The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-05-19

into oblivion, he still freshly remembered
his first love and his great bereavement.
" AS for me, when 1 came from Padan,
Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan
in the way, when there was but little
way to come unto Ephrath; and buried
her there in the way of Ephrath the
same is Bethlehem
We found the little clss$el at the tomb
filled with Jews, reading their liturgy
and weeping as they read 1t affected
me to see and hear them, very much as it
did the week before when I mingled with
several hundred of them under the city
wall, where they come every Friday af-
ternoon to I" TIE Waiting Place, - to kiss
the stones said to have formed part Of
Solomon's temple, and are now built into
the outside wall Of the Mosque of Omar,
and to fill the air with their plaintive
cries. FL
From Rachel's tomb it was, as Jacob
said, but little way to come unto
Ephrath, for in fifteen minutes more we
were there.
Bethlehem
charms the eye of the approaching travel
Ter by the beauty of its situation, and
touches the heart by the memories it
awakens- which run back to
the scenes depicted in that delightful
Idyl, which tells us how Ruth nestled at
the feet of Boaz, and how the aged Ma
omi was comforted by the vision of the
coming glories of her race-memories of
David as the shepherd boy and the poet
king, and of the princely men of his kin
dred who dwelt there but most of all
does the sight of the place recall the ex-
ultant prophecy, But thou Bethlehem
Ephratah,. &C., micah V: q and the yet
more exultant song of the angels, pro
claiming, Glory to God and good will to
men,
As we passed the green slope near
Bethlehem, sprinkled with few olive
trees, where the angel appeared to the
shepherds, our dragoman, who speaks
Arabic, French, German, and English,
startled me by repeating very correctly
the verses of the hymn beginning,
While shepherd watched their focks by night,
All seated on the ground"
hymn which we have been in the habit
of singing at home at family prayers,
every Christmas morning for many years,
the sound of which was never sweeter
than here, where its keynote was first
struck.
OF course we visited the little cavern.
believed to be the place where Christ was
born and where He was laid in the man
ger, there being no room in the inn; and
then we sought the study of Jerome, a
rough chamber hewn out of the rock,
near the chapel of. the Nativity. Here
for thirty years that great polemic tasted
and prayed and wrote, and from this
humble cell came forth that famous
translation Of the Bible, the Vulgate, in
itself work worthy Of the noblest life.
We made a detouT in order to visit the
Pools of Solomon the sight of which
was most refreshing in this dry and
thirsty land where little water is. They
consist of three vast reservoirs, the largest
of which is 1914 yards long, varying in
width from so to 60 yards, and about
so feet deep. Dr. Thompson says it would
float the largest man-of-war that ever
ploughed the ocean.
An aqueduct ohce conveyed the water
from Solomon's Pools all the way to Je-
rusalem, but now it is broken and ex-
tends no farther than Bethlehem
Saba Convent,
near which we encamped for the night,
is one of the most wonderful structures in
the world. 1t is at once a fortress and a
monastery, built on the side of preci-
pice nearly 600 feet above the gorge
through which the Kidron formerly ran.
but now dry as the desert itself. While
walking on the narrow terrace which
overlooks the tremendous chasm, one al
most shudders at the thought of life
spent in the dreary chambers which rise
tier above tier, some Of them cut out OF
the natural rock, and others supported
by artificial battlements-all of them re.
sembling rather the lairs of wild beasts
than the habitations' of men. Fortress
though it be, it has again and again been
stormed and pl6hdered In one of the
chapels, through grated door, may be
seen the skulls of the martyrs slain by
the Persian hordes, and arranged in rows
one above another, making a ghastly
wall. In 1910 Mar-Saba was re-fortifed
by the Russians, and is the property OF
the Greek Church. The gates are shut
and barred at dark, and no one can Oh
tain admittance after shutdown. No
woman is ever permitted to enter the
place at any hour under any pretext.
fTboro oro ,Lo,,4 IT, -. -..-L-. IL /