Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-12-19
THE HOLY LAND.
Continuation Of the letter by James Monteith, dat
ed On shore Of the Sea Of Galllee, March ~ 1851

places, as to their size and relative positions.
Suppose great stone wall were built in
Kings Bridge Road, from 152d street tc
High Bridge, then across to the Hudson
River, down that River, and then through
l52d Street to starting point, that is about
the size of the Holy City. You are doubt
less surprised that it is not larger, but for
melly 1t extended little further North and
South; and then again many people lived
In tents outside of the walls, even in winter,
which is not so cold as our winters are.
Now, If you stand on our viaduct ON your
way up to High Bridge, and look down into
the Valley of the Harlem River, right in
front of you, you will have good repre-
sentation of the celebrated Valley of Jehos-
haphat, which, for many centuries, has been
a burying ground. The Harlem River would
represent the brook Kedron--only Kedron
is dry now, and even in rainy weather is
never SO wide or deep as the Harlem. The
hills right in front of you in West Chester
county, as you look towards the rising sun,
and which rises up from the other side OF
the Harlem, between MaComb's Bridge and
High Bridge, you may imagine to be the
Mount of Olives. OF course, Olivet is about
three times as high as those hills in West
Chester county, and enables one standing on
| its top to look over and doun upon the
whole city of Jerusalem. Suppose again,
that all the fiat land of Harlem were noun
tains, and that the village Of Harlem stood
upon the top of one of those imaginary
mountains, that village would represent
Bethany, town often visited by our Sa-
viour, who walked there from Jerusalem,
just as you now go to Harlem and back,
the same distance and the same direction.
1t was from this place, according to st.
Luke, that Jesus "was parted from his dis
ciples and carried up into Heaven There
dwelt Mary, Martha and Lazarus. There
Lazarus was raised from the dead. You
may well suppose, dear children that the
three days which we spent in camp on the
top of the Mount of Olives, with such
scenery around us, with our Bibles open in
our hands, we felt ourselves in Holy
Land. All about us are many Olive trees,
on the top of the Mount and oil around its
sides. Some of these trees are said to be
about two Thousand years old, and if SO,
they were the same that Jesus often looked
at 1t is well known that the Olive tree is
very slow in growth, and very long lived,
and it is generally admitted that some of
these trees still flourishing, were living
then. Some of them are very large, as l
walked around one taking sixteen long
PAGES.
We were not long in entering the Garden
of Gethsemane which is an enclosure about
as large as Mr.. Woods garden, perhaps not
so large. 1t has high stone wall all around
its four sides. We entered by little low
doorway which is not higher than the heads
of the youngest of you. The door which is
of iron, was opened for us by Latin Monk.
We entered and noticed the same old Olive
trees under which Christ had often prayed a
little more than eighteen centuries ago.
There were also nice flower beds all filled
with beautiful and fragrant flowers Of every
color. Pretty borders of green shrubs en-
closed the beds, and separated them from the
nice garden walks. We remained there n
while and thought and talked over the
events that have made this a sacred spot,
and mounted our horses, which were wait
ing for us without the halls, and made our
first visit inside the City of Jerusalem. En-
tering one of the great gates which are al
ways guarded by Turkish soldiers, we saw
several blind men, and lepers, sitting by the
road side begging, just as in old times. Drop
ping some money into their wthcred look
ing hands, we locked around and head to
see the celebrated city, but if any Of us ex-
pected to see grand place of magnificent
temples, buildings and beautiful streets,
they were disappointed. The houses are
all of stone, and many of them are poorly
built over the streets, which are narrow,
very dirty, roughly paved, without side
walks and without names.
The people as well as the houses looked
very checrless and gloomy. The men are
dressed in long flowing robes and wear tur-
bans upon their heads. The first place we
requested our guide to show us was the Sa-
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