; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. (PS 7 4"^ it — @|ajt.- ©oiBjrigl^t f ]j. Slielf-r..27-d~5'^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^OQT^e-r^ of ^Of^ f^l \V^itf^ ixn Ii^i:ro3\^'GtiOT2 ot2 tBe: Pifgjrir^^agfe: toj) Paf(=rQ5iriT2e BY 7 ."^ REY. JOHN DURWflRD. Illustrated by Pl:\otogravares froir\ Pl:)otograpl:\s taKeq by tt\e fluttior. 1890. 6 b-^ fV Copyright, 18'jo, BY Key. JOHN T. DURWARD. w«. -^i^>^.»^ xs>- :^« iDE:iDic=::/^-ricDis[. -^ V -^^?^ -»- --.,-;-Jc;>--" t" ^^?^ ^ To the ]VIernbers of the First Aroerieor) Pilgrirnage to Palestir)e. DID not ^isl^ tl^e anniversary of tl^e Holy WeeK ^e spent toget]:\er in tt|e Holy City to pass ^ittioiit at least a srqall t|arvest of fruit, as an incentive, aliKe, and an earnest. Tt|e t^istory of oxir Pilgrirnage Y\as yet to be written. Trtese sonnets, cornposed in tl|e locali- ties, are a fe^ of tt^e tt\OL(gl)ts tl:)ose spots awakened, crystallized into verse. Tt|ey are l:\ere laid at your feet by THE AUTHOR, Baraboo, Wis., Feb. 22, 1890. mTRObUCTORY. ^»«. ^/H' I. Not only to the Jew, but to every thinking man, Jeru- salem must ever be the holiest of cities. It is the type alike of each human soul; of the Church on earth; of the mansion of Heaven. Everyone can read the history of his own heart and mind between the lines of Jerusalem's history. The favors of God that have dropped noiselessl}^ on us, "like the dew on Hermon," or rushed forcefully like "the torrent in the South ;" the dis- regard, too often, of these graces; the hardening of the heart against the goodness; the rejection of the mercy; the calling down of the vengeance ; the long estrangement from virtue and God ; but His still longer arm that touched us and held us; and His endless love that ultimately won us back; the walls of doctrine that He builded round us; the cisterns of grace, plentiful as water, that He digged for us; the continued falling off from Him, alas! and the scourged return — how well are all these recorded in the story of Jerusalem ! And it represents the Church. Seated on its hill, so that it cannot be liidden, a light alike, and a target for all ; encircled by its strong walls and its gates where justice lives, and which 6 Hell's gates cannot destroy ; to which the tribes ascend ; where the Urim and the Tliummim gleam ; where the candlestick dispells the darkness, and where its name secures peace. Builded of stones, many and curious, varied from the rough limestone of the wildernesses' hills, to the smooth alabaster, and the sculptured porphyry, — as the Church ascends, stone by stone, of unlettered peasant, as well as of scholar and saint. But Jerusalem is also our figure of Heaven. ''Jerusalem my happy home," is on ever}^ tongue ; and priest lips intone, at least once in a year, Coelestis urbs Jerusalem Beata pacis visio. And how wondrously St. John in the Apocalypse, not only himself sees, but shows to us the vision of that New City, with its wall, great and high, with its three gates to every wind, with its twelve foundations, of jasper and sapphire, of chalcedony and of emerald, of sardonyx and sard, of chrysolite and of beryl, of topaz, and chrysoprase, of jacinth and amethyst. Its twelve gates, too, each of one several pearl, and the city of pure gold. The pilgrimage to Palestine, thus, more than any other, run- ning parallel to our life of pilgrimage, appeals to every heart. It includes also all others, as Our Lord's life includes that of all the saints. He is more a prophet than Isaias, more an apostle than Peter, more a martyr than James, more a virgin than Mary, more a confessor than Meinrad. So the pilgrimage to the Holy Land surpasses all — Compostello, Rome, Loretto, Einsiecleln. IL There are those who would decry pilgrimages, shelter- ing themselves behind Thomas a Kempis, who, however, says nothing to the point. But the Church in all ages has attached great indulgences to them, and to this first American pilgrim- age to Palestine Pope Leo XIIL, gloriously reigning, granted absolute dispensation from all fast and abstinence, although the time was Lent. And let us consider : Religion is based on veneration ; and one of the dreariest manifestations of the decay of faith in our land and age is the lack of veneration. It is Goethe, I think, who insists on "tiiree reverences," as essential to the good man ; reverence, namely, for what is above us, for what is around us, and for what is below us. And it is not the lack merely of veneration for what is unknown, being high, but the absence of reverence for anything. We see it in the young who have no high respect for parents or for age ; we see it in the grown, who despise the church ; it finds its humorous but degrading expression in the Mark Twains, the Bill Nyes and the Chas. Lederers. Reading these we almost envy the savage who would not believe that tliere were people who did not say, " Oh ! " to anything, as he did before his gods. But pilgrimage is veneration in which the body joins. It is not indeed the wisdom of the proverb, " the rolling stone gathers no moss." But are these sayings of Ben. Franklin not the very essence of world lin ess, that says : " Soul, thou hast many good things, enjoy them," and are not the Arabs in some way higher than we who surround ourselves with the comforts of life and dare not leave them? It is a cheering sign, then, that the spirit of pilgrimage is again awaking, for, as cold at the extremities denotes alow state of animal vitality, so disregard of what we may call the non- essentials of religion shows an impoverished spiritual life. And fervor of spirit breathed in the band of nearly a hun- dred persons who assembled in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, on the morning of Feb. 20, 18S9, to pray the Itlnerarium and to receive the blessing of Archbishop Corrigan. The list of the Pilgrims is as follows : FIRST SECTION. Rev. Anthony Arnold, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. Wendelin Guhl, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. Adam F. Tonner, New York City; Rev. James Pfeiffer, Enochsburg, Ind.; Rev. P. M. Kennedy; Birmingliam, Conn.; Rev. John Russell, New Plaven, Conn.; Rev. A. G. Spierings, Keyport, N. J.; Rev. A. Hurly, Rose- mount, Minn.; Rev. J. J. Gabriel, St. Leon, Ind ; Mr. Jacob Shandorf, Manlius Station, N. Y.; Mr. Patrick Lilly, New York City ; Mrs. Patrick Lilly, New York City ; Mr. John B. Manning, New York City; Mr. John Maiming, New York City; Master Robert Collier, New York City; Mr. J. T. Michau, New York City; Mrs. J. T. Michau, New York City; Mr. Michael AV. Cos- tello, Boston, Mass.; Mr. John P. Brady, Baltimore, Md.; Mr. T. H. Bowes, Columbus, Ohio ; Mr. Jos. Donahue, Columbus, Miss.; Miss Mary McFarland, Boston, Mass.; Miss Bridget Kil- kenny, Boston, Mass.; Miss Annie Weaver, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Miss E. A. Ford, New York City ; Miss Fannie Herle, Boston, Mass.; Miss Mary Connelly, Boston, Mass.; Miss Julia Harring- ton, Charlestown, Mass.; Miss Annie Doherty, Charlestown, Mass.; Miss A. E. F. Brewer, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss F. G. Snyder, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss E. McCarthy, Denver, Col; Miss Helen Dannemiller, Canton, Ohio; Miss Mary F. Deveny, Boston, Mass. SECOND SECTION. Rev. F. Bender, Pueblo, Col.; Pvev. J. T. Durward, Baraboo, Wis.; Rev. J. J. Dunn, Meadville, Pa.; Rev. J. Buckley, Beaver Dam', Wis.; Mr. Jas. Lee, Plymouth, Pa.; Mr. Theodore Mottu, Baltimore, Md.; Mr. Jas. C. Connor, Chicago, 111.; Mr. Frank Headen, Chicago, 111.; ISIr. Daniel McCann, Chicago, 111.; Mr. Wm. P. Ginther, Akron, Ohio; Mr. Wm. Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Mrs. Wm. Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Mrs. Jane Nolan, Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss Alice Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss Mary Jane Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss S. L. Burke, Phila- delphia, Pa. THIRD SECTION. Rt. Rev. W. M. Wigger, D.D., Bishop of Newark, N. J.; Rt. Rev. Joseph Rademacher, Bishop of Nashville, Tenn.; Rt. 10 Rev. Monsignor Seton, Jersey City, N. J.; Very Rev. Cbas. A. Vissani, New York City ; Very Rev. John F. Fierens, Portland, Oregon; Rev. M. J. Pbelan, New York City; Rev. Jno. Walsh, Troy, N. Y.; Rev. J. M. Nardiello, Bloomfield, N. J.; Rev. Fred- erick Kivelitz, Freehold, N. J.; Rev. L. C. Carroll, Jersey City, N. J.; Rev. W. P. Cantwel], Metuchen, N. J.; Rev. J. C. Dunn, Newark, N. J.; Rev. J. A. O'Grady, New Brunswick, N. J.; Rev. M. E. Kane, Red Bank, N. J.; Rev. M. Carroll, Alleghany City, Pa.; Rev. Geo. Meyer, Fryburg, Pa.; Rev. Christopher Hughes, Fall River, Mass.; Rev. P. J. Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Rev. J. J. Keogh, Milwaukee, Wis.; Rev. Stephen Trant, Racine, Wis.; Rev. H. Robinson, Leadville, Col.; Rev. H. J. Rousseau, Ispbem- ing, Mich.; Rev. F. J. Blanc, Pass Christian, Miss.; Rev. Jno. Harty, Providence, R. I.; Rev. Franesco Di Giovanni, Rome, Italy ; Rev. Jno. Koeberle, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mr. Jas. T. Quinn, Albany, N. Y.; Mr. James C. Farrell, Albany, N. Y.; Mr. A. Neupert, Bufflilo, N. Y.; Mr. Cbas. Bork, Buffalo, N. Y.; Mr. Jno. Ford, New York City; Mr. J. Herbert Ledwith, New York City; Mr. Alois Muller, New York City; Mr. Joseph F. Ismay, New York City; Mr. Wm. Noonan, Elizabethport, N. J.; Mrs. Wm. Noonan, Elizabethport, N. J ; Mr. C. P. Harkins, Newton, Mass.; Mr. Patrick Coyle, Waterbury, Conn.; Mr. Joseph Lefebre, St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. Louis Dion, St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. Jno. F. Hoebing, Wall Lake, Iowa ; Dr. Wm. E. Carroll, Jersey City, N. J.; Miss Elizabeth C. McCartin, Jersey City, N. J.; Miss Isabel T. McCartin, Jersey City, N. J.; Miss Katie Daly, Jersey City, 11 N. J.; Miss C. Quinn, Albany, N. Y.; Miss Carrie Cantwell, Fall River, Mass.; Miss Catherine Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Miss Grace M. Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Miss Annie Carroll, Alle- ghany City, Pa.; Miss Josephine I. McCall, New York City ; Mrs. Marie F. Farnham, New York City. Their banner told their aim. On one side: "First American Pilgrimage to Palestine ;" and on the reverse : '' His Sepulchre shall be Glorious." It does not require the cockle shell and staff and the san- daled foot to make the pilgrim ; it is the intention. Our civili- zation has altered the mode of traveling, but not necessarily killed the spirit of the traveler. And the Pilgrimage was a religious act. These men and women were not pleasure-seek- ers or sight-seers, although they took much pleasure by the way, and saw much. But their going was from a motive of faith and veneration. There was a millionaire in their num- ber, but the majority were poor — priests, who for years had denied themselves many luxuries, yes, servants, who spent the hoardings of their lifetime to stand in these holy places. HI. There is a disappointment inevitable in all historical places. From our infancy we have pictured them to ourselves, not as they are, but as they were when the events happened that made them loved. So here in Holy Land our heart is not satisfied. Fain would we see the ox and the ass in the gloom of the hillside stable; fain would we find the rude tools scat- tered around Joseph's workshop, and, perhaps, an unfinished 12 plow-beam which the Child Jesus had shaped : it would answer our expectations better to find Calvary a lone hill, outside the city walls, with the three crosses still standing out against a grey sky — but all this is impossible ; and in our world of change, in the catastrophies that have swept over this land, the only practical means to preserve these places to us at all is just what has been done — build churches over them. But although reason is satisfied, devotion is sadly lost in the crowded mart, up to the very doors of the sanctuary, as when, in wrath, the Lord scourged the buyers and sellers; lost in the bustle of the thronged temple, yes, even in the public worship that elsewhere would have edified. It adds, however, a fresh grandeur to the architecture of God, a new charm to the mountains of Judea and to the blue waters of Galilee, to feel that these at least are unchanged ; that the same bending hills His eyes rested on, and the same azure waters His feet pressed. Again in these holy lands we are embarrassed by the riches. It is not only that we see too many places — as in a gallery we see too many pictures — but besides this, every place has a mul- titude of phases. Here near Bethlehem was, perhaps, the terrestrial Paradise. Our thoughts fly back to the begininng of things, and this Bethleliemite, in his jacket of sheep-skin, with the wool outside, and his spade in his hand, is Adam going to his sweaty labor, in garments God-made. .But near here Abraham dwelled, and yonder old man with 13 flowing beard, followed by a boy, may be the Patriarch journey- ing northward to the mountain which God will show him, on which to offer his son — hardest obedience ever asked of man. But again, this is the City of David, and we picture to our- selves the boy with his sling and stones, or the King with his harp, or the Penitent writing his psalms. And still again, here was the Nativity that gave us a new year to date from ; here the song of angels, the sole one heard by mortals ; here the homage of the shepherds ; here the gold, the incense and the myrrh ; here the Babe of the straw, that makes Christmas still the feast of children. We could go on endlessly connecting event upon event with each locality ; but this is enough to show what I mean. In every place many different histories come before one, and the imaginative man is almost dazzled. Yet without the power of imagination and of memory to bring up the past, without a knowledge of history, what profit to travel in this land, or, indeed, anywhere? IV. There are minds which are always disturbing others' devotion and their own, if they have any left, by calling in doubt the authenticity of Holy Sites. "What superstition," they will exclaim, ''to kneel and kiss these spots, when we have no certainty that they are the very localities!" Does not this spirit itself betray superstition? Why do they strain so after the exact spot? Is it then the ground they w^ould worship? In the heart of the true believer it is 14 Jesus who is venerated, not the earth, His footstool, and whether the spot on which He stood at a given moment of His life be here or a few rods distant is not of much concern. It is much more a matter of devotion than of topography. These are the sites as nearly as can be ascertained of the mysteries that have linked earth with Heaven, and here I pour forth my soul in thankfulness. Joyfully do I read in Thomson's excellent work. The Land and the Book : " Is it not possible that we Protestants carry our dislike for what is doubtful, or, at best, traditional, farther than is either necessary or profitable ? Do not the purest and best feelings of our nature prompt us to preserve and protect from desecration such sites as that of the Holy Sepulchre ? What, in fact, is it which gives such supreme gratification to our pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Is it not because we find the names of Olivet, Bethany, Gethsemane, Calvary, Zion, and the like clinging to those sacred sites and scenes, with invincible tenacity, through wars and destructions absolutely without parallel and repeated down long centuries of most dismal darkness and confusion worse confounded ? And because in the death struggle to hold fast those sacred landmarks ignorant men have perverted them to selfish purposes or pushed becoming reverence and love over into sinful superstition, are we, therefore, to scout the whole thing and scowl upon those cherished sites and upon those who have cherished them ? 15 "I more than admit that nothing can justify idolatry ; but is even a little too much reverence in such a case as odious to Him in whose honor it is manifested, as cold neglect or proud contempt?" But have we no proofs that will satisfy an inquiring mind that these sites are authentic? We have for most of them the best of proof. I will not weary the reader with archeology, but ask him to consider two points: 1. Under Constantine Christianity triumphed over the Roman Empire, then Empire of the East also. Helen, the mother of Constantine, had a nation's resources at her command, and she was determined to locate the true spots of the incidents of Our Saviour's life ; she had all the help she needed of excavators ; she had the wisest archeo- logists in her employ ; satisfied that she had found these sites, she erected churches over them. Not to mention the miracles that pious legend sends to her aid, was less than three hun- dred years very far to go back and identify spots or articles? In the face of the mummies of Egypt's kings, who reigned 4,000 years ago, proved to the satisfaction of the learned to be authentic, three hundred years is as nothing. And the East changes little ; a conservative nation has ever peopled it, and in a land without much of a literature, tra- dition holds a much more important position than with us, in these days of printing-presses. There Patriarch is Historian, and History is tale handed from father to son. Three long lives would bridge the, to some, formidable gulf. 2. The 16 other consideration is this, and it is the one consolation that mitigates the pain of the Babel of confusion at these holy shrines — the principal religions of the world are there contend- ing for the possession of these spots. Do men quarrel over the possession of a counterfeit note ? No! only for the genuine. If these arguments fail to convince the sceptic, and he still insist that an artful clergy, has, by dint of repetition, located these spots, let him try to fix one single locality by all the iteration of which he is capable, and see how many pilgrims will kneel and venerate it. Nor do Catholics cling slavishly to traditional sites. Thus Heiss follows Maldonatus in conceding that some spur of Hermon is more probably the place of the Transfiguration than Tabor, and a learned priest in Rome assured me that recent discoveries place the crucifixion of St. Peter on the spot where his Basilica stands, though this makes the good monks of Pietro in Montorio hold up their hands in horror. There is no spot on earth that we are bound in faith to esteem infallibly authentic. These are facts to be verified by the ordinary methods of investigation. In the absence of men- tion in the Holy or other scriptures, tradition will doubtless be the surest guide, and being in possession the burden of proof will lie with him who differs from it. But the pilgrim will ordinarily go in the spirit of devotion and not of criticism. Unless he have years of time to devote to the work, to try to authenticate localities would be presumptuous. He must be 17 content to take them as the centuries before him have taken them, and he will not be staggered if in the light of future dis- coveries one or other of the spots should be proved erroneous. It is an affair of the heart, not of the brain. V. Many new thoughts will fill the mind of the pilgrim from the West. 1. That he is in a land without progress ; that he is back among the Patriarchs ; among the flocks and herds with Jacob ; with Ruth in the fields of Boaz ; with Saul among the asses ; that the two women are still grinding at the mill ; that the oxen are still treading out the corn and the vintner still trampling the wine-press as of yore. 2. That for the first time he is face to face with a nation not Christian, but Mohammedan. For however much Christians may unfortunately differ in many points, we still, thank God, possess the broad standing-ground in common — the belief that Christ is God and the Redeemer of the world. The Catholic feels that his Protestant brother is nearer to him than he before realized. But he will observe that the Mohammedan is a man of prayer. Prayer is indeed a characteristic of the Eastern mind ; it is not relegated to the church or the chamber, as with us, but is a part of the public, out-of-door life of Oriental peoples. There is a merchant sitting cross-legged in his booth ; he is praying his beads. There is a pedestrian on the highway ; he spreads his mat, and, with face toward Mecca, performs his orisons. There is a voyageur on the deck of the Mediterranean boat that steams out of Smyrna, smelling of figs ; he makes 18 his many prostrations undisturbed by the multitude around him. And of that multitude, every Oriental, be he Turk or Bud- dhist/ Armenian or Greek, looks on with reverence. The average Anglo-Saxon, I blush to say it, will ridicule or scorn. Have we gained, even though we still believe in God, that prayer to Him is something to be hidden, or to be ashamed of? The Oriental mind, too, seems lacking in fun. Does laugh- ter grow with civilization ? The Arab does not understand a joke, as least such jokes as we make. One of our party com- plained of the oranges : '* God made them, who made the world," said the waiter, with the utmost seriousness and dignity. Nearing the Dead Sea, I asked the guide if fishes lived in it. On his assuring me that it was too salt, I said that I thought the salt fish of commerce might grow there. Instead of taking it as a joke, he answered : " Father, you are exceeding the bounds of propriety !" 3. He will be struck by the fact, also, that so far as regards the majority of believers in Christ, he is in the midst of a Christianity which is neither Catholic nor Protestant. So accustomed are we to divide Christians into these two classes, that it comes like a revelation, thot there is a powerful Church numbering eighty millions who are neither. Protestants they are not, for they have the Mass, the sacraments and almost the faith of Catholics, and the Protestant rule of faith — private interpretation of the Bible — is unknown to them. 19 But neither are they CathoHcs, for they reject the authority of the Pope, that centripetal force that keeps the Church together. It is the Greek Church. Not without reason has another collection been added to the already numerous appeals to our charity — that for the Holy Land — for the Greeks, especially the Russians, are most aggressive, and in Palestine every privilege is obtained by money.^ There are hol}^ places already where we dare not say Mass. Such are the Cenacle on Mount Zion, the Tomb of the Virgin near Gethsemane, the spot of our Saviour's birth at Bethlehem. These are held exclusively, the first by the Turks, the two latter by the Greeks, who eagerly occupy any ground lost by us. There is much religious activity among them, but their whole Church is permeated to the core by Simony. Ecclesias- tical offices are sold for money ; for money the Holy Eucharist is given without confession, and even the poor woman who pre- sents herself for the priest's blessing, is asked whether she wants one for a dime or one for a dollar ! This w^as related by the Archbishop of Athens, and contrasting the attitude of Greeks and Hebrews to the Catholic Church, he said, " The Jews will be converted to the truth a few minutes before the last Judgment ; the Greeks, a few minutes after it." Nor could a more appropriate time be ordered for this col- lection than Holy Week, when our heart is in Jerusalem — 20 where our treasure is — under the oHve trees, in the Pretorium, on the Via Dolorosa, on Calvary, in the Tomb or in the Garden risen. 4. That the Holy Scriptures can only be fully understood if read in the land that produced them. How much of the imagery of the Bible is derived, for instance, from the Flora of Palestine ! As we view these ter- raced hillsides, with their grapevines, these stone-surrounded olives, and these fig-trees with their large, dark foliage, how we appreciate the beauty and truthfulness of that first apologue spoken by Joatham from the top of blessed Gerizim to the people of Sichem. Judges ix, 12. The trees desire a king, but the fig, the olive and the vine decline the honor. " Can I leave my sweetness and delicious fruit?" "Can I leave my fatness ? " '-'Can I leave my wine that cheers gods and men," to be promoted among the other trees? What could be more happily expressed? The fatness, the sweetness, the cheering juice ! Then we will see at the Jordan the mustard growing larger than all the herbs, yea, becoming a tree fifteen feet in height; we will see the Fsoralia, much resembling our red clover, and which the Arabs told me, in their language, was styled *•' the flower of the grass," the identical metaphor used by St. James to express the transitoriness of man's life. All flowers are short-lived, but this being a fodder plant, and therefore cut and " cast into the oven," is particularly so. We will see in 21 the Garden of Gethsemane the little Adonis, fabled by heathen mythology to have sprung from the blood, boar-spilled, of the loved of Venus. Can there not be a Christian mythology, as well as a Pagan one, and may these flowers not remind us, at least, without superstition, of the night when " His sweat became as drops of blood " ? As we pass the hut of the Arab, we smell the lentil pottage, and half condone Esau's fault. In the grain fields we see the farmer gathering the tares out of the wheat. They call it Zawan, and say it causes dizziness, if eaten. In the clefts of our rocky path, we will gather the rose of Sharon, and undisturbed by the botanical fact that it is not a rose, but a Cistus, will delight to call it by its time-honored name. But how the beloved of the Canticle is seen in the flowers of this land ! How her lips glow in the closed bell of the Pome- granate flower! How she towers up in stateliest majesty in the palm tree. How her beauty is seen in the anemones and the lilies — red and white — how her sweetness is felt in the spiken- ard and the blossom of the grape, and her twining arms in the trailing vines of En-gedi ! What is here said of the P'lora, is true likewise of the cus- toms of the people, and their habits of thought, is true of the seasons and of the characteristics of mountain or plain. They all illustrate the Scripture narrative, and the true guide-book to carry is the Bible. 22 VI. Folk tradition says that the last Judgment will be held in the valley of Jehosophat. It would only be in keeping with the law of nature whereby everything comes back in an end- less round to where it had its origin. The Greeks claim that the Umbilicus Terrce is in their chapel, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; and from Palestine, as from a centre, has radiated the world, its people, its history, its faith and its light. It is not a beautiful country ; but as we view its stony hills and its treeless plains, its deep-cut gorges, and its waterless valleys, we think of the grey hairs — now few — of our Mother's brow, of furrows that solicitude for us has worn in her cheeks — and we love this land for what it has been. _.^:^!^,. ^^ .'gN 9 T SO]V]S[eT3. 1 6 "i^5?^ '\^vS>^ t^ 23 25 ©HE Moslem guards the Saviour's gracious tomb ; The Latin purchases the right to kiss — III transports higher than a lover's bliss — Prostrate, that hill from out whose rocky womb True Life arose ; and every dusky race, Greek, Copt, Armenian, Negro, fights for room To hang a lamp, or kneel in holiest place. The Jew would come, but dare not, to deface : Thus do the world's religions strive in blood This Sepulchre to hold, and striving prove — None struggling long for an uncertain good — The authenticity of all we love. Sceptic and scoffer learn from what ye see : Then kneel ; these wranglings are our warranty. Jerusalem, April 7. 26 HAT doest thou in yon ship's darkling hold, Truant from duty, when Assyria's fate Hangs on th}^ penance-message still untold, Which two score mornings now will bring too late ? Say not I am a child — divine mandate Can years confer. Say with the Harper old : Ah ! whither from Thy spirit can I fare, Where hide me from Thy face ? I said the night Would cover me ; it scorched my sins with light. Shall I ascend to Heaven ? Thou art there : Or shall I make my bed in Hell ? Thy eye Views the abyss. Or to seas' utmost bourne Taking the wings of morning can I fly ? Even there Thy hand can lead. Thy right hand make me turn. Jaffa, April 6. 27 > S F mM^^ 1 4** 41 J^ouae of (ttXarg anb (tttdrt^d. jliOT by confusion of the natures twain The mystery of Immanuel we confess ; Thought perfect God still perfect man no less, To whom His toil brings weary heart and brain. How oft that Man-God sinking 'neath the pain Of cold indifference from men, would turn — Unfearing His divining to stain — Here in this '' House of Dates," to gentler cheer, Where fire and love, both vestal-tended, burn ; One listens and one serves, but both, how dear ! And to our listening soul this human feeling Unites us to Him by a fonder tie ; The human nature's verity revealing. Our God himself seeks woman's sympathy. Bethany, April 13. 42 (Ku66et (Ra^if. JUeW voices weeping now in Ramah sound ; Not w^oman's piercing wail, but strong heartbreaking For Rachel lost, although her child is found. And after years the memory awakening- Jacob to filial Joseph will renew The history of this saddest burial ground. ''And when I came from Padan- Aram's thrall Rachel the best-beloved — Rachel the Ewe — Her Benjamin unto Benoni making — Died from me, under Bethlehem's rude wall. The fourteen years of toil in Laban's fields Were short compared with this griefs endless day : Nor rest to her sainted Machpelah yields : I left her 'mong the stones, in Ephrath's way." Bethlehem, April 12. 43 ©HE sufferings of the present pilgrim time, The Apostle says, in nowise can compare With glory that shall be in Heaven's clime ; Smallest of trifles will appear the stair By which we clomb, when, earthly vapors rising, The Orient an endless day shall bring : So in our bosoms justest, truest prizing, Small seem the perils of our journeying. To visit this the saddest of all lands O'er which the Jew as well as Christian grieves; But still unfalsified the Scripture stands, For the large sorrow larger joy retrieves ; From Calvary the empty Tomb you see. And Olivet o'er towers Gethsemane. Jerusalem, April 22. 44 Contemyfation (Xni> &a6or. "MARY'S PART SHALL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY. H, Martha, of the kindly ministration; The lowly pallet strewed, the meal prepared, Eead not dejected in yon declaration, Censm^e from lips that have thy serving shared. Whose deeper meaning speaks, if understood, No blame to thee, but near beatitude. '' Thy part, Oh Martha ! shall be taken aAvay ; From hands the ache, from eyes the scalding brine ; The upturned face, the rest, these are to stay ; And Mary's part will soon be also thine." But through this life must go the sisters twain : While heedless souls from innocency stray, While dusty feet and hungry mouths remain, Still must our Martha work, still must our Mar}^ pray. 45 (geronica ^griacd. ® HE pious woman who with Jesus grieving The napkin to His blood-stained forehead gave The Veron Icon and her name receiving Slumbers long years in unremembered grave. But still an azure eye with glance that cheers Looks up, Spring after Spring. A floweret weaving- Sweet woof, where warp is rocky wilderness, — Soft scarf to dry the sudden, homesick tears Of wanderer far from feminine relieving. Oh flower ! hearted like woman toward distress, Gladdening this desert land where lives no rose. Along my dusty path from Eriha," How well your office does your name disclose ; The Syrian Speedwell, or Veronica. Inn of the Good Samaritan, April 16. 46 (Bef^Bemane. €f}C Oif (ptCBB. HE Prince of Peace must wear the olive wreath ; The Healer squeeze the oil-press to the end ; In sweat the gardener must his vineyard tend, And in his hastened labor quicklier breathe. Lo ! here, these gnarled and twisted trunks beneath One treads the vat alone. Palm branches failing, Olives rise up and sympathy extend. These trees are crown and press ; their leafage paling Before that mortal agony, inclose In quivering halo that bowed head, and veiling- Still chronicle those unrecorded woes. He wears the thorn, tlie olive and tlie palm! Such is the varied foliage of the Cross ; His service brings the sting, brings, too, the balm. And crowns the end with Nike Apteros.'^ 47 C^e (JJXabonna of t^e ^hcp.' DORMIO, SED VIGLLAT COK MEUM. XjE sleeps ! yes, but his heart keeps vigil still ; That baby heart, beating so peacefully, But watches for the moment to fulfill Redemption that shall universes free. Watches for thorns and Cross that are to be, Watches for Calvary, and that saddest rest The last He takes upon His mother's knee Before the Sepulchre receives its guest. Again He sleeps on Galilean wave, Again He comforts those of little faith, Again His voice rebukes the yawning death. And with the body also spirit saves. Affrights thee rocky shore or raging sea ? (Courage, dear soul, He sleeps, but watches thee, 48 (ttlounf (ttloria^. X STAND above Araunah's threshing floor : Far down the misty past I see him there — The wind from mid-earth ocean in his hair — And from uplifted apron see him pour The chafF-mixed grain into the judging air. It severs worth from waste, its blasts condemn The useless husks to Sodom's salted fire ; The heavy wheat descends toward Bethlehem. A sterner winnow than this thyme-sweet air The Faith that later sate, Jerusalem ! Upon thy hill ; a sterner Judge who found Thee only worthy of the garner's care : When Amnion, and Philistia, Moab, Gath — All were the straw before His nostril's wrath. April 13. 49 %(XcoB (Returneb from ^jrta. A LEGEND. ® HY tithe of gold has graced the altar's horn, Thy tithe of cattle on that altar bled ; The tithe of wine and oil, of wheat and corn, Of cumin, too, has rigorously been paid. But wherefore has thy just right hand been stayed ? Hast thou forgot the children to thee born. The more than tenfold blessings of the womb ? Is vow fulfilled thus, or command obeyed, To give the fruit of field, or work of loom, To tithe the earth— ourselves being denied To keep the grain, and give the husk outworn ? Think'st thou Jehovah will be satisfied ? " The angel vanished ; Israel adored And consecrated Levi to the Lord. Bethel, April 22. 50 December's noon is warm by Jacob's Well : But hotter far the deathly feud of ages That, fed by slander and the lies of Hell, Between Samaria and Judah rages. Lo ! Now a Jew with Sychar's woman meeting Here on this curb, with look ineffable Accosts her with most unexpected greeting . With favor asked,— that shows more love than gift, Even the costliest, can ever tell. '' Why ask for water, but that I may lift Your soul to holier thirst, slaking its pain In stream that flows perennial from above ; Which tasted once need not be drawn again." And Judah's Lion conquers thus by love. Jacob's Well, April 23. 51 (Bpit^afatntum, MAECH 25, A. D. 1. ©HE westering sun on CarmeFs forehead lies ! And wooded slope and craggy promontory, Tho' seen, are mingled in one radiant glory. Majestic bridal of the earth and skies ! Sing spirit guardians of high mysteries The nuptials by prophetic lips declared. In bridal chamber from eterne prepared, Adorned in purest white and richest dyes. Sing Bridegroom coming from supremest Heaven, Sing poor and low one raised to high embrace ; Sing the great joy to every mortal given In such ennobling of our human race. Religion's first, sublimest mystery. Humanity espoused by Deity ! Nazareth, April 'M. 52 ^ea of (Bafifee. JtiO ! in the hollow of an emerald vase, With crimped and fluted rim, a sapphire lies ! And seeming to our fond, enchanted gaze A piece of tearless Syria's bluest skies Slid down this grassy slope. A Peri's prize To carry back to Heaven. But say, what thrill Comes o'er us here? Why dim the merriest eyes With tender thoughts that Bethlehem did not raise Nor Nazareth nor Jerusalem fulfill ? The glare of lamps supplants the stable's gloom ; Proud church ill compensates with proudest lays The quiet of the Home, the silence of the Tomb — But here no change — W^hat His eye saw, we see. The sweetest picture is blue Galilee. Above Tiberias, April 27 . 53 ON THE SHORE OF GALILEE. jSoMETIME in life to every human heart Imperative these words come ; haply thrilling Our careless apathy with awful start Like Saul of Tarsus : Or, it may be, filling To perfectness, what was before but part, So silently, we deem it our own willing. So speaks the sun to yonder glittering snow On Hermon piled. And drop by drop distilling It leaves its skyey throne and downward speeds Reaching unconsciously this bluest wave, Through darksome wadies, or through flower gemmed meads, It forms for feet of Jesus sapphire pave. Refuse not, soul, to come to lower ground If there the calling Fisherman is found ! Bethsaida, April 28. 64 (^ feegenb of Cgre. JMLLONG this dimpled beach walked Hercules, With hand of maid best-loved within his own ; His dog, who gamboled on before them, sees A spiny shell upon the margin thrown And bit it hard ; the purple gushing shown So gorgeous, cried the girl, in extacies : ^' Such dress obtain, or never call me bride ! " He loved : And love invents the Tyrian's pride. Alas ! Jerusalem, a hei*o stood — A stronger —at thy gate and asked thy hand ; He w^ooed thee in the vesture of His blood. Than Tyrian Murex thousand-fold more grand. Ah blind and foolish maid ! Ah spouse untrue ! Still to reject a Lover in such hue. Tyre, May 3. 55 NOTES. 1. As this goes to press, Very Rev. Chas. A. Vissani, Commis- sary of the Holy Land, informs me that the Franciscan Guard- ians of Palestine have obtained possession of two Holy places in Siloe, since the Pilgrimage. 2. Eriha. The modern Arabic name for Jericho. 3. Nike Apteros. The Athenians built a temple to the Victory Without Wings, hoping that that diety would never fly from them. 4. Madonna of the Sleep. A painting in the possession of the author, by Chas. P. Durward. 5. The Lion's Proselyte. The Jews called the Samaritans "Proselytes of the lion," in derision, alleging that they were converted to the worship of the true God only by the ravages of the beasts that came up from the Jordan valley, and that ceased on their calling on Jehovah.