Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-06-17

ever beheld; but they were very bitter,
and nauseous and gritty. They were not
edible, and for this reason the trees re-
| manned there unvalued and undisturbed.
When our ancestors were led away cap
tive into Egypt, Moses saw burning
forest in the place where he spoke to God,
and from this same forest he took the rod
with which he performed so many prodi-
gles. As, for instance, changing this rod
INTO serpent, in the presence of Pharaoh
opening passage through the Red Sea
drawing water out of rock, and many
other miracles, which you may read of in
the Holy Scriptures. When our fathers
, came into the Holy Land, they began to
build cities and castles to defend them
selves from their enemies. These same
trees above mentioned were still in the
same place, on the mountain where the
city of Jerusalem was built, and remain
ed there, outside the walls of the city,
until the royal prophet, David, after the
death of King Saul, surrounded them
with a wall, and built a home for himself
near them, because their fruit was ex-
trcmely beautiful to sight. One dav,
having gathered three of these apples, he
divided one of them into two parts, and
found i'll it nothing but earth In the
second, he found the word Chaschecab,
written, which is, interpreted He ac-
cepts this through love" In the third he
found all the Passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which the royal prophet had pre-
dicted in the Psalms.
In fine. to be brief after different wars
between the kings Of Israel and other
countries, the city of Jerusalem was utter
ly razed to the ground, after it had been
| several times sacked. The palace of David
WAS on the aforesaid mountain, and the
trees removed from the city about quar-
ter of Il league, and they remained entire
until -Antipatcr, the nephew of King He
rod. threw down the palace and the trees.
III tlic year 1880, to render the summit
| more spacious as place destined TO put
I malcfactors to death. The palace was
called Golsotlla. The trees were then
taken TO the city of Jerusalem and planted
against a wall, near the Temple, where l
have sat thousand times, and PLAYED
Joyously with my young companions.
These are the very trees which were used
in making the cross OH which our Lord
Jesus Christ w;ls crucificd.''
Ahasucrl,s paused here, overwhelmed
with the memoirs of the past, and silence
Tervadcd the whole company. The idea
of making the Saviour be put to death on
wood that grew from the kernel of the
fatal tree, whose fruit scduccG and ruined
the author and postcrity Of the human
racc-the still more ingenious idea of
making this kernel grow out of the ashes
of our first parents, has always appeared
to us the most pathetic, the most artistic
flight of imagination in the poetry of the
middle ages. We will see this idea more
polished still, when the author, narrating
the passion of Jesus Christ will show us
the cross, made from the tree planted on
, the tomb of Adam, and nourishcd with
! his substance, raised on this same tomb,
and the blood of the divine Retlecmer
flowing dowE to, and terminating, the
ashes OF our first parent. But we must
return, for a few moments, TO the history
of the wandering jew. 1t contains some
very interesting NEUROLOGICAL details.
AEasurus nine years old, when he heard
his mother and father saying that three
kings had just arrived in Jerusalem, in
search of new born king, whom they
desired to adore. He ran after them, and
overlook them just as they were entering
I Bethlehem. He describes them such as
all the paintings of the middle ages re-
present them. The two first, large and
strong, the third, of black complexion and
| and African features. From this time
! till the flight into Egypt, the story Aha
/ suerus contains nothing of importance
that we have not recorded in the Gospel.
But the voyage of the holy family across
the desert is full of wonderful circum-
stances, borrowed, without doubt. from
some apocryplial gospel, which has not
! come down to us for, with some eXccp-
tions, we have not found these facts in
any of the known writings.
"When the holy family had COM
menced their departure for Egypt" said
Ahasucrus, I" Mary, looking behind her,
from time to time, perceived several SOL
diers in hot pursuit She became so
alarmed that she would have fallen from
tue humble ass on which she travelled
had not Joseph supported her. They
to conceal themselves quickly beneath a
large oak that was close by; and no
sooner were they under the oak, than its
branches, of their own accord, lowered
themselves forming with its thick foliage
a secure shelter. The soldiers of Herod
passed by in pursuit, little thinking that
the holy family was SO near. When
the assassins of the Innocents whose