“It is indeed a revolting sight,” said Myron, “and your prophet’s anticipation has proved correct. But you are about to depart to-day for Jerusalem. How I wish I could accompany you, and enter this temple, whose magnificence I have heard you describe, along with the train of pilgrims to the passover!”
“You would find yourself,” said Helon, “in a more disagreeable situation, than even on the journey from Pelusium to Gaza.”
“I should be able to stand my ground nevertheless,” said Myron: “I must now however go to Sidon. But I have a plan to propose.” He then told him what his own occupations were, and suggested, that as they would probably be terminated about the time when Elisama and Helon would have celebrated the two festivals, he should join them at Jerusalem, and after visiting together some other parts of the Holy Land, they should return to Egypt in company. With the address of a Greek he contrived to make his proposal acceptable even to Elisama, who, offended as he was at his sarcasms upon the Jewish people, cherished a hope that by knowing them better he might be persuaded to become, if not a proselyte of righteousness, at least a proselyte of the gate. Helon was convinced, that no true peace was to be derived from all the boasted wisdom of the Greeks, and ardently desired that the friend of his youth, who had sought this peace with him in philosophy, might be brought to confess with him, that it was only to be found in the law of Jehovah; and Elisama had often observed that the scoffer is most easily converted into a worshipper.
The zeal for making proselytes, by which Israel was distinguished, may be easily accounted for. Accustomed, for nearly two thousand years, to believe, and on no less authority than that of God himself, that salvation should proceed from them, and in them all nations of the earth be blessed, they could not for a moment relinquish the desire of carrying this prediction into effect; at this time they were more peculiarly urged to it by the openly expressed veneration or secret acquiescence of the wisest men. Religious faith, although the most deeply seated in the breast of any of our sentiments, is, singular as it may appear, that which we are most eager in communicating to others. Whatever too has been long suppressed, breaks forth with redoubled force when the obstacle is removed. Besides, the religious sentiments of the Jews were not, like those of the heathens, the speculations of human reason, but truths, confirmed by the sanction of God; and their zeal in making proselytes was not the vain desire to swell the numbers of a sect, but to deliver those who were under the dominion of error.
Myron and our travellers took leave of each other, in the hope of meeting after a few months. He went through the camp to seek for company as far as Tyre, and they took the road to Hebron.
From Gaza two roads conduct to Jerusalem. One passes by Eleutheropolis and the plain of Sephela; the other through the hills by Hebron. Although the former was the easier and more customary, Elisama preferred the latter. He had a friend in Hebron, whom he had not seen for many years, and in whose company he wished to perform the pilgrimage; and he was desirous of making Helon’s first entrance into the Land of Promise as solemn and impressive as possible. By taking the easier road, they must have gone a long way through the country of the Philistines, and not have been joined by pilgrims, till they reached Morescheth, and then only in small numbers. On the other road, they entered immediately on the Jewish territory, and their way conducted them through scenes adorned with many an historical remembrance. They had not proceeded far inward from the sea, in the direction of the river [Besor], when they reached the confines of Judah; they stood at the foot of its hills, and the land of the heathen lay behind them. Helon seemed to feel for the first time what home and native country mean. In Egypt, where he had been born and bred, he had been conscious of no such feeling; for he had been taught to regard himself as only a sojourner there. Into this unknown, untrodden native country he was about to enter, and before he set his foot upon it, at the first sight of it, the breeze seemed to waft from its hills a welcome to his home. “Land of my fathers,” he exclaimed, “Land of Promise, promised to me also from my earliest years!” and quickened his steps to reach it. He felt the truth of the saying, that Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land. “Here,” said Elisama, “is the boundary of Judah.” Helon, unable to speak, threw himself on the sacred earth, kissed it and watered it with his tears, and Sallu, letting go the bridles of the camels, did the same. Elisama stood beside them, and as he stretched his arms over them, and in the name of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, blessed their going out and their coming in, his eyes too overflowed with tears, and his heart seemed to warm again, as with the renewal of a youthful love. See, he exclaimed,
The winter is past, the rain is over and gone,
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
The voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.