Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1847-09-23
nlisfellanous.
FROM THE PEOPLES JOURNAL.
TIL f H0L Y L A N D.
I.---ENTRANCE.
BY HARRIET MARTISEAU.

I.-ENTRANCE.
II was Sunday, March %, that we were TO
enter the Holy Land. | had been too much
engrossed by the objects which interested us
at every step in Egypt and Arabia to think
much of this beforehand; out when, came
forth from our tent in the dawn Of that nom
ing, there was enough OF novelty in the scene
around me TO make me feel that we were
about to enter a new country, and new set
OF interests; and became eager to know at
what hour we were TO pass the boundary
which separated the Desert from the Holy
Land-the home of old Faith from that of the
new. We had followed the track Of Moses
from the spot where his mother placed his
bulrush cradle 10 that on which he died; for
10 the East we should this morning see the
mountains overhanging the Dead Sea ; and
among them the summit Of Nebo, whence he
looked abroad over the Land Of Promise; and
now we were TO enter upon the country OF
Jesus-certain to walk in His very footsteps,
and see what He saw-perhaps this very day.
| never remember feeling such an interest in
every wild flower, in the outlines Of all the
hills, and the track Of all the water courses.
We had left the stony Desert behind US. and
were encamped in nook Of the hills where
the ground was green, and weeds grew thick.
There was grass under my bed in the tent /;
and when | came out this morning, the dew
was heavy on the daisies, and bu,tercups and
Towering malows which grew abundantly on
the turf After breakfast, while the camels
were loading, walked in the early sunshine
on strip OF sand overlooking the valley, i'm
pressing on my memory every feature OF the
landscape. and impatient Of the rising ground
to the north, which prevented my seeing
where he was going. Ii was about ten O'Clock
when we passed the boundary. II was I'M
possible 10 tell the exact moments; but within
mile or two we felt that we were, indeed, in
the native land of Christ, and probably on His
very track. He might have been here. His
relations lived at Hebron and during the
first thirty years of His life He probably visi-
ted them, after meeting them at the feasts oil
Jerusalem. He might have walked over the
hills which swelled higher as we advanced,
and rested beside some OF the wells which
yawned beside our track. At any rate, the
trees and flowers which we saw must have
been familiar 10 His eyes the thorny acacia
which began here 10 rise and spread from The
stunted shrub Of the desert TO the dimensions
of a tree; the scarlet anemone-wIth us pre-
cious garden hower--which here strewed the
ground for acres around; the cyeamen,
which pushed forth It's tufts Of white and lilac
blossoms from under many stone and bush
and the poppy, maow. hemlock and wild
oats, which grew as lhlckly as in any English
hedge. | did not know before that these
weeds were as common heie as with us and
never before did the sight Of them give me so
much pleasure. II would have been pleasant
anywhere to meet these familiar weeds SO far
from home; but the delight to-day was to
think that He and His disciples were as much
accustomed 10 them as ourselves, and that a
walk in the early Spring was, in the pure
country, much the same thing to them as to
( us.
But we soon came upon traces which show
ed that the expanse Of pure country here was
small in those days compared with what il is
now. The towns must have been more thick
~ set here than in any country ever was in