The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-11

llcal or rellglouS. 80 y SioWefsu at lNe
being so wet
I'll not attempt to describe its lake.
Printers ink is so cheap and other men
can dc it so much better that | resign
the field to them willingly at this time,
for I'm in a hurry to get you INTO our
ate our coarse dinner, prepared by
three Turks, who nave been sent down
from Nazareth three days before our
.extenaporized' beds. from which We rose
before GAVIN for g sail on the lake to
Bethsaida, where we took luncheon In a
monastery and then retraced our steps
Now this seems like .. rather summary
fhe sea 81 s IS a ga pf as wh Dlg 2 pe sug1e fshs "a
and John lived and Christ did His
~mightiest miracles, but I do not feel like
Ii has been called a fifth Gospel, and,
like many other great subjects, is so
intimately connected with other great
ones that it speaks for itself.
JUDAH'S SOIL POOR.
In a former letter | gave you my inn
pressions regarding. the 2terility Of the
surprise that it could ever Be Called a
land flowing With milk and honey, but
since taking my eighty-mile trip through
4 more fertile soh never saw than that
which stretchss from Horefa to the shores
OF GaEiee. The Inhabitants do but little
more than tickle the soil with a crooked
stick year after year and yet they gather
from it very respectaDle haryests. Even
on the tops of the hills, where the rocks
are, so thick. that a horse with difficulty
finds earth for his feet, the, soil is black
and though the inhabitants appear to be
miserably poor, their poverty is due to
the cupddtty and T~apacity Of the Govern
and not to the land
Leaving Hoffe we steamed up to Bey-
c cRst. of PsS yria, lying 5he nnd @oS the R shsdoT of
snow-clipped Lebanon. 1t is noted as the
seat Of the American College, which
i5afh / out on IA 4 t grsf Bay el0raltar-Nke rock
It. is on strategic ground, and DR.. Bliss,
its honored head, showed that he had the
rlander when he planted the cross. the
B96ie and me spelling book there on the
and the publishing house go out the IDEAS
that are slowly revolutonizing the East,
and which viii, it Is to be hoped in Gods
con with DR. and Mrs. Bliss. and
and to be shown by, him through the
also attended the chapel exercises and
listened to the, 250 young. s~yri2ns,, most
of whom are Christians, sing the Syrian
national anthem to the air America
after which one of the professors in the
| institution read a Psalm IN Syriac and
offered praye in the same language.
ARRIVE AT EPHESUS.
From Beyrout we sailed over to
Smyrna, and taking a special train, ran
out some forty miles to the site of
Ephesus; / say site. for there IS moth
great city left-a city which. in Pauls
time. was the greatest in Asia Minor in
commercial importance, but which now
affords a most striking commentary on
Johns words, The world passeth away
and tine lust thereof" words which Were
written from Ephesus ait a time when
the city was snJoying her greatest pros
/ ak over the ruins of the great
Temple of Diana. into the Mosque Of
Selim. once the Church of St, John, 1T
is said. and if so, in all probability The
building in which the councils We're held
| for the consideration and the settlement
| Of Jesus Christ, an ecclesiastical battle
field on which ~prelates backed up their
arguments with .archers and sWordsn1en,
and wrong and outrage and murder
characterized the daily sessions of the
In the ruins of the theatre ! read the
Of the lproar in Ephesus, and read it
then amid the silence n desplation OF
the spot. ] could scarcely bring nysen
to believe that the place mad peen the
blocks Of marble, ruined columns,
broken arches. and great w bu1resss Is
Of the old cit city W fhn na Sgiie wer re-
| once run an enterprising Ephesian, who
| doubtless lived in one Of the mlsefaile
crop Of Beans. Shades of Anthony and
| Cleopatra and Alexander and Apelies,
who once graced it with tneir preseneeaa
| into a Dear patch; but no matter, IT'S
a fact, and sobered just a little OF TINS
| fresh evidence OF mans mulaplhly, We
station. where once great Tamerlane en-
| camped his host, and climbing INTO one
of the compartments were soon Wnlriing
| Cayster toward Smyrna, in which clty
old Polycarp, in days gone by, was most
basely martyred-
GRADUS AID PARNASSUNE.
Leaving Smyrna astern, we were soon
steaming over the historic AEGEAN toward
Athens, the harbor OF which we reached
early in the morning, ana cilmnea oR
deck early enough to catch a glimpse OF
distance, with Mounts Hymettus, Lyca-
bittus and Pentelicos as a 6ackgrouna
row winding channel which leads INTO
the land locked harbor we landed, an6
after a fy 1o : ne ride t on ne Tem rdtlr0a o1
| Theseus, the oldest and best preserved
building in all Athens. .r,
OS course we e1mpea me 1bieoppsfe =
Proplaea, passing in the way the rem
pie Of Athena Nike on the right. ana the e
marble room for the reception OF the
native paintings on the left.
of these temples with which the Aoropo-
Nike. the Propylaea and the Erectheum
But / DO not feel that / can. with any
thing like Justice to those who builded
them and the visitors who have gone III
raptures over them. When l haVe taken
a course in the study OF art ana arcns-
lecture and nave read up in these par
tfcular structures. can then posSiply
say something about them which wouldn't
cause Phidias and PraXIliles and Perlcles
10 turn over in their graves. All l wish
to say now is, that I've seen them anG
enjoyed them and been enriched, l nope,
by WSlat my eyes have beheld.
A~cropoIis, we turned a few steps to the
right. and mounting the dozen worn out
4 steps cut in the rocks stood on the
Areopagus, or Mars Hill, made immortal
almost, to US at least, by the words
which the great apostle to the Gentiles
pronounced from its summit. stand
ing there I took out my Bible
sermon which Luke has preserved for
as. and / was glad of the opportunity
TO do so, as such things never lose any
thing by bringing them into association
with the surroundings in which they were
lettered.
Other notable things were seen also.
chief among them the reputed prison
of Socrates. a cavern cut IN the race o.
the living rock and fronting on q stretch
Of green sward not far from and III full
view from the Areopagus. 1t had great
attraction for me-. There was about il
so much of simplicity and ergo so much
ia keeping with the character of the
u~npretentious man, who, cropping about in
the darkness of his g for the living
God, found Him, as it has seemed to me,
and preached Him.
LAND OF THE TURK.
And now for Constantinople. "On to