The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-15

| it perish! And so those rocks at the harbor
| remain the jaws of repeated destruction.
| As We descended the narrow steps at the
side OF the ship 1--WE heard the clamor and
quarrel and swearing Of fifteen or sixteen
different races Of men of oil features, and
all colors and all vernaculars; all ditferentin
appearance, but all alike in desire to get our
baggage and ourselves at exorbitant prices.
! Twenty boats and only ten passengers to go
ashore. TIE man having charge of US pushes
aside some, and strikes with a heavy stick
others, and by violences that would not be
| tolerated in our country. but which seem to
| be the only manner Of making any impress
| sion there. clears our way into one Of the
boats, which heads for the shore. We ara
within fifteen minutes of the Christ land.
Now we hear shouting from the beach, and
in five minutes we will be landed. The prov
Of the boat is caught by men who wade out
to help usin.
We are tremulous with suppressed excite
ment, our breath is quick, and from the side
Of the boat we spring to the shore and Sun
day morning, December l, 1889, about eight
o'clock our feet touch Palestine. Forever
tome and mine will that day and hour be
commemorated for that pre-eminent mercy.
Let it be mentioned in prayer by my chill
dren and children's children after we ars
gone, that morning we were permitted =
enter that land and gaze upon those holy
hills and feel the emotions that rise and fall
and weep and laugh and sing ond triumph at
such Decentralization.
On the back Of the hills one hundred and
fifty feet high Joppa is lifted toward the
skies. 1t is as picturesque as it is quaint, and
as much unlike any city we have ever seen,
as though it were built in that star Mars,
where few nights ago this very September
astronomers, through unparalleled telescopes,
saw snow storm raging. How glad we were
to be in Joppa! Why, this is the city where
Dorcas that queen of the needle, lived aud
died and was resurrected. You remember
that the poor people came around the dead
body of this benefactress and brought speci-
mems of her kind needlework and said:
"Dorcas made this" "Dorcas sewed that"
'Dorcas cut and fitted this" "Dorcas
hemmed that"
According TO Lightfoot, the commentator.
they laid her out in state in q public room,
and the poor wrung their hands and cried
and sent for Peter, who performed q miracle
By which the good woman came back to life
and resumed her banefactions An especial
resurrection day for one woman! She was
the model by which many women Of our day
have fashioned their lives, and at the first
blast of the horn of wintry tempest there ap.
pear ten thousand Dorcases-Dorcases Of
Brooklyn, Decreases of New York, Decreases
of London, Decreases Of all the neighborhoods
and towns and cities of Christendom-just as
good as the Dorcas of Joppa which visited.
Thank God for the ever increasing skill and
sharpness apd speed and generosity of Dor.
cas's needle.
"What is that man doingw said to the
dragoman in the streets Of Joppa. "Ob, he
is carrying his bed" Multitudes of people
sleep out OF doors, and that is the way SO
many in those lands become blind. 1t is from
the dew of the night falling on the eyelids. As
result of this, in Egypt every twentieth
person is totally blind. In Oriental lands
the bed is made of thin, small mattress, O
blanket and pillow, and when the man rises
in the morning he just ties up the three into
bundle and shoulders it and takes it away.
1t was to that the Saviour referred when He
said to the sick man: take up thy bed and
walk" An American couch or an English
couch would require at least four men to
carry it, but one Oriental can easily manage
his slumber equipment.
But inhale some Of the odors of the large
tanneries around Joppa. 1t is there to this
day, O prosperous business, this tanning of
hides. And that reminds me of Simon, the
tanner, who lived at Joppa and was the host
Of Peter, the apostle. 1 suppose the olfac.
tories Of Peter wers as easily insultel by the
odors of q tanuery as Others. But the Bible
says, HE lodgedwith one Simon, tho tan
ner." People who so out to do reformatory
and missionary and Christian work must not
be too sensitive. Simon no doubt brought
to his homestead every night tne malodors
Of the calfskins and OK hides il his tGnnery,
but Peter lodged in that home, not only be-
cause he may not have been invited to the
houses of merchant princes, surrounded by
redolent gardens, but to teach oil men and
women engaged in trying to make the world
better that they must not be squeanish and
fastidious and fnical and over particular in
doing the work of the world.
The church Of God is dying of fastidious-
ness We cry over the sufferings OF the
world in hundred dollar pocket handker-
chiefs, and then put cent in tho poor box.
There are many willing to do Christian work
among the cleanly, and the refined, and the
elegant, and the educated, but excuse them
from taking loaf of bread down a dirty al
lev, excuse them from teaching mission
school among the uncombed and the unwash-
ed, excuse them from touching the hand OF
one whose finger nails are in mourning for
departed soap. Such religious precisionist5
can toll in atmospheres laden with honey
suckle and rosemary, but not in air floating
up from the malodorous watts. No, no, mol
Excuse than from living with one Simon, the
tanner.
During the last war there were in Virginia
some sixty or seventy wounded soldiers In
barn. on the second floor, so near the roof
that the heat Of tine August sun was almost
nsupportsble. The men were dying from
sheer exhaustion and suffocation. A distin-
yuisbed member of the Christian commission
said to the nurse who stood there, Wash the
faces and feet of these men and it will revive
Them" NO" said the nurse, II didn't come
f-%1 $h1 20 nh Hr.S ~
SWELL" said the distinguished member Of the
commission, 'bring mo water and towel;
will be very glad to wash their feet" One
was the spirit OF the devil, the other the
spirit Of Christ.
But referenceto Peter reminds me that we
must go to the houSstop in Joppa where he
was taught tho democracy of religion. That
was about the queerest t1ing that ever hap
pened. On our way Up to that housetop we
passed an old well where the great stones
were worn deep with the ropes of the BUCK
cts, and it must be a we'll many centuries
old. and I think Peter drank out Of It. Four
or five goat or calfskins filled with water lay
about the yard We soon got up the steps
and on the housetop. 1t was in such place
in Joppa that Peter one noon while he was
waiting for dinner had hungry fit and
tainted away, and had q vision or dream or
trance. I said to my family and friends on
that housetop, 'Listen while I read about
what happened here" And opening the
Bible we had the whole story.
It seems that Peter on tho housetop
dreamed that great blanket was let down
out Of heaven, and in it were sheep and goats
and cattle and mules and pigeons and buz-
yards and snakes and ell manner OF creatures
that fly the air, or walk the field, or crawl
the earth, and in the cream voice told him
as be was hungry to eat, and he said, II can.
not eat things unclean." Three times he
dreamed it. There was then heard knock
ino ar tho cata ~ tha boDsa ON tho ton of