stone was found in what is supposed to be the ruins of Ninevah. Up to the time this stone was found we are told that skeptics said to Christian students that the Bible is full of mistakes, that it tells of kings of Assyria whose names are not mentioned in their own history and 54 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. the worst thing about it was that the statement was true. When this stone was found it was discovered that the names of their kings were given just as the Bible gives them. That is easily explained when we remember that many nations did not even mention the names of their kings, who were, in their estimation, bad men. Even our own his- torians pass lightly over the mistakes of our great men. It will only be a few years until the fact that one of the presidents of the United States was a murderer is forgotten. The Bible is re- liable for it records men's failures as well as their successes. If you have an Oxford Bible with all the helps and will turn the pages you will be surprised to see so many illustrations of things in the British Museum. In this wonderful collection are repre- sentations of kings receiving tribute, royal lion hunts, great battles and sieges, bricks stamped with a king's name, stories of the capture of cities, accounts of the deluge, objects of worship, ac- counts of the creation, historical tablets and tens of thousands of interesting things. THE ROYAL MINT. We had quite an experience getting permission to visit the Royal Mint. A good share of the time we were accompanied by an M. E. minister from Canada by the name of Hoskings. One day early in the week the writer said, "Brother Hos- kings, let us go and see the Royal Mint next Sat- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 55 urday." "All right," said he, "but how will you get permission ? I have been in London before and never could get in nd if you can do it I will be glad." We had learned that to visit the mint one must write to the proper official and if he feels all right it is easy to get an order from him. Well, we just got up the best letter possible and received an answer the next day regretting very much, of course, that the Royal Mint would soon close that some repairs might be made and that all the orders for visitors had been signed. Of course it was his desire to accommodate us, but found it im- possible, etc., etc. When we showed Bro. Hoskings the letter he wisely smiled and said "I told you so." "We will see that mint if we have to climb the wall," said I, and he laughed again. "Give it up and don't fool away any more time on that," said he, but we are not always ready to give up when an obstacle is in the way we would rather move the obstacle sometimes at least. Well, we just sat down and wrote that official another letter acknowledging the receipt of his letter and thanking him for his kindly interest, etc., etc. Here is one of the sentences of that let- ter it has stayed in our memory all these years "My friend and I will be in London July 25 and if you can give us a special (the word special was underscored) order for that day it will be appre- ciated most heartily. The number of my U. S. passport is 27048." To our very great delight 56 LANDS OF SACRED STOEY. and the M. E. preacher's very great surprise only the next evening we received a most cordial letter with an order enclosed upon which was written, "This order will admit Jas. T. Nichols and ten of his friends to the Royal Mint July 25." T LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 67 CHAPTER V. RAMBLES THROUGH LONDON. ALONE AND LOST. HE SECOND night we were in the city we were alone and lost. It happened like this. It was about ten miles from the home of Mr. Page to the central part of the city. It took almost one and one-half hours to make the journey on the street car for at that time the street cars were all drawn by horses or mules. The quickest way was to get on the railroad at one of the down town depots and get off at Woodgreen station and walk about three-fourths of a mile. At Wood- green station several prominent streets center and as we went down on the railroad we took a good look so we would be sure to take the right street. After attending a meeting at Wesley's chapel we started home about 9 :45, arriving at Woodgreen about 10:30 o'clock. On coming out of the booking station (depot) those streets did not look the same as in daylight and we did not take the right one. After walking fully a half hour we realized that we had started out on the wrong street and as they are nearly all crooked we were lost. Lost in the world's greatest city at the mid- night hour is not the most pleasant thing in the world. The streets are poorly lighted and as we went down in a low place where it was rathfer 58 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. dark we saw a man coming down the hill toward us at break-neck speed anc. that did not add much to our comfort. We were not frightened (for a wonder) but ran out into the best lighted place near and he ran right up and said : "Did you hear those screams ?" "No," said I. "Thank you," said he, and on he went. He was a policeman. Walking up the hill we soon came to another policeman and asked him to direct us to Melrose avenue. -No such place in London, sir, said he, and we believe to this day that he had a notion to take charge of us. On we went, hardly know- ing where to go, until we found another police- man, and asked again for Melrose avenue, stating this time it was a new avenue and there were only a half dozen houses on the street, it being only about two or three blocks in length. This man was a kindly disposed fellow and asked if we could describe some public build- ing or church or anything near it, for he said he had been in London twenty years and that was the first time he ever heard of Melrose avenue. After studying for a few moments we just hap- pened to think of a large tent only a few blocks from Mr. Paige's and described the buildings near it. We had paid particular attention to this for there was a sub postoffice near it and we had purchased stamps there early that morning. Well, said he, there is a tent like you describe across yonder, but it is a long distance from here. He kindly volunteered to go as far as he was LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 59 allowed and directed us so carefully and accurately that we found the tent and then in a few minutes walked in at the front gate and found Mr. and Mrs. Paige both up and wonderfully alarmed over the young man from America, who was to stay with them three weeks. A PEW INCIDENTS While waiting for a car one morning we noticed a barber's sign and took a notion to get shaved. On stepping inside the door we noticed a couple of ordinary arm chairs sitting there, but supposed the real barber shop was another room adjoining. A small boy was in the room and we asked for the barber, but he did not seem to understand so we asked for the "shaver." Just at that the bar- ber appeared in the door and we asked if he could shave our face in about a minute. "Thank you, sir, I will try," said he, and he jumped over a chair, knocking it down, and said, "Sit down, sir," and pointed to one of the arm chairs. We had hardly reached the chair before he jerked back our head and in a second had lather all over our face, giving our eyes and ears a good share. By the time we breathed again he had swiped the big razor, which looked about as much like a butcher knife as a razor, over one whole side of our face, having the back of our head against his knee. The whole thing was done so quickly that we hardly had time to even try to say a word. While in the city we went through the famous White Chapel slums at midnight, was on 60 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. the top of a tram car going down hill when it ran off of the track and were in several other mishaps but the worst scare of all our experience by all odds was this experience in the so-called barber shop. The one consolation was, however, that we caught the first tram car for the city. Speaking of the tram cars leads us to say a word about the transportation facilities of this mighty city. The most popular conveyance is the Hansom cab. It is named for the man who in- vented it, has but two wheels and is about the best way to get around. There were 11,000 Hansom cabs in the city when we were there. The omni- bus was, perhaps, used by the largest number of people. These vehicles are like the tram cars, double decked that is, as many seats on the top as on the inside. There were 150 omnibus lines in London in 1900. It is pleasant to ride on the top of an omnibus or tram car in the evening, if the weather is fine. We were on the top of a car one night when it was raining. Just in front of us sat a man on his way home from work. The night was very dark. A lady sitting beside him knocked his hat off with her umbrella and he had to stop the car get down in the mud and rain to find his hat and then wait possibly fifteen minutes for another car. Of course he was mad. We felt sorry for him. We were on the top of a car one day when a little boy was run over. We did not see him but heard him scream. The traffic in the entire street was stopped in a second. A drayman pass- LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 61 ing jumped from his wagon, never thinking of his team, grabbed the little fellow in his arms and ran across the corner to a physician's office, fol- lowed by both conductor and driver and most of the passengers. What in this country would not have stopped traffic but a few seconds kept every- thing at a standstill for about ten minutes and it was found that the little boy was not seriously in- jured at all. THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. A visit to the Royal Exchange was interesting. The building cost about three quarters of a million dollars and is a magnificent structure with a mas- sive Corinthian portico. Here is a little story that we clipped from a recent magazine about this building : "Thomas Gresham who built the Royal Exchange in London, was the son of a poor wom- an, who, while he was an infant, abandoned him in a field. The chirping of a grasshopper attracted a boy to the spot where the child lay ; and his life was, by this means, preserved. After Sir Thomas had, by his success as a merchant, risen to com- mercial wealth and greatness, he chose a grass- hopper for his crest; and becoming, under Queen Elizabeth, the founder of the Royal Exchange, his crest was placed on the walls of the building in several parts, and a vane, or weathercock in the figure of a grasshopper, was fixed on the summit of the tower." As we passed along from the Royal Exchange we saw a bronze statue erected upon the tomb of 62 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. General Gordon upon which is the following in- scription, as we have it copied in our notebook: "Who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the poor and his heart to God." The Royal Courts of Justice are near, so we will drop in a moment. This building and the grounds cost $10,750,000. There ars in the build- ing 19 great court rooms and 1,100 apartments. The great central hall is 238 feet long, 48 feet wide and 80 feet high. The fine Mosaic flooring is wonderful. Near at hand is the famous gardens called Lin- coln Inn Fields. Here Lord William Russell was beheaded for his supposed participation in the famous (or rather infamous) Rye House Plot. Sir Thomas More, Oliver Cromwell and other famous men lived here. SOANS MUSEUM. A visit to Soans Museum is worth while. We were much interested in the wonderful astron- omical clock which shows the movements of the earth around the sun, moon's phases, time of day, month and year, signs of the Zodiac, etc. A Bible 400 years old has beautiful illustrations, the colors of which are as bright and new looking as if only made last week. Here are Hogarth's paintings, known the world over. One series of eight are worth $15,000 each. Another of four are worth $20,000 each. Here is a "Monk's Parlour," and instruments of torture of almost every descrip- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 63 tion. Also an Egyptian coffin said to be 3,400 years old, and which is one solid piece of alabas- ter. MADAM TUSSAUD'S WAX WORKS. One of the most interesting museums in London is known as Madam Tussaud's Wax Works. Here are 300 life-size figures of great men and women and they are almost as natural as life. In the Hall of Kings are represented all the sovereigns of England. Here may be seen William the Con- queror as he dressed in his particular age, as well as good Queen Bess and Bloody Mary and all the rest. The statue of Mary Queen of Scotts has around the neck the rosary she wore to the scaffold. Also in this museum is what is called the "Sleeping Beauty," a reclining figure whose bosom rises and falls with unceasing regularity, done of course by some clever mechanical device. A little old woman sits looking at this beautiful fig- ure and she looks so natural that half of the people think she is alive. The figures of policemen standing here and there are so natural that many will stop and ask them questions about the various personages rep- resented. The writer of these lines knows by ac- tual experience how one feels when they ask for information and find on looking closer that it is only a dummy policeman instead of a real man. In this museum is the celebrated traveling car- riage used by Napoleon and which was captured 64 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. by the Prussians at the battle of Waterloo and which sold for $12,000. In the same room is the camp bedstead used by the emperor during his seven years in captivity on the Island of St. Helena. One of the most interesting rooms in the entire museum is the world famous "Chamber pf Hor- rors." Here are instruments of torture of every description. Here is the old guillotine that was used in Paris during the awful "Reign of Terror." Upon this instrument of death alone it is said that 2,800 persons were beheaded and the "chop" of the guillotine was heard a mile away and almost with- out a shudder. If you would like to read a de- scription of those awful days that you can never forget read "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens. This "Chamber of Horrors" is such a dreadful place that we will leave it without an- other word. THE NATIONAL GALLERY. This is one of the greatest galleries of its kind in existence. Here are thousands of the world's greatest paintings. We will give the names of some that impressed us most : "The Crucifixion," "The Procession to Calvary when Jesus is falling beneath the cross," "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," "Conversion of Paul," "Esther Before the King," "Joseph Meeting His Kindred in Egypt," "Death of Dido," "Triumph of Caesar," "Peace Driving Away the Horrors of War," "Abduction of the Sa- bine Women," "Dives in Hell," "The Shipwreck," LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 65 "The Death of Nelson," "A Fire at Sea," "The Destruction of Sodom," "The Siege of Gibraltar." LONDON'S GREATEST CURSE. The greatest curse in London is the public houses saloons. Street car and omnibus sta- tions are often called by the names of the large public houses. Here are some of the names you will see on your tickets: Queen's Head, Nag's Head, Dun Cow, Angel, Green Man's Gate, Ele- phant Castle, etc. Down along the river near Blackfriars bridge is a church located between two of these public houses. It is nicknamed "Jesus crucified between two thieves." The worst part of it is that the church owns and controls both of the saloons. When the Church of England engages in such awful business it is no wonder that it is powerless to reach and save the people. IN THE SLUMS AT MIDNIGHT. One night two men besides the writer went through the slums of the great city. We had left all our money and valuables in our rooms and provided ourselves each with a police whistle. We went into the White Chapel district where "Jack the Ripper" had been doing such dastardly work. W T e also went through the "New Jerusalem" and other places in the famous East End. That was an awful night. We saw people fight ing and dancing and singing and drinking and reveling and doing almost every other mean thing. M LANDS OF SACKED OT01Y. In eome streets even at midnight we could hardlr get through on account of the crowds of people, This leads us to say that in the judgment of the writer of these lines it is the heighth of foolish- ness to go into these famous resorts out of a do - ire to see the wickedness that is continually going n. We felt that it was a good motive that moved MS to do so, but even that is a poor excuse. It doea no good and we would gladly blot from our mem- try the scenes of that awful night. LANDS OP SACRED STORY. <7 CHAPTER VI. IN THE SHADOW OF MT. VESUVIUS.. IT WAS a beautiful July morning that the grea* ship Pannonia of the Cunard line, cast her anchors in the harbor in the Bay of Naples, Italy. This is one of the most interesting spots in all Europe. The Bay of Naples is 36 miles in circum ference. These great curving arms hold in their grasp one of the greatest harbors in the world. Yonder to the East, towering 4,000 feet high, stands old Mount Vesuvius smoking like a thou- sand furnaces. When the apostle Paul passed along the coast and landed a few miles to th* north, more than 1800 years ago, this mighty mountain was threatening heaven with its shaft* of fire every night. Crouching at the foot of and even some distance upon the sides of this old mountain are a dozen towns and cities, the largest of which is Naples. As soon as We were anchored boats of all kind > to the number of about 100 surrounded us. Dagoen were here in all their glory men, women and boys. Some with only a few rags on their backs, thus appealing to the sympathies of the passen- gers, and begging for anything and everything. The noise was deafening, boats collapsed, collide* and fights were frequent. Finally we were safel/ landed and the populace began their usual custoit with Americans, riz., trying to akin us. Cabmet 68 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. almost fell over each other or kicked each other over trying to make us understand that they would take us where we wanted to go very cheap (about four prices). Several actually tried to take our grips from us to get to carry them. The manner of procedure in Naples is as follows: One man will take your grip and start you for the omnibus he must be paid. Another will take the grip and sit it down by the side of the bus he must have his pay. Another will lift it upon the seat his tip must be forthcoming. The next will lift it on the top and his pay is the highest. When you reach your destination the whole performance is done over again and finally you must pay the bus man for the whole thing. If you are leaving a hotel and have six pieces of baggage, no matter how small they are, they are brought to you by six porters and all expect a tip. This is all ic addition to your already large hotel bill. Now this picture may be a little overdrawn but you will not think so if you ever visit Naples. The city lies almost under the shadow of Old Vesuvius. Its streets are narrow but usuallv clean. Many of its inhabitants are poverty strick- en and beg for their living. . Some of the most dis- tressed, deformed and pitiable specimens of hu- manity that we ever saw are here. You can hard- ly give to them, however, for they are legion. The city contains more than 300 churches and of course all or nearly all are Catholic. We had a Catholic guide one afternoon and he took us through some magnificent cathedrals. Saints were LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 69 everywhere, above, below, throughout; some painted, some in sculpture, some in mosiac and some just simply made. They are wood, stone, marble, plaster paris, lava, iron, copper, brass, nickle, silver and gold. Because we did not go into extacies over them, our guide was rather dis- gusted with us. Finally he said, "Now, mister, 1 am going to show you ze greatest church in all ZP city," and he took us to a cathedral that is more than 500 years old (he said so and of course it is true). In a chapel in that church he, with head uncovered, took us very slowly and solemnly to a corner and said, "Oh, mister, look ! Before you is somezing zat is older zan Jesus Christ." It was a mosaic that represented the Virgin Mary before Christ was born. Of course we didn't take much stock in that and his look at us made us think of that story Mark Twain tells on himself. While stopping in Naples Mr. Twain's guide called at the hotel for him one morning before he was up, and as the guide had forgotten Twain's name he under- took the describe him to the landlord. After tell- ing about the size, color of hair, etc., the landlord could not think who he meant, and asked that he describe him still more. After studying a moment the guide said, "Well, if you have the biggest foo' that ever come to Naples stopping with you, it is him." There are a good many places of interest in the city, but of course we cannot describe them all. Among the poorer classes all are bare- headed, barefooted and in some cases bare a 1 ! 7t LANDS OF SACRED STORY. over. We have seen men and women hitched to great carts like oxen, bearing burdens like camels and kicking each other like mules. The dairymen drive flocks of goats through the streets, stopping at houses and milking a pint or quart as the c us tomer wants. We like a glass of milk occasionally in the United States, but please excuse us in Naples. Before leaving the city of Naples, we will look around a little. In the western part of the city is the Tomb of Virgil and several other places of classic fame. A little farther out is the place where the Apostle Paul landed when on his way to Rome a prisoner. The place used to be called Puteoli. One writer gives such a beautiful description of the arrival of the ship that brought the great apostle to the Gentiles that we give it to our read- ers as Brother Sweeney has it in his splendid book "Under Ten Flags." "The idlers of Puteoli were already crowding to the pier to watch tha arrival of the cornship from Alexandria. So we may safely infer, from a varied and descriptive letter preserved among the correspondence of the philosopher, Seneca. He says that all ships round ing into the bay were obliged to strike their top- sail with the exception of the Alexandrian corn ships, which were thus easily recognized as soon as they hove in sight. And then he proceeds to moralize upon the gathering and crowding of ths people of Puteoli to watch these vessels coming in. Thus we are furnished with new circumstances to LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 71 aid our efforts to realize the arrival of the Castot and Pollux on the coast of Italy with St. Paul OR board. * * * The Italian Christians had long been looking for a visit from the famous apostle, though they had not been expecting to see him arrive thus, a prisoner in chains, hardly escaping shipwreck. But these sufferings would only dra\t their hearts more closely toward him. They earnestly besought him to stay some days with them, and Julius was able to allow this request to be complied with." Near here is the place where Hadrian starved himself to death that it might be recorded that the doctors killed him; the "Elysian fields," which are now a richly cultivated tract of vineyards and gardens; the "Port Cumae," where were pur- chased the Sibyline books that were preserved through many ages as the most precious relics in the capitol at Rome. A visit to the Museum is of great interest. Here are nearly all the relics which have been found in Pompeii, also most wonderful statuary made by famous sculptors; marvelous paintings and beau- tiful mosaics; a model of the whole city of Poir- peii showing every room that has been excavated. In this museum are vast collections of frescoes, paintings, etc., which are priceless. It is interesting to watch the letter writers which are found in many parts of the city. As but a small per cent of the people can read and write, the professional letter writer is in demand. Here perhaps is a young man dictating a letter to his 72 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. sweetheart; his face will color from time to time as he looks about imagining that every passerby knows the very things that are in his heart. When we return to Naples in a few months we will visit Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, the resur- rected city, which is one of the saddest yet most interesting ruins in the world. We will now start to Egypt, going in the track of the Apostle Paul as he came to Rome. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 73 CHAPTER VII. IN THE TRACK OF AN APOSTLE. IT WAS a relief to get away from the beggars of Naples. It is said that three people starve to death in this city every day in the year. Going aboard a large Italian ship we were attracted by a company of boys near the ship diving to the bot- tom for a piece of money. Passengers would throw a copper into the water and these boys would dive for it. Little fellows not more than nine or ten would bring up the piece of money in their teeth nearly every time. Making a tour of the ship we could not find a single person who could speak English. The cap- tain knew a word or two and we had quite a time trying to teach him a few English phrases. Strange that foreigners think the English lan- guage is so hard to learn. By the way, if one knows the French language they can get along fairly well in any of these countries. Just imag- ine how lonely we felt. Not a person with whom we could converse. We spent several days without being able to talk to anyone and that is unpleasant to say the least. As the great ship moved out of the harbor we were soon on the track of the Apostle Paul. He came up from Malta on the Castor and Pollox, a cornship from Alexandria. He landed but a few miles from Naples and spent seven days there 74 LANDS OF SACRED STOEY. before going to Rome. The coast of Italy with old Mt. Vesuvius in the background looked very beau- tiful that day. We arrived at Messina the next morning and spent a portion of the day there. Messina used to be called Zancle, which means Sickle. It was so named from the shape of the neck of land upon which a portion of the city was built. At that time Messina was a great city. It was well built with quite a regularity in the arrangement of its streets and buildings. The pride of the city was its Quay, which stretched along its shore for more than a mile and back of which was a range of lofty buildings of uniform architecture and three stories high. On this wharf we saw great loads of merchandise of all kinds, which was being hauled away on great wagons and carts, mostly drawn by oxen. THE CITY THAT WAS DOOMED. The most interesting building in Messina was the Cathedral, which was begun in the year 1098 A. D. Tradition says the Messinese were con- verted to Christianity by the preaching of the Apostle Paul, and that he wrote a letter to the Virgin Mary at Jerusalem, who took the city under her special protection and wrote them a comfort- ing letter, telling them about it. As this letter was written in Hebrew, Paul translated it into Greek for them, and in this Cathedral was a copy of the letter in large guilt letters. Now you can believe all of the above mentioned tradition you LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 75 Mke but no Messinese ever doubted one word of it, and they have even kept a record of the marvelous ures effected by its wonder-working influence. In a small chapel in connection with this Cathedral the devout were edified by a sight of St. Paul's arm, some of St. Luke's body, Mary Magdalene's skull and a lock of the Virgin's hair. Wonderful, wasn't it? An inspiring sight was several hundred soldiers parading the streets of the city. We could not learn the meaning of this most beautiful military display. A sad sight was the taking from the ship three prisoners, handcuffed and chained to eack other. All three, we were told, had either com- mitted or attempted murder, and were doomed to spend the rest of their days at hard labor. As their chains rattled, we thought of that notable prisoner, who, chained to the Roman soldiers, ai be was when passing through this narrow strip of water, only a few rods from the identical spot. Looking across to the village of Regium we almost imagined that we could see him, as he told the story of the cross, the day he spent there more than 1800 years ago. Here for the first time, we were asked for our passport, and when the official saw the seal of Uncle Sam, they nodded their heads. We did not tell them the passport was only good for two years, and was already more than four years old, tout they wouldn't have known what we were talk- ing about had we tried to do so. It is a good thins 76 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. to not be able to speak in a foreign tongue once it: a while, you know. To think that the great city of Messina is in ruins and will never be rebuilt is almost unimagin- able. Yet they tell us that even the great Cathed ral is nothing but a pile of ruins and the city o* Reggio across the strait, is almost completely de stroyed. HALTING AT SYRACUSE. Leaving Messina we are soon not far from Syracuse which is worth a little attention. Here lived Archimedes, a hero of ancient story who discovered a law by which he could tell whether the goldsmith, who was to make a crown of gold, was using alloy instead of the real metal. He made the discovery while in his bath and was so overjoyed that he ran out without dressing himself, explaining, "I have found it! I have found it!" (Eureka, Eureka). This same man invented the lever by means of which he could reach *out over the wall and destroy a ship an- chored in the harbor. He boasted that if he had a fulcrum or standpoint he could move the world. To him is ascribed the invention of the great burning glass and with it he set fire to ships of the enemy that were lying anchored in the harbor; the invention of the endless water screw is credited to this same hero. It is said that when the Romans took Syracuse, Archimedes was sitting in the public square lost in thought with all sorts of geometrical figures LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 77 about him. As a Roman soldier rushed upon him the great genius called out to him not to spoil the circle, but the rude warrior cut him down with- out mercy. Such was the condition of life in Syra- cuse when Paul spent three days within its bor- ders, a Roman prisoner. As we journey on we probably pass through the waters where a ship was going to pieces near- ly 1900 years ago. On this occasion the awful storm raged for fourteen days and nights and nu one except those who have experienced it know the perils of a storm on the Mediterranean Sea. On board the ship in that awful storm were 278 persons, but among them was one of the greatest heroes the world has ever known. We have often thought we would rather stand before God with his record than that of any other man that ever lived. He was not only the hero of the occasion, but the savior of that great company of people Had they not followed his advice, undoubtedly all would have been lost It was his words of cheer that gave them hope for they had given up. He, although a prisoner, was now the captain of the ship. When the officers had under pretense lowered a boat, intending to leave the ship and its helpless load of humanity, and escape, Paul said, "Except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved." The soldiers enforced his commands and the officers remained and all were saved. If you will read the twenty-seventh chapter of the "Acts of the Apostles" you will have one of the best accounts of a ship wreck that has ever been written. H LANDS OF SACRED ST01Y. MALTA. Yonder is the island of Malta or Melita, where Paul and the great company of ship wrecked pet- pie, who had lost all they had, remained three months. As they reached the shore, some om boards and some on broken pieces of the ship, the barbarous people gathered around them. These were kind-hearted people, for they kindled a fire and did their best to assist the unfortunates. A cold rain was falling and they gathered a great pile of sticks and soon had a rousing fire. The Apostle Paul never stood around while othen worked (a good example for twentieth centurf ministers) and soon he too had a bundle of sticks, but as he laid them on the fire a viper fastened itself upon his hand. He at once shook off tke poisonous reptile into the fire and felt no harm. The above mentioned incident gives us a glimpse f the superstition of the age. When the barbar- ians saw the snake fastening its fangs upon th* apostle they thought he was a devil and said among themselves, "No doubt this man is a mur- derer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffer eth not to live." When they saw that he was not harmed they changed their mindf and said that he was a god. In another chapter we will recount some of Paul's experiences witk these people and mention some of the tradition* f his visit that have come down to us. PAUL'S THREE MONTHS AT MALTA, A Tisit from some men brings a benedictitm LANDS OF SACRED STORT. Tf from heainen. Such was the result of Paul's thre* months' Btay on the island of Malta. If you were to visit the place today where the Alexandrian ship was wrecked you would find that the very place is called St. Paul's Bay. On a little island stands a lighthouse as a beacon light for other ship-wrecked mariners. Paul's visit changed the destiny of the whole island. His three months' stay was enough t* win 'the people to Christ. The beginning of hi work was auspicious. We mentioned the viper episode in the .last chapter. This was followed by an incident of no more less importance. Pub- lius was the chief man of the island. The scrip- ture so states. A few years ago an old inscription was found upon the island that confirms the state* ment. The father of Publius was at the point of death. When Paul ministered to him and prayed, he was restored to health. The news of this remarkable cure was carried by swift messengers to the farthermost corners of the island. Every sick person on the island was brought to the great healer and Luke's skill as a physician and Paul's prayers never failed t cure. In this way those men of God had an oppor- tunity to preach Christ. Our foreign missionary workers have learned a lesson from this incident and today we have seventeen hospitals for the tick on the foreign fields and last year nearlr 130,000 patients were treated. Tradition tells us that the Maltese were co- rerted to Christianity during those three month*. 80 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Chrysostom mentions this fact. Many Christian monograms and inscriptions have been found that bear silent testimony to this work. The tombs and subterranean cemeteries are said to be ar- ranged like the Christian cemeteries in the cate- combs of Rome. Do you think Paul had nothing to do with it? Tradition also says that these tombs and catecombs were used by the Maltese Christians in times of persecution. We might tell you something about the order of Knights of St. John and this island, but will not take the time or space to do so. As we journey on toward Egypt we are inter- ested in the worship of the Mohammedans on board the ship. At the hour of prayer they turn their faces toward the East and prostrate them- selves again and again repeating this one prayer : "There is no God but God, and Mohamet is his prophet." They repeat this sentence in a sort of a chant again and again. These people are so devout that they will stop everything at the hour of prayer. We have seen the merchant stop his trade, the boatman lay down his oars, the laborer stop his work on the street, in the shop, every- where at the call for prayer. It matters not how dirty and filthy their clothing may be they are careful to wash their hands and feet and face three times a day. On our ship was a number of these devout religionists on their way to Mecca. They were barefooted and poverty stricken. We talked with them through an interpreter. Among other things LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 81 we asked them why they were going to Mecca when it was not required of them. The answer was beautiful. The spokesman said: "We are willing to leave our loved ones in our home coun- try and go over the burning sands of the desert, over rocks and mountains barefooted, leaving blood in every track; we are willing to endure every hardship of the long journey, because we believe it will please the great Mohamet." These people shame the Christian people again and again by their almost unparalleled devotion. S3 LANDS OP SACRED 8TOBY. CHAPTER VIII. THE FRONT DOOR OF EGYPT. AFTER a delightful voyage of a thousand miles on the Mediterranean Sea, we landed at Alexandria early Sunday morning. After the most rigid examination of baggage we ever saw, to saf nothing of looking at passports, (they didn't dis- cover that ours was out of date, however) we were finally set free, but too late for church service for which we were sorry. The beautiful city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great, who, it is said, traced the plan of the city with his own hand. The citj is called the Front Door of Egypt. The famous lighthouse which was called one of the seven won- ders of the world, was located here. It was 400 feet high and so constructed that a team of horses could be driven to its summit. It was this build- ing that the architect chiseled his own name in stone and placed it upon top of the carving with the king's name in plaster. Soon the storms caused the plaster to fall off and then the name of the builder was visible. Pompey's Pillar is about the only monument of antiquity to be seen at the present time. It is a ghaft of red granite, and including the founda- tion upon which it stands is 99 feet high. It U wrongly named, for it is said that Diocletian waa so enraged at the stubborn resistance of the citi- LANDS OP SACRED STORY. 8$ ecns, he swore that when he captured them he would put them to death until blood was upon his horses' knees. While the massacre was im progress his horse stumbled and fell causing its knees to be covered with blood and he inferred from this that he had punished them sufficiently and stopped the massacre. In honor of his clem- ency this pillar was erected. Hypatia who is reputed to be the greatest fe- male lecturer the world has ever seen, lived in this city. Julius CaBsar conquered the world, but here lived the woman that conquered Julius Caesar, Cleopatra the beautiful. It was also the home of Apollos and it was the Jews from this place that caused the stoning of Steven. Simon of Cyrene also lived near here and according to tradition St. Mark here met his death, being dragged to pieces through the streets of the city. The greatest library of antiquity was here, but mostly destroyed by the Arabs who heated the 4,000 baths for six months by feeding the fires with costly rolls. The seventy here translated the Old Testament into Greek 300 years before Christ and this translation is called the Septuagint or Seventy. Also near here was found the famous Rosetta stone in 1799, which gave the key to the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Alexandria was for awhile the home of Omar, the one who succeeded Mahomet as ruler of the Moslems. It is said this man built fourteen hun- dred temples and thirty-five thousand villages and castles yet came to this city riding on the back of 84 LANDS OF S4CRED STORY. a camel with a sack of corn, a sack of figs and a wooden plate all he had saved for himself. Two of about the longest days the author ever spent were in the city of Alexandria. It was sev- eral weeks after this first visit. We were alone and sick in bed in a hotel where there was not a person who could speak English. If you have ever been far from home, without a single ac- quaintance and where a language is spoken that you cannot understand and then dangerously ill, you can imagine how long and weary the hours seemed to be. T LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 85 CHAPTER IX. THE PLAYGROUND OF MOSES. HE DISTANCE from Alexandria to Cairo is 130 miles and the road is through one of the most productive countries on the globe. The people seem to be industrious and were threshing wheat, hoeing cotton, irrigating, making brick and doing almost every kind of work. They are thousands of years behind the times as they use the same kind of plows and the same methods of threshing that were used in Bible times. The Nile is the life of Egypt and is truly a great river. Upon its yearly overflow depends everything that tends to the prosperity of this country. The whole country is a network of canals which are used for irrigating purposes. We were happily disappointed with Cairo. From what is seen at the world's fairs one is led to think that it is an old dirty, filthy city with very narrow streets, but it is not the case. It is true that old Cairo is dirty and filthy, but modern Cairo is a city with many broad streets which are well paved, and a great many magnificent build- ings and most beautiful gardens. There are some of as fine hotels as you can find in most any Amer- ican city. We were also surprised at the large number of intelligent and wealthy people. With all its wickedness it will not compare with New York or Chicago. We have seen several copies of 8a LANDS OF SACRED STORY. the Egyptian Gazette, one of the leading news- papers, and have not yet seen an account of a single murder or suicide or crime of any kind. Cut crime of all description out of one of the American dailies and you won't have much left but advertisements. The greatest collection of monuments and ob- jects of antiquity in the world is in the new museum in Cairo. Little did old Pharoah think that the descendants of the people he had under the lash would point the finger of scorn at his face in 4,000 years, but it is true. Here are mummies of a great many kings and great men of ancient times, an innumerable number of statues made of wood, stone, iron and bronze; idols of every de- scription ; all kinds of vessels and implements that were in use thousands of years ago. Having rode on horses, on street cars, in cabs and carriages, we could not be satisfied without a donkey ride in Cairo. Some one has said that the donkey is the greatest thing in Egypt. He is horse, carriage, cart, burden-bearer and express train combined. From the time you land in Egypt until you embark again, you are surrounded by half-naked Arabs who at the top of their voices, praise the donkeys. On the first day of our sojourn in Cairo we met an Arab who showed us his splendid donkey whose name was Yankee Doodle. Well we en- gaged this man and his steed for the next after- noon. They were to call at the Hotel Bristol promptly at 2 o'clock. We really didn't know LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 87 whether to depend upon this wily Arab or not, but at the appointed time he put in appearance. and was determined to charge more than we had agreed upon the day before. We told him we would not go at all and then he said "All right, we go." After making our bargain over again he brought us to another man whom he said was his driver. After giving him to understand that if he would not take us himself our bargain was off. He said, "All right, we go sure." When we in- quired for Yankee Doodle he said he was around on the other side of the park. Finally all things were ready and we started down the street on a gallop, our guide keeping apace and slashing Yankee Doodle at almost every jump, which speed did not last long, however, as the weather was very hot. First we were taken through old Cairo and having only seen modern Cairo as yet we were much surprised at the dirty, filthy, narrow, ill-smelling streets. We saw little children with face and eyes literally covered with flies and the hovels in which they exist are filthy beyond description. Yankee Doodle had to pick his way through some streets to keep from step- ping upon men, women and children fast asleep. In some streets some were fighting, some smoking, a few working and all yelling. Soon we passed into a more respectable street and met a wedding procession. This was led by a hilarious band, then came the carriage in which were the parents of the groom, which was fol- lowed by a carriage which was entirely covered 88 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. over with a cloth and in which was the bride, while the groom walked at its side with hand tightly clutching the vehicle; the third carriage contained the parents and some relatives of the bride and this was followed by a great crowd of uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and hangers on all yelling at the top of their voices. It was an amus- ing spectacle. At the house where a wedding takes place, our guide informed us, a flag is hung out so one can pick out these joyous homes as we pass through the streets. Soon we came to the head of the old aqueduct which was built nearly 400 years ago and until recently was used to supply the city with water from the Nile. In this massive building were the great water-wheels used for raising the water. Now we left Yankee Doodle in the hands of an- other and crossed in a boat to the island of Rhoda. Here we were shown the famous Nilometer, a building which dates from 715 A. D., and in which is a stone column which marks the rise of the river Nile. Next we were shown the exact spot ( ?) where Moses was found among the bul- brushes, after which we were taken to the won- der-working virgin tree under which Joseph and Mary dwelt during their sojourn in Egypt. This tree which we suppose is about two or three cen- turies old is tied full of strings or rags, all of which have come from sick persons and have been exchanged for two leaves which have been applied to the afflicted part and our guide assured us that a cure always resulted. Now we crossed LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 89 back and were held up for enough to pay the fel- low who held the donkey. We forgot to mention that we had to pay thirty cents for the privilege of visiting the island and the boatmen heaped curses upon us for not giving them a good sized fee for their trouble. Such is life in Egypt how- ever, and it is said to be impossible to satisfy the populace with enough backsheesh. This is the first word most children are taught to utter and generally the last word that falls from the lips of many who are just departing for another world. Now this last may not be true but we are sure about the correctness of the first part of the state- ment. THE PYRAMIDS. Of course we must visit the Pyramids. Board- ing a tram car we were soon near the magnificent bridge, the only bridge that spans the Nile at Cairo. For about two hours each day this bridge is opened to allow the boats of which there are usually a large number, to pass through. Now our understanding was that this bridge was closed at two o'clock, but found that it was not until two- thirty, so we spent a half hour watching this most interesting proceeding. Finally the last boat was through and the men began to turn the bridge. They do this by hand and it takes fifteen or twenty minutes. Just before the bridge was in place we discovered we were in a close place back as far as we could see were great crowds of donkeys, camels, carts, wagons, cabs and people of every 90 LANDS OP SACRED STORY. inscription and now we who were nearest the fcridge were being crowded to suffocation. Offi- cers were there with clubs and yelling at the top ei their voices but every moment the jam became worse. A few climbed over the chain and the nicer seemed to avoid us but his club swung dan- gerously near. Finally the chain was loosed and such a rush we never saw we were sure people would be trampled to death. Of course everybody ran and we kept up with the swiftest until we noticed that the crowd had been loosed at the other end ef the bridge at the same time and the scene look- ed like the pictures of two armies about to meet. We now slacked our pace and got close to the side and thus kept on our feet. It was a great ex- perience and while were were glad we went through, we have no desire to repeat the experi- ence. Boarding a trolly car the distance of eight miles to the foot of the Pyramids was soon passed over. The road is beautiful and large trees are along n both sides. Stepping from the car we were surrounded by the Arabs. They were a very fierce looking set and we had a hard time to get away from them. One big fellow refused to be driven away and as he could speak good English we let him follow but told him distinctly that we would not hire him. On reaching the Pyramid the Shiek said we must buy tickets and as they only cost twenty-five cents each we bought one. This ticket really calls for a guide and the big fel- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. ML low kept at our heels saying he would protect tu and he drove all the balance away. They soon eame back, however, one man with a donkey and another with a camel. The great Pyramid is the tomb of Cheops, the second king of the fourth dynasty and is a won- der indeed. It is 451 feet high, 755 feet long and covers an area of 6,444 square yards or about 13 acres. It is truly a "Miracle in Stone." It wag 2,000 years old when Christ was born. Herodotus says it took ten years to build the causeway upon which the stones were brought from the quarries. The same author says it took twenty years to build this one Pyramid and that 100,000 men worked mpon it at once. It was scientifically and mathe- matically constructed long before either science or mathematics were born. In all the 4,000 years since it was built it is said that not one single fact in astronomy or mathematics has been discovered to contradict the wisdom of this structure. The one who planned it must have known that the earth is a sphere and that its motion is rotary. As we stood in the shade of this mighty monu- ment and looked at the massive stones some of which are thirty feet long and are fitted without mortar so true that a knife blade can hardly b forced between the cracks, it seemed that we were dreaming. Looking down across the desert one can see where Napoleon rode at the head of his army saying, "Soldiers, remember that forty cen- turies are now looking down upon you." There is a passage way into the interior of th 92 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. structure which leads to the great halls, King's Chamber and Queen's Chamber. Although the passage way was narrow, the heat intense, the air impure and as dark as midnighc, we could hardly resist the temptation to enter but as we were alone we thought it might not be wise to do so. The Arabs kept continually asking the time of day, but we knew all they cared for was to see the watch we carried and you may be sure they did not see it. We bluffed them so that they seemed afraid, but we did not know at what mo- ment they might overpower or rob us. There are seventy-seven Pyramids all together but only six or seven are in this vicinity, the others being several miles up the Nile. The second is almost as large as the first and the third is very large. The others are small in comparison. Be- side each Pyramid is the ruins of an old temple and we saw several broken statues lying around ^hich were once worshipped as gods. We have already mentioned the fact that these monuments are all tombs of kings. At the begin- ning of his reign a king would begin to build and the longer the reign the larger the pyramid and at his death his embalmed body was placed in a secret tomb chamber and the pyramid closed against everyone. Each monument had its name, usually some epithet applying to rest in the future life, such as "The Good Heaven," "The Rising," "The Most Enduring Place," etc. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 9S THE SPHINX. About one-fourth mile to the southeast of the great pyramid lies crouched in the sands of the desert, the Sphinx which is also upwards of 4,000 years old. The sight of this ancient face of stone is very impressive. The body of this stone mon- ster is 150 feet long, paws are 50 feet and head 30 feet long. The mouth is seven feet and the face fourteen feet wide. The sand has so much en- crouched on the monument that its form is very much buried. We read in the Egyptian Gazette that a company of influential men of Cairo has been formed for the purpose of cleaning away the sand from this great monument. It will cost about $20,000 and two men are now on the way to the United States to raise the money. Strange isn't it, that America must furnish money for everything of this kind. A great many residents of Egypt live off the American tourists and if we had our way the whole tipping system would soon be stopped and the people be compelled to work for their living, which would be far better for them. Speaking of tips reminds us that we found one man in Naples who guided us to a place we wanted to find and positively refused to accept a tip. We were so surprised that we actually shook hands with him, and although we could not understand a word of each other's language, he seemed muck surprised. Across the way from the Sphinx is an Arab cemetery. By this time we were very tired and 94 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. as the oM Sheik was still tempting us to ride his eamcl we made a bargain with him. Now Mrs. Nichols had warned us against riding a camel, saying that we would fall off and break our neck and when the great beast went to get up with us on its back, her words came to mind with great force. However, we held on for dear life and when the fellow got up we were all right. Around the big pyramid we went on this "ship of the des- ert" and down to the street car where the greatest ordeal of all was still to go through that of settling with guide Sheik, donkey boy. Finally after much tribulation we got aboard the car and went back to Cairo satisfied with the afternoon's sights. You will no doubt be interested in a few words about the "American Mission" at Cairo, Egypt. It is controlled by the United Presbyterian church of America and they are doing a great work. Like the waters of the river Nile upon which it is lo- cated, its influence permeates almost the whole land. These excellent people have fifty-three organized congregations, sixty-four native pastors and evangelists and 7,324 members in the lands of the Pharoahs. These missions are also en- gaged in mission work, and last year they gave $24,999 for religious objects, which is an average of $3.36 per member. Think of that, ye disciples in the great country of ours, surrounded by wealth and prosperity, and remember that nearly every one of these people are poor and many of them almost poverty stricken. These people also hare LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 95 151 Sunday schools in which are 1,000 scholars, and last year these schools raised more than $1,000. At the mission we were presented with the Gospel of Matthew in Arabic and some very small coins, worth one, one-half, one-fourth, one- eighth and one-sixteenth of a cent in our money. These small coins, we were told, are hardly ever used, except in church collections. Having a let- ter of introduction to Rev. Ewing, a minister in Cairo, we called at his home, but found that he was out of the city. His good wife called at our hotel with a carriage and gave us a delightful drive over the city. Mr. and Mrs. Ewing have been in Cairo forty years and during that time the city has been transformed from a little, dirty town into the magnificent city that it is today. It is interesting to know that the largest school in the world in point of number of students, is located at Cairo. It is the great Moslem Uni- versity and has about 15,000 students. In Egypt, robbery used to be licensed and gov- erned by law. The chief of the robbers received all the snoil and to whom the victimized citizen went and paid a certain per cent of the value of the article and received his proDerty again and the original burglar and chief divided profits. We laugh at this, but how about licensing the saloon ? Our stay in Cairo was pleasant indeed. There are 265 Mosques in Cairo and we visited quite a number of them. At the door slippers are pro- vided. No one is allowed to step inside of one of 96 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. these buildings without the slippers. The floor is to them "Holy ground." Attendants will always care for you and of course they expect a tip. It is sad to see the women of Egypt. It mat- ters not how warm the day, their faces are al- ways covered. It looks very uncomfortable to see them wearing heavy veils. The plague of flies has never ceased in Egypt. We saw little children, helpless and carried about and many times their faces were black with flies. Leaving Cairo at 10 :45 at night we arrived at Alexandria at 6 o'clock in the morning and as our ship was to sail at 9, did not have long to wait. On account of the Bubonic plague all through lower Egypt, Syria quarantines against it. No other country pays any attention to it. The quarantine is more to skin the people than to pre- vent the disease. The Turkish officers are very strict and we have "red tape" by the bolt. Before embarking at Alexandria all had to go to the quarantine office and go through quite a perform- ance which simply amounts to getting permission from them to leave Egypt. Once on board all must be examined by the ship's physicians. No person is allowed to travel in Palestine, Syria and Turkey without a Teschera (a Turkish passport) and knowing that such a document could be secured from the Egyptian government, one of the first things in order was to secure one. Now the best way for an American to secure this is to go to the American consul and have him viza, or en- dorse his passport and take it to the Governor LANDS OF SACKED STORY. 97 of Cairo, who will issue the said instrument. As already mentioned in a former chapter, our pass- port was out of date. Our consul said he would issue a new one for $2.00, but we told him no (you see he wanted the $2.00). Said he could not viza an old one, when we said that all we wanted was a letter from him to the Governor of Cairo stating that we were an American citizen and the old passport would serve to identify us as well as though it were a new one. Finally he gave us the desired letter and we went on our way rejoicing. Calling at the office of Thos. Cook & Son they told us the Governor's office was hard to find and that we had better take a cab and to assist us they would call one and direct the cabman where to take us. Now we are coming to the point the cabman took us in exactly the opposite direction and put us off at the door of a great building, say- ing in broken English, "here is the governor's office." We paid him and of course he departed at once. We soon discovered the mistake, went back to Cook's and complained to them and they only laughed, saying they would give the cabman a good talking to. After that you may be sure that we called our own cabs and made our own bar- gains. The only time in all this journey that we were overcharged was by this great company and we have no use for them. 98 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER X. EGYPT TO SYRIA. E JOURNEY from Alexandria to Beyrout, Syria, was made on a large Italian vessel. The weather was delightful. The ship's officers were kind but none of them could speak English. You would have laughed had you seen the author trying to converse with the Captain of the ship. Arriving at Beyrout, Syria, our ship had to fly the yellow flag and you know what that means. Stopping out in the bay, men with yellow braid on their uniforms boarded the ship. They wera Turkish guards. They were to keep close watch, and as a boat came near they would run and yell unclean, unclean, quarantine, or words that mean the same in Arabic. Then another boat came with some dignitaries ( ?) who consulted with the cap- tain and then went back to land. Now our sail- ors lower boats and first take the mail to port, then hustle all third class passengers off to the quarantine station on land where they are prac- tically insulted and robbed. All first and second class passengers can remain on board if they choose. Next comes the physician who examines and counts the crew; for a wonder he don't pay much attention to the passengers. Next came an- other dignified official who collects 10 piastres (50 cents) from each one, that being the govern- ment tax. Next came a boat with five big bas- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 99 kets full of sulphur and fumigating apparatus. The only part of the ship they did not fumigate was the part that needed it most, viz., the berths. We were nicely entertained every night by a large number of little beings, commonly called bed- bugs. They almost carried us around the room. After the fumigating process we were left to our- selves and now no one ventured near us for a long time. QUARANTINED. Strange as it may seem we enjoyed the forty- eight hours spent in quarantine in the Syrian harbor. The great city of Beyrout is built around the bay and at night looks like a great amphi- theatre. The background is the hills and farther back the mountains of Lebanon and the lights of the villages at night make a beautiful picture. We had fine times with Mr. Alcuser, the con- verted Jew, which we mentioned in a former chapter. Several Mohammedans were on board and it was interesting to watch them in their de- votions. We had those on board who had be- friended us in many ways although some of them could not speak a word of the English language. Just here we will pause long enough to say that if a man shows himself friendly he will find friends everywhere. This is a mighty good old world after all. People generally find what they are looking for. The author has traveled nearly a41 over our own land and in about a dozen for- eign, lands and we want to say that never in these 100 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. travels to our knowledge has a single woman made improper signs to us in anyway. We want to say this for the glory of womanhood. The women of all lands are not so bad as some would have you believe. There were three lady missionaries on board and they invited us to tea with them on deck in the afternoon. It is needless to say that a pleas- ant hour was spent. These missionaries were English ladies and employed by the Church of England. Although their doctrines and practice are different from ours yet our work is the same, viz., trying to ge't people to live lives modeled after the Perfect Life. The greatest hindrance to mis- sionary work in all of these lands is the sad fact that Christians are divided and called by differ- ent names. The earnest prayer of nearly every missionary is that the time will soon come when party names and creeds will be abandoned and God's people united in name, creed, doctrine and life. Ever since we have been in the ministry it has been a mystery to us how good people could uphold divisions and teach that denominations are God appointed and beneficial in Christian work. When the hour drew near for us to be released from quarantine our ship was surrounded with small boats to land the passengers, as we were about one half mile from shore. Having a land- ing ticket, we were able to get to shore a half hour earlier than the other passengers. The Turkish passport which we secured in Cairo was absolutely necessary, for it is asked for on every hand. Our LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 101 name, description, nationality, age, etc., was re- corded upon their books as soon as we landed. BEYROUT. The city of Beyrout has a population of 150,000 and is most beautiful when one looks at it from a long distance. Its streets are narrow, crooked and dusty. One of the best institutions of the city is the Syrian Protestant College which has several magnificent buildings and more than 700 students. Our Jewish friend mentioned above will attend school there next year and we visited the institution together, and were delighted with what we saw there. Having a letter of introduction to Dr. Waldei- mier at Asfurgeh, a few miles from Beyrout, who is superintendent of the Lebanon hospital for the insane, we drove over to see him and were royally entertained by him and his good wife. This is the only asylum for the insane in all Syria and surely the man who could overcome the obstacles to establish such an institution in this Turkish country deserves much praise. The insane in Syria are exposed to great cruel- ties by the monks and others who profess to have power over evil spirits. Dark caves and chains, the lash and other abominations were a common treat- ment. For nineteen years this good man planned and worked before he was able to begin this estab- lishment and he has been greatly blessed. He now has thirty-nine acres of ground mostly cov- ered with olive and fig trees. There are several 102 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. buildings and they now have sixty-five patients. A walk through the spacious buildings makes one very sad to see the unfortunate creatures, but glad they are well taken care of and to know that many of them are on the road to recovery. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 103 CHAPTER XL DAMASCUS. ATRIP TO Damascus is worth the while. Leaving our friend the Jew, in Beyrout, we made the journey alone. It is about 100 miles from Beyrout to Damascus but it takes 9 hours to make the journey by train. To get a ticket was no small task for it was a holiday and hundreds were going to the mountains. Once on board the train we found a small apartment in which about eight persons could be fairly comfortable. Before the train left the city there were 16 persons crowded into that apartment. The railroad winds its way up and down the mountains of Lebanon and grander scenery we never saw in Colorado or California. The track is cogged much of the way like that up Pike's Peak. Along the way there are thousands of mul- berry trees which are cultivated for the manufac- ture of silk remember this is the greatest silk country in the world. Several carob trees brought to mind the story of the Prodigal Son. Hundreds of acres of vineyards are to be seen. Also a good many pine trees but no cedars they have been most all used up years ago. As we pass through a portion of country not under Turkish rule, before we reach Damascus an officer must examine and stamp every passport 104 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. it is impossible for any foreigner to travel in Syria without Turkish passport ours has twenty- one stamps and signatures on the back of it. About half way to Damascus many of the passengers got off the train and the balance of the way we just had four companions; three of them were fierce looking Arabs and armed to the teeth ; they were kind hearted, however, for they loaded us down with apples and plums and offered us cigarettes. Before reaching Damascus we were fast friends although we could not understand a word of each other's language. THE IMMORTAL CITY. Damascus, as you remember, is said to be the oldest city in the world; it is called the "Immortal City," but ''Immoral City" would be a better name for it. Many of its streets are too narrow for a carriage to pass through. The main thoroughfare is the street called Straight, and it is in some places about twenty feet wide. Mark Twain was not far from the truth when he said it is about as straight as a cork screw. Of the 150,000 in- habitants 120,000 are Moslems. While other cities have either passed away or been reborn and rebuilt Damascus is said to be almost the same as it was 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. In all its long career, so far as history relates, Damascus has never been exposed to any memorable siege. Fierce wars have raged all around but seldom reached its gates. Alexander the Great obtained posses- sion of it without any fighting and nearly all other generals and rulers occupied it peaceably. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 105 The Abana river runs through the city but is a small, insignificant, dirty stream. This is a re- markable river, however, for it has neither source nor mouth. It is needless for us to recount at this time the instances in which Damascus is connect- ed with Bible history for it would take more si ace end time than we can spare at present. THE OLD WALL. We saw the old wall where Paul was let down in a basket, and visited the so-called home of Ananias. There can be but little doubt that the wall is the identical one mentioned in Scripture, but about the house of Ananias we arc not so sure, although it is certainly a very ancient house. Early in the morning we walked out to the hill upon which Mohammed stood gazing at the city when he said: "If I once set foot on such an earthly paradise I shall have no desire left for the para- dise of the hereafter; and man can only enter paradise but once," and turned away. We pity very much Mohammed's idea of Pavadise. After having some trouble getting a railroad ticket and permission from the Turkish officer to leave the city we came away delighted with our visit to this ancient city. On leaving Damascus we had quite an exciting time. Near the suburbs of the city the train was running along at a rapid gait (for this road) when all at once we stopped and the people poured from the cars and everybody was excited. Of course we got off and found that some boys were 106 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. crossing the railroad bridge and the train had run into them. One of them dropped through the bridge as he could not reach the end of it in time. The fall was about twelve or fifteen feet. He was not injured and the trainmen caught him and placed hira in a car in spite of the pleadings of a company of people who were gathered beside the railroad track, some of whom seemed to be the boy's relatives. These railroad men took him along to the station, however, and we understood they were going to imprison him for getting on the track. We might tell you a little about the Damascus railroad. The ties are iron. The track is about as wide as a narrow guage road in this country. The bell is on the station house instead of on the engine and the stationmaster rings it when time to go. It is quite likely the engineer is several rods away under a tree smoking when the bell rings. The conductor and engineer each have a small whistle by means of which they signal each other. BAALBEK. As we pass along the ruins of Baalbek are only a few miles distant. You will all be interested in the following note about these ruins which is taken from the "World's Chronicle." "Its name Baalbek, means city of Baal, the sun-god. When the Greeks took possession of this famous old city they made its name over into Greek Heliopolis. It was once the most mag- nificent city of Syria, with great numbers of pal- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 107 aces, fountains and monuments. The great tem- ple to the sun was built about A. D. 150 by Antoninus-Pius; but the inhabitants of the straggling village of 2,000 population now occupy- ing the site of the ancient city declare that the great temple was built by King Solomon. It occu- pied a lofty platform on the Acropolis, which was reached by a very broad and imposing stairway of stone. The lower foundations of the platform contain huge stones which are wonderful when we think they had to be quarried, brought to the Acropolis and placed in their proper positions. Some of them are 60 by 12 feet in dimensions. As we look at the ruins of the broad steps we see in imagination the stately procession of 2,000 years ago forming on the rock with the chief men in the city bearing on their shoulders the golden image of Apollo. "The houses are nearly enclosed by high stone walls, and the streets are very narrow. The peo- ple have a healthy look, but the lower classes seem very poorly clothed. We saw two grist mills run- ning. Each has a pair of stones set below the run- ning stream of water. They looked very primitive and ancient. Most of the children speak English fairly well. They attend a mission school where two women devote themselves to teaching and in- culcating religious doctrine. Everybody seems to wish to speak our language, as it means getting in touch with the highest type of civilization. THE GREAT STONE. "The Great Stone of Baalbek stands in the 108 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. quarry a short distance from the town. It has been cut accurately and nearly finished, but has not been separated from the native rock of which it is a part. It measures sixty-nine feet in length, over seventeen feet in its widest breadth, and thirteen feet ten inches in height, and contains over 423 cubic meters. Its weight is estimated at 915 tons. Scientists have not settled the ques- tion as to how the ancients carried these stones to the temple and placed some of them in lofty posi- tions. The theory that embankments were built up so as to form viaducts seems most satisfactory. But the labor was enormous, for it would take 40,000 workmen to move this stone. The nicety with which they are hewn is marvelous. A piece of paper will not slip 'in between the joints of these monstrous monoliths, so closely were they fitted to match while yet in the quarries." When we are told that a Roman four horse chariot race could be run on the surface of this stone we begin to get an idea of its immense size and the almost super-human power it would take to raise it into position in a wall. NOAH'S ARK. Not far from Baalbek is a great hollow in the ground called "Noah's Ark," where according to tradition the patriarch worked for 120 years on the building. It is said that this is the only dis- trict where there are many traditions concerning the patriarchs. The Bible states that before the LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 109 flood, "There were giants on the earth" (Gen. 6 :4) . They must have lived in this community. Here is the tomb of Noah, the tombs of Seth and Abel and others. In the distance is the ancient Abila which derives its name from Abel. A very ancient legend says that in the field here Abel was murdered by his brother Cain. One thing is cer- tain, the people who lived here long ago did things on a large scale as the ruins that are seen today show. The tomb of Noah is two hundred feet long. THE MOUNTAINEERS. Nestled between the mountains on the road from Damascus to Beyrout is a valley the people of which are prosperous and wide aw r ake. In fact you can almost tell this community from the sur- rounding portion when you cross the line. It is governed by the mountaineers and the people are mostly Christian. These people, we are told, threw off allegiance to the unspeakable Turk many years ago and established a government of their own. Zahleh is their city and it contains 15,000 inhabitants. This city is thirty-five miles from Beyrout. On reaching Beyrout in the evening we found our Jewish friend at the depot and as the great ship was in the harbor we went on board at once. We were bound for Haifa where for the first time we \vere to set our feet on Palestine soil. 110 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XII. BEYROUT TO NAZARETH. THE GREAT ship of the Kedieval line was a quiet resting place for tired folks, although we had cattle and sheep as well as men and women on board. We would have been glad to stop at Sidon, where in 1887 was made one of the most remarkable discoveries of modern times. It waa a series of rock cut chambers, 39 feet below the surface of the ground. In these chambers were found seventeen beautiful carved sarcophagi be- longing to the highest period of ancient Greek art. These Greek coffins proved to be those of the Greek generals and officers of Alexander the Great's army, who perished during the siege of Tyre and were buried at Sidon. Here is said to be the actual tomb of Alexander the Great. TYRE. The city of Tyre was mighty in ancient times. It was formerly situated on an island and Alexan- der the Great in seven months built a giant caus- way from the main land to the city and con- quered it, either putting its inhabitants to death or making them slaves. Today the site of the ancient city is in ruins and fishermen spread their nets on the rocks to dry as the prophet of God said they would do, although when he uttered the prophecy this was one of the greatest cities in the world. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Ill It is worth while in this connection to quote a few words from "The Evidence of Prophecy" by Keith. He says, "It is of old Tyre that the prophet wrote : They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. I will also scrape her dust from her. I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more. Though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found.' (Ezk. 26:4, 12, 21). Where ancient Tyre flour- ished in its greatness and pride, not a city, nor a town, nor village now stands; and not a house is to be seen over the wide extended space, but a few hovels near a copious fountain, that springs forth as pure and full as ever. Tyre on the continent as it existed in the days of the prophets, in all its magnificence and wealth, has wholly vanished but a fragment of a ruined aqueduct. It is no more. It may be sought for but it cannot be found. The stones and the timber that formed it, and even its very dust, lie where the first great king of Grecia cast it, in the midst of the waters. It is trodden under foot by every one who now passes over the bare unobstructed path to the ancient island to which it still unites the shore, now forming a peninsula. The neck of land thus constructed in verification of the prophetic word is also accord- ing to it, bare like the top of the rock and forms on both sides a beach overwashed by the sea. The fishermen of the modern village. on the ancient is- land literally spread their nets on the sand which covers the surface of the ground which forms on either side a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." 112 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. HAIFA. It was a beautiful morning that our great ship slowly steamed into the harbor at Haifa. The sun was just peeping over the mour tains .of Lebanon and there w the writer was frightened in what semed to be a great storm, but the sailors only laughed and said it was "just a little wind." They were used to it. These disciples were used to the storms of the Sea of Galilee, but this time they were very much frightened. After working hard to keep the boat from be- ing overturned they had almost given up hope and waked up the Master, saying, "Save us or we will perish." At the word, "Peace be still," the wind stopped blowing, the waves stopped rolling, 124 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. the lightning ceased and the thunder was heard no more. Is it any wonder that these men said to each other in their astonishment, "What manner of man is this that the winds and the sea obey him/' On the borders of the Sea of Galilee used to be situated great and populous cities. Capernaum and Bethsaida on the north, Magdala and Tiberias on the west. It is rather strange that the only one of the cities in this neighborhood which ex- isted in the time of Christ, that is not in ruins is Tiberias. There is a tradition that the Master never entered this city. Capernaum which had 30,000 people, is now in ruins as was prophesied, so are the other cities against whom were pro- nounced the woes. The mountain just west of the Sea of Galilee is the "Horns of Hattin," where was spoken the fam- ous sermon on the Mount. On to the north and a little east is Mt. Hermon, which was the scene of the transfiguration. Still farther to the north are the mountains of Lebanon. Turning to the west the mountains of Carmel loom up and beyond which is the Great Sea. to the southwest the world's greatest battle- field lies stretched before our view. It is the Plain of Esdraelon and a little later we will tell you more about it. To the south are the moun- tains of Samaria and a little to the east are the mountains of Gilboa. Just a few miles southeast is Mount Tabor and away beyond we can get a LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 125 glimpse of Mount Nebo upon which Moses stood as he viewed the landscape o'er. What a vision from this mountain top near Nazareth ! No spot on earth presents such a view. One can stand for hours and not get tired of look- ing. Every foot of mountain and plain is historic. We have seen the sun rise from the majestic moun- tains of Colorado, and from the mighty waves of the ocean, but in our mind the morning old Sol peeped over Mount Habor he looked just a little better than we ever saw him before. It may be, however, that the sacred memories of events which took place in the days of long ago, had so impressed us that the sun looked more beautiful than ever as his beams flooded the valley below Mount Tabor. It was a delightful stay in Nazareth. At the Protestant School for Girls we were treated with the utmost courtesy. To go through the crowded streets of this city was very interesting. To be shown the very tools used by the Master and the cooking utensils used in the kitchen of Mary is quite a treat to some, but to us it seemed disgust- ing. The attendants have told their story so often that they really believe it, but every one who will stop and think a little knows that neither the tools nor the cooking utensils were in use more than two or three generations back. 126 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XIV. ACROSS THE WORLD'S GREATEST BATTLE- FIELD. TO HIRE horses and guide for a journey is quite a task in Nazareth. They generally want four prices at first. We finally made a bar- gain with a man who agreed to be at our hotel at 3 : 30 in the morning. We wanted to get started at the dawning of the day. In the afternoon we each purchased a riding whip as most of the horses are lazy. You need not try to purchase that "whip" from the writer for we expect to keep it a long time for the sake of old memories. It seemed we had only fallen asleep when our landlord pounded on the door and called us to breakfast. Our lunch was prepared we had pur- chased a couple of chickens, and hired the hotel cook to roast them so that we would not be com- pelled to depend upon what we might find in the villages along the way. Just at the break of day we were in the saddle ready to start toward Jerusalem. The distance is about sixty miles as the crow flies, but it is about 120 miles to ride on horseback. As we rode out of Nazareth that morning it seemed that we were leaving home, as the short time spent in the city had been so pleasant. For a short distance we followed the Haifa LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 127 road, but soon turned from this to a path down the mountain side. No one who has not traveled over the mountains on horseback knows the hard- ships of a trip through Palestine. Especially if one goes alone and without the aid of a tourist company. It seemed that we never would reach the foot of the mountain. Our horses picked their way over places that were extremely dangerous to say the least. Yonder is old Mount Tabor where Deborah and Barak gathered their army and waited for a fav- orable time to attack Jabin and Sisera. In the army of the latter were the chariots of iron which could not be driven up the mountain and when there came a great rain so the wheels would stick in the mud Deborah and Barak swept down the mountain with 10,000 men and destroyed the armies of the enemies. The record says that "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. ENDOR, NAIN, SHUNEM. Here is another mountain called Little Hermon. Over there but a mile distant is the little village of Endor, where lived the witch that Saul sought out the night before his last battle. This village is still called Endur and is a miserable little, dirty village containing probably 200 people. The people mostly live in caves and it was probably one of these caverns that was the home of the witch. A couple of miles farther on we come to the village of Nain. Here occurred an event the mem- ry of which will be cherished as long as time. A 128 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. widow's son had died and they were bearing his body out of the city to the tombs that can be seen to this day to bury it, when Jesus and some of His disciples, who had been to Capernaum, met the procession. The remaining part of the story is familiar to all how the widow was made happy by the raising of her son to life again. Turn to the seventh chapter of Luke and read again this won- derful story. Now we gallop over this historic plain of Es- draelon a few miles farther and halt at the village of Solem which is no other than the Shunem of Old Testament times. Here lived the Shunamite family that befriended the Prophet Elisha. They built a little chamber for his benefit and placed within it a bed, a stool, a table and a candlestick, and many times the prophet must have stopped in this pleasant home. Long after this room was fitted up for Elisha, a son was born to the parents in this home. The boy grew rapidly and was no doubt a great favorite. Now in harvest time the heat is intense in the valleys in Palestine. We know this is true for it was a July day that we rode across this plain. Just out of the village the Shunamites went to sow their grain, and later to harvest it. On a hot day when this boy was in the field with his parents he was overcome with the heat. Everything possible was done for him, but to no avail for soon he died. Loving arms carried him tenderly to the home in the village and laid him in the prophet's room, It is about eighteen miles across the Plain of LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 12$ Esdraelon from east to west. Shunem was lo- cated near the eastern border of the plain. At the time of the death of the Shimamite boy Elisha was at Mt. Carmel. When the boy's mother had done all she could, she gently and lovingly covered the little body and called for her beast and started across to Mt. Carmel to tell the prophet her sor- row. She urged her driver to go faster and not slack-the pace until she ordered him to do so. IT is WELL. In the meantime Elisha had noticed some one riding rapidly across the plain. He thought the woman looked familiar and he said to his servant Gehazi, "Behold yonder is that Shunamite; run now and meet her and say unto her, is it well with thee ? Is it well with thy husband ? Is it well with thy child?" But this sorrowful mother did not want to even stop to talk to Gehazi the servant, so she just passed on saying to him, "It is well." She went on up the hill to Elisha and for a moment could not speak, but caught hold of him. The servant was ready to take her away when the prophet said, "Let her alone." As soon as she could speak she told Elisha all about it and he was moved by her story. He at once ordered his servant to take his staff and hurry to Shunem, saluting no man by the way, and lay the staff on the child's face. The mother, however, refused to leave the prophet until he agreed to go back home with her. As the prophet and mother neared Shunem 130 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Elisha's servant met them, telling them it was of no use, that the child was dead. Elisha when he reached the room had all to go out and he prayed to God for the life of the boy and it was given. What a happy mother this woman must have been when Elisha gave her back her boy alive and well. No wonder she fell at the prophet's feet in her desire to thank the Lord for the life that was given back to her. Another very interesting event which took place at Shunem was the miraculous increase of oil in the home of a woman whose husband had died and the creditors were going to take all she had for debt. She had such faith in the prophet of Je- hovah that she prepared the last food in her house for him, but human extremity is divine opportun- ity so she was greatly blessed in what she did. The Philistines had their camp here, just before the terrible battle in which Saul and Jonathan lost their lives. This village, as well as many others, is surrounded by a great hedge of cactus through which it is almost impossible for either man or beast to pass. Upon these cactus grow the prickly pear, which is no small part of the food upon which the people of this country subsist. JEZREEL. Passing on we soon came to a squalid village on the top of a hill, which is the site of the watch tower of Jezreel. To the east is the Valley of Jezreel where Gideon defeated the Midianites so gloriously. At the foot of Mt. Gilboa to the south- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 131 east is the fountain of Jezreel, where Saul and his army encamped. The Well of Harod, where Gid- eon tested his soldiers by "lapping," ifl not far away. We also are near the spot where Jehu met the princes of Judah, relatives of King Ahaziah, and put them to death by the roadside. We are going along the same road that he traveled from Jezreel to Samaria. Before leaving Jezreel, how- ever, we will pause long enough to notice one of the blackest crimes ever recorded in the his- tory of God's chosen people. King Ahab had here a beautiful palace with luxurious gardens. By his side lived a pious man who seems to have taken great delight in keeping his grounds beautiful, so much so that the king was a little jealous of him and made up his mind he would buy him out. Imagine the king's surprise when Naboth flatly re- fused to sell his gardens at any price for it was the old homestead that had belonged to the family for many generations. So great was the king's disappointment that he went into the palace, flung himself upon the bed and refused to eat. Now Ahab had made the sad- dest mistake of his life when he married an idola- trous wife. This woman Jezebel was the wicked- est woman in all history. The very first thing she did after her marriage with the king was to defy Jehovah and establish idolatry in the palace and feed four hundred priests from the king's table. JEZEBEL GETS THE VINEYARD. Wlaea she found the king downcast she man- 132 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. aged to get from him the secret of his trouble. With a sneer at his attitude in the matter, she told him to get up and she would get the vineyard for him. Then comes a long series of devilish deeds which involved a number of innocent people and ending with the killing of a whole family. First she forged the name of the king and he was too big a puppet in her hands to utter a word of protest. She wrote a letter to the elders sign- ing the king's name and using his seal. Next she evidently saw these elders and either frightened or bribed them to do her bidding. Next she proclaimed a fast. The whole city was aroused. The wrath of God had been incurred and something must be done to find out the sin. Perhaps Naboth felt in his heart that there was some scheme on foot but of course he had to at- tend the convocation anyway. In some way he found himself being pushed to the front. What did it all mean anyway? At the proper time two worthless characters who would do anything for a small bribe, were seen pointing at Naboth and making a great ado. These elders, who had been "primed," began to ask them questions and soon the crowd became silent. One question brought on another and soon these two "Men of Belial" were accusing Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. Of all crimes this was about the worst, to the Jew. As Naboth looks around among his old friends and fellow towsnmen he cannot find a look of sympathy they are all against him. Had he not blasphemed? LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 133 Here are two men who said he had and Jezebel well knew that two witnesses would condemn any Jew. NABOTH CONDEMNED. Some how in this trying hour Naboth's tongue seems to be paralyzed. He cannot speak. The shock is too great. Sometimes a man who is en- tirely innocent cannot in a critical time find his speech. In another moment the crowd is a how- ling mob. A mob of excited human beings will do anything if they have a leader. Some one casts the first stone. The good man Naboth is stricken down and his body is soon a lifeless corpse. Per- haps his wife and children were at home but they are hunted and brought only to share the same fate as Naboth himself. Now that the whole family is slain the mob dis- perses. The leaders seek the wicked queen (noth- ing said about their telling Ahab) and tell her the whole story. She listens with increasing interest and when they assure her that the whole family has been slain, she pays them the price agreed and they leave. Then she seeks King Ahab and with a satanic chuckle says, "Go now and take posses- sion of the vineyard that Naboth refused to sell at any price, for Naboth is dead." But the end was not yet. Even the most pow- erful woman in the kingdom must reckon with the real owner of the vineyard. He whose eye never slumbers took knowledge of the whole occurrence. The dogs who devoured the bodies of the slain fam- 134 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. ily would later want another meal. No the people of Jezreel had not seen the last act of the tragedy. The royal chariot is at the door of the palace. All knew that the king was going to take possession of his new vineyard. Yes, yonder he goes. The chariot pulls up to the gate and Ahab alights and walks in, but who is that tall rugged stranger fol- lowing him? How stately he stalks up to the king without any obedience! 0, it is the heroic prophet. For many months he has been silent not since the great event at Mt. Carmel has he appeared to a single inhabitant of that country. Ahab the king, turns deathly pale when Elijah thunders forth, "Hath thou killed and taken pos- session?" No wonder Ahab in his desperation cried out, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" "Yes I have found thee," spoke the prophet. He then went on to say that by the wall out yonder the doge shall eat the body of Jezebel. JEZEBEL'S DEATH. A few years later there was an exciting time in this same city. Jehu entered the gate of Jezreel and as he looked up he saw this wicked queen with her face painted, looking out of the "window. He reined up his horse and shouted to the attendants to throw her down. They, no doubt, glad to be free from her iron hand, threw her down and her blood was sprinkled upon the stones of the wall. A few hours later Jehu said to his attendant, "Go, see now this cursed woman and bury her." They went aad lo, the dogs had had another meal th LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 135 prophesy of Elijah was fulfilled. A sad stay in Jezreel. After calling to mind the murder of Naboth and the taking possession of his vineyard as we have done, it is a relief to get away from Jezreel. Only a few miles ride brings up to Jenin, a village the people of which are turbulent and quarrelsome. 136 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XV. JENIN TO JERUSALEM. JBNIN IS a village containing about 4,000 peo- ple and is situated at the southeast of the Plain of Esdraelon at the foot of the hills just be- tween Samaria and Galilee. Here occurred the healing of the ten lepers. Luke 17:11-19. The Hebrew name of this place signifies "a garden," and it is a pretty spot and inviting as a halting place for travelers. Here we stopped for lunch and an hour's rest. Our muleteer gave the horses into the hands of some natives and proceeded to make us comfortable under a large tree. Fresh water was brought, prickly pears were purchased (they grow on the cactus) and we really enjoyed our lunch. Many of the natives came around, but when they saw the big revolver that Isaac had carelessly* thrown on a blanket they took a few steps back and finally left us. Starting on our way we traveled over the Moun- tains of Samaria and down a great valley and soon came to a town on a hill about 200 feet high, which can only be ap- proached from the north. This is Dothan, the place near which Joseph's brethren were feeding their flocks when he came upon them. It was here also that Elisha was dwelling when the Syrians were sent to capture him and where his servant saw the wonderful vision, the account of which is LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 137 found in 2 Kings 6 : 13-18. Near this hill are some ancient rock pits, or cisterns, and it is possible that into one of these identical places Joseph was placed by his brethren until the caravan of Ish- maelites came along. We are upon one of the most ancient high roads of the world and along this plain still runs one of the principle trade routes between Egypt and the Euphrates valley. Just along here our muleteer had trouble with his horse and Isaac went back to help him. While riding along alone a native came up and tried to ask something, but we could not understand him. Pointing to our horse and his donkey we bantered him for a race, and you would have laughed to see us galloping over the plain, he on a donkey that looked like a jack rabbit. HILL OF SAMARIA. Riding on for about three and one-half hours, winding our way across valleys and rocky clifts, we reach the top of a mountain, where we get a glimpse of the Hill of Samaria and its surround- ings, the scene of so many of the stirring events of Israel's history. After taking a last look at the mountains and plains of Galilee we begin the descent which is so steep and rocky that it is dan- jrerous. In less than one hour we are ascending the hill and can discern the outline of the theater builded by Herod the Great. Samaria is on a hill which is about 1,500 feet high and being almost in- accessable except from one side, is almost a perfect site for a capital city. Here was the celebrated 138 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Ivory Palace of King Ahab, 1 Kings 22:39. Ruins are to be seen nearly everywhere. About 100 of the 2,000 columns that once bordered the Grand Colonade are still standing in their original posi- tion. Of course we stop at the 'Church of St. John the Baptist," a part of which has been converted into a Moslem Mosque. Here we found about fifty children attending school. This was the first Mo- hammedan school we ever visited and it was very interesting indeed. Isaac being able to speak Arabic talked with the teacher who left his pupils, secured some candles and took us down into the cave which is pointed out as the tomb of John the Baptist, but the most of us believe that John was beheaded at Machaerus, which is east of the Dead Sea, as Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us in his Antiquities of the Jews (see Book 18, Chap- ter 5.) Going down the hill we soon came to old aque- duct, the water of which emptied into a reservoir, and this is thought to be undoubtedly the Pool of Samaria, where thfe blood-stained chariot of Ahab was washed after the Monarch's violent death (1 Kings 22 :38) . Around the pool of water are men washing their feet and watering their donkeys, women are washing their clothing and filling their water-pots; some are jabbering pleasantly and . some quarreling. It was now toward evening and as it was quite a ride to Nablous, we stopped under a tree for lunch. NABLOUS. Soon we were on our way, however, and juat LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 139 before dark we rode into Nablous or Shechem, which is one of the oldest cities in the world. Hav- ing been in the saddle most of the time since 3:30 in the morning, you can imagine we were very tired. Nablous is in some respects about the worst town in Palestine. Although there is said to be twenty-seven soap factories in the city it is diffi- cult to pass along its streets without getting into filth and slime. It contains about 15,000 people nearly all of whom are Moslems. The only Samar- itan Synagogue in the world is here and in it is the celebrated Samaritan Pentateuch which some claim was written by one of Aaron's grandsons. Having a desire to stop in a convent we did so at Nablous, and will just say that one night in a convent is enough for me if this one is a fair sample. The whole building was dirty and almost the entire night was spent fighting bedbugs and fleas. It was hard to keep the cats off the table while trying to eat. The only thing we had for breakfast that I attempted to eat was boiled eggs and on breaking the shells we found just half of them spoiled. Early in the morning we rode between the noted mountains, Ebel and Gerizim. They are each about 3,000 feet high and the valley between is about one-half mile wide. Isaac stated that on one occasion he and some friends tried talking to each other from across the valley and could hear each other's voices very plain. Three times in the days of Joshua, Israel's millions were gathered 140 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. here to hear the blessings and cursings read and to hear their commander's f arewell address. JACOB'S WELL. Soon we were at Jacob's Well, which is one of the most historic spots in Palestine. Near here Abraham built the first altar to Jehovah that ever was erected on Palestine soil. Here Jacob bought a tract of land and made it his home for many years. The well which he dug almost 4,000 years ago is to be seen today. We sat for awhile that beautiful morning upon the identical stone where the Saviour sat and preached the greatest sermon, with one exception, He ever delivered, at least that is recorded. This magnificent sermon was preach- ed to one person, and that was a sinful Samaritan woman. He allowed neither the weariness of the flesh nor the character of the woman to interfere with the sermon. This well now belongs to the Greek Christians, who have enclosed it with a wall. It is something like six feet in diameter and about seventy feet deep, although it is said that there is seventy-five or eighty feet of rubbish in it, therefore it was originally nearly one hundred and fifty feet in depth. Across the way is Joseph's Tomb which is a most interesting spot. PLAIN OF SHILOH. Passing on we soon enter the Plain of Shiloh and a ruin on a hill nearby marks the place where the ark rested four hundred years, and wfeere Eli fe-11 off the seat backward by the side of the gate LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 141 and broke his neck. The climax of dangerous places was reached when we entered Robbers' Val- ley and came up to Robbers' Spring. Soon we passed by Bethel where Jacob with his head resting upon a stone had his most wonderful dream, the record of which is found in the 28th chapter of Genesis. Here Jereboam set up an idol to keep the people of Israel away from Jerusalem, and which drew them away from God. Next is Beeroth, where the murderers of Ish- bosheth lived (11 Sam. 4:2) and where, according to tradition Jesus the boy was missed by his par- ents, who went back to Jerusalem and found him in the Temple among the doctors asking and an- swering questions. Here we stopped to lunch and rest, which we did in a stone house. Passing on we soon came to Shafat or Nob, where {.he ark and tabernacle rested and where David ate the shew- bread and secured the sword of Goliah. Gibea is not far away and here oc- curred, as some one has said, "The darkest tragedy of Israel's dying love." Riding upon the top of Mt. Scopus we behold in all its wondrous beauty, the "City of the Great King." 142 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XVI. CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 4 4 1 F I FORGET thee, O Jerusalem, let my right * hand forget her cunning." This sentence comes ringing down the ages with peculiar force. At least it came to the writer with peculiar force as we reigned up our horse on the top of Mt. Scopus and took a long look at the city of the Great King. Here was the home of David and Solomon. Yon- der on Mt. Moriah once stood the finest building of all history the temple. In its place stands the Mosque of Omar and if the religion of the Moslems was a thousandth part as good as that Mosque is beautiful it would pass pretty well. David no doubt stood upon Mt. Scopus one day in the long ago and saw the fort on the mountain (now called Mt. Zion) and noted that the Jebus- ites, in order to insult him and his army, had man- ned the battlements with the lame and blind. They soon found their mistake, however, for when David beheld their audacity, he said to his hosts, "the first man that scales that rock fortress and kills a Jebusite shall be my chief captain." A crowd of warriors started but Joab was the fortu- nate man and all readers of the Bible know that David was true to his promise. DAVID SINNED. A few years after the above event David com- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 143 mitted a grievous wrong in numbering the people when God had forbidden it. Even Joab tried to prevent it but King David was stubborn and must have his way. The Lord was displeased and "smote Israel." David confessed his sin, how- ever, and the Lord sent Gad, David's seer to him with three propositions allowing him to take his choice. The Chronicler can tell it better, however, and we will quote from 1 Chron. 21st chapter. "So Gad came to David and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, choose thee either three years fam- ine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies over- take thee ; or else three days the sword of the Lord even the pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel." David said, "I am in a great strait; let me fall now into the hand of the Lord ; for very great are his mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man." The pestilence came and a darker day never dawned. Seventy thousand men fell. Je- rusalem seemed to be doomed for as David climb- ed upon this mountain and looked across at Jerusa- lem he saw a mighty angel standing with a sword drawn over the city. David and those with him all dressed in sackcloth fell to the earth and if any man ever prayed David did. 0, how he plead with God for the city ! ANGEL WITH DRAWN SWORD. It &eem that the angel was on the top of Mt. 144 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Moriah and at the threshing floor of Oman. The Lord heard David's prayer and commanded him to go where the angel stood and offer a sacrifice. He went with all speed and said to Oman, "Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord, and thou grant it me for the full price ; that the plague may be stayed from the people." Oman said he would gladly give up the place and the oxen for a sacri- fice. He offered it all free, but David said, "Nay I will buy it for the full price ; for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost." Is it any wonder that this is the site chosen for the temple which Solomon afterwards built and is it any wonder that from that time forward Jerusalem was called the City of David? "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about His people from hence- forth even forever," said the Psalmist. The read- er may ask how the mountains can be round about the city when it is located on the top of mountains. Well here we are on Mt. Scopus on the north higher than the city. On the east yonder is the memorable Mt. of Olives, also higher than the city. On the south is Mount Offiner still higher than the city, while on the west are other moun- tains, so that the city while located on the top of mountains is literally surrounded with mountains still higher. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 145 MOUNT CALVARY. As we pass down towards Jerusalem we pause at one of the most interesting places about the city. It is Mount Calvary, called the Skull Place by the Jews. No Jew will pass by it at night if it can be avoided, and when they pass in the day time they utter a curse against the one who pre- sumed to be their king. From the ordinary pictures of these places one gets' an idea that Mount Calvary where the cruci- fixion took place was a long distance away from the highway, but this is not true. Calvary is a small hill by the side of the Damascus road and only a few rods from the highway so that people passing can talk with those on the hill in the ordin- ary conversational tone. Standing near Damascus gate of the city of Jerusalem Mount Calvary looks like a gigantic skull. It is simply a huge mound and there are holes in the side of the rock that form a kind of a mouth, nose-cavity, eyesockets, etc. It is outside the wall and yet near the city. While it answers the scripture descriptions even to minute details for years no one noticed it or thought of it as the place of the crucifixion. IN THE TOMB. Near by is the tomb which could hardly be bet- ter described in a word than by the scriptural nar- rative. The limestone wall is almost perpendicu- lar and the tomb is cut in the solid rock. By the side at the bottom is cut a groove in the solid rock 146 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. about 8 inches wide and about the same depth. The rolling stone is a great flat stone several feet in diameter and as wide as the groove. When in its place it can be rolled from one end of the groove to the other on the principle of a sliding barn door. When rolled up to one end it fills or rather covers the opening and when rolled away to the other end of the groove it leaves the door open. What a sacred place ! As Isaac and the writer entered this tomb we did not feel like speaking a word. Finally Isaac showed how any Jew would discover that it was a Jewish tomb they build their tombs a little different than other people. He then showed how any one famiilar with Jew- ish customs knows that it was a rich man's tomb. He then showed how it was never quite finished and stated that while many think the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, within the city is the place where the body of Jesus was laid, yet in his mind there was hardly a shadow of a doubt that we were in the identical tomb where the body of the Saviour was laid. This tomb seems to answer exactly to the tomb described in John 20:3-10. When Peter and John ran to the Sepulchre John was a little the swiftest but instead of going in, looked in and saw the linen clothes lying. When Peter came he went right in and saw not only these clothes that could be seen from without, but the "napkin" that was wrapped about the head in its place. As there was a projection of rock out a little distance and the head back in its place the napkin could not be LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 147 seen except by one who went in. When John went in and beheld everything in order and in its place just as if the body had been slipped out without disturbing a thing from that time forth he be- lieved no one could ever doubt his faith. Although we have not entered the city a visit to this tomb with an open Bible has richly repaid us for all the hardships of the long and tiresome journey. What has before seemed far away and dead is now near by and alive. Every foot of ground in the Holy Land is historic and to go over it with the Word of God makes its living. Yes, in writing these lines it is a most happy priv- ilege to go again, even in thought, over the hills that w r ere trodden by the feet of Him who wore the crown of thorns. We trust that some day it will be our privilege to go with a company of be- lievers leasurely over these hills and valleys and see again the places that were made sacred by the World's redeemer. Do you want to go along with us next time? INTO THE CITY. We enter Jerusalem by the Damascus Gate. The weather is very hot. This portion of the city is very dirty and dust is nearly everywhere. Among the poorer classes, many of the people are poverty stricken. In all Palestine this is true. Beggars are nearly everywhere, and little children ask for Backsheesh. Blind people are numerous. As we enter the gate of the city, a half dozen lepers hold out their stubby hands for alms. 148 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. It seemed very good to get into an English ho- tel. After a horseback ride of more than 100 miles, it was great to sit down in an easy chair on the veranda. Then to get a well cooked meal it was more like dining at a king's table. In spite of the long journey and aching limbs, we could not sit still but a short time. With Isaac for a guide we started out. Soon we were in the Jewish quar- ter of the city. The streets here are very narrow. Shops open into the street. Yonder sits a money changer. Isaac explained that in Jerusalem one must have the exact change if he makes a pur- chase. We went up to the money changer and procured some small change. The next day as we passed this same old man called Isaac and ad- mitted that he overchanged his lord on yester- day. (Isaac was our guide and the old gentle- man spoke of the writer as his lord) . It was but a fourth of a cent and Isaac proceeded to assure him that it was all right, that his lord (?) did not care for a small amount like that. JEWS WAILING PLACE. A most interesting and yet sad spot is the Jews Wailing Place. It is by the side of the wall of the sacred inclosure (temple area). Some one has said that "By a strange irony of fortune the Jews who formerly so rigorously excluded all Gentiles from the Temple Area, are now themselves de- barred with equal stringency from entering the precincts of the 'Noble Sancutary.' " The nearest they can approach is the outer wall and here they LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 149 come in great numbers on Friday and early Sat- urday morning. This they do in preparation for the Sabbath which of course is Saturday. We are sorry that we were not a shorthand re- porter to take down some of the interesting things Isaac told us about this the Wailing Place of his people. He said among other things that every prominent family had a certain stone in the wall where they wailed. Many of them weep as if their hearts were breaking. They go over the Lamen- tations of Jeremiah and the seventy-ninth and one hundred second Psalm. Get your Bible and read these two Psalms and see how appropriate they are. It seems that they were written for this purpose and this very place. Near the entrance to this wailing place are multitudes of beggars. They have learned long ago that the Jew when moved to tears over the condition of himself and his people, is more sus- ceptible than at any other time, and the beggars are not slow to take every possible advantage. The Jew also believes that if he gives to the first one that asks alms after he has prayed by the wall, he will be blessed and every beggar tries to be first to ask him, and as far as we could make out they all succeeded admirably. CLEANING UP THE CITY. As we pass along Isaac points to a lot of old buildings that have no doors. A long time ago they were white washed. The occasion was on the visit of the German Emperor, a few years be- fore. Of course they must clean up the streets 150 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. and have their city in apple pie order. Well they gathered up the refuse, shoveled it into these buildings, nailed up the doors, and gave the out- side a coat of whitewash, and it remained as they left it until the visit we are describing, and we suppose it is the same way today. In this Jewish quarter we see Jews from Rus- sia, Germany and nearly every country under heaven. On the hottest day some of them will have on their heavy clothing. How they talk and gesture! Here are several synagogues, but Isaac has so much respect for the worship of his fathers that he will not enter a synagogue out of curiosity. We went into one of their baths and decided if we got out all right it would be a long time before we entered such a place again. The first room was hot, the next still hotter, and the next almost unendurable, and the next hotter still. We didn't know the way out and Isaac had great fun at our misfortune. THE SORROWFUL WAY. One of the principle streets of Jerusalem is the Via Dolorosa, the Sorrowful Way. This is about the longest street in the city. The guides tell us that Jesus carried the cross along this street. Pilate's Arch, or the Arch of Ecco Homo is an arch crossing the street. There is a tradition that states that Pilate led Jesus out here and said Ecco Homo Behold the Man ! In the Lands of the Bible we have this further statement as to the Jerusalem guides: "They LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 151 show not only the exact spot where the cross was taken from the shoulder of Jesus and laid on that of Simon of Gyrene, but the spots where Jesus twice fell under the weight of the cross. They show the spot where Jesus spoke to the women who followed him; and also at the junction of a narrow alley with the street they say that Mary, unable to reach her son in the crowd, stood to speak to him as he passed. Not content with these inventions, they show a depression made by the hand of Jesus in the rock of an old wall, and the place where St. veronica wbed his face, and found that her handkerchief had received the pic- ture of his face." The above is a sample of the inventions of these ingenius guides and they have told these super- stitious stories over so often that they easily be- lieve them. We heard these stories until we wer sick and tired of them. DAVID STREET. David Street is another of the principle thor- oughfares of the city. This is one of the first streets one notices on entering the city at Joppa Gate. We visited many interesting places and Isaac showed how many of the customs in vogue today throw light upon the scripture narrative. In one great massive building we visited a great trap door was opened and an old rough looking man who seemed to be the keeper of the place gave the writer a lighted candle and invited us to visit the cavern under the building. After Isaac 152 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. had assured us that he would stand at the door and see that all was well we went down, down into a dark cavern similar to a good sized room. In this damp foul place the only thing visible was a pile of bones we believe they were the remains of human beings. It was a horrid place and we shouted to Isaac to ask the old man what he had down there. After some jabbering that we could not understand the answer came, "nothing but bones." If the heavy door had been dropped it would have been all over with us for no one could halloo loud enough to be heard on the outside of the building. THE UPPER ROOM. A very interesting place is the up^er room, where they tell us that Jesus and his disciples ate the Last Supper. It is an upper room all right, but we can hardly believe the building is but a century or two old. In fact Jerusalem has been built and destroyed again and again. The proph- ecy that "Zion would be plowed as a field" has been literally fulfilled. The city as it is today is prac- tically a modern city. Very few if any of the buildings are more than a few centuries old. It is said that they have dug down a hundred feet and round the ruins of the city which existed thousands of years ago. The writer of these lines had one sad day in the city. About midnight we became almost deathly sick. Early the next morning the doctor was called and he said that we must lay very quiet LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 153 all day would not dare to turn over in the bed and to raise up would be dangerous. He said, however, that in the evening we might sit up a little. Feeling so much better and really feeling that the physician had exaggerated a little in his commands we arose from the bed. In a very few moments we were unconscious and when con- sciousness returned we were back on the bed with half a dozen scared people about. In a few min- utes the doctor arrived and such another curtain lecture we hope never to be the recipient of again. He was so much out of patience that he charged us double price for his services. 154 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XVII. TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. WHILE the Temple of Solomon and the sec- ond temple and later the temple of Herod that was forty and six years in building have all been destroyed, the Temple Area is today as it was a thousand years ago. It covers about thirty-six acres of ground and is solid rock. Mount Moriah as well as Mount Zion are both gigantic rocks. Mount Moriah was quite uneven and in order to make a level area upon which to build the temple the top was in some places hewn off and in other places built up with massive masonry. It is interesting to note the fullfilling of the prophecy of Jesus who said, as he looked at the great stones in the temple, "Not one stone shall be left upon another." When Titus besieged the city and it finally fell into his hands, he gave or- ders that the temple be saved. It almost seemed that even the Roman leader would prevent the fulfillment of the Saviour's prophesy. Some of the soldiers in carrying a torch through the temple, set fire to some of the drapery and soon the build- ing was in flames. Of course no one was much in- terested in putting out the fire and the beautiful building was destroyed. It is said that much of the wood of the temple was overlaid with gold and this gold melted and run between the cracks and crevices, between the LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 155 stones and to get this gold every stone in the whole temple was moved so that the prophecy was liter- ally fulfilled. THE GREAT ROCK. There is hardly a shadow of a doubt that the great Mosque of Omar is situated in the temple area exactly where the temple used to stand. There is a tradition that in the Holy of Holies in the temple there was a projection of the natural rock. This is said to be the spot where Abraham went to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice and where many years later David offered a sacrifice as noted on previous page. In this mosque is the only pro- jection of the natural rock on Mt. Moriah so it must be the place where the temple stood. It is no wonder that in the estimation of the Jew this rock is by far the most sacred spot on earth. It was here that the Shekinah of Glory stood all through the years while the temple stood. Here was the dwelling place of the Most High. No wonder the Jew gets as near this spot as he can (the Jews' Wailing Place) and weeps bitter tears. This rock is about 60 feet long and almost as broad. It is about five feet above the marble floor of the mosque which means that it is twelve or fifteen feet above the ground on the outside. In a portion of this great rock there is a small room cut out which is called "The Noble Cave." But we are anticipating. We started in to tell how cautious one must be to visit this mosque. We must tell you what a time one has to get permis- sion to make the visit. 156 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. PERMISSION SECURED. A day or two before the visit Isaac and the writer went to the American Consul and asked that he secure the proper permit from the Turkish authorities which he gladly promised to do. Promptly at the appointed time we called at his office and found his kawass (a servant of the con- sul dressed in rather gaudy attire) ready to ac- company us. The proper permit had been secured and a Turkish soldier soon put in appearance. These men must both accompany us and each must be given a liberal fee. Also the permit cost money so the visit is quite expensive after all. As we passed in the gate the Mohammedans about looked at us with scorn. They would about as leave kill a man as to look at him in fact if a man should attempt to go alone he would likely lose his life. Since we made this visit the papers state that one man undertook to go into the mosque and the Mo- hammedans jumped upon him and beat him so that for many weeks he lingered between life and death. SOME TRADITIONS. While we are in the temple area we will call attention to some of the Mohammedan traditions. Just on the inside of the Mosque of Omar is what they call the "Dome of the Chain." Mr. Mac- millan in his book on Palestine and Egypt says : "This name is derived from a curious legend which is devoutly believed in by the Moslems of Jerusa- lem. They say that King David by Divine direc- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 157 tion, held his law courts on this spot and that Divine measures were taken to insure against any miscarriage of justice. In order that this might be effectually secured, a chain was let down from heaven to within about three feet from the ground, and when any witness was called upon to give his evidence he was required to take hold of this chain with both his hands. If his testimony was true nothing happened ; if false one link dropped off the chain and every one knew that he was telling a lie. "Now once upon a time there was a lawsuit be- tween a Moslem and a Jew. The Moslem had been on a Sacred Pilgrimage to Mecca ; and before leav- ing Jerusalem he had handed to the Jew a certain sum of money to hold in trust for him. On his re- turn, so he said, the Jew had failed to return the money. Hence the lawsuit. Both parties were brought to this spot, and the Jew was called upon to state his case. He was a very old man, with long gray beard and stooping shoulders, and he came along leaning upon a very thick and heavy staff. In order to take hold of the chain with both his hands, he gave his staff to his Moslem antagon- ist, who happened to be standing next to him, to hold for him; and seizing the chain he said in a firm voice : 'I solemnly swear that I have repaid the money in question to the Moslem and that he has it in his possession at the present moment.' Nothing happened. Then came the Moslem's turn, and handing back to the Jew his staff he took hold of the chain and said: 'I solemnly swear that I 158 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. have never received the money from the Jew/ Thereupon the chain disappeared up to heaven and has never been seen since. "The fact was that the crafty old Jew had care- fully concealed the money in the hollow of his staff ; and therefore when he had handed his staff to the Moslem to hold for him he had literally paid him back his money and he told the truth when he said that the Moslem had the money in his pos- session at that very moment. But in as much as his intention was to deceive, it was virtually a lie; whereas on the other hand the poor Moslem honestly thought that he was telling the truth, whilst he was swearing unconsciously to some- thing which was not the actual fact." Mr. Macmillan goes on to say that not even a chain let down from heaven can show whether a person is telling the truth or not; and therefore as it was no longer of any use it was carried back to its original destination. This is but a sample of the dozens of traditions that these Moslem people tell the traveler most earnestly. In another part of this Mosque is a square stone in the floor. It looks like when it was placed there it was soft and a number of spikes were driven in- to it as you could drive spikes into newly laid ce- ment. Several of these nails have been withdrawn and the Moslems tell us that at certain times an angel comes down from heaven and pulls out a spike. If we remember correctly they told us that when the last spike is pulled out that the great Mohammed would come back to Jerusalem again. LANDS OF SACRED STORY, 159 CHAPTER XVIII. QUITE AN EXPERIENCE. IN HIS splendid book "City of the Great King," Mr. Barclay gives an account of how a man by the name of Bartlett planned to enter the Mosque of Omar by night. We give the entire ac- count : "I will now add an account of a visit to the mosque attempted by myseif, which, though it proved abortive, may arouse the reader, as show- ing that in spite of the bigotry of the Musselmans in general, individuals are always to be found, and often of high standing, who are willing, for the sake of a bribe, not only to smuggle the infidel into the holy places, but also, rather than fail, to violate the established proprieties and rooted prejudices of their countrymen. "The agent in this instance was a character common enough in comedies, viz., an intriguing servant belonging to a friend, whose profession as hakim brought him into contact with many of the better class of Moslems. By his contrivance a meeting was brought about, at a house on the brow of Mount Zion, looking out on the ruined bridge, with an old Turk, who having been previ- ously sounded, had expressed his willingness to undertake the job. On repairing to the spot, I found one of the finest looking old men I ever saw, with an open, benevolent countenance and a long 160 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. silvery beard, dressed in a turban and white robes, and looking the very impersonation of one of the patriarchs. After mutual salutations, the busi- ness was opened by my interpreter, and the best means of effecting it were canvassed with great earnestness. As I wore neither beard nor mous- tache and besides had not been long in the coun- try to get thoroughly bronzed, the old man at first proposed that I should be dressed as a Turkish woman, and walk behind him about the mo.sqi.e. This plan, however, had its objections, and on further reflection, he was struck with a most original idea, and certainly the last of which I should ever have thought. I was to come to his house, after dark, apparently as a hakim sen' for to prescribe for his family, with the intriguing* servant carrying a box of medicines before me, in order to lull suspicion. On arriving at his domi- cile, he would have a woman's costume all ready, in which I was to dress myself a disguise, in which no doubt many more nefarious pranks have been played than I was about to commit. Having put on this feminine attire, I was then to accompany his wives to the mosque, which would at that time be brilliantly illuminated, this being the season of Ramadan. The only difficulty, he said, would be to talk over his women ; but to persuade them into the scheme, he trusted to the efficacy- of a certain five hundred piasters, which I promised to pay down as soon as we came back to his l-oiixe, after the successful conclusion if the adventure. "I now returned home and from the terrace of LANDS OF SACRED STORY- J61 the hotel watched the red light fade off Mount Olivet, and heard the gun fired to give notice to all good Moslems that they might now lawfully eat their dinners. Darkness soon invested the city, relieved only by the brilliant minarets. As the time drew near when the servant was to come and fetch me, it now suddenly struck me that I had embarked in a rather hazardous affair, without anything to justify it, but the mere desire to an adventure ; since it would be impossible, muffled up in a female attire, to examine the architectural peculiarities of the mosque, even if the act of start- ing about would not of itself be enough to betray my disguise. In the event of discovery, there hardly could be a doubt that death by stoning', or some more horrible fate, would be the penalty inflicted upon me by the frantic mob, doubly en- raged by the violation of the sanctity of the place, and at the indecent manner in which it had been effected. "It was, then, with no little nervousness that I listened for the tap at the door which was to an- nounce the messenger. About nine he made his appearance, informing me that the old man had succeeded in talking over his womankind, and that everything was in readiness. We then stole forth, the servant gravely preceding me, and carrying before him a traveling box of medicines. This precaution was all but useless, for the streets were so dark that it was with difficulty we could grope our way ; but here and there we came upon a group of Turks sitting out of doors and smoking by the 162 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. light of paper lanterns. The last of these was in the Via Dolorosa, near St. Ann's church; and I thought I recognized among them the ugly visage of a lad who had thrown stones at me in the morn- Ing for approaching too near the mosque, and who regarded me with a look of suspicion. "At length we reached the house of the old Turk. On stepping in, I was conducted, with an air of mystery, into an upper chamber, when the old Turk came forth and welcomed me. I could not but remark that, notwithstanding the confid- ence he had previously expressed, his counten- ance betrayed no little agitation. He uttered, from lime to time, a deep sigh, stroked his long beard, and, looking up to heaven, muttered what I under- stood was a prayer for the happy success of the enterprise. In fact, he must have been conscious that should a discovery take place, he would be certain to forfeit all consideration and character, even if subjected to no farther punishment, which, however, would most probably be the case. DISGUISED. "The articles of female dress intended for my disguise were now produced, and I was invited to put them on. The first difficulty occurred' with the boots of yellow leather, in which the Turkish women waddle, rather than walk, about the streets. These were so small that it was impos- sible to get them on, and I had therefore to con- tent myself with slipping my stockings into a pair of red shoes, which only half covered them. My LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 163 feet seemed alarmingly large and clumsy, and very likely to betray my real sex; but the Turk and servant said these would do. The next affair was to draw over my pantaloons a pair of female inexpressibles, which, though of very spacious width, turned out, like the boots, to be too small scarcely reaching down to the ankles, which stood out in strong development. Their sole fastening was a pair of strings, intended to be drawn around the slender waist, and to rest upon the swelling hips of the fair owner ; but from the want of any such support in my case, they threatened to slip bodily down upon the slightest movement. A dark veil was now put over my head, so as to en- tirely conceal the features, but through which I was enabled to see with tolerable clearness ; and, finally, a large white wrapper, but also too short, was thrown over me, completely enveloping all but the face. Although I fancied this disguise far from complete the old man and the servant, after studying it attentively, and asking me to walk up and down, dropping my head a little, and affecting something of a female waddle, looked at one another with approving glances, and author- itatively announced it to be 'taib.' "The servant now explained to me the manner of proceeding. When the women were dressed, which would be in a few minutes, we were all to sally forth together, and enter the enclosure by the neighboring gate. I was instructed to keep in the middle of the party, to do precisely as they did, and to be careful not to stare too much at me. We 164 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. were to go first into the Mosque of Omar, which at that moment would be brilliantly lighted up, and from thence to that of El Aksa; returning, after a short stay, to the house, where I was then to count down the five hundred piasters which I had stiplated to give. DISAPPOINTED. "All was now ready, and I awaited the arrival of my female conductors with intense anxiety, not altogether unmingled with apprehension. To say truth, besides doubts, as to my own successful de- portment, I was not without misgivings as to the discretion of my companion in a case where the slightest misconduct would involve the most ser- ious consequences; and feared no less, that in case of alarm they would suddenly scatter about the enclosure, and leave me to get out of it as I could. My distrust was greatly increased when I heard much chattering without, and when the head of the chief lady was projected into the apartment, beckoning forth her husband, who fol- lowed her into an adjoining room. He returned in a moment, evidently much disconcerned, de- claring that his wives would only consent to ac- company me on previously receiving payment. Stroking his beard, he declared that he himself had no misgivings whatever, and trusted entirely to my honor, but that his wives were rebellious, and would listen to no reason. I was doubly an- noyed at this not only because it involved a per- sonal affront, and displayed the avaricious eager- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 165 ness of the women in a disgusting light, but also because it confirmed me in my distrust of their conduct. To pay them beforehand what was so evidently their only inducement to go with rne, would deprive me of the sole check I might have upon their behavior, and I firmly resolved not to surrender it. Producing the money, which I had brought with me, I declared that it should be paid down the very moment we returned, but that, after the formal agreement which had been enter- ed into, it was doubting my honor to insist upon receiving it beforehand. A spirited discussion now ensued, the women thrusting their heads into the room and taking part in it. I found they were divided in opinion, and that it was the obstinacy of the chief lady which prevented the conclusion of the bargain. The poor old Turk seemed pass- ive in their hands, and altogether it afforded a cur- ious insight into the manifold tribulations beset- ting the possessor of many wives, proving that polygamy is to be regarded as Byron says 'Not only as a sin, but as a bore.' "As the women still persisted in their demands, I at length got wearied, and throwing off the feminine garb in which I was half -suffocated, broke off all further negotiation." 166 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XIX. REBUILDING THE TEMPLE. OEFORE LEAVING the temple area we will *-^ turn aside to give two or three historical in- cidents. While the Jews were in captivity, the city was sadly neglected and went to ruin. De- vout Jews opened their windows toward Jerusa- lem and prayed that the time would come when they would be gathered home in their city once more. Company after company was organized and went from Babylonia to their home city once more to build again the walls and restore the city. Josephus in his antiquities of the Jews, gives some most interesting accounts of these attempts and tells the story of how the heathen kings were persuaded to let them go. We will in this chapter give you the story of how Zorabable (Zerubbabel in the Bible) won the admiration of King Darius and was permitted to lead a company to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding the temple. The ac- count is found in Antiquities Book XI, Chapter III. THE KING'S OFFER. "Now in the first year of the king's reign, Darius feasted those that were about him, and those born in his house, with the rulers of the Medes-, and princes of the Persians, and the toparchs of India and Ethopia and the generals LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 167 of the armies of his hundred and twenty-seven provinces; but when they had eaten and drunk to satiety, and abundantly, they every one de- parted to go to bed at their own houses, and Darius the king went to bed; but after he had rested a little part of the night, he awaked, and not being able to sleep any more, he fell into con- versation with the three guards of his body, and promised, that to him who should make an oration, about points that he should inquire or; such as should be most agreeable to truth, and to the dic- tates of wisdom, he would grant it as a reward of his victory, to put on a purple garment, and to drink in cups of gold, and to sleep upon gold, and to have a chariot with bridles of gold, and a head tire of fine linen, and a chain of gold about his neck and to sit next to himself, on account of his wisdom; and, says he, he shall be called my cousin. Now when he had promised to give them these gifts, he asked the first of them, whether wine was not the strongest? The second, whether women were not such? Or, whether truth was not strong- est of all? When he had proposed that they should make their inquiries about these problems, he went to rest; but in the morning he sent for his great men, his princes and toparchs of Persia and Midia, and sat himself down in the place where he used to give audience, and bade each of the guards of his body to declare what they thought proper concerning the proposed questions in the hearing of them all. 168 - LANDS OF SACRED STORY. POWER OF WINE. Accordingly, the first of them began to speak of the strength of wine and demonstrated it thus : 'When, said he, I am to give my opinions of wine, O you men, I find that it exceeds everything-, by the following indications : It deceives the minds of those who drink it, and reduces that of the king to the same state with that of the orphan and he who stands in need of a tutor, and erects that of the slave to the boldness of him that is free, and that of the needy becomes like that of the rich man, for it changes and renews the souls of men when it gets into them, and it quenches the sorrow of those that are under calamities, and makes :nen forget the debts they owe to others, and m-i'ces them think themselves to be of all men the richest ; it makes them talk of no small things, but of tal- ents, and such other names as become wealthy men only ; nay, more, it makes them insensible of their commanders, and of their kings and takes away the remembrance of their friends and com- panions, for it arms men even against those that are dearest to them, and makes them appear the greatest strangers to them; and when they are become sober, and they have slept out their wine in the night, they arise without knowing any thing they have done in their cups; I take these for signs of power, and by them discover that wine is the strongest and most insuperable of all things.' POWER OF KINGS. As soon as the first had given the foremen- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 169 tioned demonstration of the strength of wine, he left off, and the next to him began to speak about the strength of a king, and demonstrated that it was the strongest of all, and more powerful than any thing else that appears to have any force or wisdom. He began his demonstration after the following manner, and said, 'They are men who govern all things; they force the earth and the sea to become profitable to them in what they de- sire, and over these men do kings rule, and over them they have authority. Now, those men who rule over that animal which is of all the strongest and most powerful, must needs deserve to be esteemed insuperable in power and force; for example, when these kings command their sub- jects to make war and undergo dangers, they are hearkened to, and when they send them against their enemies, their power is so great that they are obeyed. They command men to level moun- tains, and to pull down walls and towers ; nay, when they are commanded to be killed and to kill, they submit to it, that they may not appear to transgress the king's commands; and when they have conquered, they bring what they have gained in the war to the king. Those also who are not soldiers, but cultivate the ground and plough it, and when, after they have endured the labor, and all the inconveniences of such works of husbandry, they have reaped and gathered in their fruits, they bring tributes to the king. And whatsoever it is which the king says or commands, it is done of necessity, and that without any delay, while 170 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. he in the meantime is satiated with all sorts of food and pleasures and sleeps in quiet. He is guarded by such as watch, and such as are as it were fixed down to the place through fear, for no one dares leave him, even when he is asleep, nor does any one go away and take care of his own affairs, but he esteems this one thing the only work of necessity, to guard the king, and accord- ing to this he wholly addicts himself. How then can it be otherwise, but that it must appeal that the king exceeds all in strength, while so great a multitude obeys his injunctions.' POWER OF WOMEN. Now when this man had held his peace, the third of them, who was Zorababel, began to in- struct them about women, and about truth, who said thus: 'Wine is strong, as is the king also, whom all men obey, but women are superior to them in power, for it was a woman that brought the king into the world; and for those that plant the vines and make the wine, they are women who bear them, and bring them up ; nor indeed is there anything which we do not receive from them; for these women weave garments for us, and our household affairs are by their means taken care of, and preserved in safety ; nor can we live separate from women. And when we have gotten a great deal of gold and silver, and any other thing that is of great value, and deserving regard and see a beautiful woman, we leave all things, and with open mouth fix our eyes upon her countenance, and are willing to forsake what we have, that we LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 171 may enjoy her beauty, and procure it to ourselves. We also leave father, and mother, and the earth that nourishes us, and frequently forget our dearest friends, for the sake of women; nay, we are so hardy as to lay down our lives for them. But will chiefly make you take notice of the strength of women, is this that follows ; do we not take pains, and endure a great deal of trouble, and that both by land and sea, and when we have procured some- what as the fruit of our labors, do we not bring them to the women, as to our mistresses, and be- stow them upon them ? Nay, I once saw the king, who is lord of so many people, smitten on the face by Apame, the daughter of Rabsases Themasius, his concubine, and his diadem taken from him, and put upon her own head, while he bore it patiently; and when she smiled he smiled, and when she was angry he was sad; and according to the change of her passions, he flattered his wife, and drew her to a reconciliation by the great humiliation of himself to her, if at any time he saw her displeased at him.' POWER OF TRUTH. And when the princes and rulers looked one upon another, he began to speak about truth, and he said, 'I have already demonstrated how power- ful women are ; but both these women themselves, and the king himself, are weaker than truth, for although the earth be large, and the heaven high, and the course of the sun swift, yet are all these moved according to the will of God who is true and righteous, for which cause we also ought to 172 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. esteem truth to be strongest of all things, and that what is unrighteous is of no force against it. Moreover, all things else that have strength are mortal and short lived but truth is a thing that is immortal and eternal. It affords us not indeed such a beauty as will wither away by time, not such riches as may be taken away by fortune, but righteous rules and laws. It distinguishes them from injustice, and puts what is unrighteous to rebuke.' KING GIVES PERMISSION. So when Zorobable had left off his discourse about truth, and the multitude had cried out aloud that he had spoken the most wisely, and that it was truth alone that had immutable strength, and such as never would wax old, the king commanded that he should ask for somewhat over and above what he had promised, for that he would give it him because of his wisdom, and that prudence wherein he exceeded the rest, and thou shalt sit with me, said the king, and shalt be called my cousin. When he had said this, Zorobable put him in mind of the vow he had made, in case he should ever have the kingdom. Now this vow was, 'To rebuild Jerusalem, and to build therein the temple of God ; as also to restore the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged, and carried to Babylon.' And this, said he, is that request which thou now permittest me to make, on account that I have been judged to be wise and understanding. So the king was pleased with what he had said, and arose and kissed him; and wrote to the LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 173 toparchs and governors, and enjoined them to conduct Zorobable and those that were going with him to build the temple. He also sent letters to those rulers that were in Syria and Phoenecia, to cut down and carry cedar trees from Lebanon to Jerusalem, and to assist him in building the city. He also wrote to them, that all the captives who should go to Judea should be free; and he pro- hibited his deputies and governors to lay any king's taxes upon the Jews ; he also permitted that they should have all that land which they could possess themselves of without tributes." 174 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XX. THE GATES OF THE CITY. A NCIENT Jerusalem had more than a dozen ** gates. There were probably three gates on each side and the New Jerusalem that John the Revelator saw was like it in that respect. Modern Jerusalem has several prominent portals. JAFFA GATE. The principal entrance is the Jaffa Gate. It is on the west or rather southwest. The city has extended beyond the walls and today thousands of people live outside of the city walls. The Jaffa Gate is the busiest part of the city. Great crowds of people are there all hours in the day. Many bazaars are located near by. Every day we were in the city and went near the Jaffa Gate an in- teresting company was there. First there were strangers from afar. Great caravans from Egypt and the south arrive and de- part often. Beggars were on all sides. Outside the gate and down below the lepers gather and as some of them held out their stubby hands and asked for backsheesh one would almost shudder at the hideous spectacle they present. Just across the way is located the Lepers Home, but they don't like to go there. It is to them something similar to the poor house in this country but few care to go there. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 175 The "Jaffa Gate" is sometimes called the Gate of Bethlehem, because it is on the side of the city toward Bethlehem. One of the best carriage roads in Palestine is the road to Bethlehem and Hebron. Z ION'S GATE. On the south is located "Zion's Gate." It is said the Arabs call this the Gate of the Prophet David. Near by is the "Dung Gate." Mr. MacMillan well says : "It is well to enter within this gate and to climb to the top of the tower above it, which is reached by a stone staircase from the inner side of the walls; for the view from this spot is ex- tremely interesting and extensive. The western wall of the Temple Area is best seen from this point. The large open space covered with dense thickets of cactus immediately inside the walls stand on the side of the old Tyrophean Valley which separated Zion on the west from Moriah on the east, but which is now in a great measure fitted up by the immense accumulations of earth and debris which cover the original bed of the valley." GOLDEN GATE. The "Golden Gate" is walled up and carefully guarded by the Moslems. Their idea is that when the Messiah returns to set up his throne on the Temple Area He will enter this gate in triumph. "St. Stephen's Gate" is also called the "Gate of Our Lady Mary." No doubt because the road from it leads down to what is known as the "Vir- gin's Tomb." 176 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. "On the north is the "Damascus Gate." It was no doubt through this gate that Jesus carried the Cross on the way to Mt. Calvary which is but a short distance away. Mr. Barclay says there are in all ten gates, but we did not see that many, al- though we went entirely around the city. We will tell you about this trip in the next chapter. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 177 CHAPTER XXL AROUND THE CITY OF JERUSALEM. TO GIVE our readers an idea of what is to be seen around about Jerusalem the following is a journey of but half a day. We were certainly very fortunate in having for a guide a con- verted Jew, a son of a Rabbi whose people, all but one sister, deserted and disinherited him when he became a Christian. As he was reared in Jerusalem and knows every foot of the ground it would not do to question him when he said we would need horses for the afternoon, although it seemed a little extravagant, but long before night the wisdom of it was clearly shown. DOWN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM. Promptly at one o'clock we mounted our horses and started. Passing the lower pool of Gihon which is several hundred feet square, we rode down the Valley of Hinnom which really forms the southern boundary of the city, the wall being built near the top of the north side. On the south side of this valley is the Hill of Evil Counsel, where according to tradition was located the House of Caiaphas and the place where Judas took council with the chief priests for the betrayal of Jesus. About half was down the valley, on the right is a rocky plateau with a precipitous face overlooking the valley which is said to be the spot 178 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. where Judas committed suicide, first hanging himself and falling down his body burst open. It is called today Aceldama or the "Place of Blood." It was in the lowest part of this valley that the horrible child sacrifices to Tophet were held in the days of long ago when the inhabitants of Jerusalem made their sons and daughters "to pass through the fire of Moloch." (II Kings 22: 10.) A perpetual fire was also kept continually burning here to destroy the refuse of the city, hence the place was called Gehenna and often spoken of as a type of hell. (Mark 9 :48.) Now we leave our horses with a boy (there are always plenty at hand) and go down into the pool of Siloam, recalling the story of the blind man whom the Master sent here to wash that he might see. A little below is a large spring known as "Job's Well," which marks the junction of the Valleys of Hinnom and Jehosaphat and is the site of Enrogel, where Adonijah summoned his fol- lowers to proclaim him king. (I Kings 1:9.) Near by is "Isaiah's tree," where the prophet was sawn asunder according to tradition. Perched on the side of the hill on the right is the village of Siloam where the Tower of Siloam was located and in the fall of which 18 men were killed. (Luke 13:4.) UP VALLEY OF JEHOSAPHAT. As we ride up the valley of Jehosaphat we cross the brook Kedron and see the lepers colony and at most any time in the day one meets the poor LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 179 miserable creatures and as they hold out their stubby hands for money perhaps their fingers have all dropped off. O, that the Saviour was present to touch them as in days of old, for now no one else will. We were glad to find that the good people have built a magnificent home for them, but strange as it may seem they look upon it as a prison and many of them will not stay in it. On the side of the hill is a vast Jewish cemetery and near* by are the tombs bearing the names of Zechariah and James the Apostle. We visit Absolem's Pillar, the tomb that the Jew hurls a stone at if he passes it on Friday. Our Jewish friend pointed out a splen- did building not far away that was built by a wealthy Jew many years ago, who believed the Messiah was soon to come. Every evening even yet the inhabitants of that place dress up and go out to see the coming one. This they have done every evening for 25 years. One of the most interesting spots in all the country is near and again we dismount, leave our horses and as we pass through a gate the Garden of Gethsemane with all its sacred memories was before us. This garden belongs to the Monks at the present time and is walled in and kept beauti- ful. Here are some of the oldest olive trees in all Palestine. There is, no doubt about this being the actual garden where Jesus prayed so earnestly and if these are not the trees they undoubtedly come from the trees that stood here in the tirre of Christ. Near the garden is the Grotto of the 180 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. Agony and not far away is an underground chapei in which is the so-called Virgins Tomb. While there is not much ground for thinking that the mother of Jesus was buried here yet it is a most interesting place to visit. MOUNT OF OLIVES. Now we ascend the Mount of Olives along the path that David followed when he was fleeing from a rebellious son. "And David went up by the ascent of Mt. Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered and he went barefoot; and all the people that with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went." II Sam. 15:30. Also there is no doubt that a greater than David went up this path many times as he went to Bethany. It was along this path that the cursing of the barren fig tree took place and perhaps near the top of the hill that He sat when He wept over Jerusalem saying : "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her brood under her wing and ye would not." There is on the other side of the Mount an old road which is likely the one He passed over as He entered the city in triumph. On the top of the Mount of Olives are several churches and so called sacred places. One is called the "Church of Pater Noster," where Christ is said to have taught His disciples the memorable prayer. It was built by a rich Princess and in it is the Lord's prayer in 32 different languages, in- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 181 scribed on slabs in the corridors. Another inter- esting place is the Church of Ascension which stands over the traditional site of the ascension. In connection with this is a high tower ; as we went up the winding stairway we counted 276 steps. It is a tiresome climb but the view from the top pays for all the trouble. TOMB OF LAZARUS. Now we went galloping down to Bethany and first visited the traditional Tomb of Lazarus. To get into it you take lighted candles and go down about 30 steps. While it is an old tomb it is not likely that Lazarus was laid away in it. The tra- ditional house of Mary and Martha and the so- called house of Simon, the leper, "are pointed out but are hardly worth a visit. Galloping back over the mountain and across the valley we passed by the Place of Stoning.' This is a precipitous place and at the bottom are great craggy rocks. We had always supposed that when the Jews stoned a man they just threw stones at him until his life was crushed out, but our friend, the Jew, laughed at us for believing such. He said they brought the criminal here, bound his arms fast behind him and pushed him off face for- ward, the chief witness giving him the first push, and the fall was most always fatal ; in order that their work might be sure, however, they rolled great stones to the edge and let them fall upon his body until it was ground to a pulp. He also 182 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. said the language of Christ "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken ; but on whomso- ever it shall fall it will grind him to powder," was. taken from this idea. Next we went to the Pool of Bethesda, which was by the sheep market and had five porches. This pool is also reached by going down some stone steps and the water in it is as clear as crys- tal. At the gate beneath the arch the scripture which tells about it is written in 51 different languages. TOMBS OF THE KINGS. Coming back from the Pool of Bethesda we ride out to visit the Tombs of the Kings, which are the most wonderful rock cut chambers we ever visited. Here is a gigantic court 90x80 feet cut from the solid rock. To reach this court one must go down a board rock cut stairway of 24 steps. Then there is a portico which leads into the Tombs. The rolling stone is still in its groove. In the tombs there are receptacles for more than 70 people. These -are not the tombs of the Kings of Judah, but are supposed to have been built by later kings or queens. Josephus has something to say about them. Not far away are Solomon's Quarries which are especially interesting to the Masonic Fraternity. A recent writer says of these quarries: "They were discovered a few decades ago by accident. According to Mr. Wal- lace's report, Dr. Barclay, an American tourist, and as he passed along the north wall of the city his dog disappeared beneath the wall. Following LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 183 him Dr. Barclay discovered the entrance almost entirely closed with rubbish, of these grottoes or quarries. When explored they were found to be a place from which vast quantities of white stone had been taken for building purposes,, enough, some engineers have estimated, to build the pres- ent Jerusalem two or three times over. The exceeding whiteness of the stone, its near- ness to the Temple area, its suitability for build- ing purposes being soft when first quarried but hardening on exposure the great chamber deep in stone chippings, where vast quantities of the quarried stone had been cut into shape suggest- ing the allusion to the Temple having been put to- gether without the sound of the hammer or saw all these and other considerations conspired to establish the idea that has since taken hold of the public mind that here, indeed, was the place of which Josephus and the Old Testament spoke in connection with the building of the Temple. Hence the name that attached itself to the place i. e., Solomon's Quarries. It is, of course, the assumed relation of King Solomon to these caverns that gives them the in- terest they possess in the minds of Masons. The quarries extend for a distance of about 1,000 feet, and there is one particular chamber deep down in the very heart of the cavern that for some reason possesses a particular charm for Masons. The manner of hewing out the deep grooves on each side of the block, and at its top and bottom, and the way the wedges were intro- 184 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. duoed at the back for breaking the block from its bedrock, can all be plainly traced, as well as the niches for the workmen's lamps." Coming back we see again the Skull Place (Mt. Calvary) and enter the Damascus Gate well satis- fied with the trip almost around the city. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 185 CHAPTER XXII. THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. B3FORE bidding goodby to the city of the Great King we will give a word picture of the Siege of Jerusalem. This article was written by the edi- tor of the Christian Union several years ago and the facts mentioned are largely from the works of Josephus. On the pages of history are recorded many memorable sieges which have caused untold suffer- ing. In the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar it is said that the city held out for thirteen years. In the siege of Platea the Greeks were shut up in their city for two long years, after which every one of them was put to death. In the siege of Carthage, "Temples were turned into workshops and women cut off their long hair for material to make strings for their catapults; fifty thousand men, women and children were carried away cap- tives and the city so completely destroyed that oven Scipio, the enemy, shed tears of anguish at the sight of its ruins. But the most memorable siege of history was the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. If we can rely upon the account given by Jose- phus, Jerusalem was a city with more than twelve hundred thousand inhabitants ; it was situated up- on two hills and surrounded by three walls. Here 186 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. King Solomon built that magnificent temple said to have been the finest building of the world's his- tory. It was here the Jews gathered from "every nation under heaven" to attend the three great yearly feasts. It was called by many writers, "The Meeting Place of Nations." Judea had been under Roman rule since the days of Julius Caesar. In the year 66 after Christ the Jews became much dissatisfied with their government. The Roman governors had driven the people to the verge of despair by their tyranny. Even Tacitus admits that the endurance of the oppressed Jews could last no longer. They, however, took an unwise course t secure redress for their evil treatment. Herod Agrippa warned them of the folly of op- posing Rome but they, goaded to madness, took up arms to avenge their wrongs. GENERAL VESPASIAN. Nero, the emperor of Rome, entrusted the con- duct of the Jewish wars to Vespasian, his most trusted and faithful general. Josephus, the his- torian, had command of the insurgents, but the Jews from some cause distrusted him and he them, hence there arose a great contention among them which caused them untold suffering. In a short time the Romans were masters of all Gal- lilee. Josephus was taken prisoner at Jotapata, but by his brave resistance he won the respect and admiration of Vespasian. Those who escaped took refuge in Jerusalem where they told the story of their misfortunes and laid the blame upon Josphus and the aristocratic government as hav- LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 187 ing no heart for the common cause and treachery for their motto. When this news was brought to Jerusalem the Zealots, headed by a priest who was an enemy of Josephus undertook to overflow the existing government and did succeed in de- stroying the old magistracy and in putting to death many respectable citizens. In the meantime Vespasian had subdued almost the whole country and was ready to besiege Jeru- salem when tidings reached him of the death of Nero. For almost two years war was suspended, at the end of which time Vespasian, who was now emperor, entrusted to his son Titus the task of subduing Jerusalem. Then began that "great tribulation such as had not been from the begin- ning of the world." It was in the year 79 after Christ. The Jews inside the city were still fight- ing among themselves. In their warring with each other they had destroyed nearly all the grain, of which a large quantity had been kept for use in case of a siege. Such was the condition of the Jews when Titus appeared before the city with his mighty army. BUILDING BREAST WORKS. After much labor building breast works and using battering rams the first two walls were broken through and now for some reason Titus ordered the work to cease for a time. Then he tried, both personally and with Josephus as a mediator to persuade the Jews to accept terms of peace, as it was only a question of a little time when his armv would be in the city and it would 188 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. be the worse for them. The great mystery to the student of history is why did they refuse to accept Caesar's offer of peace, for at this very time their supply of provisions was almost exhausted and people were already starving to death. But they would not listen to Titus himself and when Jo- sephus reminded them that two walls had already been destroyed, that the Romans desired peace and had a reverence for their sacred rites and places, and that the power of Caesar was invinc- ible, they only laughed at him and threw darts at him. Then he reminded them of the principal events of their past history, how God had already forsaken them when they became so wicked and refused to do better and closed his speech with these words : "I am sensible that this danger will extend to my mother and wife who are inside the city, also that family of mine which has been by no means ignoble, and indeed one that hath been very eminent in old time and perhaps you may imagine that it is on their account only that I give this advice. If that be all kill them; nay take my own blood as a reward if it may but pro- cure your preservation, for I am ready to die in case you will return to a sound mind after my death." Instead of being moved by these noble words it only angered them the more and if any one showed the least shadow of suspicion of de- serting to the Romans his throat was cut im- mediately. TERRIBLE SUFFERING. When Titus perceived that words were useless LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 189 he ordered the third wall to be attacked. It is almost impossible for the human mind to con- ceive of the awful suffering and the fiendish in- humanity of the people from this time until the taking of the city. Josephus says : "That even at this time the sight was so miserable that it would justly bring tears to one's eyes. People who were rich gave all they had for one measure of wheat or barley, after which they would shut them- selves up in a room and eat what they had sought without even grinding. But the famine was too hard for all other passions ; and it was destructive to nothing so much as immodesty for what was otherwise worthy of reverence was in this case despised." When a house vras shut up it was a signal that those inside had received some food. Immediately the door was broken open, and old men who held to the food they were eating were beaten unmercifully. If women held a morsel be- tween their hands their hair was torn and the last bite taken from them. Neither did they pity the little children or the aged but snatched the grain from them even if they were in a perishing condition. They also invented terrible methods of torture to discover where any food was hidden. A person was forced to bear what is even terrible to hear in order to make him confess that he had a loaf of bread or a handful of barley con- cealed. It was a common thing to see a mother take the last mouthful of food from her starving child. Once more Titus exhorted them to leave off 190 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. their madness and not force him to destroy the city, and told them they would have advantages of repentance and save not only their lives but that magnificent temple which was their peculiar glory. But they yielded not. They cast reproaches upon him and his father and promised vengeance upon the Romans so long as they lived. SILENCE OF DEATH. The famine widened its progress; it devoured the people by whole families; the upper rooms were full of women and children dying of hunger ; the lanes of the city were strewn with dead bodies of the aged; young men wandered about the streets and market places like shadows. To bury the dead was impossible ; there was no one able to do it. Nor were there any lamentations made under these awful calamities, nor any mournful complaints heard, for the famine had confounded all natural passions. Parents looked upon their starving children, with dry eyes and open mouths. A kind of deadly silence had seized upon the city and no noise was heard. After consuming everything even to the leather upon their girdles and shields and things that the lowest animals would not touch, they did some- thing for which there is no parallel in the history of other nations, that is, mothers killed their own infants and ate their flesh. But why recount more of these awful doings? These few facts and they are only a very few are sufficient to give us an idea of the horrible calamities that people have brought upon themselves in ages past. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 191 To conclude we are told that in this siege 1,100,000 people perished. The children under 17 years of age who survived were sold as slaves until the markets were glutted and, as Moses had prophesied, "No man would buy them." Some were sent to the provincial amphitheatres and some were saved to grace the triumph of the con- queror. The magnificent temple was so complete- ly destroyed that "not one stone was left upon an- other" and for 50 years the city of Jerusalem en- tirely disappeared from history. 192 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XXIII. ON THE WAY TO BETHLEHEM. ABOUT 8 o'clock in the morning a carriage drove up to the hotel door to take us to Bethlehem, the Birthplace of the Redeemer. We had looked forward to this visit to the City of David with great anticipation and could hardly wait for the hour as the sun is high in the heavens at 8 o'clock on a July morning. As we pass the Jaffa Gate there is a great crowd of people. Several caravans had just ar- rived from the Land of the Pharoahs and other caravans were ready to start out on a long jour- ney. As we pass down the hill the tomb of David is to the east and across the valley is the Mount of Offence where Solomon allowed the god Moloch to open its arms and take little children as sacri- fices. Now we cross the bridge at the lower end of the Pool of Gihon and go up the hill past the great Almshouse built by Montefoire, the wealthy Jew for the unfortunate of his own race. The large Ophthalmic Hospital is near by and it is cer- tainly needed for there are many blind people in Palestine. It is said that at Gaza one-fifth of the population is blind. The hot sun and high wind blowing sand is one cause of this condition, but not the worst for many times one sees little in- fants with great bunches of flies on their dirty LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 15.:., faces, it sometimes being impossible to see their eyes on account of the flies. CROWDS OF PEOPLE. The Bethlehem road is crowded with people. Here are camel trains, several camels bearing great loads and tied to each other. Then there are carts and wagons and many people on foot. Women carrying baskets and sacks. Nearly all are bareheaded and barefooted. As our carriage stops we notice a gang of workmen pounding rock and repairing the road we said workmen but should have said workwomen, as they are nearly all women. Every foot of this ground is historic. We have just passed the Plain of Rephaim or Valley of the Giants where many battles between the Israelites and Philistines were fought. Not far away was the great battle between David and Goliah. It is a relief to stop and rest a few moments at the Well of the Magi. Mr. MacMillian gives the ancient tradition concerning it as follows: "As the Wise Men from the East were trudging along this road in the gathering twilight, weary and disappointed from the fruitless search for the King of the Jews in Jerusalem, they sat down on the margin of this well to rest. Stooping forward to draw some water to drink, they saw to their surprise, clearly reflected in the still clear surface of the water, that identical apparition which had led them from the East to Jerusalem. This caused them to lift their eyes heavenward and then in the words of the sacred evangelist, 'Lo, the star, 194 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. which they saw in the East, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.'" (Matt. 2:9.) WHERE ELIJAH SLEPT. On the crest of the hill farther along is the Convent of Mar Elias. There is an old tradition which states that Elijah rested here on his flight to Horeb. The Monks tell us that Elijah slept one night on one of these stones and that the depres- sion in the stone was caused by his body. Bro. Sweeney suggests that if this be true the stone was much softer than it is now or Elijah must have been a very hard man. An interesting place along the way is Rachel's Tomb. There is little doubt that this is really the place where Rachel was buried for the sacred writer says, "Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath which is Bethlehem. (Gen. 35:19.) It is only a short distance from Rachel's Tomb to Bethlehem. The buildings are more substan- tial than any we have heretofore seen outside of a city. Olive groves are in abundance. As we look at the city it is really beautiful. The houses are white limestone that has the appearance of marble if you are some distance away. Bethlehem is one of the cleanest cities in Pales- tine. People are cleaner and there are but few beggars to harrass the visitor. It is said there are more Christians in Bethlehem than any other city of its size in all this country. Here is said to be LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 195 the oldest church in existence., the Church of the Nativity. Of course we went down into the "Grotto of the Manger" and saw the reputed birthplace of the Redeemer. A silver star now marks the place where the new born king was laid. 196 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XXIV. HOMEWARD BOUND. IT WAS a great relief to turn our face toward home. Although very weak from a short ill- ness we were glad when the morning arrived to start toward home. Isaac said he would go to Joppa with us and see that everything was all right. So about 8 :30 a. m. we were on the train ready to start. Starting out from Jerusalem the train is soon in the Plain of Rephaim where the Philistines were defeated by David again and again. Pass- ing on we soon come to the place where Baroche- bas, the noted Jew made his last stand against the Romans, A. D. 136. Isaac mentioned this noted man whose name really means "Son of a Star" many times. He' must have been a great warrior. Passing Bethshemesh the place where the Ark was brought from Ekron (1 Sam. 6:12) we soon reached the place which has been identified with the Ebenezer of the Bible. This "Stone of Help" was set up by Samuel. See 1 Sam. 7:12. The valley farther on is the birthplace and old home of Samson. This "Valley of Sorek" was the scene of the romantic incident in the history of Samson and Delilah. Hurrying on through the Plain of Sharon we soon come to Ramleh which has been identified with Arimathea, the home of Joseph. Lydda is LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 197 the last station before we reach Joppa or Jaffa as it is now called. JAFFA. On reaching Jaffa we looked out in the harbor a mile away and saw what we supposed was the Russian ship bound for Smyrna and upon which we were to sail. Imagine our surprise and chagrin as well when we asked for a ticket to Smyrna the agent said, "Sorry sir, but the cap- tain of the ship was wired from the office of the steamship company just before leaving Egypt to not touch Jaffa." 0, what a disappointment! "When will there be another ship," was our ques- tion? "One week from today, sir, if the weather is fine" unless the weather is fine ships cannot anchor in the dangerous harbor at Jaffa. "Where is yonder ship going?" we asked. "To Port Said, Egypt," was his reply. "All right make out a ticket for Port Said," was our reply. We knew that we would not have to wait a week for a ship there for it is the terminus of the Suez Canal and there are a half dozen -steamship lines with ves- sels passing nearly every day. The next day found us in this Egyptian city, and from there we went back to Alexandria, where we spent a couple of days in bed sick and that at a hotel where no one could speak English. Maybe the reader thinks those were not long days if so you are mistaken. From this city we took passage on a Russian ship for Pireaus, the sea- port of Athens which we will tell you something about in the next chapter. 198 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. CHAPTER XXV. ATHENS is one of the most historic cities in the world. In the time of Paul the Athenians spent their time "in nothing else, but either to tell or hear some new thing." Acts 17 :21. The mere mentioning of the name Athens, brings to mind some of the greatest philosophers, poets, artists and statesmen of the world's history .The days of its greatness, however, have long since gone by and now we pass through its streets and behold its ruins with wonder and admiration. On account of the celebrated games from which the Apostle Paul drew many lessons, the first place we visited was the Stadium. This was originally built by Lycurgus, 350 years before Christ. It is located between two hills and the arena was 671 feet long and 19 feet broad and in the form of a semicircle. There were about 60 rows of seats around the three sides and 50,000 people could be easily accommodated. These seats were of marble and the quantity required was so great that the supply was almost exhausted. This great ruin has been reconstructed by a rich Greek of Alexandria and the seats are all made of white marble. . About all that remains of the Olympian or Temple of Jupiter, is fifteen massive corinthian columns standing on the spot. This was originally one of the largest temples of antiquity and had a LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 199 statue of Jupiter, overlaid with gold and ivory which was 60 feet high. Passing "Diogenes Lantern" we next visited the Theatre of Bacchus, which has been called the "cradle of dramatic art." On its stage Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes had their masterpieces represented. Plato says the theatre held more than 30,000 spectators. The Odeon of Herod Atticus is an- other theatre, not far away the ruins of which are in a fair state of preservation. It was far more expensive than that of Bacchus, was orig- inally covered, and was more for the 400 than the common people. MARS HILL. The Areopagus came next and was far more interesting to us than the ruins just mentioned. A flight of 25 steps cut in the rock leads to the summit where are still to be seen the sites on which rose the altars. Here the tribunal of the Areopagus sat in open air. It dates back to pre- historic times and was the place the god Mars ap- peared to justify himself of murder, and from which occurrence it took the name of Mars Hill. It was on this hill that the Apostle Paul stood when he preached that famous discourse which begins, "Men of Athens I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious," or very religious-. See Acts 17:16-34. His work was not in vain for Dionysius, the Areopagite was converted and a little to the west of this hill is the foundation of a 200 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. very ancient church which was dedicated to this first Athenian convert to Christianity. The greatest ruin of antiquity that we have yet seen, however, is the Acropolis. One can hardly describe this ruin. It must be seen to be appreciated. It is a great rock several hundred feet high and is inaccessible except in one place. We. should judge that it covers three or four acres of ground. It used to be the residence of the kings and later was made a fort. Themistocles and Cimon surrounded it with massive walls and Pericles adorned it with magnificent edifices the ruins of which excite the admiration of every vis- itor. On the top is the Parthenon which as one has said is "that inimitable masterpiece of an- tiquity, that eternal study, that eternal despair of the architects of all ages and all countries." It is the first object that comes into view on whatever side one approaches Athens. Before leaving Athens, of course, we must visit the royal palace. On entering the guards inter- fered in a way that showed they meant business. They finally made out that we were from Amer- ica and sent for an officer who could speak Eng- lish. This officer asked us many questions. He must know whence we came and whither we were going, our business in Greece, etc. Finally he took us through the stately palace and as we were a distinguished (?) visitor he allowed us to go into the throne room. When he turned on the powerful lights the room was wonderful to be- hold, the walls and ceiling being partly overlaid with pure gold. LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 201 CHAPTER XXVI. FROM ATHENS to Patras is seven and a half hours by train and we were not asleep when we passed through Corinth you may be assured. Reaching Patras about dark the first thing in or- der was supper and as we had only a little Greek money supper took the most of it. Imagine our surprise and chagrin, as well on reaching the pier, to find the ship quite a distance away, for we had been told that ship came alongside the landing. We offered a boatman all tne Greek money we had to take us to the ship and he said, "Get in, sir." Well, just before we stepped upon the ship stair- way we paid him and he immediately rowed the boat away they (there were two of them) must have more money. Now what should we do? We told them to give our money back and they did so. "Now take me to the shore or to the ship," said I, with all the power I could get into my voice. They thought to frighten us, but we didn't scare so well as they thought. They finally rowed us to the ship and as it was dark we felt better on board. This was an Austrian Lloyd ship bound for Brindisi, Italy, and we were crowded worse than on the Russian ship from Alexandria. The first night we could get no berth although we paid for one. Slept on the floor of the dining room that night but the next night they gave us a berth and let another take our place on the floor. We 202 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. fared much better than many others for some had not even a blanket while we had a nice little cot. At Corfu the ship stopped and took on board 60 head of horses. We did not see them afterward and they did not bother the cabin passengers in the least. The Adriatic was smooth and the voy- age was fine. We reached Brindisi at 6 a. m., and here we ex- perienced the first bad weather since leaving Vin- ton. It was raining. After getting through the custom house we hurried across the city to the rail- road station for we wanted to catch the seven o'clock train for Rome, which was easily accom- plished. The ride up the coast of Italy, across the Appenines and from Capua along the famous Ap- pian Way to Rome was both pleasant and inter- esting. It took almost 14 hours and the train hardly stopped to allow one to get anything to eat. It was almost nine o'clock when Rome was reached and we were as hungry as the wolf of his- toric fame. ROME. Rome has been called the "Eternal City," but one only need pass through its streets to see there is nothing eternal about it. In spite of its many ruins it is a most beautiful city "the Paris of Itally." We enjoyed a visit to the ruins of the old Forum where Mark Antony pronounced his famous ora- tion on the death of Csesar ; the Arch of Titus un- derneath which no Jew will walk as it testifies to the downfall of his nation; the Tarpeian Rock LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 203 which took its name from Tarpeia who betrayed her people to the Sabiens on condition that they would give her what they wore on their right arms and instead of the jewels she expected they piled upon her their shields, the weight of which crush- ed her to death and from the top of this rock the Romans afterwards hurled traitors to their death ; the temple of Juno where were kept the sacred geese whose cackling saved the city. Of course we have been through St. Peters, that massive building which in size is the greatest of all churches and takes $30,000 per year to keep it open. While it is beautiful it is no longer useful and will soon be a pile of ruins. St. Paul's church, which is without the gates of the city, is almost as beautiful and nearly as large. The high altar in it stands over the spot where the Apostle Paul and his companion, Timothy were buried. We rode down the famous Appian Way for several miles, the main object being a visit to the Catacombs. There are great subter- ranean tombs and passages cut in the rock and they extend over an area of more than 600 acres of ground. Through these passages we went down four stories under ground and saw where the early Christians used to meet for worship and bury their dead. In some cases skeletons are yet to be seen where they have been lying for nearly 2,600 years. Many inscription have been found in these tombs and it is a remarkable fact that no word of hope has been found on the tomb of a pagan. 204 LANDS OF SACRED STORY. If all these passages that have been explored were in a single line it would be almost 600 miles long. The other day we went down into the Mamertine prison which is undoubtedly the place where the Apostle Paul was incarcerated and where he wrote the letters to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philip- pians and Philemon as well as the letter to Tim- othy in which he said, "For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," etc. This prison is a small chamber cut in the solid rock and the sole opening that time was a circular hole at the top like a cistern top. No wonder he wanted the "cloak" for it is a damp dreary place. While we could not in one chapter name the places of interest we have visited in this city yet we must mention the greatest ruin in the world to- day, viz., the Coliseum. When we saw the Acropo- lis at Athens we said here is certainly the greatest ruin of antiquity, but we knew not what we were saying. The Coliseum is the most gigantic ruin in the world, we are told. It is a circular building, 160 feet high and covers 6 acres of ground. The arena is about 280x160 feet and was so arranged that it could be flooded so that naval battles could take place. It would accommodate 100,000 spec- tators and people were admitted by ivory checks, one of which that has been dug up reads, "Sec- tion 6, Lowest tier, Seat No. 18." The Emperor Titus opened it with a grand carnival that lasted 100 days and during which 9,000 beasts were LANDS OF SACRED STORY. 205 slain and 3,000 gladiators took part. The sides of the arena were 11 feet high and a special place was prepared for the emperor and royal family. The gladiators would march by and say, "We are about to die to salute you." Here for hundreds of years gladiators and animals lost their lives by thousands. The same arena has been soaked by the blood of hundreds of martyrs of the cross. Trojan alone slaughtered 270 Christians here by piercing them with arrows and scores were torn to pieces by wild beasts, thus dying for their faith. One day a Roman victory was being celebrated and 100,000 people were gazing at two gladiators stabbing each other when a moiiK leaped over the railing and ran between the contestants and broke up the fight which so enraged the specta- tors that they killed the monk on the spot. After the people came to their senses and realized what they had done, they so deplored the death of this brave Christian hero that they abolished gladi- atorial contests as far as human life was con- cerned, so while Talemacheus lost his life, tie saved a multitude of others. From Rome we visited again Naples, Pompeii, Palermo, Algiers, Gibraltar and sailed for New York on a great Cunard liner. A 000022720 7