The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-11
TEE home In NAZARETH
Rev. Mr.. Weeks Letter De-
eribing the Birthplace
Of Our Lord.

My Dear People,-Having left you IN
2 IN a you up now to haioa,
which lies under Mt. Carmel, and start
Nazareth and Cana.
On your left lies the Bay of Eaifa: on
your right the long range Of Mt Carmel
while before you stretches the Plain Of
J@e2reel.. merging finally into the Great
Plain OF distraction.
You are on historic ground, for the
stream through which your horses are
Just. now wading is Kishon. and a little
the town mentioned in connection with
Sisera in the fourth chapter of the Book
OF the Judges.
Then to the right is the Point of Sac
rifice, the place on Mt. Carmel famous
as the spot where Elijah. put Baal, to
the test, and, disconlforting him had
| mountains foot and stone them. Then
on the banks of the broad Hishon, as |
looked at the mountain and the fertile
plain of Jezreel stretching away at it's
foot, | could imagine that | saw Ellah
triumphant, with glrt-up lo.ns, speeding
on ahead of the royal chariot to the gates
And Noboth.s vineyard; poor old man;
he lived somewhere round about there,
age is now to be seen. J]ezreel; with it's
splendid palace, its noble buildings and
an its magniheenee is nowhere To- pc
gone, and not a stone remains TO tell
the story of its glory. But the picture
yet lives, and | can see Jehu drive furs-
O0CiJ ~ ~ ~ 5dbN0t HiD tI1t
down from its walls. and the nard-neart-
ed n1urderers of Noboth go about their
And then, in the middle of the great
plain, is q village. said to mark the site
of old ShaneTn-Shanem, whose kind
hearted, philanthrepic women entertained
Elisha and prepared a room for him,
and Rugged her little son. q gift from
God to her bosom, and saw him die, and
almost see that energetic woman going
to visit the prophet and call him to her
And then at Little Hermon's foot is
| Nain-Na.n, to whose gates the Lord
Christ came just as a funeral procession
was going out, for a young a the
| had died, and his friends were conveying
him out to burial.
Main, that witnessed a resurrection. |
| saw it, and as I dismounted from my
horse and read again from my Bible the
story Of the piety of the Son of God,
was glad that He yet lives, if not o
| and console the living.
And then just a little further on is
Endor. | could not see the miserable
| far from Main. To Endor Saul Went,
and there, while he was consulting with.
| from the dead for his special ediicat.on;
and there is Mt. Gilboa, on which saul
and Jonathan died on the morrow at
terror home toebis soul.
DOWN ON NAZARETH.
To yOur right, and onto the southeast,
is Mt. Tabor-its rounded top rising upon
the sky-and here is Nazareth: The
house of Mary and Joseph IS a place or
ill-repute, and if you had only been with
me you could vouch for my statement,
when I say sit is ilq-smell.ng yet" But
this is a Characteristic. of every Eastern
| especially distinguished in this regard,
and if its streets were as foul and its
atmosphere as odoriferous eighteen cen
that a certain plain, blunt speaklng mar
out of Nazareth"
The hills round about Nazareth are OF
limestone. and the houses. which are
| all stone. are of that material. The sew
ers are in the middle Of the streets, and
is built on the side of a hill, we had a
| good opportunity while there to examine
the workings of its system Of sewerage.
kind, but / do not admire the kind. and
would most respectfully suggest that the
OF two in regard to sanitary matters even
from the Street and Water Board of our
own beloved city.
| Now it may seem rather mean and be-
| Hitting to speak of such things when
one has in mind the city in which the
Son of God and of man spent some thirty
| years of his life, and perhaps it is SO,
without further ado 1 go on TO tell you
/ Of some Of the things I saw there which
doting q ought not, | suppose. to say
| lying) ecclesiastics say have something
to do with our Lord.
For one thing, there is the Mount of
| Precipitation, a hill 0 a mile from
the Latins have erected a little bit of a
chapel, and claim fer it that from its
heights the enraged mob wished to throw
our Lord. He had told them @ few I'M
palatable things in his sermon in their
synagogue; but 1 did not take much
stock in the place pointed out. MODS
| fellow to the first tree they can find. Hu-
day, today, and forever, and no
mile hi they may be able to kill him
in accordance with some old Monks idea
THE VIRGINS KITCHEN.
Then they take you into the Church of
| the Ahunciation, and in it they show you
the cave which the Virgin used as a
kitchen, the particular and identical spot
| her, and several other things too wonder
full to be believed.
There are other churches in Nazareth
also, and all those of the non-Protestant
order have the;r "curios," which are
trotted out for inspection, or, rather into
are all of the same order, and induce a
| feeling of disgust IN the mind of the nom
believing mar whom al ignorant or knav-
areth is a own of some six or seven
thousand people. who try to be very
agreeable; indeed, they have the reputa-
ton of being very polite to strangers,
and are, for quite a large part, Chris
tians.
Leaving Nazareth in a drizzing rain,
we rode over the hills to Cana, where
I've this to say, if she village was as
dirty then as it is now, and the water
was as unpalatable then as 1t is now,
the most rabid total abstinence advocate
couldn't, with amy propriety, find fault
with Him for effecting the transforma-
ton.
Camels and donkeys and dogs and
chickens live in the same house, and not
the x same roomS. + went into
two of the houses, having taken
an additional mitch in my trousers
as a precautionary measure. L say. Went
in, but / should say "waded,' for that IS
much the better word-having, Waded IN.
| was surprised to find myself bump uP
deep in offal (the dogs had first been
Kicked growing n howlng out. by the
obliging ownerl, ard on the platform OF
the same room ] f0und the fanny mud
died. from the little babe which slept
in the cradle to the old g~randnrother,
who glared at US not being able evldehVly
Tn another house | found a place for
the monkeys, and over them IN one cor
ner some agricultural instruments mad
| oblisingly been put up for the accornmo-
dat.on of the chickens, which roasted on
/ them, and in the same room was ths
raised platform on which the famlly nvea
on close terms with the animals as was
evident from the existence of the manager
for the food of the animals, Which mao
haen ScooDGd out of the eastern PLATFORM