"Of course we went to the bazaars and parks, cathedrals and mosques, the missionary schools, and the College of Cairo—the principal University of the East. And then to Alexandria—to which the ancient city has, indeed, bequeathed nothing but its name. Though earth and sea have remained unchanged, imagination can scarcely find a place for the ancient walls. Little vestige remains of the magnificent days of the Ptolomies and the Cæsars.
"One-fourth of the population is foreign; the city seethes with the scum of all the cities of the Mediterranean. Here luxury and literature, the Epicurean and the Christian, dwelt together; but now, in the Oriental part, one finds only dirty, narrow, tortuous streets, mud-colored buildings with terraced roofs, varied by fat mosques with lean minarets.
"Here once stood the renowned library of antiquity. Here the Hebrew Scriptures expanded into Greek under the hands of the Septuagint. Here Cleopatra, 'Vainquer des vainquer du monde' reveled with the Roman conqueror; here Mark preached the truth upon which Origen attempted to refine; here Athenasius held warlike controversy; here Amer conquered, and here Abercrombie fell.
"In company with our intelligent dragoman, we sailed from Alexandria on a Russian steamship, and, after a voyage of a day and a half, beheld the queer stone city of Joppa, with its fort-like houses rising tier above tier on the hillside.
"I cannot describe the enthusiasm we felt at the thought that we were at last to walk upon the soil hallowed by the feet of patriarchs, prophets and apostles and to visit the scenes where they lived, labored, and communed with God. We walked through the winding, slanting streets of Joppa, and called at the house of Simon the tanner.
"So well preserved were the vats of his tannery that one would hardly have been surprised to find the distinguished guest of Simon walking on the housetop in the twilight. But we must confess that we could not identify this house by the description given in the tenth chapter of Acts.
"Leaving Joppa early in the afternoon, in a German spring-wagon, and passing through the only gate on the land side, we set our faces toward the Holy City. Gardens and orchards, groves of orange, fig, and pomegranate, made the country delightful. Our road lay directly across the plain of Sharon.
"Isaiah prophesied that Sharon should be a wilderness, and the black huts of the Bedouin tell the fulfillment of that prediction. We look in vain for the beautiful flower to which Solomon likened his beloved. But although man is no longer regaled by its fragrance, the true Rose of Sharon still unfolds its charms to every believer, whether he be a child of the plain, or the mountain.
"We passed by Ludd, and refreshed ourselves at the Arimathea of Joseph. We approached the hillside village of Kirjath-jearim, with its terraces of olives and fig trees. Leaving the valley of Ajalon, the rough macadamized road led us up the rocky sides of Judea's hills. We traveled nearly all night; and, just as we reached the highest point in the road, between the sea and the river, the rising sun unveiled to us the minarets and domes and massive walls of Jerusalem. I cannot tell you how inspiring, how deep, were the emotions that came crowding upon brain and heart.