Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 32

Miss Meechim said she thought I had gone into some shrine to worship.

That was a great idee! off with four Arabs huntin' a shrine at that time of night!

The next day we started for Jerusalem by way of Joppa and Ismalia. It wuz on a fair evenin', as the settin' sun made strange reflections on earthly things, we entered through the gate into Jerusalem, city of our G.o.d. Nineteen centimes since, the Star moved along through the December night and stood over the lonely manger in Bethlehem where a Babe wuz born. The three wise men wuz the first visitors to that Child. Now fifteen thousand visitors come yearly from every part of the world to look upon this sacred place where the Man of Sorrows lived his sorrowful life of good to all, suffered and died, and the heavenly King burst the bonds of the tomb and ascended into heaven.

In these streets did sad-eyed prophets walk to and fro, carrying the message of the coming of the King. They were stunned by the gain-sayin' world, jest as it stuns its prophets to-day, only with different kinds of stuns mebby, but hard ones. Here they wuz afflicted, tormented, beaten, sawn asunder for uttering the truth as G.o.d made it known to them, jest as they are to-day, of whom the world wuz not worthy. Just like to-day. Here after centuries had gone by, the truth they had foretold become manifest in the flesh. Jest as it shall be. After hundreds of years had gone by, he whom the prophets had foretold wuz born in Bethlehem, and the three wise men, fur apart, knowin' nothin' of each other, wuz warned of his birth and wuz told to foller the Star. They obeyed the heavenly vision and met on the pathless desert, as the soul's and heart's desires of all good men and wimmen meet who follow the Star!

Oh, sacred place! to be thus honored. What emotions I felt as my own feet trod these roads, my own eyes looked on these sacred places.

The next morning after our arrival we went up to the Mount of Olives, and from a tower two hundred feet high looked down on Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is a long, low ridge on the east of the city. The Garden of Gethsemane is down on the foot of Olivet near the brook Kedron. Here eight great olive trees much larger than the rest form a sacred grove from whose melancholy shadows might well come that agonizing cry to his disciples for human sympathy and love:

"Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

Here did Judas come over the brook Kedron with the hungry, cruel mob and betray Him with a kiss. It wuz in this place that our Lord give that glorious promise that lightens life and death:

"After I be risen I will go before you."

Every leaf of the old olive trees seemed trembling and full of memories of that hour. To the west was the valley of Jehosiphet, beyend is the city of the King. Back of you is Bethany, the home of the friends of Jesus where he tasted sometimes the human sweets of friendship, in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. A beautiful soul Mary wuz, and Martha, poor creeter! I've always been sorry for her, workin' away doin' the housework when she would much rather, no doubt, set and listen as Mary did, but somebody had to be cookin'. So she jest drouged round the house.

You can see the Dead Sea and the river Jordan, where our Lord wuz baptized and the Dove descended out of the gardens of heaven and lit on him, whilst the voice of the father G.o.d spoke, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

Not far away from there is Jericho. On the southwest rises the Hill of Zion, one of the four hills on which Jerusalem stands. As I looked on it I spoke to my pardner almost onbeknown to me, "Oh, Josiah! how many times we've sung together:

'The Hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets.'

"But," sez I, "did you ever expect to set your mortal eyes on't?" He wuz affected, I could see he wuz, though he tried to conceal it by nibblin' on some figs he had bought that mornin'.

Miss Meechim wuz all carried away with the seen as the guide pinted out the different places. Robert Strong and Dorothy didn't seem to want to talk much, but their faces wuz writ over with characters of rapt and reverential emotion.

Arvilly for once seemed to forgit her canva.s.sin' and her keen bright eyes wuz softened into deep thought and feeling. Tommy, who had heard us talkin' about Herod walling in that part of the city, wonnered how any man could be so wicked as the cruel king who killed all the little children, and he wonnered if there ever wuz another king in the hull world so wicked.

And my Josiah soothed his childish feelings by a.s.suring him that all such wicked rulers wuz dead and buried ages ago.

And so queer is Arvilly's mind since what she's went through that she spoke right up and told Tommy that there wuz lots of rulers to-day jest as wicked and fur wickeder. Sez she, "There are plenty of men in every city in America that get the right from the rulers of the country to destroy children in a much worse way than to cut their heads off."

Sez she, "There are men who entice young children to smoke cigarettes, drugged on purpose to form a thirst for strong drink, then enticed into drinking-dives, where goodness and innocence are murdered and evil pa.s.sions planted and nursed into life, for the overthrowing of all their goodness, for the murder of their family's safety and happiness and making them the nation's menace and greatest danger."

And Tommy wonnered and wonnered what could make men do so, and so did I.

And Arvilly sez, "What is cuttin' off the heads of twenty or thirty babies compared to the thousands and thousands of murders that this licensed evil causes every year?"

Tommy's pretty face looked sad and he sez: "Why do good folks let it go on?"

And Arvilly sez, "Heaven knows--I don't. But I've cleared my skirts in the matter. There won't be any innocent blood on my skirts at the last day."

And Tommy bent his head and looked intently at the bottom of her dress; and I see my pardner furtively glance at the bottom of his own pantaloons; he acted guilty.

It is about two milds and a quarter round the city; the walls are thirty or forty feet high; there are thirty-four towers on the walls, and the city has eight gates. It has a population of one hundred thousand, more Jews than any other race; for according to the Scripture, jest as the Jews wuz scattered to the four winds of heaven, they have of late been flocking home to Jerusalem jest as the old prophets predicted exactly.

During their hours of prayer, many Jews wear phylactrys bound to their forwards and arms, and Robert Strong said he saw one nailed to a doorpost.

It is a long, narrer case, shaped some like a thermometer, with a round hole towards the top of it covered with a lid which they can lift up and see a few words of the ancient parchment inside, some as the little boy had his prayer printed on the head-board, and on cold nights would pint to it, sayin', "O Lord, them's my sentiments."

But these Jews did it to carry out Moses' command to bind the words of the law for a sign on their arms, their heads and their doorposts.

The writing on these phylactrys is so perfect that you can hardly believe that it is done with a pen. The Jews are extremely careful in copying the oracles of G.o.d. They still write copies of their Old Testament Scriptures, and every page must have jest so many lines, and jest the same number of words and letters.

Robert Strong said that this was a great proof of the truth of the Scriptures. Sez he: "Our Saviour said that one jot or t.i.ttle of the law shall not fail."

Tommy wanted to know what that meant, and Robert told him that "jot"

wuz the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and "t.i.ttle" meant the little horn-shaped mark over some of the letters.

And I sez: "I never knew what that meant before." But Miss Meechim said she did--she always duz know everything from the beginning, specially after she's hearn some one explain it. But to resoom: We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many different religious sects come to worship. The place where many think the body of our Lord wuz lain when he wuz taken down from the cross is covered with a slab worn down by the worshippers, and in the little chapel round it forty-three lamps are kep' burning night and day.

But I felt more inclined to think that the place where the body of our Lord wuz lain wuz outside the city where the rocky hill forms a strange resemblance to a human skull, answering to the Bible description. Near there a tomb, long buried, has been found lately that corresponds with the Bible record, which sez: "Now in the garden was a new tomb wherin no man had been lain." There wuz places in this tomb for three bodies, but only one had been finished, and scientists say that no body has ever crumbled into the dust that covers this tomb. Ruins show that ages back an arched temple once covered this spot. But what matters the very spot where his body lay, or from where he ascended into the heavens. Mebby it can't be told for certain after all these years; but we know that his weary feet trod these dusty roads. And as we travelled to Bethlehem and Bethany and Nazareth, his presence seemed to go before us.

It wuz a lovely morning when we left Jerusalem by the Jaffa gate and went down acrost the valley of Hinnom, up acrost the hill of Evil Council, and acrost the broad plain where David fought many a battle and Solomon went about in all his glory.

We stopped a few minutes at the convent of Mar Elias to see the fine view. From here you can see both places where the Saviour wuz born and where he died. It is a very sightly spot, and I hearn Josiah tell Tommy:

"This is a beautiful place, Tommy; it wuz named after Miss Elias; her children built it to honor their Mar; and it ort to make you think, Tommy, that you must always mind your Mar."

"Mar?" sez Tommy inquirin'ly, "Do you mean my mamma or my grandma?"

I wuz glad the rest of the party wuz some distance away and didn't hear him. Josiah always jest crowds his explanations, full and runnin'

over with morals, but he gits things wrong. I hated to hurt his feelin's, but I had to tell Tommy this wuz named, I spozed, from the prophet Elijah, who wuz, they say, helped by angels on this very spot as he flowed away from Jezabel; they gin him water and food, such good food that after eating it he could travel forty days and forty nights without eating agin.

Jezabel wuzn't a likely woman at all; I wouldn't been willin' to neighbor with her.

Rachel's tomb is a little furder on. It is a long, rough-lookin'

structure with a round ruff on the highest end on't. Christian, Jew and Moslem all agree that this is Rachel's tomb. It wuz right here that little Benoni wuz born and his ma named him while her soul wuz departing, for she died.

I heard Josiah talkin' with Tommy about "little Ben." I hated to have him call him so, but didn't know as it would do much hurt this late day. Right about here dwelt Ruth and Naomi. A sweet girl Ruth wuz; I always thought she wuz plenty good enough for Boaz, but then I d'no but he wuz good enough for her. 'Tennyrate, her actions wuz a perfect pattern to daughter-in-laws.

Here on these sands the giant, Goliath, strode out pompously to be slain by a stun from a sling sent by David when he wuz a shepherd boy.

"How I wished I had some of them stuns to slay the evil giants of 1900," sez I. "If a stun could be aimed at Intemperance and another at the big monopolies and destroy'em as dead as Goliath, what a boon it would be."

And Arvilly sez, "Where will you git your sling, and where will you git your Davids?"

Sez I, "The ballot is a good sling that could kill'em both stun dead, but I d'no where I could git any Davids at present," and she didn't nor Josiah, but I felt in hopes that there would be one riz up, for always when the occasion demands, the Lord sends the right man to fill the place.

Well, presently we arrov at Bethlehem (House of Bread). I mentioned its meaning, and Josiah sez:

"I do hope I'll get some yeast risin' here that will taste a little like yourn, Samantha."

So little did he dwell on the divine meanin' that wuz thrillin' my heart. House of Bread, sacred spot from which proceeded the living bread, that if any one should eat he should never more hunger.

The Church of the Nativity, the place that we sought first in the village, is the oldest Christian church in the world. It wuz built by Helena, mother of Constantine, 330 A.D. It is owned by a good many different sects who quarrel quite considerable over it, as they would be likely to in Jonesville if our M. E. church wuz owned too by Baptists and Piscopalians, etc.