Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-01
SCENES In PALESTINE
What Talmage Saw in December in
the Valley of the Jordan,
AT JERICHO AND THE DEAD SEA.
Delightful Travel on Arabian Horses, With
Glimpses of EebO and Pisgah.
TIE BAPTISM OF A MAN IN THE RIVER

NAZARETH, December 13.-People who
visit Palestine In the spring, when the hill
sides and the valleys are green and the
| trees covered with luxuriant foliage, have
delightful experiences no doubt, but from
ment of my trip, I am strongly of the
opinion that now is the best time of the year
for the stranger in the Holy Land. As DR..
Talmsge puts it: Mature now has her
gloves off," In these clear days of Decem-
Der one gets at things with a single glance.
Hill and valley are clearly defined, and
brook and river are seen unobstructed by
the leaves of bordering trees. Ruins, fruit
full in historic suggestion, stand out in
the baroness which is the aptest ex-
preston of their bald antiquity. In the i'm
portant matter of personal comfort, more
over, it is an immeasurable relief to be
spared the torments inflicted in the warmer
season of the year by fieas, flies and other
creatures, insectile and of the larger kind.
These, as many a much-persecuted traveller
might attest, make life almost intolerable in
the hot months.
A LUXURIOUS WINTER CLIMATE.
We happily escape their infections, and
at the same time have positive pleasure in
the climate. December in Palestine is a
luxury. the sun shines just warm enough
to be agreeable, and the wind is only cool
enough to be refreshing and bracing.
The trip we made from Jerusalem to the
Jordan was as pleasant in realization as a
fairy tale is in contemplation. We left Jer-
usalem by the Jaffa gate, our horses paving
the ground impatiently as eager to begin the
journey. Leaving the Visitation of the
Noun: of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane,
the Valley of Jehoshaphat and Bethany,
the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus,
for more convenient season, we passed,
making our first stop. that for lunch, at the
Good SamarItan's S Inn. This, more correctly
described is the old Hathrur Khan. 1t is
situated half way between Jerusalem and
Jericho, and is in a ruinous condition.
There is nothing to question the probability
that on the same sight on which it stands
was situated the inn to which the neighborly
Samaritan conveyed the poor fellow who
had fallen among thieves.
A GOOD LOCALITY FOR BRIGANDs.
The region thereabout is desolate, and the
way affords opportunities of ambush conve-
nient to the operations of highwaymen. Our
Lord knew the place we'll, for it was on the
way TO and from Jerusalem. There is suffi-
cient of Biblical interest in the spot without
giving way to credulity, and the visitor suf-
fers nothing by quietly declining to accept
as well authenticated, all the stories told
him of the various places he sees. 1t was
enough for US to find in the ruinous khan
an opportunity of repose and refreshment,
and to reflect that it occupies in all prob
ability the site of the inn existing in the
time of our Lord to which he made refer.
ence in the beautiful narrative of the Good
Samaritan, and where He perhaps often
rested awhile in His errands of goodwill to
men.
Remounting, we continued our course,
visiting next the Brook Cherith where
Elijah was sustained with the bread and
meat supplied by ravens.
ON OLD JERICHo's SITE.
By nightfall we had reached what is sup
posed to be the site of old Jericho, where
we encamped for the night, and of which no
trace remains. If not here certainly near
it, at the blasts of Hebrew trumpets fell the
walls of the doomed city. Our camp was
almost at the foot OF what is now called the
Mount of Temptation, on which, it is
claimed, Christ was tempted of the devil.
The Jericho of the time of our Lord was
remains exist The hill above its site seems
to consist largely of the rubbish of the
houses, temples and palaces in which Herod
the Graat took pride. Fragments of ancient
pottery and glass still reward the zeal of the
searcher.
Our night at Jericho was the first one or
which we camped out. The new experience
was pleasant one, disappointing agreeably
the anticipations we formed of it. Early
the next morning we resumed our journey.
The first point of interest that attracted our
attention was the peaks known as Mount
Pisgah and Nebo.
JUST A GOOD PROBABILITY.
There is no certainty that the peaks
pointed out to us under these names are the
exact ones on which respectively Moses
Viewed the landscape Ger" and ended his
mortal life, but the probability is that Pts
gah is rightly identified, because on a clear
dav all Palestine is visible to the naked eve
from its summit. We were next shown the
house of Zaccheus, which is a remarkably
well preserved edifce. The earnest little
man who climbed into a sycamore tree to
see Jesus, because he was little of stature,
took the best means of accomplishing this
purpose. The tree named grows branches in
a horizontal direction and near the ground,
thus afording a capital place of observation.
DR.. Talmage's well-used Bible came into
use for the general good while we were
stopping at Zaccheus' house, where our
reverend leader read the account of the con-
version of its occupant as related in the gos-
pei.
An hours delightful ride brought us to
''the clear blue waters" of the Dead Sea-a
calm and beautiful expanse nearly so miles
1Ono nd oh fan mi rril Tt
the water Of the Jordan at its northern end,
but has no outlet at the south.
BIBLICAL SCENES RECALLED.
We sat down on its shingly beach and
read its history. Then we bathed our hands
and faces in its waters, which as soon as the
moisture dried of, We found covered with
a white, salty incrustation. The air on its
shores was pure and refreshing, and we
should have liked to loiter longer BY it. DR..
Talmage tried mouthful of the water of
the sea, which he found to be exceedingly
disagreeable to the taste. The So
called apples of Sodom we found
by actual experiment are not filled
with ashes, as says Sunday
school fable, but with seeds. We collected
many beautiful pebbles before we left this
interesting place, from a variety of every
conceivable shape and color, which
brighteus up the beach and renders it a
great temptation to stay long. This we
were not able to do, for DR.. Talmage was
impatient of longer delay, his work of
making notes for his "Life of Christ" keep
ing him constantly busy, and we were soon
again in the saddle, our beautiful Arabian
horses leaving rapidly behind them what
the Brooklyn divine graphically describes
as the 'crystal sarcOphagus of the buried
cities"
BAPTIZED IN THE JORDAN.
must return here to something that hap
pened earlier in the day. On our way to
the Dead Sea, shortly after we had started
ont IN Aba ynornin0 opd rbila ~ ,,odo.,