The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-04-07
JERUSALEM.

aa.. JERUSALEM.
The population of modern Jerusalem has
been very differently estimated and no
doubt 1t increases by some thousands at the
season Of the annual religious feast-but Is,
900 appears to he the most probable aver
age populations and while the Moham-
me,lans are the masters, the Jews form the
decided majority, being, it is likely, not far
short of 5000. They come in constant
stream from every part of the world, many
of them on plgrimages, by which they hope
to acquire 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 bu-
ried on Mount Olivet, and it is remarka-
BILE that they cling with a 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 passages from the
Old Testament upon the most conspicuous
places in their synagogues, such as that in
the 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 willows in
the midst thereof. = If 1 forget thee o
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning If do not remember thee, lei
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
if prefer not Jerusalem above my Chief
JOY" The Jerusalem synagogues, however
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-
lousl Moslem rulers. 1t is indeed remarka-
BILE in how many ways the Jews keep hold of
their country as with trembling hand,
and are reluctant to let go the traces and
the records of glorious past. AT later
period we visited with a learned Jew remote
mountain villages in Palestine, far out of
the common track of travellers, which con-
tained 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 night
and day. What an amazing tenacity of life
there is alike in the people and their faith
We visited several of their synagogues and
had brief conversation with some of their
chief men; and three things particularly
struck us shedding incidental light upon
the Scriptures.
Thus, it was curious to notice the close
resemblance between the order of religious
service in those Jerusalem synagogues in
our own day and that which is described in
Luke's Gospel as having been observed in
the synagogue at Nazareth on that memora-
BILE occasion when our Lord was invited to
become the teacher. The correspondence
was, in fact, complete in every point, as if
the thing had remained stereotyped down |
through all the eighteen centuries. A roll
of one of the books of the Old Testiment
was carried by servant from a recess in the |
wall and put into the hands of the presi-
dent or reader, who was elevated on plat |
form in the centre of the synagogue. While
the Scripture for the day was being recited,
both the reader himself and all the. I..congre- |
cation 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
synagogues was regulated by the countries
to which they owed their birth. Jews from
the coasts of Africa and from the south of
Europe usually frequented one synagogue
erman and Polish Jews were to be found
in another: and so it was with other nation
alities. But when we turn to the narrative
in the Acts of the Apostles, we find the
same state of things existing in Jerusalem
at the beginning of Christianity. Among
those who disputed with the youthful Steph-
en-, when "his face shone like the face of an
angel" were some from the synagogue of
Libertines-that is, freedmen from Rome
and other parts Of Italy some from the
synagogue of Cilicia and the neighboring
provinces-that is, Asiatic Jews Thomson,
The Holy Land.