The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-12-04

AS we ueSC6nueu Cn0 narrow steps at
the side of the ship. we heard the clam
or, and quarrel, and swearing, o. fifteen
or sixteen different races of men of all
features, and all colors and all vernac-
ulars; all different in appearance, but all
alike in desire to get our baggage and
ourselves at exorbitant prices. Twenty
boats and only ten passengers to go
ashore. The 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 coun-
try, but which seems to be the only
manner of making any impression
there, clears our way into one of the
boats which heads for the shore.
We are within fifteen minutes of
the Christ-land. Now we hear shout
ing 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 excitement our
breath is quick, and from the side of
the boat we spring to the shore, and
Sunday morning, December 1, 1889,
about eight o'clock, our feet touch Pal
estine. Forever to me and mine will
that day and hour be commemorated,
for that pre-eminent mercy. Let it be
mentioned in prayer by my children
and children's 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 a disem-
barkation.
On the back of hills one hundred and
fifty feet high Jippa 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 a 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
Dorcus, 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 bene-
factress. and brought specimens of her
kind needle-work and said: "Dorcas
made this" ''Dorcas sewed that"
''Dorcas cut and fitted this"
"Dorcas hemmed that" Accord
ing 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 per-
formed a miracle by which the good
woman came back to life and resumed
her benefactions. An especial resur-
rection 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, 900 Dor
cases-Dorcases of Brooklyn, Decreases
of New York, Decreases of London Dor
cases of all the neighborhoods and
towns and cities of Christendom,, lust
as good as the Dorcas of the Joppa
which l visited. Thank God for the
eVer-increasing skill and sharpness and
speed and generosity of Dorcas' needs
But l inbale some of the orders of
the large tanneries around Joppa. tits
there to this day, a 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 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 sensitive. Simon no
doubt brought to his homestead every
night the malodors of tho calf skins and
OK hides in his tannery, but Peter lodged
in that home, not only because he may
not have been invited to the houses of
merchant princes surrounded by redo
lent gardens, but to teach all men and
women engaged in trying to make the
world better, they must not be squeam-
ish and fastidious and finical and over
particular in doing the work of the
world. The Church of God is diving of
fastidiousness We cry over the
sufferings of the world in one
hundred dollar pocket handkerchiefs.
and then put cent in the poor box.
There are many willing to do Christian
work among the clearly and the refined
and the elegant and the educated; but
excuse them from taking loaf of bread
down dirty alley, excuse them from
teaching mission-school among the
uncombed and the unwashed, excuse
them from touching the hand of one
whose finger-nails are in mourning for
departed soap. Such religious precision
lists can toll in armospheres laden with
honeysuekle and rosemary, but not in
air floating up from the malodorous
Vats No, no, no! excuse them from
lodging with one Simon, the tanner.
During the last war there were in Vir-
GINA some sixty or seventy wounded
soldiers in barn on the second floor so
near the roof that the heat of the Au-
gust sun was almost insupportable. The
men were dying from sheer exhaustion
and suffocation. A distinguished mem
Der 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. 50
din't come into the army to wash anv
body's feet WELL" said the distin-