The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-10-10

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But you must remember that land Is
under the Turk. and what the Turk
touches he withers.
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 vernacu.
lars; all different IN appearance, but all
alike In desire to get our baggage and
ourselves at exhorbitant prices. Twenty
boats and only ten passengers to go
ashore.
Forever to me and mine will that day
and hour be commemorated for that
pre-eminent mercy. Let it be men,
toned in prayer by my children and
children's children after we are gone
that morning we were permitted to en-
ter 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 Decentralization
On the back OF hills $50 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 Sep
TENDER astronomers through unpar-
alleled telescopes, saw q snow storm
raging. How glad we were to be in
Joppa! Why, this is the city where
Dorcas, that queen OF the needle, lived
and died and was resurrected. You re-
member that the poor people came
around the dead body of this benefac-
tress and brought specimens of her kind
of needle work and said: "Dorcas made
| this" "Dorcas sewed that" Dorcas cut
and fitted this" "Dorcas hemmed that :"
According to Lightfoot the comments
tor. they laid her out in state in pub
lie room and the poor wrung their hands
and cried and sent for Peter, who per.
formed a miracle by which the good
woman came back to life and resumed her
benefactions 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 the wintry tenn
pest there appear ten thousand Decreases
Decreases of Brooklyn, Decreases of
New York, Decreases Of London, Dor
cases Of all the neighborhoods and
towns and cities Of Christendom, just as
good as the Dorcas Of the Joppa which
visited.
"What Is that man doingP" 1 said to
the dragoman in the streets of Joppa.
20, he is carrying his bed" Multitudes
Of the people sleep out of doors and that
is the way SO many in those lands be-
come blind. 1t is from the dew Of the
night falling on the eyelids As a re-
suit Of this in Egypt every twentieth
person is totally blind.
In Oriental lands the bed is made of
thin, small mattress, a 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 re-
ferred when he said to the sick man,
Take up thy bed and walk"
But inhale some of the odors of the
large tanneries around Joppa- 1t is
there to this day prosperous business,
this tanning of hides And that re-
minds me of Simon, the tanner, who
lived at Joppa, and was the host of
Peter, the apostle. Isuppose the olfac-
tories of Peter were as easily insulted
by the odors of a tannery as others
But the Bible says: HE lodged with
one Simon, the tanner" People who
go out to do reformatory and missionary
and Christian work must not be too sem
sitive. Simon, no doubt, brought to his
homestead every night the malodors of
the calf skins and OK hides in his tan
merry, but Peter lodged in that house,
not only because he may not have been
invited to the houses of merchant
princes surrounded by redolent gardens,
but to teach all men and women en-
gagged in trying to make the world bet
ter they must not be squeamish and fas-
tidious and finical 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 500 pocket handkerchiefs and
then put cent in the poor box. There
are many willing to do Christian
work among the clearly and refined and
the elegant and the educated, but ex-
cuse them from taking a loaf Of bread
down q dirty alley, excuse them from
teaching q mission school among the
uncombed and unwashed. excuse them
from touching the hand of one whose
finger nails are in mourning for de-
parted soap. Such religious precision
lists can toll in atmospheres laden with
honeysuckle and rosemary, but not in
air floating up from the melodorous
vats- No, no, no! excuse them from
lodging with one Simon, the tanner.
But reference to Peter reminds me
that we must go to the house-top in
Joppa where he was taught the democ-
racy OF religion. That was about the
queerest thing that ever happened. On
our way up to the house-top we passed
an old we'll where the great stones were
worn deep with the ropes Of the buckets,
and it must be a welt many centuries
old, and, 1 think, Peter drank out OF
It Four or Ave goat or calf
skins filled with water lay about
the yard. We soon got up the steps and
on the house-top Itwas in such place
in Joppa that Peter, one noon, while he
was waiting for dinner, had hungry fit
and tainted away and had Wis on or
dream or trance. / said to my family
and friends on that house-top: Listen
while l read about what happened
here" And opening the Bible, we had
the whole story. 1t seems that Peter
on the house-.op dreamed that great
blanket was let down out of Heaven,
and in it were sheep and goats and cat
tie and mules and pigeons and buzzards
and snakes and all manner of creatures
that fly the air, or walk the fields, or
crawl the earth, and in the dream OF