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dren of Isroal. It woe al Gaza, one of the chief
cities on this plain, that Samson pulled down the
pillars of the building and died with '.those' who
' made sport of him.
Leaving the low country the railroad begins
the ascent of the Judean hills through the Wady .
os Suar, and as one is carried up the tortuous
,coursc of the narrow valley he begins to under
stand why Jerusalem was considered a citadel.
The' hills rise to a height of about twenty-five
hundred feet and are so inaccessible that a small
number dwelling on top could easily defend them- ,
selves against a much larger' force. The narrow
limits of Judea impress one, hemmed in on the,
.west by Philistia, on the south by the desert and ,
on the east by the deep chasm of the Dead Sea. ,
Its history was developed in a territory scarcely
larger than a Nebraska county.
As we approached the summit the vineyards
appeared and the Olive groves became more nu
merous. Jerusalem is beautifully located. No won
der its rebuilding and re-peopling is the dream of
the devout Jews, many of whom come from dis
tant corners of the earth to spend their last days
within its precincts. The -present walls of the
city are only a few hundred years old, but the
Tower of David is believed to be a part of the
wall erected by the great Hebrew king.
Once within the city one is surrounded on
every hand by' places that stir the tenderest of
memories Even the uncertainty 'as to the identi
fication of many of the sites made sacred by the
life, the sufferings and the death of Christ -even
the rivalry between the various sects cannot pre
vent a feeling of reverence. Here He whose
name Is borne by increasing millions was con
demned without cause, crowned with thorns and
at last crucified, sealing with His blood the tes- -timony
of His life.
Early in the fourth century Helena, the moth
er of Constantine, set out to identify the spots
most intimately associated; with the Savior's life,
She selected the place where os she believed
Christ was crucified and buried, and her son
erected-the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to mark
the locality. For fifteen centuries her designation
was accepted as the correct one, and the Roman
. Catholics, the Greek Catholics and the Armenians
Twho divide the space in the church between thenr,
.have kept joint, though not always harmonious,
i,. watch oyer the various altars and chapels. A
. j Jew years ago the correctness of the location of
Cavalry was disputed and a hill over the Grotto
of Jeremiah was fixed upon by, the dissenters as
the place of the crucifixion, and a tomb near by
as the sepulchre. Since that time the traveler
- has been shown both places and furnished with
, the arguments in support of the claims of each.
. It is contended that the church of the Holy Sepul-
' . chre, though within the present walls, stands up-
,. on land -which was outside of th,e original walls,
while the new location is outside of the walls as
they are at present. Possibly future excavations
may settle the question by determining the exact
, location-of the wall in the time of Christ; but
what matter? The two places are not far apart,
and the whole vicinity has been hallowed by His
- presence.
Pilate's judgment hall, the Via Dolorosa and
the Ecce Homo arch are marltp.n hv tii orant.'nn
of a Catholic convent and school for girls where
one finds a cleanliness in striking contrast to the
streets outside. The pools of Gihom, of Siloam,
of Bethesda and of Hezekiah are all given a local
habitation; the place where Judas hanged him
self is pointed out, as well as the cave in which
Jeremiah wrote his lamentations; the chamber
where the Last Supper was observed is also fixed
upon, and the tombs of Rachel, Absalom and of
David. I do not know how much credence should
be given to the testimony adduced in behalf of
these different sites, but we are sure of
the identity of a few places. Mount Zion, upon
which David built his palace, is known; Mount
Akra can be located and about Mount Moriah
thore can be no mistake. The great bare rock
that crowns the last named eminence is a land
mark that has not been and cannot be easily
removed. It is now covered by a mosque but was
once the sacrificial stone of the Hebrews Solo
mon s temple was built on Mount Moriah, and
some of its foundation stones and subterranean
b1rS h11 Stili be seen' In a reet that
leads by these foundation walls is the Jews'
walling place where for many centuries devout
Hebrews gathered from every country have met
on each Friday afternoon to bemoan the fate of
Jerusalem and to petition for the restoration of
the kingdom. One sees no more pathetic jSght
n V, P VUna the wor,d than thls assemblage
Sh.Ei? ul ZT6n' Some smy-naired, some in
middle life and many mere children, chanting
their laments and caressing the stones which the
4 -- '
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hand-of Solomon laid when he was BuildingV-the
temple hldh marked the summit of Jewish -political
power.
Bethlehem is also identified and whether or
not the Church of the Nativity, erected by the
mother of Constantine, covers the spot where
Christ was born, one can look upon the hills
around about' the city and recall that It was here
that the message "Peace on earth, good will to
men" came to the shepherds who kept their
flocks by night.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, by the Brook
Kedrbn, one can tread the soil pressed by the
Master's feet in the hours of his loneliness and
agony. The Garden is now walled in andv'carefully .
kept, and its old, gnarled and knotted olive trees,
shade the pansies which grow there in profusion.
Bethpage still stands and also Bethany where
Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, and, most
conspicuous of all, the Mount of Olives, the place
of the Ascension. From its summit the best view
of Jerusalem is obtained; from that point also
the eye can sweep the hills of both Judea and
Samaria and to the east look upon the waters
of the Dead Sea, thirty-five hundred feet below.
Nowhere else can one walk amid scenes so
familiar to the civilized world as are those of
Judea. Surrounded by paganism and idolatry, a
little band began here the establishment of a
monotheistic religion and, notwithstanding back
slidings, shortcomings and wanderings from the
faith, the spiritual side of life was never entirely
forgotten; great prophets thundered their warn
ings from these hills; great singers poured forth
their hymns of penitence, praise and thanksgiv
ing; here a wonderful literature was developed
and a history written which was stranger than
-'fiction;- and here, in the fulness of time, came
One who was commissioned to substitute the law
of Love for the law that required "an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth."
In the city of Jerusalem, there are now some
sixty thousand souls, and a composite population
it is. While about two-thirds of the people are
Jews and the remainder divided almost equally
. between the Mohammedans and Christians, one
can count representatives of p. score or more of
nations in an hour's wallc, The streets of Jeru
salem are narrow and crpoked, and one is going
up, hill, or down hill alj. the, time. The, .houses, the
stores, the walls, the gatesand the customs of the
people seem more Oriental than European,. There
are no street cars, no modern bookstores and no
newspapers excepting one printed in Hebrew.
The carriage road from Jerusalem to Jericho
winds around the Mount of Olives and down the
eastern side of the Judean hills, past the Apostles'
fduntairi and through the wilderness of Judea.
This wilderness is not the waste that we ex
pected to find, but merely a broken and moun
tainous country, too stony to be cultivated and fit
only for grazing. At this season of the year the
grass is green and the- ground bright with flow
ers. A little more than half way down the slope
is a rest station called, in honor of the parable,
the Good Samaritan Inn. But for the mounted
guards who now patrol this road the traveler
would even today be in danger of falling among
thieves.
A little farther on, the road leads near the
edge of a wild, deep and rugged canyon at the
bottom of which plunges the Brook Cherith. A
Greek monastery has been built at the place
where Elijah found refuge during the drought.
Jericho is a small village and a half mile
from the site of the ancient city of that name.
It depends for its supp'ort upon the tourists who
visit the Jordan valley rather than upon the cul
tivated area.
The Dead Sea, forty miles long ,and eight
miles in width, .covers the deepest portion of this
most remarkable of the depressions in the earth's
surface. The rent extends from the base of Mount
Hermon to the eastern arm of the Red Sea,
known as the Gulf of Akabah. For more than
one hundred miles this rent or ravine is below the
level of the sea, the surface df the Dead Sea being
thirteen hundred feet lower than the Mediterran
ean. As the Dead. Sea is in some places thirteen
hundred feet deep, the greatest depth of the
chasm is, therefore,Nmore than twenty-six hundred
feet. The water of the Sea is bitter and contains
twenty-six per cent of salt, or about five times
as much as the ocean. As we took a bath in the
Dead Sea, we can testify that one cannot sink in
its waters.
The Jordan is neither as large nor as clear
as one would expect , from its prominence in
Bible-history. The banks are slippery, the waters
are muddy and the current is swift. It has much
v the appearance of a creek swollen with rain. We
tried its waters also but did not venture far
VOLUME 6, NUMBER 29
from the shore, Between the Sea of Galilee and
the Dead Sea the 'Jordan falls about six hundred
feet, or ten feet to the mile. At present but
little use is made of this fertile valley, but in the
opinion of some who have investigated the matter
it could with proper irrigation and under a just
government be made as fruitful as the valley of
the Nile. As might be expected, the heat in this
deep basin is intense in the summer, but the hills
are near enough on either side to provide homes
for those who would cultivate the fields.
Looking across the Jordan one sees tho
Mountains of Moab. While the country "beyond
the Jordan" plays an .unimportant part in Bible
history as compared with Judea, Samaria and
Galilee,, still it has its Nebo, where' the great
. Jewish law-giver sleeps in "an 'unmarked grave;
it has its Macherus where John the Baptist was
beheaddd, and its Gilead.
Elijfih, the Tishbite, came from beyond tho
Jordan, and beyond the Jordan Elisha received
his teacher's mantle; Ruth came from the land of
Moab, and Job endured his trials in the Land of
tfz.
Space does nof permit a reference to all the
places ojC interest or an elaborate consideration of
any of them. It is Impossible to describe in a few
words what it requires several days to sde. One
thought often comes to the mind as the different
scenes are visited, viz., that a -visit to the Holy
Land makes it easier to understand many Bihlo
passages and gives added significance to others.
We have seen the. barren fig tree and the fruitful
vine; we5 have seen the lame and the blind and
met the leper at the gate; we have seen the tiny
lamp, such as the wise and foolish virgins car
ried lamps that need often to. be refilled; and wo
have seen .the "whited sepulchres' "full of dead
men's bones." We have been impressed with the
life-giving power of a fountain in a barren land
and can more fully realize the force of the promise
that the man who delighteth "in the law of the
Lord" "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
. of water." . . .
But no part of the Old .Testament. has been
brought more vividly to our minds than tho
. twenty-third Psalnji. . Life is much the same hero
today as. it iwas two, three, four thousand years
. ago, and we. have, seen innumerable, flpeks and
have watched the she,ep- .following the shepherd
with confidence, as he, stafCJn h.aiidj'ledftliqm into
new, pastures or fromA hillside ' to stream. No
animal- is more helpless than the sheep' and no
guardian more tender than the shepherd. The
sheep know 'their master's voice, and we have
several times seen a shepherd carrying a lamb
in his arms. The hills about Jerusalem, tho
springs, the shepherds and their flocks, will rise
before us whenever we read again:
1'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters."
Copyright.
AJJ
RUSSELL SAGE
Russell Sage, multi-millionaire, died in New
York last week, after a business career extend
ing over nearly three quarters of a century.
Measured by the accumulation of money Russell
Sage's life was a success. Measured by real ser
vice to humanity his life was a dismal failure.
It is said that he never speculated, that he was
rigidly honest, and that he possessed more ready
money than any other man engaged in business
on "the street." All this may be truet yet Rus
sell Sage's life was not one to be pointed to as
an example for young men to follow. He left
millions of money, and nothing more. The busi
ness world paused a moment and' said: "A mil
lionaire is dead." Then it wont on with the old
rush. When the fortune he left is divided the
results of a long life will have vanished. Ho
performed no service to humanity that will servo
as an enduring monument to his .memory.
JJJ
LEGISLATION FOR "SPECIAL CLASSES"
"Uncle Joe" Cannon is beginning to realize
that the American Federation of Labor is in
deadly earnest in its opposition to his re-election,
and ho is now endeavoring to minimize the at
tack upon him. Ho declares that he opposed the
bills presented by organized labor because he is
"opposed to legislation in the interest of any
class." This is especially good, coming as it
does from the Jips of a man wliose whole career
as a lawmaker Vhas been spent in legislating in
the interests ofa very small class. His sudden
posing as a frioid of all the people would be a
sublime spectacle, perhaps, were it not so su
premely ridiculjjKis,
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