III.

JERUSALEM, April 22, 1895.

Bethlehem is one of the old landmarks of Palestine, full of historical interest. This was the home of David’s relations, and is located some six miles south of Jerusalem, and is about the same height above the sea as the hill of Zion. As you leave the Jaffa gate, you pass down and across the valley of Gihon, coming up near the hill of Evil Counsel (so called because at that place they took counsel against Christ), and soon are on the plain of Rephaim, where David fought the Philistines; and, judging from the broad sweep of the plain, it must have been a hand-to-hand fight. Here is where David refused to drink the water he so thirsted for, brought from the spring near Bethlehem, because it was done at the risk of the lives of his men that procured it.

Before I take you any further, it might be well for you to look at the surrounding country of Jerusalem. If you stand on the hill of Zion (or perhaps a better place would be the Mount of Olivet), no one point of compass will attract the eye more than looking south toward Bethlehem. As I have told you before, the country here is made up of hills and valleys, elevations and depressions, rugged and rocky at that, yet the mingling of the olive, almond, fig, orange, and lemon groves, gives it a beauty that attracts the eye; and, while you cannot see Bethlehem from where you are standing, yet, if drawn by the love of the beautiful, your first outing from the city will be in that direction. I have given you a view from a distance. When you plant your feet on this beautiful country my eye has taken in, you will exclaim, “My, how rocky!”

After we leave the plain of Rephaim, we come to the tomb of Rachel. For a wonder the Mohammedans, Greeks, and Latins all worship Rachel; and the day we went to Bethlehem was a special day, and they were all rushing to the tomb to weep for her. The tomb is a white building, standing close to the travelled road, the front an arched portico or entrance. Then you step down some half-dozen steps into a square apartment, perhaps twenty feet each way. In the centre is built up the receptacle for the body, six feet high, eight feet long, four feet wide, giving a chance to pass around it. Here the people come with their Hebrew Bibles, reading Jacob’s lamentation, and crying as if their poor hearts would break, kissing the tomb, etc. They remain a short time, and then others take their places. We passed around with others, but could not in so short a time get into the spirit of the worship.

In passing through this country as well as Egypt, the traditions and the queer things the ignorant people will show and relate to you about the old saints and prophets will make you tired.

For example, just beyond Rachel’s tomb is a flat rock; and it looks as though a man had been on his back and had sunk into the stone some four inches. The people will show it to you, and tell you it was where Elijah slept the first night after he fled from Jezebel. This is only one of the many foolish things they have on the brain. But, if you will take profane and religious history in one hand and common sense in the other, you will find things that will interest you at every turn you make, and will have all you can carry away with you.

A little farther on we turn to the left, and in a short time are at Solomon’s pools. They are three in number, built by the wise man; and from these the water was taken into Jerusalem.

From the pools we drove to Bethlehem, a place of some eight thousand people, largely Christians. They are tillers of the soil. Herding of cattle is a large business with them. They manufacture rosaries, crosses, and other fancy articles in wood, mother-of-pearl, and stone from the Dead Sea. It is quite a market town for the Bedouins and peasants from the surrounding country. There is a very old church built over the spot where Christ was born, and they will show you the place where Joseph was when the angel warned him to flee into Egypt.

We visited an underground apartment, or nearly so, where Saint Jerome translated the Hebrew Bible into the Latin (the Vulgate). Saint Jerome was born of pagan parents in 331, and was afterward baptized at Rome. While journeying in the East, he had a vision at Antioch, commanding him to renounce the study of heathen writers, which he did, and finally took up his abode at Bethlehem. Here you will see a painting of him, with a Bible in his hand. Joab, Asahel, and Abishai once resided here at Bethlehem. (See 2 Samuel ii. 18.) In the eyes of the prophets Bethlehem was especially sacred as the home of the family of David, but the one great and lasting triumph for that little town was the birth and humble beginning of one who is to conquer sin.