“It was once in my power to shoot Gen. Washington,” said a British soldier to an American. “Why, then, did you not shoot him?” said the other; “you ought to have done so for the benefit of your own countrymen.” “The death of Washington would not have been for their benefit,” replied the Englishman; “for we depended upon him to treat our prisoners kindly, and we’d sooner have killed an officer of our army.”
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.
MERRY’S MUSEUM.
VOLUME IV.—No. 4.
SKETCHES OF BIBLE SCENES.
Bethesda.
This place was rendered very interesting to all Christians, by the miracle performed there by our Saviour, which is recorded in the fifth chapter of St. John. Multitudes of pilgrims and travellers have from age to age, flocked to Jerusalem eager to see the place where Jesus bid the impotent man, “rise, take up his bed and walk.”
The pool of Bethesda is described as a pool by the sheep market, which is called Bethesda, having five porches; the word Bethesda meaning the place where victims for sacrifice were purified; and it is believed that the sheep for sacrifice were washed in Bethesda before being led away to the temple; and as sacrifices were very frequently offered, it is natural to suppose that both the sheep market and the pool were near the temple. Another explanation is that it signifies the “House of Mercy,” from the healing quality of its waters.
Within the present walls of Jerusalem are two fountains; the lower one, into which the waters of the upper one flow, through a passage cut in the rock, is the celebrated pool or fountain of Siloam. There has always existed a tradition that the waters of Siloam flowed irregularly; but Dr. Robinson, who first visited it, says “that as he was standing on the lower step near the water, with one foot on a loose stone lying near it, all at once he perceived the water coming into his shoe, and, supposing the stone had rolled, he withdrew his foot to the step, which, however, was now also covered with water. In less than five minutes the water bubbled up from under the lower step, and in five minutes it had risen nearly a foot in the basin, and it could be heard gurgling off through the interior passage. In ten minutes it ceased to flow, and the water was again reduced to its former level.