The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-10-04

there is something like a bank of clouds
and as n Waterman PAGES the deck l say
to him: ''What is that out yonderP'
"That is land, SIR" said the sailor
1.-THE land!" 1 cried. and 1901 all ouI
friends were aroused from sleep and the
shore began more clearly to reveal it
self. With roar, and rattle and bang
the anchor dropped in the roadstead
half mile from land, for, though Joppi
is the only harbor of Palestine, it Is the
worst harbor on all the coasts. Some
times for weeks no ship stops there
Between rocks about s~eventy-five fee
apart a small boat must take the pas
sengers ashore. The depths are strewn
with the skeletons of those who have
attempted to land or attempted to en-
bark.
Strange that with a few blasts of pow.
der like that which shattered our Amer.
lean He'll Gate those rocks have not
been uprooted and the way cleared. SC
that great ships, instead of anchoring
far out from land, might sweep up tc
the wharf for passengers and freight.
But you must remember hat land is
under the Turk, and what the Turk
touches he withers.
As we descended the narrow steps ut
the side Of the ship we heard the clamor.
and quarrel and swearing of fifteen OF
sixteen different races of men of all
features and all colors and all ernacu'
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 hat day
and hour be commemorated for that
pre-eminent mercy. Let 1t 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 OF such q 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 1t were built in that star Mars,
where a few nights < this very Sep
tember astronomers, through unpar,
alleled telescopes, saw q snow storm
raging. How glad we were to be in
Joppal Why. this is the city whore
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 commenta.
tor. they laid her out in state in a pub
lie 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 doing?" l 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 q re-
suit Of this in Egypt every twentieth
person is totally blind.
r ILL., IL -
o thin. small mattress, a blanket and a
pillow, and when the man rises in the
morning he just ties up the three into q
bundle and shoulders 1t and takes II
away. 1t was to that the Saviour re-
ferred when he said to the sick man,
Take up thy bed and walk"
But I inhale some of the doors of the
large tanneries around Joppa. 1t is
there to this day q 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. l suppose 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
60 out to do r~eformatory and missionary
and Christian work must not be too SEN
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,
l h,,k e. knanh oil - anI rynnrn- nv.
gagged in trying to make The world bet
ter they must not be squeamish and fas'
tidious and inicsl 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 800 pocket handkerchiefs and
then put q 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 a 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 O toll in a~tmospheres laden with
honeysuckle and rosemary, but not In
air floating up from the malodorous
vats. No, 40, 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 over 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 1t must be a we'll many centuries
old, and, l think, Peter drank out OF
it. Four or five goat or calf
skins filled with water lay about
the yard. We Dor got up the steps and
on the h~ouse-top Twas in such q place
In Joppa that Peter, one noon, while he
was waiting for dinner, had a hungry ft
and tainted away and had a vision OF
dream or trance. / said 10 my family
and friends on that h~ouse-top: Listen
while / rea about what happened
here" And opening the Bible, we had
the whole story. 1t seems that Peter
on the house-top dreamed that a great
blanket was let down out of Heaven,
and in IL 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, oil
crawl the earth, and in the dream OF
voice told him as he was hungry, to eat
and he said: II can not eat things un.
clean" Three times he dreamed it.
There was then heard a knocking al
the gate of the house on the top OF
which Peter lay In q trance and three