Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-12-23
JERUSALEM.

The population of modern Jerusalem has
been very differently estimated-and no
doubt it increases by some thousands at the
season Of the annual religious feasts-but
$4,000 appears to be the most probable aver
age population and while the Mohammed-
ans are the masters, the Jews form the deci-
ded majority, being, it is likely, not far short
of 5000. They come in a constant stream
from every part of the world, many of them
on pilgrimages, by which they hope to &C.
quire large fund of merit, and then return
again to their native country; the greater
number that they may die in the city of their
fathers, and obtain the most cherished wish
of their heart by being buried on Mount o.
ivet; and it is remarkable that they cling
with strange preference to that part of the
city which is nearest the site of their ancient
Temple, as if they still "took pleasure in its
stones and its very dust were dear to them"
They are fond of inscribing touching pas.
sages from the Old Testament upon the most
conspicuous places in their synagogues, such
as that in the one hundred and thirty-seventh
Psalm: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we
sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered
Zion. We hanged our harps upon the will
lows in the midst thereof. If for
get thee, o, Jerusalem, let my right hand for.
get her cunning If do not remember thee,
let my tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth if 1 prefer not Jerusalem above my
chief JOY" The Jerusalem synagogues, how
ever, are not adorned like many Of those in
our European capitals, such as we have seen
at Leghorn and Frankfort, probably in order
to avoid tempting the cupidity of unscrupu-
lous Moslem rulers. It is indeed remarkable
in how many ways the Jews keep hold of
their country as with trembling hand, and
are reluctant to let 90 the traces and records
of glorious past. ..
At q later period we visited, with learned
Jew, remote mountain villages in Palestine,
far out of the common track of travellers,
which contained the tombs Of old rabbis
and learned men, some of them going back
even beyond the Christian era, and we found
that lamps were kept burning before those
tombs mig ght and day. What an amazing te-
nacity of life there is alike in the people and
their faith We visited several of their syn
agogues, and had brief conversations with
some of their chief men; and three things
particularly struck US as shedding incidental
light upon the Scriptures. Thus, it was Gu
rious to notice the close resemblance between
the order of RELIGIOUS service in those Jeru-
salem synagogues in our own days and taata,
which is described in Luke's Gospel as hav-
ing been observed in the synagogue at Naza-
reth on that memorable occasion when our
Lord was invited to become the teacher. The
correspondence was, in fact, complete at ev-
cry point, as if the thing had remained ster-
eotyped down through the eighteen centuries.
A roll of one of the books of the Old Tes'
lament was carried by servant from recess
in the wall and put into the hands Of the
president or reader, who was elevated on a
platform in the centre Of the synagogue.
While the Scripture for the day was being
recited, both the reader himself and all the
congregation stood up; but at the close Of the
reading all the people took their seats, and
the reader, seated also, proceeded with his
mingled exposition and exhortation. 1t was
scarcely less interesting to observe that the
attendance Of the Jews on the different syna-
gogues was regulated by the countries to
which they owed their birth. Jews from the
coasts of Africa and from the south of Eu-
rope usually frequented one synagogue; Ger
man and Polish Jews were to be found in
another; and so it was with other nationali.
ties But when we turn to the narrative in
the Acts of Apostles, we find the same state
of things existing in Jerusalem at the begin
ming of Christianity. Among those who dis
puted with the youthful Stephen, when "his
face shone like the face of an angel" were
some from the synagogue of the Libertines-
that is, freedmen from Rome and other parts
of Italy; some from the synagogue of the
Cyrenians and Alexandrians-tha is, Jews
from Northern Africa; and others from the
synagogue of Cilicia and the neighboring
provinces-that is, Asiatic Jews.