Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-29


any moment there might start out within
sight of the ship the land where the
most stupendous scenes of all time and
all eternity were enacted, land of ruin
and redemption, land where was fought
the battle that made our heaven posi-
BILE, land of Godfrey and Saladin, of
JOSHUA AND JESUS.
Will the night ever be gone? Yes, 1t
is growing lighter, and along the horizon
there is something like bank of clouds,
and az watchman PAGES the deck, say
TO him: "'What is that out yonder?"
THAT ID land, sir, said the sailor.
"The land.' l cried, and soon all our
friends were aroused from sleep and the
shore began more clearly to reveal itself.
With roar, and rattle, and bang the
anchor dropped in the roadstead half a
mile from land, for though Joppa is the
only harbor of Palestine, it is the worst
harbor on all the coasts. Sometimes for
weeks no ship stops there. Between
rocks about seventy-hve feet apart q
small boat must take the passengers
ashore. The depths are strewn with the
skeletons of those who have attempted to
land or attempted TO embark. Twenty
seven pilgrims persisted with one crash of
a boat against the rocks. Whole fleets
of crusaders, of Romans, of Syrians, of
Egyptians have gone to splinters there.
a writer 800 years ago said he stood on
the beach in storm q: Joppa, and out
of thirty ships, ell but seven went
to pieces on the rocks and 1000 of the
dead were washed ashore.
Strange that with O few blasts of pow
der like that which shattered our Ameri-
can He'll Gate, those rocks have not been
uprOoted and the way cleared, so that
great ships, instead of anchorage far out
from land, might sweep up to the wharf
for passengers and freight. But you
must remember that land is under the
Turk, and what the Turk touches, ne
withers. Mohammedanism is against
easy wharves, against steamers, against
rail-trains; against printing presses,
AGAINST CIVILIZATION.
Darkness is always opposed to light.
The owl hates the morn. "Leave those
rocks where they are, practically cries
the Turkish government; "we want no
people of other religions and other habits
to lard there, If the salt seas wash over
them, let II be warning TO other
invaders; away with your nine
teenth century, with its free thought
and its modern inventions. That
Turkish government ought to be blotted
from the face of the earth, and it will
be. OF many OF the inhabitants of
Palestine l asked the question, Has the
sultan of Turkey ever been here?'
Answer, "No.' 'Why don't he
come, when it belongs to his domInIon?'
And after the man Intercepted looked
this way and that, so as to know he
would not be reported, the answer would
invariably be, "he dare not come L
believe it. If the sultan of Turkey at
tempted TO visit Jerusalem he would
never get back again. All Palestine
hates him. l saw him go to the mosque
for prayers in his own city Of Constanti-
nople and saw seven thousand armed
men riding out to protect him. Ex-
peusIve prayers! OF course that govern
ment wants no better harbor at Jopps.
May God remove that curse of nations,
that old bag of the centuries, the Turk
ish government! For its everlasting in
suit TO God and woman, let it perish!
And so those racks at the harbor remain
the jaws of repeated destruction.
AS we descended the narrow steps at
the side of the ship, we heard the
clamor, and quarrel, and swearing of
fifteen or sixteen different races of men of
all features, and all colors and all YER
all alike in desire TO get our baggage and
ourselves at exhorbitant prices. Twenty
boats aud only ten passengers to go
ashore. The man having charge of us
pushes aside some, and strikes with a
heavy stick others, and by violeuces that
WOULD NOT BE TOLERATED
in our country, but which seem to be the
only manner of making an impression
there, clears our way into one of the
boats which heads for the shore. We
are within fifteen minutes of 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 us in. We
are tremulous with suppressed exoite-
ment, our breath is quick, and from the
side of the boat we spring to the shore,
and Sunday morning, December l 1889,
about o CLOCK, our feet touch Pales-
tine. Forever to me and mine will tina:
day and hour be commemorated for that
pre- eminent mercy. Let it be mentioned
in prayer by my children and children
children after we are gone, that morning
we were permitted to enter that land and
gaze upon those holy hills, and feel the
emotions that rise and fall, and weep
and laugh, and sing and triumph at such
disem barkation.
On the back of hills $50 feet high Joppa
is lifted toward the skies. 1t is as pictur-
esque as it is quaint, and as much I'M
like any city we have ever seen, as
though 1t was built in that star Mars,
where few nights ago this very Septem-
Der, 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
You remember that the |
poor people came around the dead body |
of this benefactress and brought speci- |
mems of her kind needie-work and said,
''Dorcas made this;' f'Dorcas sewed |
that;' 'Dorcas cut an d fitted this:''
'.Dorcas hemmed that According to |
Lightfoot the commentator, they laid her |
out in state in public room and the poor |
wrung their hands and cried, and sent |
for Peter, who performed a miracle by |
which the good woman
CAME BACK TO LIFE
and resumed her benefactions. An es-
pecial 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 |
the wintry tempest, there appear 10 200 |
of Brooklyn, Decreases
of New York, Decreases of London, Dor
cases of all the neighborhoods and towns