Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-30
A TOUR In HOLYLAND.
Recollections of a Journey Through
Samaria and Gallilee.
sHECHEM SPOT OFGREAT BEAUTY
The Fountain of the Virgin at Nazareth
and Its Memories.
THE MOUNT ON WHICH CHRIST TAUGHT
WRITTEN FOR THE D1spArcH.I j


and hallowed associations, is the most inter-
estlng spot of Ssmaria and Central Pales-
tine. The late Dean Stanley, who accom-
panied the Prince of Wales, when a boy,
through the Holy Land, thus describes this
vale: "a valley green with grass, gray
with olives, gardens sloping down on each
side, fresh springs rushing down in all di-
rections; at the end a white town en-
bosOmed in all this verdure, the most beau
tiful, perhaps it might be said the only
beautiful spot in Central Palestine"
The tourist, travelling northward from
Jerusalem, follows the same thoroughfare,
now only path, that the Prophet of Naz-
areth and his disciples often traversed in
their journeys to and from Gaiilee. On the
eastern boundary of the vale of Shechem,
where it opens upon one of the most fertile
plains in all that land, is Jacobs well, at
the present day partially filled with rub
bish, but without doubt the very well dug
by the Isrselite whose name it bears, and the
very same where the Nazarene rested upon
His journey from Jerusalem to Galilee and
talked with the Samaritan women, who had
come for water, while the disciples had gone
down the valley to the town of Shechem to
procure food. Like two sentinels, Mount
Gerizim and Mount Ebal rise up on the
south and north sides of this marrow valley,
which, at this point, cannot be more than
$50 yards in width. On the slope OF Mount
Gerizim is Jacobs well, and on Ebal, across
the valley. the tomb of Joseph, who, when
dying in Egypt, gave commandment con-
cerning his bones" Those bones were
sacredly carried to this home Of his boyhood
in the Land of Premise.
IN THE VALE OF sHECHEM.
From this valley the favorite son of Israel
had been sold to the Midianite caravan on
their way to Egypt, and here his bones were
permitted to rest after he had finished that
wonderful career as Prime Minister of
Pharaoh. There is no sacred spot in the
land of Palestine better identified than this
well of Jacob, who "drank thereof himself,
and his children and his cattle" 1t is also
perfectly certain that here our Lord con-
verse6 with the Samaritan woman concerning
the water of lite and true worship. Here,
resting by Jacobs well, He said: Neither
in this mountain" (relerring to Gerizim,
where the Samaritan temple stood), "nor
yet at Jerusalem, is the place where men
ought to worship. but they that worship the
Father must worship Him In spirit and
truth"
The modern name of Shechem is Nablous
g corruption of Neapolis. Here is the only
Samaritan synagogue now existing, and
here worship the oldest and the smallest
religious sect in the world, their number
being less than 200. Following this vale of
Shechem as it winds westward and north
ward six miles, we come to a basin, from
which rises an oblong hill, overlooking the
Mediteryanean Sea, on the crown of which
are the ruins of the city of Samaria. On
the summit and along the hillsides are scat
tered Corinthian columns and capitals, of
which more than a hundred are counted,
which are all that remain OF Herod's great
colonnade. Samaria was once the Versailles
or Windsor of Shechem, the metropolis of
the northern kingdom of Israel, as Jerusa-
lem was Of the southern. The ruins of
Herod's summer palace and temple, and the
ruins of the church OF John the Baptist, are
all that remain of the ancient CITY of Sa-
maria. monuments of the, murderous king
and his great victim.
THE NAZARETH OF TODAY.
From Samaria our course is northward
across the plain of Esdraelon, where SO
often the Israelite and Philistlne met In
deadly battle, and where, in the twelfth
century, the Crusaders, under Saladin,
staked their all against the Saracen and
lost. An hours ride up the Galilean hills
brings us 20 the vale and town of Nazareth.
"Can any good thing come out of NAZARETH"
expressed the popular estimate of the vii
lage when the carpenters son entered upon
His wonderful career. Then it was a mere
hamlet. Now it is the prettiest town of
Galilee, with upward of 5000 inhabitants
Our faith is too weak to take in the sacred
objects of modern Nazareth. such as the
carpenter shop of Joseph, the vessels or
water pots used at the marriage of Cana,
which contained the water converted into
the wine by Jesus. But, down the mountain
slope, Oh the northwestern edge of the
town, is one object which cannot have
changed materially since the days when the
son OF Mary wandered and meditated on
these Galilean hills. This is the Fountain
of the Virgin, as it is now called, which is
the one spring ofwater from which Nazareth
is supplied.
Our tent was pitched close by this spring
on lovely Saturday evening OF May. Very
early in the morning we were awakened by
the chattering and Laughing voices of the
girls who came tripping to the Fountain of
the Virgin with earthen jars upon their
heads with which to bear water to the homes
of Nazareth. Imagine a town of 5000 in
hsbitants supplied with water carried in
maidens and you have the every morning
scene at Nazareth.
By THE SEA OF GALILEE.
It requires no great stretch of the imagi- |
nation to recall, in witnessing this troop of
girls, the Rachels and Rebekahs of the
olden time and the virgin espoused to the |
young carpenter of Nazareth, who must |
have often tripped down this mountain |
slope with her earthen jar upon her head. |
There is a tradition that Mary was at the |
spring when the angel announced to her |
that she was to be the mother of the worlds |
Redeemer, The Church and Convent Of the |
is the one public building of |
Nazareth of importance. This has for gen. |
erations furnished a refuge for travellers |
who there sought retreat from the Bedouin |
of Esdraelon. Among my pleasantest |
memories is the Sabbath service I enjoyed
in company With the late Bishop Stevens,
of Philadelphia, in the Church OF the An
nunclation at Nazareth.
From Nazareth our course is northeast to
the little inland Sea of Galilee, half davis
journey. The sea at the beginning of the
Christian era was lined with important COM
mercial cities-Capernaum, Bethssida,
Chorazin-but now has upon its shores the
one unimportant town of Liberals. The
Sea Of Galllee, gem in the Lebanon range I
of mountains, 13 by miles, into which the
Jordan empties and from which it flows on
its way to the Dead Sea, certainly transcends
in interest and hallowed association any
spot on the globe. From our tent we could
look down upon the shore where the greatest
of teachers began His ministry. There He
called the fishermen OF Bethsaida to be
fishers of men. On the northwestern corner
Of the lake is
THE PLAIN OF GEENEsARET,
reaching some five miles into the foot hills