I believe God has wisely and purposely hidden these places from His children. He knows our imperfections. He knows we would make too much of crosses and tombs. He wants us to think more of Him who died on the cross, and rose from the tomb, who ascended on high, sat down at the right hand of the Father, and ever liveth to make intercession for us.
CHAPTER XLII.
EGYPT.
Jaffa—Its History and its Orange Orchard—On the Mediterranean—Port Said—Suez Canal—The Red Sea—Pharaoh and his Host Swallowed Up—From Suez to Cairo—Arabian Nights—Egyptian Museum—Royal Mummies—A Look at Pharaoh—A Mummy 5,700 Years Old—A Talk with the King—Christmas-Day and a Generous Rivalry—Donkey-Boys of Cairo—Wolves around a Helpless Lamb—Johnson on his Knees—Yankee Doodle—The Nile—The Prince of Wales—Pyramid in the Distance—Face to Face with the Pyramid of Cheops—Ascending the Pyramid—Going in it—Johnson Cries for Help—The Sphinx, and what it is Thinking about.
JAFFA, “the high,” or “the beautiful,” situated on the Mediterranean, forty-two miles from Jerusalem, is the principal seaport in Palestine. It has always been a favorite shipping point. From here, Jonah started on that famous voyage that ended on the inside of a whale. Not until the time of the Maccabees, second century before Christ, did Jaffa, ancient Joppa, fall into the hands of the Jews. Soon, however, it was wrenched from them by the Romans. Augustus returned it to them. “Since then,” Doctor Geikie remarks, “its fortunes have been various; now Roman, next Saracen, next under the Crusaders, then under the Mamelukes of Egypt, and next under the Turks, to whom, to its misfortune, it still belongs.”