When it is clear and pleasant, as it usually is, we go out in front of the tents, and talk and sing and “consider the heavens.” And often, “as I sit and gaze into the silent sky at night, and see the myriad stars, they seem like camp fires, kindled upon the plains of heaven, to light some wanderer over the wastes and desolations of earth.”
It may be wrong, I suppose it is, but somehow I envy the astronomer the pleasure he has in reading the thoughts of God, as written in the language of the stars. I wonder if the stars are inhabited; if so, by men or angels? What becomes of these creatures when a star “falls?” Dr. Broadus would say that this is a good subject for a public debate, as it can never be determined.
At ten o’clock, when the others retire to rest, I take up my pen to record what has transpired during the day. Often the swift footed hours pass by before I know it, and I find myself writing on “the other side of midnight.” But I can not help it. In Palestine there is so much to see and think about that one can not afford to sleep more than five hours out of the twenty-four. When at last my eyes grow heavy, I drop my leaden pen and fall asleep; and often I dream about the objects and places I have seen during the day.
At six, often at five, o’clock, I am up to hear the morning warbler’s first hymn of praise. I find that morning, rosy-fingered now as in the days of Homer, “has yet a new and distant smile at every rising.” Payne has well said that “no true lover ever yet trysted with Nature in her own woods, and by her own fountains, without seeing some new beauty never seen before.”
We have been in this country now for months. We have been many weeks on horseback. We have made more than six hundred miles in the saddle through Palestine and Syria, and yet it has not become monotonous. Indeed, it grows on us; there is a fascination about it. Each day is different from the day before. The roads are different, the people are different, the scenery is not the same. New historical interests, new biblical characters and sacred associations are hourly coming up for conversation and thought. Josephus is no longer dry and prosy. You read “Ben Hur,” and “The Prince of the House of David,” with more interest than ever before; last, and greatest, the Bible—the Bible becomes a new book to you. Its pages are brighter, its truths simpler, and its Christ is more personal and real to you, than before you came here. Palestine is a relief map of the Bible. In our western world, a man may be honestly skeptical; but, if he comes to Palestine as an earnest seeker after truth, he will soon dismiss all doubt, and, like Thomas of old, cry out: “My Lord, and my God!”
CHAPTER XXXIX.
JERUSALEM.
Approaching Jerusalem—Coming Events—Dreams—Light Breaks In—Serenade—Zion, the City of God—Prayers Answered—Gratitude—A Vision of Peace—Blighted Fig-Tree—Still a Holy City—Prominence of Jerusalem—Its Influence among the Nations—A Melted Heart—Tents Pitched—Walk About Zion—Situation of the City—Its Walls—Its Gates—Afraid of Christ—Crossing the Kedron—Tomb of Virgin Mary—Gethsemane—What it Means, What it Is, and How it Looks—Superstitious Monks—Jerusalem Viewed from the Mount of Olives—Architecture of the City—Prominent Objects—Entering the City—Its Streets—Its Population—Jewish Theologues—Remaining Portion of Solomon’s Temple—“Wailing Place” of the Jews—Kissing the Wall—Weeping Aloud—Fulfillment of Prophecy—Only One Conclusion.