The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-04
GEORGE E. WHITE TELLS
 OF SUNDAY IN JERUSALEM
From the Evangelist.

From the Evangelist
 began early by going 10 the Russian church, where I found the service eal- ready in progress. The room was light and cherry, adorned with many pictures and candles. Many of the congregation were pilgrims, the men wearing big boards and boots, the women with clear eyes and fine open countenances. saw no sign of the slant eyes, high cheek bones. 1ank hair and yellow tint of the Mongols. though nearly half of the Rus sians are of Mongol ancestry. The Slavic blood Is like a meteorological germ; one drop transforms a family.
 All entered heartily into the service, standing. kneeling, kissing the pictures. and frequently prostrating themselves on the stone floor. They made the sign of the cross innumerable times with the motions up, down, right, left thus re- versing the motion used by Catholics in making the cross-bar. The archiman- drite. with flowing hair, sandy beard and devout face, would furnish the best model for picture of the Christ that have seen in the orient. Most of the service was chanted. and such singingl It was led by a choir of five priests, whose voices would attract attention anywhere, but the bass was worthy to be compared with the famous bass of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers. Unlike most of the eastern church worship, this seemed really helpful to the people. But then. it was in modern Russian. and they could underst and it.
 Ten thousand Russian pilgrims visit Jerusalem every year, largely at public expense. The influence of their govern ment in the Holy Land IS growing very strong, partly through the erection of buildings conspicuously Russian on many sacred sites. partly through the school system they are building up and partly through the local Orthodox Greek churches, whose members are native Syr- fans. It Is almost a question now which has the greater influence In Jerusalem, the Turkish governor, the orthodox pa triarch or the Russian consul and or these three the third directly and the
 
 My next visit was to the saddest place In Jerusalem, the wailing place of tho Jews. The wearing in public places of an article like night shirt does not dis tinguish a Jew from the other inhab- itants of Syria, but a broad fur hat in August, and a pretty curl of hair hang ing In front of each ear, in difference to the command not to cut the corners of the hair, make the Jew a marked man. They come to the place of wailing every day in greater or less numbers, or all ages and both sexes.
 There they kiss and fondle the cold stone wall, that rises forty feet above them, and shuts them hopelessly out of the temple area of David and Solomon, now the Mosque of Omar. Many have copies of scripture in their hands from which they read or intone aloud. Others wall with piercing cries. Sometimes one reads a sort of litany, while others crowd around and take up in chorus frequent plaintive refrain. The seventy-ninth Psalm is said to be chiefly used: "Oh, God. the heather are coming into Thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they deflled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us" This is fol- lowed by prayers for restoration.
 I confess if I were a Turkish official should view the Jews wailing with some apprehension. The Jews in Palestine far outnumber the Turks, and they are con- stantly, though not rapidly. on the in- crease. There Is no patriotism in the country. Such deep and persistent feel ings as have found vent for centuries in wailing may easily some day be turned into another channel. with results that cannot be safely predicted But as one