Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-11-21


At one O'Clock on q December afternoon,
through Damascus gate, we are passing out
OF Jerusalem for q Journey northward. Hol
for Bethel, with fts stairs, the bottom step OF
which was q stone pillow; and Jacobs well.
with its immortal colloquy: and Nazareth
with its divine boy In His fathers carpenter
shop, and the most glorious lake that ever
rippled or flashed
Blue Galilee. sweet GLIlse,
The lake where Jesus loved 10 be:
and Damascus, with its crooked street called
Straight and hundred places charged and
surcharged with apostolic, evangehstic, pro-
phetic, patriarchal kingiy and ChriStly rem
iniscences.
In travelling along the roads Of Palestine
am impressed, as could not otherwise have
been, with the fact that Christ for the most
part went afoot. We find Him occasionally
on boat, and once riding in triumphal
procession, as II Is sometimes called, although
IL seems to me that the hosannas Of the crowd
could not have made a ride on q stubborn,
unimpressive and funny creature like that
very much Of triumph. But we are made
to undertand that generally He walked. How
much that means only those know who have
gone over the distance traversed by
Christ.
We are accustomed to read that Bethany
Is two miles from Jerusalem. Well, any man
in ordinary health can walk two miles with
out fatigue. But not more than one man
out Of thousand can walk from Bethany to
Jerusalem without exhaustion. 1t Is over
the Mount Of Olives, and you must climb up
among the rolling stones and descend where
exerion is necessary to keep you from fall
ing PROSTATE. i, who am accustomed to
walk fifteen or twenty miles without LASH
tude tried part of this road over the Mount
Of Olives, and confess that would not want
to try 1t often, such demand does it make
upon ones physical energies. Yet Christ
walked 1t twice day-in the morning from
Bethany to Jerusalem, and in the evening
from Jerusalem to Bethany.
Likewise 1t seemed q small thing that
Christ walked from Jerusalem to Nazareth.
But it will take us four days Of hard horse
back riding, sometimes on trot and some-
times on a gallop, TO do it this week. The
way Is mountainous In the extreme. To
those who went up to the Tip Top house ON
Mount Washington before the railroad was
laid viii say that this journey from Jeru-
salem to Nazareth is like seven such Ameri-
can journeys. So, all up and down and
across and recrossing Palestine Jesus walked
Ahab rode. David rode. Solomon rode.
Herod rode Antony rode. But Jesus
walked. With swollen ankles and sore
muscles Of the legs and bruised heel and stiff
joints and painting lungs and faint head,
along the roads and where there were no
roads at all Jesus walked.
We tried to get new horse other
than that on which we had ridden on the
journey to the Dead Sea, for he had faults
which our close acquaintanceship had devel-
oped. But after some experimenting with
other quadrupeds OF that species, and finding
That all horses like their riders, have faults,
| rnppInHQd Tn ebOnaa aaHAla pf,t h y
beast whose faults We were most prepared
| to pity or resist. We rode down through the
valley and then up on Mount Scopus and.
as our dragoman tells us that this IS the last
opportunity we shall have of looking at Je-
rusalem, we turn our horses head toward
the city and take a long, sad and thrilling
look at the religious capital Of our planet.
This is the most impressive view Of the most
tremendous city Of all time.
On and around this hill the armies of the
crusaders at the first sight of the city
threw themselves on their faces In worship
Here most Of the bcSieging armies en-
camped the night before opening their vol
leys Of death against Jerusalem. Our last
lookl Farewell, Mount Zion, Mount
Moriah, Mount of Olives, Mount Calvary
Will We never see them again, Never
The world is SO large and time is so short
and there are so many things we have never
seen at all, that we cannot afford to duplicat.
visits or see anything more than once Fare
well, yonder thrones Of gray rock, and til,
three thousand years OF architecture anC
battle6elds. Farewell sacred, sanguinary
triumphant, Inundated jerusalem Acros
this valley Of the Kedron with my righ
hand / throw thee kiss Of valedictory. Gu,
last look, like our first look, an agitation o.
body, mind and soul indescribable
And now, like Ezekiel in my tent, liz
up mine eyes the way toward the north
Near here was one Of the worst tragedies o
the ages mentioned in the Bible A hospitabl
old man coming home at eventido from hi
work in the fields finds two strangers, q hus
band and wife, proposing to lodge In tn
street because no shelter Is offered them, an,
invites them to come and spend the night Il
his home: During the night the ruffians o
the neighborhood conspired together, an
surrounded the house, and left the womal
dead on the doorstep, and the husband, I
rally in revenge the twelve tribes
cut the corpse Of the woman int
twelve parts and sent a twelfth of it to eac
tribe, and the fury of the nation was reused
and peremptory demand was made for til
surrender Of the assassins, and, the deman
refused, in one day twenty thousand peopl
we're left dead on the field and the next da
eighteen thousand. Wherever our horse e
day plants his foot In those ancient times
corpse lay, and the roads were crossed by re
rivulets Of carnage.
Now we pass on to where seven youth
were put to death and their bodies git
beted or hung in chains, not for auythin
they had themselves done, but as a repa
alton for what their father and grand
father, Saul, had done Burial was denie
these youths from May until Novembe
Rizpab, the mother Of two Of these des
boys, appoints herself as sentinel to guar
the seven corpses from beak Of raven an
, tooth Of wolf and paw Of lion. She pitch,
q black tent on the rock close by 81
gibbets. Rizpah by day sits ON the groun
in front Of her tent, and when vulture b
gins TO lower out Of the MONDAY sky seekin
its prey among the gibbets Rizpah rises ht
long hair flying In the wind, and swingin
her arms wildly about Shoes away tn
, bird Of prey until II retreats to its eyrie A
night she rests under the shadow Of her ten
and sometimes falls into drowsiness or ha
sleep. But the step Of jackal among Il
dry leaves or the painting OF a hyena arous
her, and with the fury OF maniac she rush
out upon the rock crying, Away Away
and then, examining the gtbbets TO see thu
they still keep their burden, returns again
her tent till some swooping wing from Il
midnight sky or some growing monster {
the rock again wakes her
A mother watching her dead childr,
through May, June, July, August septer
Der and Octoberl What a vigil Painte
! have tried to put upon canvas the scene al
they succeeded in sketching the hawks in 81
sky and the panthers crawling out from Il
I jungle, but they fail to give the wannes
the earnestness, the supernatural courag
the infinite self sacrifice of Rizpah, Il
mother. Another in the quiet home watc
ing by the casket of dead child for OF
night exerts the artist to his utmost, but wi
is sufficient to put upon canvas II mother I,
six months Of midnights guarding her who
family, dead and gibbeted upon the noun
aims?
Go home. RiEpahi You must be awful
tired. You are sacrificing your reason ar
your life for those whom you can new,
bring back again to your bosom. As SO
that from the darkest midnight OF the CO
fury Rispah turns upon me and cries: 'Ho
dare you tell me TO go homer am mot
- NJ