THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Family of Alfred Nixon 
 
 CB 
 M667m 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 
 00032690473 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
 Form No. A -368 
 
Travel- Letters 
 
 from 
 
 Palestine and the East 
 
 By Rev. W. R. Minter 
 
 Pastor Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Lincolnton, N. C. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN STANDARD PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 1910 
 
lAun^ 
 
 m 
 
 TO 
 MY FATHER 
 
 JOHN R. MINTER 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Prefatory Note, Rev. P. R. Law, D.D. 
 
 I. Lincolnton, N. C, to Alexandria, Egypt 9 
 
 11. Three Sundays at Sea 15 
 
 III. Twelve Days in Egypt 20 
 
 IV. Egypt's Dead Religion 24 
 
 Y. Four Egyptian Universities 28 
 
 "VT. Missions in Egypt 34 
 
 VII. Three Weeks in Palestine 38 
 
 VIII. Palestine of Today 42 
 
 IX. The Jerusalem of 1910 49 
 
 X. Holy Places in Palestine 55 
 
 XI. High Places in Palestine 62 
 
 XII. Missions in Palestine 69 
 
 XIII. Mohammedanism 73 
 
 XIV. Four Sunsets 79 
 
 XV. Four Great Churches 84 
 
 XVI. Four Europeanisms 91 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 This brochure is an illustration of the fact that it is the 
 unexpected that often happens. Its contents constitute a 
 series of letters by Rev. W. R. Minter, Pastor of the Lin- 
 eolnton Presbyterian Church, written during a tour of the 
 Holy Land and Europe, for the Presbyterian Standard at 
 the urgent solicitation of its Editor. The tour itself was of 
 the nature of the unexpected, and writing about it as it 
 progressed equally so. It was a case of reluctant yielding 
 to urgent appeal. No such task had ever been undertaken 
 by the author and naturally there was a shrinking from it. 
 But the letters are written and the thousands who read the 
 Standard were delighted and instructed by them. They 
 proved to be entertaining and illuminating. The story of 
 much that had not been the subject of attention by other 
 writers was told in a charming style. The naturalness of 
 the presentation made them popular, and the truth about 
 people and institutions and the face of nature and the work* 
 of man as seen were woven into fascinating story. The col- 
 umns of The Standard were enriched by them. As was to be 
 expected, there was a widespread desire to see them pub- 
 lished. Out of this desire they appear in this attractive 
 form. We congratulate those into whose hands this charm- 
 ing series of letters may fall. It will add to the interest, 
 charm and instructiveness of the library of any home. 
 
 P. R. LAW. 
 
 Charlotte, N. C, October 4, 1910. 
 
LINCOLNTON, N. C, TO ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT. 
 
 Eveiy land is holy since God made, and is in and over 
 every land. Still there is a sense in which only one land is 
 holy. And that because its mountains and plains and cities, 
 its fields^ flocks and flowers, its peoples and laws and cus- 
 toms, are woven into every part of our Bible; because of 
 those holy ones who lived and wrought there for us; and 
 holy because of the divers times and places and manners 
 in which God has here revealed Himself to His people, and 
 through chosen vessels to all the world. But most of all, 
 holy because of that Holy One who here had His cradle 
 and home, His workshop, pulpit and school room, His 
 Golgotha and Olivet. And because of the future when that 
 strangest of people shall turn unto Christ, and when in- 
 stead of the ancient city of Jerusalem, now in ruins, the 
 New Jerusalem, which furnished the last and perhaps the 
 most beautiful picture of heaven, shall be let down out of 
 heaven, may Palestine truly be called the Holy Land. 
 
 To visit this land, walk its ways, commune with its 
 choicest souls in their old homes and in the light of the 
 Land to read the Book, is a privilege to be coveted by any 
 one, and particularly by one whose sole work is to preach 
 the Gospel here revealed. In the good providence of God 
 this privilege came to the writer, and after due provision 
 for home and church, with grateful heart, he left home on 
 March the third for New York. 
 
 A day here without being maimed or killed, we felt rea- 
 sonably safe for the rest of the trip. 
 
 Five days' delightful voyage on the splendid Carmania, 
 of the Cunard line, with alternating calm and rough seas, 
 with the seven ages of man all represented, with people of 
 
every financial, physical, mental and doubtless spiritual con- 
 dition, brought us to the Azores. A *' hot-box'' or its 
 equivalent, made us six hours late, so that instead of arriv- 
 ing at 10 a. m., and spending the day ashore, we did not 
 arrive till our leaving time (4 p. m.) So while the mails 
 were exchanged and other nautical things attended to, the 
 passengers gazed at the beautiful panorama before them. 
 The island is a long mountain rising out of the sea, clad 
 in spring's freshest green, dotted with hundreds of Portu- 
 guese homes, surrounded with the tiniest, yet tidiest garden 
 spots, while nearer the shore is the little capital city of 
 Ponta Delgada, skirting the harbor line. At a distance 
 these islands look as if some one had sliced off horizontally 
 Hogback or Mount Toxaway, Ti-yon Peak and other rrood 
 neighboring mountains of North Carolina and set them down 
 in the sea. 
 
 About five hundred miles southeast brought us to anchor 
 in the harbor of Funchal, capital of the Madeira Islands. 
 These also belong to Portugal and are different from the 
 Azores, chiefly in that the mountains are higher and more 
 rugged, the city larger and the vegetation more tropical. 
 Here we stopped for eight hours and each one according to 
 his heart's desire spent the day. Of this I shall speak 
 more particularly at another time. 
 
 Another five hundred miles and we were sailing through 
 the Strait of Gibraltar. To our South stood out the Pillar 
 of Hercules in the continent that produced Moses and shel- 
 tered the tender Saviour. Africa! Land under the pall of 
 Islam and the spell of the fetich! Through long sickening 
 centuries of sin, poor Africa! Yet, as if to silence the 
 gloom of the mental panorama, land also of Moffatt and 
 Livingstone and Lapsley. And yet, as I sat on the hurri- 
 cane deck, watching the sun disappear behind the norther- 
 most mountain of Africa, now far to the west, despite Chris- 
 tian South Africa and the marvels of missions in Uganda 
 and our own Luebo, the thought of her still Christless mii- 
 
 10 
 
lions, put into my heart man's appeal in the hour of his 
 helplessness, to One able and mighty to save — ^^How long, 
 Lord, how long?" 
 
 Eight hours at Gibraltar gave every one opportunity to 
 see all that could be seen— the battleships in the dry docks 
 and behind the sea wall; and the mighty mountain of rock. 
 At its base is the cosmopolitan little city with its narrow, 
 steep streets, in which are the costumes, languages and 
 wares of a dozen nations. The fortress occupying practi- 
 cally all of the Rock is forbidden ground to the traveller 
 and so we looked at it from afar. The English soldier was 
 never out of sight, scores of holes in the granite sides of 
 this natural fortress were visible out of which cannons 
 sternly looked, over its top were telephone wires, signal 
 stations of every kind, while the interior of the Rock is 
 known to be honey-combed with tunnels, in which is enough 
 ammunition, guns and men to demolish any navy which 
 might unbidden try to pass through the strait. This Rock 
 is very valuable, but I am glad it isn't mine. We should 
 be thankful that of all nations, England is its owner. About 
 one-half mile from the northern extremity of the Rock is 
 the neutral zone, a strip one-third of a mile wide, without 
 house or tree, belonging to no nation or individual. South 
 of this strip paces the British sentinel, while across the 
 zone is Spain, where stands her swarthy defenders dressed 
 in their uniforms of red, white and blue. Here is Linea, a 
 town of 30,000, with one church building, seating not over 
 500 (if it had pews in it; as a fact there were none) and 
 with its bull ring with seating capacity of 12,000. Preach- 
 ing in the morning, bull fighting in the afternoon was the 
 program for the approaching Easter Sunday. 
 
 I looked into a dirty little school room in which all seemed 
 to be studying or reciting together. All the drinking water 
 of this city is hauled in jugs on backs of donkeys fron: some 
 springs in the country. A jug of water costs two cents, 
 but judging from the faces of the children you would think 
 
 11 
 
the price was much higher. Here ignorance and dirt, super- 
 stition and poverty form a quartette that ceases not day 
 nor night the same dirge that this unhappy land has had 
 to listen to for many, many generations, and all this because 
 she killed or exiled her only citizens who had the power 
 to redeem her. Certainly in so far as Linea is a sample, 
 the avenging nemesis is not yet through with Spain. Though, 
 as many of your readers know, there is now in its begin- 
 ning an industrial revival in Spain, which let us hope, will 
 also not stop short of an intellectual and spiritual awaken- 
 ing, too. 
 
 Nearly nine hundred miles farther, in sight most of the 
 way, of the coast of Spain, France or Italy, and we were in 
 Italy's chief seaport — Genoa. Amid an amazing mass of 
 shipping, our tender wound its way to shore. Of course, 
 among several interesting sights, we visited the house where 
 Columbus is said to have been born. When I saw that 
 steep, narrow, winding and dirty street in which this house 
 is located, I didn't blame him for wanting to find a place 
 where there was more room and less dirt, nor for taking 
 great risks to do it. Campo Santo is the beautiful cemetery 
 of the Catholics in Genoa. Outside are separate grave- 
 yards for Protestants, Jews, Greeks and those of no creed. 
 We can't describe the beauty of this place, even if we had 
 no limit as to time and space. It is a long marble colon- 
 nade, enclosing a square, in which the poor are buried, 
 while on both sides of this marble gallery are the tombs of 
 the rich. Each tomb is an artistic design in faultlessly 
 white marble and of exquisite workmanship. The tomb of 
 a father, for instance, has on a high marble base his head 
 carved in perfect likeness, while before him stands his 
 widow lifting their baby to kiss the father, while beside the 
 mother kneels a larger child — all this in marble of snow! 
 And there were hundreds upon hundreds of these, some 
 with fresh flowers, some with funeral lamps burning before 
 them, some with relatives bowed in prayer about them. It 
 
 12 
 
was in part beautiful, in part pathetic and sad, and as I 
 walked over and among all these tombs, I found the un- 
 bidden tear in the eye while there came to mind that 
 beautiful poem, '^0 why should the spirit of mortal be 
 
 proud " If the Catholics err greatly in extravagant 
 
 cost and attention and in other ways of showing respect for 
 their <iead, do not the broom-straw and brairs in hundreds 
 of church and town graveyards in our Southland reproach 
 us for our neglect? 
 
 On such a trip, there are times of pleasantry when any 
 slight thing out of the ordinary seems especially funny. We 
 have had most fun, I believe, with the language. In going 
 over a villa at Linea, where the keeper spoke only Span- 
 ish, one of the ladies wishing to be shown the parlor (the 
 house was unoccupied), went through a series of signs which 
 if not readily understood was perfectly explosive to the 
 rest of us. In a restaurant in Naples, I tried to tell our 
 waiter (who spoke only Italian) to bring me the head- 
 waiter (who did speak English). With a bow he went and 
 was soon back with a schooner, or some kind of a ship, 
 filled to the gunwales with beer! And th'e laugh was on me. 
 In Genoa, four of us took a drive, guiding our cabman by 
 a map of the city and by calling to him when we wished to 
 return to our ship, **Nave Carmania,'' ''Carmania porto!*' 
 etc. From all of this, I fear the humor will have leaked 
 out before it gets to North Carolina, but to us in its Italian 
 setting, to put it mildly, it kept off the blues. 
 
 Besides the language, the different kinds of money afford 
 no end of fun. We already have had English, Spanish, 
 Italian and French money, and tomorrow will add to our 
 list Egyptian. It is a daily sight to see one of our party 
 who has had one of his Travellers' checks cashed in some 
 foreign money bring up a handful of coins and call in all 
 his neighbors to help him count it. 
 
 The most interesting day's journey was reserved for the 
 last days. On the 20th we passed within a mile of Strom- 
 
 13 
 
boli, a small mountainous island, with a peaceful little vil- 
 lage at its base, while out of its crater near the top poured 
 a volume of smoke, similar to the smoke from the chimney 
 of one of our large cotton mills. Then through the Strait 
 of Messina, with its Scylla and Charybdis, and the cities of 
 Reggio and Messina, so recently destroyed by earthquake. 
 
 From our ship both cities were close at hand, and the 
 finest buildings, comprising most of the business center of 
 Messina, could be seen to be still in ruins, while at each end 
 of this mass of ruins were hundreds of electric lights in the 
 early evening. In time the whole ruined section will doubt- 
 less be rebuilt. They never get in a hurry over here. 
 
 As I write this ** Finally, '^ we are less than twelve hours 
 from Alexandria, and if these rambling remarks seem very, 
 very long, I plead in extenuation of my guilt the fact that 
 from Lincolnton to Alexandria is, in the language of a little 
 North Carolina four-year-old, "a far piece." 
 
 14 
 
THREE SUNDAYS AT SEA. 
 
 From New York to Alexandria is an eighteen days' voyage 
 on our ship. The time lost in making five port calls en 
 route as well as the time taken in deflecting far to the south 
 to touch at Madeira and then to the north of a direct course 
 to call at Genoa, makes the trip longer in miles and days 
 than a direct route of continuous sailing. 
 
 In these eighteen days are three Sundays, of (which I wish 
 especially to write. 
 
 Our first Sunday was our second day at sea. We had just 
 time enough, after watching New York, with its wonderful 
 environs, creep away in the west, to find ourselves, as re- 
 lated to our new home. 
 
 Sunday dawned with fair sky, calm sea and happy pas- 
 sengers. The orderliness throughout the day, the refraining 
 from the indoor and deck games so popular on week days, 
 and the degree of quiet and even reverence manifested con- 
 stituted an agreeable surprise. 
 
 The chief or legal service was conducted by the Captain, 
 who, assisted by the Purser, read the Church of England 
 service. They read it well, too; though I consider that the 
 Captain won out over the Purser by a few lengths. Both 
 their hymns and tunes were unfamiliar to me, but I enjoyed 
 the singing, which was largely done by the crew. Indeed, 
 I enjoyed very heartily the whole service. The crew 
 occupied the middle of the dining saloon, while the passen- 
 gers were on both sides. A collection was taken for the 
 Seamen's Charities of New York and Liverpool. 
 
 Simultaneously with this service was a service by the 
 Roman Catholics in another part of the ship. Indeed, on 
 every day the Romanists have held services at will from 4 
 
 15 
 
a. m. to 10 p. m. And yet permission for a Sunday evening 
 service to be conducted by a minister of one of the largest 
 denominations in the United States was refused. This 
 seemed an unnecessary, un-American, not to say un-Chris- 
 tian, restriction. If the English are dense, they are not so 
 dense but that they know who to refuse, and who not to 
 refuse. A refusal to Rome to hold its services means a 
 boycott of every Cunard ship; a refusal to Protestants 
 means nothing. 
 
 The second Sunday we were due at Funchal, the capital 
 of the Madeira Islands. An early breakfast was provided 
 that a good ( ?) start might be got by all who desired to 
 take in the sights. And practically all seemed to desire 
 just that thing. Here was our ship anchored from early 
 morning till 4 p. m. Yonder to the north was an entrancin;;! 
 view of a mighty mountain rising steeply out of the sea, 
 clothed in the glistening green of an early tropical morn- 
 ing, dotted with picturesque Spanish-looking houses up the 
 mountain side and with the city of Funchal fringing the 
 water. And it was Sunday morning ! And here arose among 
 us, a question not new, to be sure, yet not unimportant — 
 the ethics of Sunday sight-seeing. Not to go, was largely 
 to miss seeing yonder fairy island and perhaps to be branded 
 a hypercritical Sabbatarian. To go was to ride in the oxen 
 sled, to take the funicular car to the top of the mountain, 
 have yourself kodaked in some pretty dell, and slide down 
 the slick plane of the mountain side, a la toboggan, and 
 ^'have more fun than a barrel of m.onkeys,^' as one ex- 
 pressed it. 
 
 To many, very many (alas! let it be said) this situation 
 presented no question. The possibility of their declining to 
 go was beyond their wildest imagination! Why, of course, 
 they were going. And they did — and many of these claimed 
 to be disciples of Him who, while He ''broke" the Sabbath 
 law to heal a poor fellow and thereby kept it, did not so far 
 as the record shows, lead a Sunday excursion to Hermon's 
 
 16 
 
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Heights or elsewhere. To another set, their anticipated 
 romp (including, in addition to things aforementioned, the 
 purchase of various kinds of souvenirs), required a little 
 ^'explanifying." And as a few listened, we knew not 
 whether we grieved more at heart or laughed more at the 
 stunts of these logical and ethical acrobats. Quoth one: 
 **I am on this trip to learn all I can and to improve myself, 
 and therefore I must go.'' ''It's our only chance," chirped 
 another. ''Why, didn't Jesus say the Sabbath was made 
 for man?" said a Sunday school teacher, in a convincing 
 tone. "This is a case of the ox in the ditch," said a clerical 
 brother, as he started off with his kodak to prize the poor 
 beast out. That poor ox is one of the greatest of martyrs. 
 Every week he is pushed in the ditch that the ox-heroes 
 may rescue him. But all these went, too. Among the many 
 marvels of this wonderful age, few, if any, can surpass the 
 agility, the adaptability and the gutterperchability of the 
 conscience of the average church member. And a few of 
 us, among whom was a Presbyterian elder from Rochester, 
 N. Y., and one or two more of our boat circle, had a delight- 
 ful, quiet Sunday morning on the ship, till about 10 o'clock, 
 w^hen we went ashore to Sunday school and preaching. Now 
 wasn't that romantic? I went to Sunday school in the mis- 
 sion of our Northern Methodist Church, where I was warmly 
 welcomed, and enjoyed the English part of the service, and 
 even that in an unknown tongue — ^Portuguese. 
 
 I then went to the little Scotch Presbyterian church, 
 where in the mornings all the service is in English. The 
 order of worship is exactly the same as we have in Lincoln- 
 ton, save that the doxology was not sung in the beginning- 
 The congregation was small, the sermon or address on the 
 Bible in presenting the British Bible Society, was ordinary, 
 yet had in it sound and precious truths, the hymns (not the 
 singing) were beautiful and devotional, and I felt it was 
 good to be there. I was greatly interested in these two 
 foreign mission stations, the first I ever came into actual 
 
 17 
 
touch with. But of this I cannot speak now. My walk back 
 to the ship took me through a public garden shaded with 
 stately palms and magnolias, and perfumed with the mingled 
 sweetness of ten thousand flowers blooming at my feet. 
 Truly ^^ every prospect pleases. '^ Then four or five blocks 
 past stores and shops of every kind wide open, and their 
 tawdry wares piled on the sidewalks, while the iSabbath air 
 was rent with a hundred profane tongues, hawking with 
 mongrel English their useless tinsel. Truly again, ^^and 
 only man is vile." Back on ship, in quiet and with my 
 well-beloved New York elder, we had not a pleasureless nor 
 a profitless Sunday afternoon. 
 
 To have written as I have written may be interpreted by 
 the casual reader that the writer is assuming to himself a 
 superior personal merit. This he distinctly disavows. He 
 did no more than from a child he had been taught was the 
 law of God. This precept of childhood, received in faith, 
 after a careful observation, some study and more reflection, 
 so far from being weakened in the writer's conviction, has 
 become more and more confirmed. A holy eye found very 
 much of imperfection in all of us that day, though I trust 
 He also saw in many an earnest desire and effort to walk 
 in His statutes. That evening and the following day there 
 was a general and more or less serious discussion of the 
 Sabbath. And some believed, some twere obdurate, while 
 others said they would hear of this matter further. 
 
 The afternoon and night before our third Sunday drench- 
 ing rains fell and driving winds lashed with waves the sea- 
 wall of the harbor of Naples, behind which our ship lay 
 sheltered, while an army of men coaled our ship and the 
 passengers were permitted a few hours ashore to get a 
 glimpse of the city. In contrast with the storm of Saturday 
 how symbolic of the Day of Rest was the calm of the next 
 morning. Upon awakening we found ourselves steaming 
 d(ywn the southwestern coast of Italy on a waveless sea, 
 with a cloudless sky and in a flood of glorious sunshine. 
 
 18 
 
Another thing that heightened our appreciation of this Sab- 
 bath's peace was the violent contrast between the nan'ow, 
 noisy streets of Naples, filled with the jabbering jargon of 
 ten thousand nimble-tongued sons of Italy, gesticulating 
 and articulating, too, as if the town was afire, and the quiet 
 and reverence ashipboard, so inviting to worship. 
 
 Still another thing that added to the quiet of this Sun- 
 day was the fact that at Genoa and Naples, fully two-thirds 
 of our passengers left us. And there was the same absten- 
 tion from all games, to which I referred in speaking of our 
 first Sunday. 
 
 The Catholic and English church services were held at 
 the same time as usual. 
 
 Among the worshippers yesterday morning was Mrs. 
 Grover Cleveland, who boarded our ship at Genoa, and is 
 going to Alexandria. 
 
 During the afternoon each one did that which was right 
 in his own eyes. Conversation on deck or in drawing rooms, 
 books, papers, and a good many Bibles engaged these sunny 
 hours. For myself, I preferred to read my Bible in my 
 room. While later in the afternoon, in a quiet and favorite 
 comer of the topmost deck, looking over the blue of the 
 Mediterranean, clothed upon with the glory of the Italian 
 sky— a sea over which during three thousand years have 
 sailed millions of ships, merchant crafts, fighting squadrons, 
 royal barges, and a certain insignificant ship bearing, how- 
 ever, a most significant passenger — I read and thought. 
 
 I think I thought most of this last ship, its noted passenger 
 and this passenger's great God. At least I hope I did. 
 
 19 
 
TWELVE DAYS IN EGYPT. 
 
 One in Alexandria, nine in and near Cairo, and two in 
 Port Said — a short stay, true, yet long enough to bulge the 
 eyes with seeing. After riding into harbor at Alexandria 
 under the beautiful arch of a before-breakfast rainbow, we 
 were greeted by our dragoman, Soliman Moussa (Solomon 
 Moses). He is well named, for he's both wise and meek, 
 and to these qualities adds an imagination that is equal to 
 any emergency. What he doesn't know, he tells any way; 
 what no one knows, he tells with unctuous assurance. One 
 of the first things a traveller in the East learns is to use his 
 sifter, else he will eat more bran than bread. But I don't 
 mean to go back on Solomon. He is the best in Egypt. 
 
 With him to guide and to do our fussing and fighting over 
 ^^backsheesth" with the Arabs, we saw the conventional, 
 yet wonderful sights seen by all tourists. We had the two 
 last days for independent action and I devoted them to see- 
 ing the state hospital and prison, the new government school 
 and university, and the missionary work in the city. 
 
 Egypt, so far as we have visited (and we speak only of 
 this section), is a land without a hill or a mountain, with- 
 out a spring and virtually without a well (well water is 
 brackish, so they prefer the dirty water of the Nile), a land 
 without a pine or oak, hickory or poplar, maple or ash 
 (indeed without forests of any kind, though there are a few 
 scattered trees), and so a land w^th scarcely a wooden house 
 and without a gable roof; yet this great valley has brought 
 down to it every j^ear the fertility of far distant hills and 
 mountains, and is beautiful with its gi'een fields of clover 
 and wheat, its roads and canals lined with palms, acacias, 
 sycamores and orange trees. 
 
 20 
 
Here the old and the new meet. In this, the largest city 
 of Africa, I have daily seen the finest express trains beside 
 long camel trains. The bray of the donkey and the honk of 
 the automobile mingle with other inharmonious noises in 
 the street, while the mummies of Egypt's old kings and 
 legions of their subjects almost jostle the modern tourists in 
 the aisles of the museum. Beside the lock-ballasted, double- 
 tracked railway, we saw as we sped by, hundreds of flocks 
 of sheep, watched by shepherds whose crook and flowing 
 robe took us back to the time of Abraham; while under the 
 wires over which was silently speeding the world's latest 
 news, the humble fellah drove his buffalo oxen as with a 
 crooked stick he plows his crop, as his fathers did four 
 thousand years ago. In this age of machinery, and of so 
 many modern implements, it is almost incrediible that these 
 farmers have neither buggy, wagon nor cart, neither horse 
 nor mule (instead is the camel and donkey) ; no implements, 
 that I have seen, after several trips in the country, save the 
 one-handled plow, the short-handled hoe, a hand scythe and 
 then two hands of almost infinite patience. 
 
 Being a land, largely without minerals, timber and manu- 
 facture, these people fall back upon the Nile and the tourist. 
 
 In front of our hotel moves a daily panorama of every 
 Eastern race, costume and condition, It is interesting to 
 note the stages in the evolution by which an Arab changes 
 bis flowing robe for European coat and trousers. You see 
 all these stages at once at any hour. He changes all but his 
 fez; that he holds on to as if it were part of his anatomy. 
 
 As to government, Egypt nominally is under Turkey (for 
 which name she pays about four million dollars annually), 
 but really, as your readers are well aware, is under England, 
 for which trouble she is paid as the Philippines pay us. 
 England's reward is the envy and suspicion of Europe, and 
 the ingratitude and a considerable amount of animosity from 
 her thankless protege. I do not pretend to be able to un- 
 derstand the tangled web of politics here, but I have seen 
 
 21 
 
on every hand enough not only to •warrant, but even to 
 compel the exclamation, ^^ Great is England!" The patent- 
 medicine man's pictures of ^* before and after taking" are 
 not a circumstance to bankrupt and all but hopelessly sick 
 Egypt, before and after taking her twenty-seven years' 
 treatment of Anglasia. Soap, sanitation and disinfection, 
 modem prisons, hospitals and schools, justice, dignity and 
 discipline, new streets, new-made laws to govern them and 
 new-made men to walk them — all this and more bear the 
 mark of the Briton — yet lest you misunderstand me, may I 
 add, that great as is her work, very, very much more like 
 it remains to be done. 
 
 Let it be said also in justification of these people, that 
 like all other nations, they desire to govern themselves, and. 
 as is usually the case, they think they are competent for 
 this task before they really are. Then, too, as if the inter- 
 mittent vassalage of this hoary people to every great world- 
 power for four thousand years or more, were not enough, 
 she has until recently suffered most unjustly from unprin- 
 cipled traders and from criminals of Christian Europe! 
 These classes would commit every kind of crime, for which 
 they would be tried by the consul of their country, which 
 usually meant no trial. The government was sued for heavy 
 sums in those days as readily as a North Carolinian sues 
 the railroad. On one occasion, for instance, when receiving 
 a European, the Sultan is said to have told one of his at- 
 tendants, ''Please shut that door, for if this gentleman 
 catches a cold it will cost me ten thousand pounds." I 
 mention this to show that it is not an easy thing for an 
 Egyptian, so long accustomed to being pillaged by for- 
 eigners, to believe England to be a benefactor rather than 
 a plunderer. 
 
 But talk about problems! Here they are— industrial, 
 sanitary, political, racial, intellectual and religious. I know 
 we have more at home than we are solving right, but com- 
 
 22 
 
parativel}', we have no problems. Or they are problems that 
 differ from these as the first sum in addition differs from 
 trigonometry (I believe that's as far as I got in mathe- 
 matics). And yet nothing is too hard for God; especially 
 in the day of His power when His people become willing. 
 There is, I believe, amid all these problems, more real hope 
 in Egypt today than at any time in all her tragic centuries. 
 
 23 
 
EGYPT'S DEAD RELIGION. 
 
 I have neither time nor desire to be critical or exhaust- 
 ive. I have nio information to impart that may not be 
 found in the libraries of many of the Standard's readers. 
 My purpose is rather to write simply and popularly, some 
 of the impressions and reflections that fought their way 
 through my brain as I stood in the presence of this dead 
 past. 
 
 Here was my first personal introduction to a religion that 
 is dead. It certainly is dead and I certainly am glad. And 
 like many lother travelers in this land, I have been making 
 a post-mortem examination. There was not time to go to 
 the greatest ruins at Kamak; besides there were as many 
 tombs and temples in the vicinity of Cairo as I could stand. 
 "We went to the site of Moses' Alma Mater where stands a 
 granite obelisk as the last remains of this long-defunct in- 
 stitution. No religion can exist without some kind of school 
 and here instead of teachers and students were clover and 
 camels. 
 
 The tomb (or pyramid) of Cheops was \isited and climb- 
 ed, though I did not explore the interior. Another d&j took 
 us twenty miles or more to the pyramid of Sakkara, which 
 lies a mile out in the Lybian desert. A mile farther in the 
 desert, far under the yellow sand are the tombs of kings and 
 of their gods. Even a king's tomb, with all the elaborate 
 hieroglyphics, though full of interest, was less interesting 
 to me than the tombs of the sacred bulls. In long corri- 
 dors of stone, lined on both sides with large niches were the 
 marble sarcophagi where these gods were buried at their 
 decease! The tombs of these gods are all empty now. 
 Stacks of bones in different museums — not a resurrection — 
 
 24 
 
is the explanation. Such a picture of death I have never 
 seen — tombs, far underground, of mummied kings and 
 princes, marble vaults in which reposed for centuries the 
 bones of these kings' gods; over all these, crumbling tem- 
 ples and pyramids, and again over and around all these, a 
 horizon of sterile desert sands, and again coverings over 
 the desert of a rainless sky and a scorching sun! And as 
 if to make more complete the loverthrow of these gods — 
 beetles, cats and bulls — their mummies or skeletons were 
 made to line themselves up in the museum in Cairo, where 
 we irreverently inspected them, while on every corner the 
 street huckster peddled their images. In this setting, the 
 fact of our God being still alive, being Life and imparting 
 life seemed a more precious possession than ever before. 
 From these pitiful tombs I looked with new gratitude unto 
 Him who saith, ^'Behold, I am alive for ever more." 
 
 And there comes this query: Can we Christians of today 
 prove that four thousand years from now our religion will 
 not end in a similar delusion? We believe it will not so 
 end and we do well so to believe. It is capable of proof 
 that amounts to a demonstration. Would it hurt those who 
 read this to marshal some of the evidences lof Christianity, 
 or to examine well the foundations upon which they are 
 building? 
 
 To see the massiveness of these temples and pyramids is 
 to admire their mighty builders. To quarry, transport 500 
 miles and erect a solid granite shaft 60 feet long and at 
 one end ten feet square, elicits our wonder. Figure after 
 figure, some in marble, some in limestone, some in wood, all 
 thousands of years old, seemed just about to speak to me 
 last Tuesday in the museum. The architecture of these 
 people and their art, their mathematics and astronomy; their 
 ideas of a resurrection, judgment and future life, compel us 
 to regard them a remarkably learned people. Yet with all 
 this wisdom they knew not the true God but ''became vain 
 in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened." 
 
 25 
 
The wisdom of man today, great as it is, unaided by the 
 revelation of God, is foredoomed to as disastrous an end. 
 Man today can, unaided by Grod, build a flying machine, as 
 these people thus unaided built a pyramid, but just as these 
 people failed in their unaided wisdom to find the true God, 
 so must fail the wisest man today, unaided by revelation. 
 To see these mummied hands, which when in life did their 
 best to fashion the gods they w^orshipped, makes God's 
 divers and luminous revelations of Himself more pricelessly 
 precious than ever. A passenger on a strong ship that has 
 weathered the gale, feels doubly thankful when he sees 
 other voyagers on some unseaworthy craft, lie dead among 
 the wreckage after the storm. 
 
 As we have intimated the creed of this dead religion con- 
 tained some articles of faith that are true and worthy of 
 all acceptation and their lives show deeds and traits de- 
 serving of our emulation. They looked upon this life as but 
 a preparation to live and in their way, (which alas! was a 
 false way), many of them spent it with a fidelity, with a 
 patience and painstaking that we so often fail to attain 
 unto. Their religion taught them to prepare for death, and 
 over four hundred million embalmed bodies and all but ever- 
 lasting tombs to contain these mummies, are the pathetic 
 evidence of their diligence! The stress they put on the 
 eternal beyond is pathetically and pitifully told by the mum- 
 mied pigeons, turkeys, bread and cakes they were wont to 
 lay on the tomb of their dead. With these, his body would 
 feed upon when it came to life and be strengthened to go 
 on its new journey. In the Cairo museum we saw some of 
 these fowls and cakes, but they looked far from appetizing. 
 Shall we to whom God has so clearly revealed, and for 
 whom our Saviour has especially prepared our eternal Home 
 show less interest and fidelity in entering through His grace 1 
 And how much better to insure our resurrection is a Sav- 
 iour than a pyramid. Shall the disciples of the latter out 
 vie us who trust in the former? 
 
 26 
 
Here in these ruins is tragedy! Not partial, but total 
 tragedy. Upon the stage of Egypt before the curtain was 
 rung down, closing the awful drama, all lay dead! All- 
 men and gods, homes and temples, things temporal and eter- 
 nal, principles and practices — all dead. Seeing and touch- 
 ing this corpse of a long-dead religion, a richer meaning 
 came into these words familiar to us all: ''Wherein God, 
 willing more abundantly, to show unto the heirs of promise, 
 the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 
 that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for 
 God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have 
 fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 
 which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and 
 steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.'' 
 
 27 
 
FOUR EGYPTIAN UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 Who would know well any land, with not only its past, 
 but also its future, must know its schools. Above its bat- 
 tlefields and tombs, in interest to me were , the schools of 
 Egypt, and of four typical institutions I wish briefly to 
 write. There are the On, Al-Azhar, National and Presby- 
 terian Universities, which may be described respectively as 
 heathen, pagan, religionless and Christian. The first be- 
 longs to the hoary past and has long ago closed its doors. 
 The other three are open today — Al-Azhar being over a 
 thousand years old, the Presbyterian College about two score 
 and the National University two years old. 
 
 Seven miles west of Cairo on the wide and fertile plain 
 of the Nile is the site where four thousand years ago stood 
 •the greatest university of ancient Egypt. Clover was blos- 
 soming there rather than learning, and instead of students 
 eagerly devouring Astrology and other early Oriental pab- 
 ulum, camels were lazily munching the new-mown hay. 
 Here in the city of On (Gen. 41:45), or in the tongue of the 
 Greeks, Heliopolis, was once one of the capitals of Egypt. 
 Here stood in those far-away days a mighty university that 
 largely molded Egypt, which in turn molded the thought of 
 the world. Here stood a great temple to the Sun and here 
 priests or professors, learned in all the knowledge of that 
 day, devotees and propagandists of the worship of Rah sat 
 as center of enquiring j^ouths. In this clover field once as- 
 tronomy, mathematics, geology, rhetoric and the tenets and 
 rites of the Sun-God were taught. Here were mingled the 
 wonders of that quaint lore, much of which is now lost, 
 with an abominably material and animal heathenism. Here 
 flourished a civilization according to the Sun-God (the god 
 
 28 
 
who is the sun, not who made it) and here it lies buried be- 
 side the other relies of Rah. We had quite an interesting 
 visit to these one-time sacred and learned precincts. The 
 campus is level and, when we saw it, green with wheat or 
 red with ripening clover. The old walls around the campus, 
 though tumbled down, are clearly to be seen, forming a ter- 
 race which still encloses these once literary roods of earth. 
 A single survivor of this hoary past towers above the trees. 
 It is a granite obelisk, sixty-six feet high, ten feet square 
 at the bottom and gradually tapering to the top, of one 
 natural piece of stone, all four faces with hieroglyphics, 
 said to extol its builders. 
 
 Many similar monuments adorned this campus once, but 
 one by one they have been pillaged by conquerors or given 
 away by generous Khedives till only one lonesome looking 
 one remains to tell the tale. On this greensward romped, 
 studied and grew into womanhood Asenath, the charming 
 daughter of Prof. Potipherah. And in these classic pre- 
 cincts Joseph courted, won and wed the old professor's 
 daughter. But the chief distinction this old university has 
 is that it has among its alumni, one Moses. And tradition 
 has it that he also was a professor here. He doubtless re- 
 ceived all the learning to be gotten here, but was careful to 
 get his religion from his nurse rather than his priestly pro- 
 fessor. And Moses representing learning plus God, is alive 
 and powerfully influential in the world today, while Rah 
 and all Rahisms, great as they were in some respects, minus 
 Grod, have long lain dead without the smallest legacy of in- 
 fluence and all but forgotten. 
 
 The most interesting sight in Cairo, if we except the Mus- 
 eum, was Al-Azhar, the great Moslem University. It is in 
 old Cairo, or the old part of the city, and is equal in age 
 to the city itself, dating from 973, A. D. Like On, Al-Azhar 
 is a religious institution and for centuries has been the 
 leading educational center not only of EgjT^t, but of the Mo- 
 hammedan world with its many millions of souls. 
 
 29 
 
Its first building was naturally a mosque. This has been 
 added to, perhaps a score of times, without any idea of 
 architectural design, and with the purpose only to make 
 more room. These many and diverse apartments serve as 
 dormitories, the students from each country or nationality 
 being put into separate quarters. In these quarters the 
 students live and study — they sleep without beds, sit down 
 without chairs, cook without stoves and eat (at least those 
 I saw) without knives and forks. Surrounded by these dor- 
 mitories is a wide porch and an open court, containing an 
 acre or more. This open space, I suppose one would call 
 a study and recitation hall, and was swarming with stu- 
 dents. Take an old-time school with fifty boys and girls 
 studying aloud (as was the old custom) and multiply by 
 one hundred, adding a few extra hundreds to make up for 
 the Arabic, and you have an idea of what we saw and heard 
 here. The young and old were here, the poor and the rich, 
 and a dozen countries were represented. Some were 
 reciting, others swaying their bodies to and fro were study- 
 ing, a few were eating their lunch of a crust of bread and 
 a dried fig, here and there would be a fellow asleep, and 
 others were watching us with bulging eyes. A number of 
 students are from Cairo and have families and businesses 
 in the city, and come to the university at spare hours, which 
 in the East are very many. 
 
 The Koran is the chief study, with Arabic, logic, rhetoric, 
 geography, etc., as subsidiary studies. Teaching these lat- 
 ter branches is little more than a pretense, I was told; cer- 
 tainly in the accurate use of language, this could hardly be 
 called a school, much less a university. It is worse than 
 mediaeval, it is archaic, antediluvian. 
 
 It is the center of Moslem fanaticism and we were cau- 
 tioned to be on our best behavior as we ^ infidel dogs" in- 
 spected these jabbering so-called students. Fanaticism im- 
 plies superstition and ignorance — varmints not supposed to 
 
 30 
 
be able to live in halls of learning — yet here side by side 
 were ignorance and 'Uearaing/' superstition and '' relig- 
 ion/' 
 
 A three to six years' course is given, the graduates being 
 given a diploma which usually secures for them the nui- 
 versally coveted government position. 
 
 This old university — perhaps the oldest in the world — has 
 done enough harm, to have been retired long-ago on a liberal 
 pension of perdition, yet it is still doing a pretty lively bus- 
 iness at the same old stand. But the beginning of what 
 many hope is the end has set in. A few years ago there 
 were over twelve thousand students, but under the combined 
 influence of Western civilization, England's strong hand and 
 Christian missions, the number has decreased several thou- 
 sand and is still on the wane. Its a long ways to Egypt, but 
 it would be well worth the trip if one could but have the 
 honor of being best man at the funeral of senile old Al- 
 Azhar and help lay him under the clover beside his unla- 
 mented predecessor, the University of On. 
 
 Fourth in point of chronology, but third in the ascending' 
 scale of truth is the National Egyptian University. It was 
 organized as recently as December 1908, and as its name 
 indicates, is fostered by the government. It occupies tem- 
 porary quarters in an old palace, and with its blackboards, 
 patent desks and other emblems of civilization, contrasted 
 strikingly with its neighbor and rival we have just been 
 speaking of. With less than two years of age, this new in- 
 stitution has over five hundred students. It is modeled 
 after the best European universities, with, of course, local 
 adaptation. Its plan is not to be on speaking terms with 
 religion, avoiding in its courses and life, Moslemism on one 
 hand and Christianity on the other. For this negative re- 
 ligious position, the friends and influence of Al-Azhar 
 are bitterly opposing it and even predict its early downfall. 
 With Christianity ruled out, it is far from pleasing to the 
 straight-out Christian, yet they recognize the power o£ 
 
 31 
 
truth, and hope that the history, science and philosophy of 
 the Western learning taught there will help to remove the 
 pall of superstition and to break up the despotism of fanat^ 
 icism that now enslaves the land. Many rocks lie ahead of 
 this infant institution. Some of these were plainly pointed 
 out by ex-President Roosevelt in his speech within the walls 
 of the university the day before our visit. Despite the most 
 serious handicap — its religiouslessness — we can hope it is 
 destined to be a potent factor in Egypt's redemption from 
 darkness. 
 
 The fourth university is that of the American Mission. 
 It is not in the full sense a universitj^ though it comes 
 nearer it than any of the three preceding. It was estab- 
 lished by the United Presbyterian Church of *Hhe States,'* 
 and along uncompromising Christian lines has built up an 
 institution of over five hundred students, and of most com- 
 manding influence. The collegiate department, which is up 
 the Nile at Assiut, I did not see, though the primary de- 
 partment, Girls' College and Theological Seminary in Cairo 
 I visited several times. 
 
 This splendid institution does the kind of work that is 
 done in Da\idson College and the College for Women in 
 Charlotte. With no blowing of trumpets, without the eclat 
 and magnitude of its contemporaries, toiling quietly and 
 constantly, it has been and is a mighty leavening power 
 among this unleavened people. It works out of sight from 
 the center outward as all orthodox leaven does. And in 
 the acknowledged crisis now impending in Egypt, under Grod, 
 this Christian college will be a powerful ally in helping to 
 effect the triumph of truth. 
 
 And in the future when pagan Al-Azhar will slumber with 
 heathen On, and the young National University will have 
 repented of its godlessness, let us hope; this great mission 
 college, planted and sustained by devoted Christians of our 
 own great nation, will continue on its beneficent way, till at 
 
 32 
 
Photo by W. R. Minter, 1410 
 REMAINS OF ON— Moses' Alma Mater. 
 
last Egypt, who has so long been cursed rather than blessed 
 by her schools, shall come to learn that the God of the West 
 has builded for her an institution which has reversed the 
 old Egyptian order, and instead of being the long-accus- 
 tomed curse, has proven a vei*y benediction from heaven. 
 
 33 
 
MISSIONS IN EGYPT. 
 
 The brightest spot in all Egypt is the mission work of 
 the United Presbyterian Church of the United States. For 
 three days, with a sigh of relief and a heart of gratitude, I 
 turned from the votaries of Isis and Apis, and even Ma- 
 homet, to mingle and commune with the disciples of Jesus. 
 I saw only the mission work in Cairo and not all of that. 
 But what I saAv in this part of this great work, together 
 with what I saw in the hearts of these faithful workers and 
 what I heard at their lips as to conditions in Egypt is far 
 more than I can tell in this article. I admit frankly a 
 sj^mpathetic bias towards this enterprise before examina- 
 tion, but not a sympathy that would blind my eyes or warp 
 my judgment. 
 
 Let me introduce the reader to a few of these missionaries. 
 First, here is the happiest man in all the land of the Nile, 
 and the best perhaps; a man with silver hair and beard, 
 glistening eyes and beaming face, author, preacher, theologi- 
 cal professor, and unofficial head of the whole Egj^ptian mis- 
 sion — Rev. Andrew Watson, D.D., for forty-nine years a 
 missionary here. Next is Miss Ella 0. Kyle, head of the 
 College for Girls, and who is giving a training to hundreds 
 of girls similar to that given by the College for Women in 
 the Standard's home city. Miss Kyle's is a life worth 
 while. Go down into a poorer section of Cairo (and poorer 
 means filthier, too), back into a side street and turn into a 
 narrow alley, and here is a frail little woman past sixty, 
 alone so far as Americans are concerned, and in tidily kept 
 quarters, she, with her native helpers, conducts the Fowler 
 Orphanage for girls. To meet her and see her work did me 
 good. I want you to know her — Miss Margaret A. Smith. 
 
 34 
 
Take time for one more, an athletic six-footer, graduate of 
 Princeton (collegiate department) and Xenia, 0., Seminar^", 
 virile and buoyant, who, with his cultured young wife, adds 
 enthusiasm to wisdom in the station. They are Mr. and 
 Mrs. McClenahan. There are eighty-four more. Let these 
 four serve as samples. 
 
 And their work? Or through them and many who now 
 sleep, God's work? It is the Synod of the Nile. It consists 
 of the Presbyteries of the Delta, Middle Egypt, Assiut and 
 Thebes, with eighty-eight foreign missionaries, ninety-one 
 native preachers, 453 school teachers, 80 colporteurs and 
 harum workers, 70 organized churches, with 10,341 mem- 
 bers. As part of this work, the average Sunday morning 
 congregations are 21,000; Sunday School pupils, 16,440; 
 boarding and day school pupils, 17,900 (including Assiut 
 College, with about twice as many students as Davidson), 
 two hospitals, two mission boats, and $163,929 paid last year 
 by the natives for church and school work. And besides 
 these things, all those finer, subtler blessings of the gospel 
 which defy tabulation in a statistical column. The figures 
 above, any one may get from the mission's annual report 
 (published in Philadelphia), but they mean far more when 
 you have visited class-room after class-room, heard classes 
 repeat chapter after chapter from the Bible, and others tell 
 Bible stories better than many Presbyterian boys and girls 
 in North Carolina can do, see the eagerness and neatness, 
 and over it all the promise of God to bless and save. An- 
 other thing has taught me more than the figures in the 
 printed report possibly could, alone — the background (I might 
 truthfully say the black ground) of Mohammedanism. To 
 paint a picture one must have a background. Against the 
 fierceness and the darkness of the false prophet's pagan- 
 ism, the light of the gospel shines lustrously bright here. 
 The number of self-supporting churches and others nearly 
 so, was a surprise. In the matter of teaching the native 
 church to support the gospel, these Psalm-singers are giving 
 
 35 
 
some sound Presbyterian training. In fact, the work in the 
 Sudan, far to the south, and which is really foreign 
 work, is being done, principally by native preachers, edu- 
 cated in the college at Assiut and the Theological Seminary 
 in Cairo. And this frontier work is supported in part by 
 the mission churches in Egypt. Still another thing that 
 heightened my admiration for the work of these patient 
 toilers is the difficulty of the field. No mission fields are 
 easy, and I have neither the desire nor the right to say that 
 Mohammedan Egypt is harder than other fields, yet I do 
 say, I can scarcely imagine how any field could be more 
 difficult. 
 
 There are no other general missionary efforts in Egypt 
 except this by the United Presbyterians. And here is not 
 only a striking example of Christian comity, but also of the 
 application of the soundest business principles. The Church 
 of England is doing a splendid local work in Cairo, and a 
 few other points ; and the Scotch Presbyterians have a small 
 church here. And I believe there are one or two other in- 
 significant European missions here also. But the twelve 
 million souls of this country have by common consent been 
 left for that branch of the great Presbyterian family which 
 is so bravely wrestling with the problem. A long and sad 
 chapter might be written on the various corrupt forms of 
 so-called Christianity found here — the Roman and Greek, 
 the Armenian and Coptic churches, most of whom have not 
 only embittered the Moslem against Christianity by cor- 
 ruption of doctrine and practices, but themselves have need 
 of missionaries being sent to them. All of which adds to 
 the complexity and difficulty of conquering Egypt for 
 Christ. One Protestant in every thousand souls may seem 
 slow progress for 51 years of preaching, and reason for 
 discouragement. But not so. It is a magnificent beginning, 
 and these few thousands who form the first fruits are a 
 demonstration that in time and by the .Spirit of God the 
 
 36 
 
others, too, may be won. And over and above all consid- 
 erations of splendid equipment, judicious methods and 
 faithful missionaries, to effect this national consummation, 
 is the Word of God, ''Egypt shall know the Lord," and 
 the wider prophesy, ''AH nations shall serve Him." 
 
 37 
 
THREE WEEKS IN PALESTINE. 
 
 It was early morning-, April the fourth, when we first es- 
 pied the land so long a dream but so soon to become a re- 
 ality. Jaffa, (Joppa of the Bible), perched on the side of 
 the hills and lining the shore was quaint and beautiful in 
 the distance, but the latter part of this impression was soou 
 to be dissipated. I never played foot-ball before that morn- 
 ing but we had a fine match game (our baggage and our- 
 selves being the ball). Rival boatmen clambered up and 
 swarmed over our boat, pushing, screeching, dragging suit 
 cases and bundles, running over anything or anybody, while 
 we looked on in amazement, pushed and all but fought. We 
 weye mad one minute and in the next would be forced to 
 laugh at the ludicrousness of the whole performance. But, 
 to mix figures a little, we made a touch-down, as we stepped 
 ashore with necks unbroken and baggage unstolen. 
 
 I think those who essay to read the few letters I hope 
 to send the Standard, would like a little introduction to our 
 party. There are thirty-four of them — fifteen men and 
 nineteen ladies. Of the men, five are ministers, two editors, 
 three youths, with a banker, a broker, a lumber-dealer, a real 
 estate man and an undertaker. Of the ladies, six are widows, 
 five are wives and eight single. Among the ladies are two 
 mission workers and one trained nurse. There are two Metho- 
 dists, five Episcopalians, five Presbyterians and twenty-two 
 Baptists, which rather looks like watered stock. Two of 
 our number are from Massachusetts, one from Illinois, two 
 each from North Carolina and Tennessee, one each from 
 South Carolina, Florida and Missouri, three from Alabama 
 and twenty-two from Georgia. We have several styles of 
 beauty, every kind of temperament together with quite an 
 
 38 
 
assortment of tempers. While in the introducing act, let 
 me present the other members of our caravan, humbler may- 
 be and yet very important personages. Beside our conduc- 
 tor and dragoman, there are eight carriage-drivers, 
 nine cooks and servants and twenty-one muleteers; and de- 
 serving of honorable mention, twenty-four carriage horses, 
 sixteen riding horses, twelve donkeys and forty pack mules. 
 With this aggregation, we have just finished a delightful 
 three weeks' camping trip through a large part of Pales- 
 tine. Our tents were usually pitched in olive groves beside 
 some spring or stream and with comfortable cots, and 
 tempting fare, the trip was well-nigh ideal. From Jaffa 
 we went by train through the beautiful fertile plain of Sha- 
 ron up the rocky Judean mountains, to Jerusalem, a dis- 
 tance of fifty-seven miles. Here our tents were in readiness 
 for us, pitched in the new Jerusalem, as our dragoman ex- 
 pressed it, a short distance north of the old city. Under 
 these olive trees we lived for ten days while visiting the 
 many spots in and close about David's ancient city. From 
 here we had a hard day's journey to Hebron and back, 
 twenty-two miles to the south, and a still more interesting 
 trip down to Jericho, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, 
 twenty-five miles to the east. Only one point of the com- 
 pass remained to us, so breaking camp, we turned to the 
 north. Passing in plain view of Mizpeh, Nob, Bethel and 
 other places which live in our Bibles we pitched our tent 
 just outside a wretched Moslem village in a beautiful little 
 valley. This town like all the other native \^llages is a se- 
 ries of mud huts, all built together, and not unlike a pros- 
 perous dirtdauber village on an enlarged scale. Upon our 
 arrival we were the cynosure of all eyes. Scores of the 
 more timid looked at us from the flat roofs of their humble 
 homes, while hundreds swarmed about our tents. The cus- 
 tom is for camping parties to put themselves under the pro- 
 tection of the sheik of the village, who, for a consideration, 
 
 39 
 
of course, furnishes guards for the night. These supposed 
 protectors are said often to be the worst kind of thieves, 
 but in our party not one article was stolen during the three 
 weeks. That night our horses, tied to the ropes for lack 
 of a tree or bush, would get tangled in the ropes and kick 
 and pitch at intervals, the asses brayed in relays all night, 
 and it seemed that a hundred lusty-lunged dogs in the near- 
 by village howled back a response in Arabic, And some 
 slept some and others slept none. But all soon learned, and 
 these sounds, that at first drove away sleep, after one or 
 twto nights, lulled us to slumber. Indeed some feared they 
 would be unable to go to sleep after camp-breaking with- 
 out our canine and asinine lullabies. But one night we had 
 our revenge. For two hours or more with songs, and such 
 games as blindfold and ''Going to Jerusalem," accompanied 
 by many shouts and much laughter we made so much racket 
 that the villagers' hearts must have quaked, and they 
 seemed to think that if we fought like iwe hollowed it was 
 prudent to lie low till the American Beduoins moved on. 
 
 But to resume: Our second night from Jerusalem w^as just 
 outside the prosperous city of Nablus (Shechem of Bible) in 
 the narrow valley between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim. Here 
 we spent Sunday also, which was a day of physical rest 
 and scriptural delight. Three days' journey northwesterly, 
 down winding valleys, covered with wheat and walled in by 
 mountains, we wound our way past the disappearing hills 
 and across Sharon's plain of herds and harvests till we 
 reached the southwestern slope of Mt. Carmel, on the Med- 
 iterranean Sea. Here is Haifa, a busy, half -native and half- 
 German seaport of 25,000 people. Our tents were pitched 
 in a vacant lot of the city, very much after the fashion of 
 a circus in North Carolina. We were back on the seashore 
 forty miles niorth of where we landed at Jaffa. Now turn- 
 ing east or northeast a good day's drive took us througli 
 the Plain of Acre north of Carmel 's long high backbone, out 
 of Samaria, up. up the hills and mountains of Gallilee to 
 
 40 
 
Nazaretb. The view here, the holy sites and the missions, 
 I shall speak lof later. I wish only to give now our route, 
 and any introductoiy fragments that may get in the way. 
 From Nazareth it rained on us to the Sea of Galilee, where 
 on April 22nd our last camp was pitched. Some of us 
 braved the drizzling rain for a row over these waters that 
 heard so much of our Saviour's teaching, saw so much of 
 His wiorks and learned more than once the superiority of 
 His strange power. 
 
 All were astir at 5:00 o'clock the next morning, and after 
 good-byes to our always courteous and efficient camp-serv- 
 ants we embarked in small boats to cross the sea and take 
 the train at the extreme end of the lake. Camp life had 
 been thoroughly enjoyed, but we were ready for a change, 
 and with a last look at blue Galilee and the mountains of 
 Canaan to the w^est we welcomed the sight of a sure-enough 
 train clipping across the Jordan valley towards us. A wild 
 climb up the mountains of Gilead, lunch on the wide ex- 
 tended plain of Hauran and a good dinner in our comfort- 
 able hotel on the banks of the Abana in Damascus, city of 
 lousy dogs and ancient years, brought to a close a full day. 
 We are now out of Palestine, though I hope in the few fol- 
 lowing letters to go again with as many as desire, over this 
 wonderful land of Israel. 
 
 41 
 
PALESTINE OF TODAY. 
 
 The undue haste at modernization of which I had read, I 
 failed to find. Change there is, but two railways, a few 
 miles in leng-th, a spendidly built macadam road in several 
 directions out of Jerusalem, and a few other signs of the 
 20th century, have failed to hustle the East. Much less are 
 the natural aspects changing. Above all ^others, the fact 
 that most impressed me in nature was the treelessness of 
 the land. Excepting fruit trees, a few scrubby oaks on the 
 slopes of Mt. Carmel and adjacent hills, and a few lonesome 
 cypress and sycamore tree, I did not see any trees in all 
 the land. This, however beautiful the landscape, gives mo- 
 notony, at least to one accustomed to the alternating fields 
 and forests 'of North Carolina. Next to the absence of for- 
 ests is the presence of rocks. Rocks, rocks, everywhere ! 
 According to the story of my childhood, here certainly is 
 where the devil's apron-strings broke and he spilled his 
 rocks. Houses are of stone, and so are fences and bridges 
 and terraces. The hills and mountains, denuded of trees 
 have by the rain of centuries also been robbed of most of 
 their soil, so that millions of boulders and acres of rocks, 
 great and small, frown at you as you pass. A little rem- 
 nant of soil remains, packed into crevices or hiding behind 
 a friendly stone and protected by an army of flowers ar- 
 rayed against the flood in defence of its meagre measure of 
 earth. I have counted a score of rock terraces, each from 
 three to ten feet high, up a single mountain side, marking 
 where in the days of Israel's glory were fruitful vineyards 
 and contented homes, but now a desolation whose broken 
 walls write plainly against the mountain side — Ichabod. 
 
 Speaking only of the natural world, the next most strik- 
 
 42 
 
inff thmo; is flowers. I didn't know there were so manv 
 flowers in the world; many in kind and very, very, many m 
 number; mountains of flowers, valleys and plains of flow- 
 ers; flowers everywhere in tangled masses, except the flelds 
 of grain, and even here in lesser numbers they smiled at 
 . us from the ripening wheat. The white and pink Roses of 
 Sharon, the lilies of the fleld, and of the valley, with the 
 red, white and pink clover, the scarlet poppy, white and 
 yellow daisies, anemonies, oleanders, and even the thistle, 
 with its blossom of blue, and a host of others, make this the 
 paradise of wild flowers. 
 
 Accustomed to our streams and springs and wells in tho 
 homeland, the scarcity and therefore the value of water in 
 this land much impressed me. Streams that flow all the 
 year are few, while rocky beds where only winter torrents 
 rush are numerous. The scarcity of springs makes the 
 crowds about them, both of men and beasts, the larger, and 
 with no sense of safeguarding the water, the danger of con- 
 tamination is great. For instance, a village of hundreds., 
 with thousands of sheep and goats, usually has not more 
 than one well or fountain. An hour or more before lunch 
 one day, we passed several mothers standing in a creek, 
 giving their little naked children a good scrubbing. We 
 drank at lunch a few miles further down out of that stream, 
 and probably the bath water of those little rascals we saw 
 up the creek. You say you wouldn't have drunk it, but you 
 don 't know. Scarce as water is, though, in comparison with 
 countries contiguous, such as thirsty Egypt, lined on both 
 sides with deserts, or Arabia or Persia, with their water- 
 less wastes, this land is abundantly supplied with water.^ Yet 
 compared with North Carolina, this is a dry and thirsty 
 land. At any rate, Isaiah's invitation, ''Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth," and the Saviour's presentation of Himself to 
 the woman of Samaria as the ''Water of Life," have in the 
 light of the local coloring, a fresh and vivid meaning. 
 Every traveller here no doubt compares the real Palestine 
 
 43 
 
before his eyes with the land as pictured from his readings. 
 And perhaps all have in the presence of the actual to amend 
 the picture they had imagined. I know I did. The Plains 
 of Sharon and Jezreel are both far more fertile and more 
 beautiful than I had thought; there are more and higher 
 mountains with scenery more rugged and grand than I had 
 fancied. If disappointed in some detail, my heart instead of 
 being disillusioned by the proximity of view, has rather 
 been amazed at the wonders, beauties and revelations of the 
 fand, despite the degree to which it is in ruins and to which 
 sinful man still rudely interrupts the vision. 
 
 The climate during April was very much like the climate 
 of Asheville in that month. Winter clothes had been com- 
 fortable and overcoats in constant use, save in the middle of 
 the day. In view from the high points of nearly all Pales- 
 tine, is snow-crowned Hermon, while at Jericho and Jaffa, 
 Haifa and elsewhere, were oranges, bananas and lemons 
 growing in luxuriance. Between these frigid and tropical 
 extremes is possible every zone of vegetation. Small, there- 
 fore, as it is, this land in its vegetation zones is world-wide. 
 
 Wheat and olives seem the two most valuable crops. 
 Clover, figs and grapes come next in importance, I should 
 judge, and after these, oranges, vegetables and almonds. 
 
 But as in the time of Abraham, so now, this is a pastoral 
 country. Its chief wealth today is its flocks and herds. We 
 have seen hundreds of shepherds leading and watching their 
 flocks, calling to them, carrying the sick and lame, and clos- 
 ing them in the fold at night. In addition to sheep and 
 goats are cattle and donkeys and camels in profusion, horses 
 in fewer numbers, but not so much as one shoat in all the 
 landscape. It wouldn't have been healthy for him if he had 
 been, for, for over a month we had eaten mutton, mutton, 
 and things fried in olive oil, till we could hardly stand to 
 talk about unprocurable ham or bacon, or good old North 
 Carolina lard-shortening. 
 
 As carriages are yet new institutions in this country, roads 
 
 44 
 
are new. The old roads being bridle paths over the moun- 
 tains and down the valleys and for our -wagons and box cars 
 sufficed the backs of the donkeys and camels respectively. 
 Even with some splendid roads, wagons are rarely seen. 
 What's the use of buying a wagon and harness in addition 
 to the donkey so long as the donkey has a ready-for-use 
 back, they would argue? And as a clincher, they would 
 add, ''Besides, our fathers had no wagons.'' We are dis- 
 posed to smile at their slowness, yet we may smile too soon. 
 May not their way be best and cheapest for them? Donkeys 
 and camels are cheap and can carry incredible loads. iSo 
 they are loaded up, and in case of the donkeys, one man 
 walks and drives a small drove of them, laden with mer- 
 chandise. In case of the camels, when laden, they are lined 
 up tandem, coupled together with a rope, almost freight- 
 train style, and with one man as engineer, conductor and 
 flagman, the camel train moves out. So there you are. 1 
 repeat, we musn't laugh at these people too soon. 
 
 From Jerusalem to Nablus, a road superior in some re- 
 spects to any thing even in boastful Mecklenburg county, 
 has been built in the last few years. The method of its 
 construction was truly oriental. No speeches or election 
 bonds or other civilized foolishness; the Sultan just decided 
 it would be nice to have such a road, so he sent an engineer 
 to make the survey, and then ordered the people along the 
 way to build it. And they did, without one cent of cost to 
 the government. This incident is typical of Turkey's benefi- 
 cent rule in this country! Take another: Taxes are collect- 
 ed today vei-y much as Matthew and his fellow publicans 
 did in the time of our Saviour. The Constantinople authori- 
 ties, as I have been informed, and I think reliably, will send 
 each year to the G^overnor of Jerusalem, ''Your district 
 must pay so much this year." He has to raise and forward 
 that and all the rest he keeps. The village sheik is assessed 
 by the Governor so much. This he must collect in ways as 
 seems best to him; all over the stipulated amount being his 
 
 45 
 
pay for his trouble. This, so long as human nature is the 
 grand rascal it is, is not exactly an ideal system of taxation. 
 
 Yet these are the same people who still so carefully ob- 
 serve the old Mosaic injunction, '* Cursed be he that re- 
 moveth his neighbor's land mark,*' that they have no deeds 
 to their lands and rarely or never have a dispute as to own- 
 ership or boundarj^ lines! The new constitutional govern- 
 ment provides for land deeds to be taken out, though but 
 few in Palestine have yet availed themselves of this privi' 
 lege. 
 
 Turkey's government has long been a plague-spot in point 
 of law and justice. Life and property are very insecure. 
 The window beside which I am writing these words has a 
 net work of iron bars as secure as the jail in Lincolnton. 
 Yet I am not in jai, but in my comforable room of my 
 Damascus hotel. Many or most dwellings all over Palestine, 
 except the native huts, have barred windows. Every shep- 
 herd or donkey and camel driver in charge of merchandise 
 is armed with shot guns, rifles, pistols, dirks or long handled 
 hatches, and often with several of the aforesaid. These 
 are the visible implements of war; how many disappearing 
 batteries they may have under their long outer garments, I 
 had no curiosity to investigate. 
 
 In line with these travelling arsenals, is the fact that I 
 didn't see a farm house or cottage in all Palestine out by 
 itself, such, for instance, as dots every landscape in our 
 happy land. The reason given me is that they are afraid. 
 They live huddled up by hundreds in these villages of 
 solid dwellings, with only a few narrow, crooked alleys 
 through them, for mutual protection. Perhaps the thought 
 of a happy little home apart from all their neighbors has 
 never occurred to them. But if they escape the marauding 
 Bedouin, they do not escape the fleas and tuberculosis, as 
 the chickens, donkeys and people occupy in many instances 
 the same bed chamber. I inspected one such home, being at- 
 tracted by seeing the chickens going in the hut to roost, 
 
 46 
 
though before the iuspection was completed, the lady of the 
 house drove us out with quite an assortment of fiei^y Arabic 
 faces, gestures and anathemas. 
 
 But speaking lof diseases, so far as I can learn, such 
 luxuries as grip, appendicitis, pellagra, etc., are unknown, 
 and among the Beduoins, who live in tents, consumption is 
 practically unknown. Malarial and typhoid fever, diar- 
 rhoea and rheumatism are the most prevalent diseases. To this 
 should be added sore eyes, producing very often blindness and 
 caused by a combination of unprotected glare of the sun, 
 together with too great economy in the use of soap. We 
 saw a few lepers, but the number affected by this disease 
 is comparatively small. 
 
 Drinking intoxicating liquors is a negligible quantity, 
 thanks to the positive prohibition of the Koran. But every 
 man is an inveterate smoker of the cigarette. 
 
 But my time and your patience are already overtaxed. 
 What shall we say to all these things ? Did not G^od threaten 
 with a curse not only the children of Israel, but also their 
 land? Israel sinned in rejecting the law through their 
 blind corruptions and wilful disobedience, and then in re- 
 jecting the Fulfiller of the law. And no one needs to be told 
 how terribly the threatened curse has fallen on them. But 
 the land? Archaeologists dig up and read the inscriptions 
 of the ancients and so bring to light facts important and 
 tragic. God's hieroglyphics are written all over this un- 
 happy land. Jericho, Jerusalem, Capernaum, with their 
 ruins, the broken terraces on a thousand hills, the wasted 
 sites of former plenty, spell out, it seems to me, the fulfill- 
 ment of God's curse. In letters bold and awful, God's 
 handwriting is over this once goodly land, and the interpre- 
 tation is, ^'I, Jehovah, spake the blessings and the curses 
 from Gerizim and Ebal — and I meant it." 
 
 But with our God is compassion. Should not we more 
 earnestly pray than perhaps we have, that God would turn 
 
 47 
 
unto Him that wandering people whose fathers wrote for 
 us our Bible, and that He would overthrow the false prophet 
 of this land, and sin, and bring under His benign sway 
 Canaan and its Christless people, and make to smile a land 
 long used to tears, restore true worship and service of Him 
 on these hills and hasten the coming of that Holy One who 
 came once before, and who Glomes but once again; but for 
 that once, thank God! 
 
 48 
 
JERUSALEM OF 1910. 
 
 All tourists to Palestine go for the sake of the past, yet 
 they cannot shut their eyes to the present. Indeed, there is 
 at least one sense in which Jerusalem of today is more in- 
 teresting than the Jerusalem of Solomon, and in this same 
 sense *one of the thousand living sore-eyed urchins on its 
 streets exceeds in interest some dead prophet in his tomb. 
 For the present let us look at this ancient city in its mod- 
 ern garb and at a later time we shall visit the holy places. 
 
 The Jerusalem we saw is a lineal descendant of the City 
 of David — or to go further back, of Oman's threshing floor 
 — from either of which it is removed eight municipal gen- 
 erations. These eight forefathers (for that many times the 
 city has been destroyed and buried) are entombed one upon 
 another and on their sepulchers lives the rather unworthy 
 scion of this royal line. 
 
 Jerusalem is the terminus of a short railway to Jaffa on 
 the coast. This little road would be accounted in America 
 very poor transportation facilities for a city of 100,000; yet 
 it must be a vast advance over none at all, and is certainly 
 a boon to travelers. The station is a mile southwest of the 
 city proper, though around the station is a large and flour- 
 ishing settlement of Germans. The number of hacks at the 
 station and their solicitation of your patronage was thor- 
 oughly up-to-date. So also was the splendid road with its 
 bridge of enduring masonry over which we passed to the 
 city. 
 
 There are really two Jerusalems; one the densely popu- 
 lated area within the old walls where the Jews largely pre- 
 dominate, the other outside these walls, where to the west 
 and north is a growing city of modern houses and streets. 
 
 49 
 
Here are the hotels, the European shops, the homes of va- 
 rious national and religious colonies, dotted here and there 
 with churches, schools and hospitals. 
 
 The wall separating the old from the new Jerusalem is in- 
 tact, and while all but the foundations were built in the 
 sixteenth century, it must give a fair idea of just how this 
 walled in citj- looked in the time of Christ and even of Solo- 
 mon. The height of this wall varies from thirty to seventy 
 feet, and it is from ten to fifteen feet thick, while at in. 
 tervals stand sentinal towers. On all four sides of the 
 city are gates, six of which are open and five closed. The 
 streets are not golden, but of the earth — very earthy — 
 crooked, narrow, dark and filthy. David street, the prin- 
 cipal business thoroughfare, is from ten to fourteen feet 
 wide, and, like many others, covered over much of the way, 
 and so really an arcade. It ascends Mt. Zion and much of 
 the way is a long series of steps. These steps exclude all 
 vehicles, though the donkey and camel with their large packs 
 keep you dodging out of their way. The great majority of 
 the streets of Jerusalem, because of narrowness, crooked- 
 ness, or steepness, or all of these combined, never see buggy 
 or wagon. On those that are used by carriages, they can 
 pass each other only at certain wide places or at crossings. 
 Tourists' carriages were the only vehicles I recall seeing 
 within these walls. And sidewalks! Usually sidewalk, 
 gutter and street are one. A very few streets had what we 
 understand as a sidewalk, varying in width from one inch 
 up to four or five feet, then disappearing for a block, only 
 to appear further on at any angle and uncertain width. 
 
 The people who daily walk these devious ways to their 
 humble tasks are 52,000 Jews, 30,000 Mohammedans, and 
 20,000 Christians of various sects. The different religion- 
 ists occupy, generally speaking, different sections of the 
 city. The Southwest Ward, to use a familiar term, is the 
 Armenian quarter; the Northwest, centering about the 
 
 50 
 
Church of Holj^ Sepulcher, the quarters of the Latins and 
 Greeks, while the Moslems live in the Northeast, with the 
 Jews in the Southeast Ward. 
 
 The population in the modem city without these fortress- 
 like walls is a conglomerate of races and religions, though 
 the Russions and Germans seem to predominate. Religiously 
 speaking, here the Greek Catholics are most numerous, while 
 from a financial classification, the well-to-do, as opposed to 
 the poor in the congested old city, have their homes in this 
 section. Still again the modem, twentieth century man 
 lives here as opposed to the native mediaeval man behind 
 the walls. 
 
 When to these different peoples you add an even greater 
 variety of "pilgrims," both Moslem and Christian, from 
 all over the world, you have a medley of races, religions, 
 languages, costumes and colors, that can be matched per- 
 haps nowhere else in the world. At all the "holy places" and 
 up and down Damascus and David streets, these curious 
 peoples jostle each other. Speaking of these two streets re- 
 minds me of the shops or stores. They are dark, dirty and 
 small, averaging, I would say, from one-half to two-thirds 
 the size of a North Carolina sitting room. The shoe shop 
 keepers make shoes while the customer is coming; the ba- 
 ker sells his bread and other uninviting edibles hot from 
 the charcoal fire. You don't go in, because you can't get in 
 easily; that is unless the proprietor comes out to make room. 
 Besides there is no use, as by stepping to the door you are in 
 sight and almost in reach of any article for sale. The sight 
 of an American department store would give these mer- 
 chants the blind staggers. 
 
 This glimpse at the native business life of these people 
 will convince one that they do not belong to our century 
 nor to the over-commercialized west. There is no doubt 
 about things being hand made here. Not only is there the 
 fewest possible tools in use, but the motive power is neither 
 electric, steam nor horse, but crude human brawn. I no- 
 
 51 
 
ticed, for instance, a man making some beautiful bannis- 
 ters. With one hand, by a simple yet ingenious device, 
 similar to a violin bow, he turned very rapidly the piece of 
 wood, the other hand held one end of the chisel, while his 
 toes gripped the lower end of the chisel and held it true 
 to the wood. And the w^ork was both neat and expeditious, 
 and the humble workman was all unconscious that he was 
 doing what probably no fellow-craftsman in America could 
 do. And so long as men are cheaper than machines, this 
 primitive condition is likely to continue, not only in Jeru- 
 salem, but in many other places in the East. 
 
 But Jerusalem is as interesting from a civic standpoint 
 as from an industrial. It has a few lonely street lamps, no 
 telephones, no water or sewerage beyond what Solomon had. 
 It may not be nearly so good. But what it lacks in this line, 
 it makes up in post offices. It boasts of five — Turkish, 
 French, German,, Austrian and Italian, each being con- 
 ducted and owned by the nation indicated in the name. In 
 the days when there was only a Turkish post office, the en- 
 terprising postal clerks would soak the stamps off the let- 
 ter, destroy the latter and sell again the former the next 
 day to another man for another letter, and so on till he 
 would tire of the soaking business. France, Austria, Ger- 
 many and Italy didn't like such postal practices, so they 
 demanded the right to establish post offices of their own. 
 And not only at Jerusalem, but at Jaffa, Beirut and else- 
 where, this strange condition exists. 
 
 Jerusalem is rich in Sundays, too. The Moslems observe 
 Friday, the Jews Saturday, the Christians iSunday. As a 
 matter of fact the Jew easily leads the other two sects in 
 observing the day, at least in point of outward form. In 
 the shuffle between these rival days of rest and worship, 
 very, very many (among whom are not a few tourists from 
 Christian lands) compromise the matter (and themselves, 
 too) by observing none. 
 
 When it comes to mission schools and other forms of 
 
 52 
 
philanthropy, few cities of its size can surpass it. The 
 Greeks, Latins, Lutherans, Church of England, as well as 
 philanthropic Jews, have a generous share in works of this 
 character. These schools have also stirred the usually in- 
 different Turkish authorities to establish government schools 
 for both girls and boys. For the lack of competent native 
 teachers, the instruction in these schools is given largely by 
 European teachers. The need of these schools, both mission 
 and state, will be better realized when we know that this 
 city of 100,000 people has only one newspaper, that an 
 Arabic weekly, consisting of two pages about the size of 
 those of the Presbyterian Standard, printed on one side 
 only. 
 
 And that reminds me of the languages here. Every Eu- 
 ropean language may be heard any day in the course of an 
 hour's stroll about the streets. The native tongue — Arabic 
 — comes first, of course. Then comes Turkish, French and 
 English in importance. In Egj^t, English, as a language, 
 has outstripped French and is very close behind it in Pales- 
 tine. Here, as doubtless it is in all Europe, no one can get 
 along successfully with only one language. I was informed 
 that the telephone girls in Cairo had to speak four lan- 
 guages, and most of our carriage drivers in Jerusalem, be- 
 sides Arabic, could make a pretty good pass at English, 
 French and German. It was surprising and interesting to 
 see how much they, the souvenir venders and others, could 
 express with a vocabulary of from thirty to fifty English 
 words. 
 
 But French money is better understood and more popular 
 than the French language. Most tourists use it rather than 
 the less simple English or the more unintelligible Turkish 
 currency. 
 
 In fine, the Jerusalem we saw was interesting as an an- 
 tique, and because it is so truly oriental and therefore so 
 thoroughly different from the cities of the West. Yet it 
 was sad to see this patriarch among cities, which even after 
 
 53 
 
all her tragic history, seems not yet to have learned what 
 are the unfailing wages of sin. But it was hopeful and com- 
 forting to find signs of a better day. Human agencies are 
 at work which cannot fail of blessing, indeed, which are 
 blessing now, but more than this, God's promise which 
 standeth sure and steadfast, that the age-long conflict be- 
 tween sin and holiness has no uncertain issue. The star of 
 hope that will lead out of its sorrowful plight this sinning 
 city is God Jehovah, the Lord of might. Nothing short of 
 God can paint rosy, Jerusalem's tomorrow. 
 
 54 
 
HOLY PLACES IN PALESTINE. 
 
 Palestine as a whole has been hallowed by the words and 
 works of patriarchs and prophets, of apostles and by that 
 One .who called and commissioned them. Then there are 
 many local spots which are distinguished because this or 
 that incident of scripture took place there. The effort to 
 locate too many such places has, as one would expect, 
 brought about much difference of opinion. The spirit of 
 long ago, as voiced by the woman of Samaria, when she 
 said to Christ, ''Our fathers worshipped in this mountam; 
 and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought 
 to worship," is still alive. For all over Palestine are rival 
 chapels and churches, each claiming to be the exact spot of 
 some scriptural incident. For instance, the Romans have 
 their Garden of Gethsemane walled in and in the midst of 
 the garden a beautiful gilt-doomed chapel; while hard by, 
 also walled in, is to the Greeks, where our Saviour bore 
 alone the agony. In Oana, both the above bodies have 
 churches that mark the exact spot where that simple mar- 
 riage that had Jesus as a guest, took place. In Nazareth 
 we were shown a church the Greek Catholics have built 
 where Joseph and Mary, with their wonderful child, lived. 
 Nearly half a mile distant is a Roman Catholic church and 
 monastery, which cover, themselves being witness, the boy- 
 hood home of Jesus, while deep down in the rock is the 
 kitchen of Mary, and a stone's throw distant, the site of 
 Joseph's workshop! At places that admit of no rivalry, 
 usually one or the other of these two churches have pre- 
 empted them and marked them with a chapel, monastery or 
 hospice for pilgrims. In this way, Bethany, the Mount o5 
 
 t)0 
 
Olives, Jacob's Well and other places are owned by the 
 Greek chui'ch, while Capernaum, Mt. Carmel and other 
 places are in the Romans' hands. 
 
 Again some places are owned jointly by both these sects, 
 while wall to wall stand their rival chapels. In a series of 
 rock caves in Bethlehem is the place generally accepted as 
 being the place where Jesus was bom. From this grotto, 
 are two stairways of stone, the one to the south leading 
 into the Greek church, with all its accessory quarters, while 
 the steps leading to the north bring you into the church of 
 her ecclesiastical rival — the Roman. In the dark, narrow 
 hallway, within ten feet of the manger stands an armed 
 infidel soldier of Turkey to keep the followers of the Prince 
 of Peace from fighting each other! But the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the head of all such affront- 
 ing. It covers the traditional site of Christ's crucifixion 
 and burial, and is accepted as such by all Christian sects 
 except Protestants. The majority of Protestants and the 
 weight of testimony, so far as I have had time to gather, 
 favor a site outside the present wall, not far from the Da- 
 mascus gate, as being the place where our Lord was cruci- 
 fied and buried. But we cannot go into this. In the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the so-called site of Calvary 
 and the grave of Christ, belong in common to all sects. 
 After that, the many chapels, niches, are divided up among 
 various creeds for their exclusive use. The Romans, 
 Greeks, Armenians, .Syrians and Copts have one or more 
 chapels each. The Protestants, to their credit, have no 
 part in these unseemlj'^ and bitter jealousies. The score or 
 more of sacred events that are claimed to have taken place 
 in the space covered by this church is enough to prove the 
 whole claim a pious fraud. They show the stone of unc- 
 tion, the exact spot from which Mary viewed the crucifixion, 
 the graves of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, of Mel- 
 chisedec and Adam, chapels of the Apparition, of the Foot- 
 prints of Stocks, of the Parting of Christ's Raiment, of 
 
 56 
 
Eg^T^tian Mary, of the Archangel Michael, and others, with 
 many other wonders, not least being the center of the world. 
 Adam's grave, they claim, was discovered in the following 
 miraculous manner: A drop of blood from the dying Sav- 
 iour as he hung on the cross a few steps distant, fell on the 
 ground, and Adam's head came out of its hitherto unknown 
 grave in that spot! For some reason, sufficient to the ig- 
 norant and superstitious mind of the Greek churchman, 
 this grave marks the center of the earth and they show to 
 all an iron post stuck in the ground at this important spot. 
 
 For possession of this Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the 
 Crusaders fought over two hundred years, and paid in their 
 vain effort to rescue it permanently from infidel hands, per- 
 haps ten million lives. In modern times, back of politics, 
 I am told, the Crimean war was, as much as anything else, 
 a contest for possession of the key to this church. 
 
 But most thronging with holy memories is Moriah's 
 height, where Abraham, and for a thousand years, Israel, 
 and as many as believe, have by faith offered their sacrifice 
 unto God. As your readers know, the whole temple areci 
 is in the hand of the Moslem, and I confess I am glad it 
 is. At least, this is preferable to a duplication of the 
 scenes about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Over the 
 rock of Moriah's dome is the Mosque of Omar, with its ex- 
 quisite design and faultless execution, and to the south of 
 these spacious grounds is the Mosque of El Aksa. In the 
 temple area fwe best found seclusion from the curious 
 crowds, and in this spiritual capital of God's ancient peo- 
 ple we lingered as a vision of its courts, crowded with ex- 
 pectant Israel, peopled these vacant grounds. And as the 
 smoke and incense mingled before our fancy, as it as- 
 cended, we all but heard God's voice, and saw the shining 
 from the Holy Place of His old-time glor5\ 
 
 Another series of places is shown the tourist, as being 
 where, according to tradition, this or that biblical event 
 
 57 
 
took place. The credulous believe, while the judicial, with- 
 out denying, refuse to believe. Still other differences of 
 opinion as to location of some places, as Calvary, Caper- 
 naum, Sodom, etc., have arisen among scholars and archae- 
 ologists; often evidence and authorities being divided. 
 
 These are some of the difficulties that await every trav- 
 eler, eager to meet the heroic spirits in the places where 
 they wrought, and to catch somewhat of their inspiration 
 for these new times. The incongruity in many places be- 
 tween the magnificence which misguided man has placed and 
 the simplicity demanded by the event, not only interrupts 
 the craved vision, but is apt to tempt to righteous indigna- 
 tion, and I fear may be, indignation which is not alto- 
 gether righteous. 
 
 It is not without both a mental and spiritual effort that 
 these hindrances are turned into stepping stones, over which 
 we climb to audience with prophet and apostle. The purely 
 traditional and unimportant we dismissed in a moment. The 
 fine points of the archaeologist we passed by for the most 
 part. The strife between sects over places whose identifica- 
 tion is acknowledged by all, we tried to overlook. And we 
 had left ,and left most surely — what? Several places posi- 
 tively located, Jerusalem, with its undoubted wonderful en- 
 virons, the winding ways over the mountains to Samaria, 
 and Galilee, with its sea of blue, all covered by the loving 
 ministry of the iSaviour. These and far more than we can 
 here tell, are enough to refresh any heart and pay with a 
 measure that is pressed down and running over the voy- 
 ager for his long quest. 
 
 It is but frank to say that as in new-made America, so 
 even in Bethany or Gethsemane of Palestine, God speaks 
 only to the believing and hungry soul. Without faith it is 
 impossible to please Him, even though one stand under Cal- 
 vary's shadow; or to see Him without some holiness of 
 heart. No magic power dwells in the dumb witnesses of 
 
 58 
 
miracles to cover our sins and bring us Christ. They are 
 only a help, a subordinate help, too, yet one which is a priv- 
 ilege to have and for which for a life-time to be grateful. 
 
 There is danger, perhaps, of allowing one's mind to run 
 to useless reverie and even to enervating sentimentalism, 
 as he traces with eye and foot the pathways of prophets 
 and Saviour; lest after the mist of the transient emotion 
 has vanished, he is either no better or the worse for the 
 vision that would not tarry. But on the other hand, is 
 there not need in many of our lives, not for sickly senti- 
 mentalism, but for strong, manly, Christly emotion? Emo- 
 tion not isolated from truth and duty, but fed by the fuel 
 of holy facts, and guided in soberness of judgment; an 
 emotion that is unashamed to love strongly and sincerely, 
 and an emotion that pricks on, a none too willing will, to 
 choose, to act, and to lead? 
 
 Some of the heart's inner life had best not be committed 
 to ink, yet a few words of spiritual impression that came to 
 some of us while in these holy places, I wish briefly to add. 
 
 First of all, the new reality of the actors and their acts, 
 as I stood on their now deserted stage. Christ's and Peter's 
 sermons had an unknown concreteness as I stood in 
 the pulpit from which they were delivered. Seeing the ori- 
 ental life and temper, with the identical landscape before 
 the eyes, one, for instance, of the sweetest pictures in all 
 Christ's varied ministry of love, described in the hymn, ^^At 
 even, ere the sun was set, the sick around thee lay," had 
 even an added charm. Yes, I say, it helped to make more 
 vivid a Christ who to our material selves is none too near 
 and real. In every place, but especially in these historic 
 spots, one should feel the throb of God's great love. Here 
 love patiently wrought out what in eternity it had decreed. 
 And such love in the face of such undesert and such in- 
 gratitude! Are those yonder not tombs of prophets who 
 for the sake of bearing God's loving message of warning, 
 were slain? Here, the husbandmen beat and stoned the 
 
 59 
 
servants of the master of the vineyard. And when at last 
 the only Son was sent, they said, ^'Come, here is the Son, 
 let us kill him." And they did, and yonder is the place. 
 If there is anything in the association of ideas, then Pales- 
 tine speaks loudly yet tenderly of God's love. Who has not, 
 when visiting the grave of one loved and lost awhile, given 
 love's tribute of a tear, as silently memory brings in re- 
 view the affection that once throbbed for you in the prec- 
 ious dust at your feet? Then in Bethlehem and Gethsem- 
 ane, Golgotha and Olivet, shall we, can we, withhold the 
 tear of gratitude in remembrance of such amazing love here 
 poured forth. And sin never seemed more dark and sinful 
 than when I saw it silhouetted against the mountains of 
 God's wonderful love and of Canaan. 
 
 When and where God did His best, Satan did his worst. 
 The best point from which to seek to fathom to the nadir 
 of sin, is in that land under the zenith of God's portrayal 
 of true holiness. One more thought that must come to every 
 traveler in this land, where before the fleshly eye even 
 there stretches out place after place in which stand in long 
 parallel rows the heroes of faith and the wrecks of unbe- 
 lief. Here in the local coloring you can study from God-'s 
 Word the full fruitage of faith and of unbelief, and hear 
 the warning, fresh and strong against the latter, and the 
 persuading voice tender, yet mighty, wooing us to the for- 
 mer. And in a land of tombs, from many of which there 
 comes the unspoken story of a life-work unfinished or per- 
 haps not begun, Jesus' words, ''Work while it is day, for 
 the night comes, when no man can work," are never so ap- 
 propriate. If the words of Christ, ''What thou doest, do 
 quickly," to one bent on darkest sin, were in place, how 
 much more to us, bent to holier purpose, I trust, come these 
 same words. Unless quickly done, it is undone forever, and 
 may be we, the non-doer, too! 
 
 But few, comparatively speaking, of God's children, come 
 to these "holy places." And unquestionably they miss a 
 
 60 
 
definite touch and help, which this setting of Bible history 
 gives. Yet if denied this, the greatest and best help to 
 know and grow like God is not denied. This is God's Word 
 opened unto us by His Spirit, a heritage that is every one's 
 for the asking and the using. And if there be differences 
 of opinion or uncertainty as to the place where this or that 
 event took place, or as to the time or the manner, let us 
 be thankful there is no uncertainty as to the fact. And if 
 we cannot know all, may we be wise to grasp the plain es- 
 sentials, leaving to time and to God the unravelling of the 
 uncertain and unnecessary details. 
 
 01 
 
HIGH PLACES IN PALESTINE. 
 
 The geography of Palestine, though it looks as if it should 
 be very easy to learn, has to me been hard to picture ac- 
 curately and correctly. And since without being able to 
 do this, one misses many a beautiful and practical light 
 upon the Word of God, the study of the geography of this 
 land is very important. There came to me as I went over 
 this land, and I wish to suggest it to the younger readers, 
 an easy and beautiful way to study Palestine. It is not by 
 natural, tribal or political divisions. It is not to study a 
 city or section chronologically, as its history is unwound in 
 the Bible. But it is to take certain central places and as the 
 eye sweeps the horizon to note every place in sight that may 
 be connected with any part of the Bible history and so to 
 this center, where you stand, relate and tie the surround- 
 ing sites. Such a system is neither logical nor exhaustive, 
 yet as a side-study may be both pleasant and profitable. 
 
 Beginning at Jericho, we go to Jerusalem, and thence 
 northward to Mt; Gerizim, Nazareth and the Sea of Gali- 
 lee. Jericho is anything but a high place in point of alti- 
 tude, being 1,300 feet below the level of the sea. But as 
 a point of observation, though situated in the edge of the 
 level and depressed Jordan Valley, the compass of the naked 
 eye encloses a surprisingly large and interesting cluster of 
 Scripture incidents. Standing on the ruins of the first Jer- 
 icho, iwe see beneath our feet, uncovered by the recent Ger- 
 man excavations, the foundations of the walls, deep down 
 in the ground, that tumbled down at the blast of the rams' 
 horns. This city is utterly a ruin. A mile or two due south 
 is the site of the Jericho of Christ's time, also in ruins, 
 while a mile to your southeast is Jericho No. 3, a small 
 
 62 
 
squalid Moslem village \vitli, however, ILree or four modem 
 hotels. At the southeast corner of Joshua's Jericho is a 
 full-gro^Ti creek, bursting from the rock and supposed by 
 many to be the fountain whose waters were healed by 
 Elisha. The second Jericho referred tc) brings to mind our 
 Saviour's interview with Bartimaeus and the two blind beg- 
 gars, and also the conversion of Zaecheus, and his joyful 
 hospitality to the new-found Messiah. 
 
 Between the city of Rahab and that of this converted 
 publican is the road to Jerusalem, winding steeply up the 
 Kelt valley to the west, while far to the south, just west 
 of the Dead Sea, looms up the sterile mountains of the Wil- 
 derness of Judea. Directly between you and the Dead Sea, 
 and perhaps a little to the left, are, in the opinion of many, 
 the sites of iSodom and Gomorrah, whose ruins even are lost 
 to man's knowledge. Turn in your tracks forty-five degrees, 
 and across the Jordan plain or valley (15 miles wide) to 
 the left of the Dead Sea, you see like a mighty rampart of 
 blue, the Mountains of Moab. About half-way up stood 
 Herod's castle of Machaerus, where John the Baptist paid 
 his head for his soul. And farther and higher, on the sum- 
 mit, from where must be an unsurpassed panorama of Ca- 
 naan, lie Mt. Pisgah and Nebo. Looking now due east two 
 miles towards the Jordan is Gilgal, with its memorial 
 stones, the first capital of Israel's worship and in later 
 times the site of one of the schools of the prophets. Sev- 
 eral miles beyond here is the Jordan, and somewhere nearby 
 the scene of Christ's baptism. It can't be far to the place 
 where twice a dry passage way through the Jordan was 
 made by God — first for the home-coming of the long-time 
 wanderers, and then for the exit of the aged Elijah from 
 Canaan on his way to meet God's chariot. The blue moun- 
 tains up which he climbed to meet God are in plain view, 
 and down these same mountains to the Jordan, maybe by 
 the same way, slowly wound the three million children of 
 Jacob, weary and home-sick. If from our view-point in 
 
 63 
 
Jericho we turn towards the west, within a mile or two 
 rises a steep mountain, perhaps two thousand feet high. 
 This is the traditional Mount of Temptation. So is com- 
 pleted the circuit of vision from our first ''High Place.'' 
 
 The most interesting high place is our second, Jerusalem, 
 or more exactly, the top of the Mount of Olives. It is high 
 in altitude as well as commanding a panarama of magnifi- 
 cent sweep. The wilderness of Judea, the Dead Sea, the 
 Valley of the Jordan and beyond these the towering moun- 
 tain plateau of Moab can be distinctly seen in the east. 
 Facing the south, the nearest place of interest to be seen, 
 is, almost hidden behind the brow of the mount itself, that 
 loved retreat of Jesus from the tumult and unbeleif of Je- 
 rusalem — Bethany. Five miles farther south, but out of 
 sight by reason of an intervening hill, is Bethlehem, with 
 its manger, flanked on the east by the field where very 
 probably Ruth gleaned and the startled shepherds heard first 
 the angels' announcement of the glad tidings. 
 
 Southwest from where we stand on Olivet, and about two 
 miles away, in a deep ravine, meet the valleys of the Ked- 
 ron and of Hinnom, and beyond their junction the Hill of 
 Evil Counsel, where, according to tradition, Judas hanged 
 himself. But the western view from our high place! Who 
 can enumerate, much less describe, the capital events that 
 crowd the landscape? Below us, between us and the Ked- 
 ron, is Gethsemane. Up this brook's western hill winds the 
 road our Lord went and came to and from Bethany; and 
 the way he went from Gethsemane, but not the way he came 
 back to Olivet! And on the hill — Jerusalem! Nearest and 
 most conspicuous is Mt. Moriah, with the thirty-five acres 
 in the precincts of the temple. To the left and farther 
 back is seen Mt. Zion, the home and throne of Da\'id and 
 Solomon. Yonder in plain view, no matter which of the 
 disputed sites is taken, is Calvary! But enough to say Je- 
 rusalem — let each for himself fill out the picture. 
 
 64 
 
w 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 
 > 
 
On a high mountain top, far to the northwest, yet dis- 
 tinctly visible, is Mizpeh, where Israel offered sacrifices 
 and ratified the election of Saul as king, and also one of the 
 points where Samuel judged Israel. To the north are the 
 mountains of Benjamin, over which Christ and the Gali- 
 leans came to and went from the Jewish feasts. Nor must 
 we forget that on the mount on which we stand Jesus wept 
 over the doomed city across the Kedron, and also from here 
 he mounted up to his Mediatorial throne. From this high 
 place, then, we can see the stage upon which was acted half 
 and, (if one half can be more important than the other) the 
 more important half of Bible history. 
 
 Forty miles north of Jerusalem, almost the center of Pal- 
 estine, is another site with a commanding view of both land- 
 scape and history — Mt. Gerizim, our third high place. Some 
 of our party climbed to its summit and were richly re- 
 warded. The Jordan Valley and the mountains beyond were 
 clearly seen in the east, the Great Sea in the far west, and 
 snow-clad Hermon to the north. Across the narrow inter- 
 vening valley, rising to the height of 3,076 feet, is its twin, 
 Mt. Ebal, from which the curses were read, alternately with 
 the blessings from Gerizim, to Israel in the valley between. 
 Less than a mile west from this point, and in the same val- 
 ley, is Sheehem, the oldest sacred place in Palestine (Gen. 
 12:6), the capital of Jeroboam *s kingdom and today, as in 
 Christ's time, the center of the Samaritan faith. At the 
 eastern base of Mt. Gerizim, Jacob's Well is seen, bringing 
 to our mind that worthy patriarch and the wonderful in- 
 terview between Christ and the woman of Samaria. On 
 top of Gerizim are the ruins of the old Samaritan temple, 
 where, according to the Samaritans, Abraham offered up 
 Isaac and where in Christ's time they worshipped, and 
 where once a year yet, the dwindling sect of less than 200 
 go and offer their blood sacrifices on the day of the Pass- 
 over. 
 
 65 
 
I had from my reading, which has been none too extended, 
 no idea how beautiful is the place where Jesus grew iu 
 statue and in favor with God and man. If I had to name 
 one most beautiful view in Palestine, that view would be — 
 from Najzareth. The town, now become quite a city, is 
 compactly built three-fourths up a mountain side, rising 
 from the Plain of Jezreel. Its sole distinction is in being 
 the home and the scene of the interrupted ministry of that 
 one citizen whom it tried in vain to kill. Let us climb the 
 other fourth way to the top of the towering peak beyond 
 and above Nazareth, and from this high place, let us re- 
 late a few of the places and incidents before our eyes. In 
 a valley several thousand feet below lies Cana and thence 
 undulating plains, gTOwing hills and mountains of Naphtali 
 unto that hoary-headed sentinel in the north — Mt. Hermon. 
 A little south of east is rounded Mt. Tabor, while farther 
 east is the Plain of the Jordan and the mountains of Gil- 
 boa beyond. In a opposite direction over a hundred hill- 
 sides and mountain slopes, glistening in green as a late aft- 
 ernoon sun shone softly upon it, was the distant blue of 
 the Great Sea, over whose waters sailed unwilling Jonah, 
 and more than willing Paul. Jutting into this sea we saw 
 the western point of Mt. Carmel, and tracing its even out- 
 line to its southeastern point, we saw afar the traditional 
 place of the conflict between Elijah and the Prophets of 
 Baal. But we have saved for the last the prospect south- 
 ward. Here, shut in on all sides by mountains is a valley 
 of triangular green and in the gloi*y of that afternoon sun, 
 a scene of surpassing beauty — the Plain of Jezreel or Es- 
 draelon. The sides of this triangle are fifteen or twenty 
 miles each and if it were possible, even fuller of historic 
 interest than natural beauty. In this valley are Jezreel, Jenin, 
 Shunem, and on the sides of Little Hermon, which forms the 
 eastern side of the triangle, Nain and Endor. Across this 
 plain, back and forth went Elijah, Ahab, with infamous Jez- 
 
 66 
 
ebel, furious Jehu, scores of other Old Testament worthies., 
 as well as the boy, youth and preacher, Jesus. Here, fer- 
 tilizing the myriad flowers of this small area, blood has 
 flown in a large stream nearly four thousand years long. 
 For in this peaceful vale before our eyes, there locked in 
 frightful mortal combat, Barak and Sisera, Gideon and 
 Oreb and Zeeb, Josiah and Pharaoh, Romans and Jews, 
 Crusaders and (Saracens, and French (under Napoleon) and 
 Turks! While on the edge of Gilboa's mountains, forming 
 the southeast angle of this martial valley, Saul and Jona- 
 than came to their unhappy end at the hands of inveterate 
 Philistia. 
 
 From the viewpoint where we stood and enraptured 
 looked, Jesus, familiar with everj^ event and not unappre- 
 ciative of the natural glory, looked and looke'd as he grew 
 into maturity and when mature went forth to a battle far 
 eclipsing all of these. 
 
 Our last high place is the Sea of Galilee. Like Jericho, 
 it is high as a view-point, though far below the sea level. 
 From our little fisherman boats in the midst of this heart- 
 shaped blue, set in varying emerald of plain and mountain^ 
 let us take our last look at Canaan. Hermon, where per- 
 haps our Lord was transfigured, looks down as usual upon 
 us from its snowy north, while to the right of where the 
 Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee is the site of Bethsaida, to 
 the east Gergesa, and back of the steep mountains 'Hhe 
 desert," while coming down with the eye the western shore 
 are Chorazin, Bethsaida of Galilee, Capernaum, Magdala, 
 each with some rich, if sad, story of the Messiah's minis- 
 try. Looking southwest through a deep gorge are the Horns 
 of Hattin, where most agree, I believe, that Jesus preached 
 the Sermon on the Mount. But as if to cover all the land 
 here with words of truth and deeds of love were not enough, 
 he covered in like manner the waters about our boat, they 
 proving a pavement, a pulpit and a power to be tamed. And 
 
 67 
 
as if this busy life were not enough, here, after Calvary he 
 fished with the disconsolate fishermen, partook with them 
 of the fish-fry, that wondrous day-dawn and crowned this 
 incident which to me for very exquisiteness stands almost 
 apart, with His searching yet tender interview with Peter, 
 and then — vanished! 
 
 But enough. I thought these brief views from these high 
 places of nature and sacred history might help some in the 
 homeland from their high place of spiritual privilege better 
 to see and to serve our God the Most High. 
 
 68 
 
MISSIONS IN PALESTINE. 
 
 Yes, in Palestine — in Hebron, the home of Abraham, in 
 Bethlehem and Nazareth, and in the city where David sang 
 and Christ died. Of all places where one would think mis- 
 sions would not be necessary these would be the last. Yet 
 missions are here and the need is as strong as it is sad and 
 even humiliating. 
 
 The religious situation here is as complex as it can well 
 be, and the work of missions is correspondingly difficult. 
 Palestine (by which I mean the section west of the Jor- 
 dan) has been assumed by the Church of England as its 
 field. And the Missionary Society of this church is doing 
 a good work, mention of which will be made later on. Of 
 Protestant bodies we find also work being conducted by the 
 Christian and Missionary Alliance of '^The States'^ and by 
 the Lutheran Church of Germany. These churches are but 
 the beginning of ecclesiastical complexity, not to say clash- 
 ing. Strong, shrewd and aggressive en every high place 
 is the Romanist and more numerous but less powerful is the, 
 Greek Church (largely Russian), with its priests of long 
 hair and robes, but abbreviated education. Add to these, 
 Armenians, Syrians and Copts, with their chapels an^ 
 churches here and there, and then thousands of Jews, ac- 
 cepting one part (in form at least) of our Bible and reject- 
 ing the other, and the mixture becomes more mixed. To 
 complicate still further is the omnipresent Moslem, pro- 
 fessing greatly to revere Noah, Abraham and Christ, yet 
 who is a prince among unbelieving fanatics; and to com* 
 plete the picture of religious pandemonium, here are by the 
 thousands the children of Abraham according to the flesh 
 
 69 
 
(through Hagar) yet alas, poor wondering Bedouins, some- 
 body else's children according to the spirit. Here is a re- 
 ligious conglomerate of the most incompatible parts — a con- 
 dition conducive neither to spiritual peace nor progress. 
 
 As if that were not enough, the complexity and therefore 
 the diflSculty of mission work is still further increased by 
 the presence of the many ''holy places" It may sound 
 strange, yet I believe it is true, that the fact that Christ 
 was born in Bethlehem, coupled as it is with so much cere- 
 monial trumpeiy, is a hindrance to the Bethlehemites receiv- 
 ing Him as Saviour! The Nazarenes today as of old are 
 less ready to believe on the Carpenter's Son, because He 
 lived there and because of the lives of some of His follow- 
 ers there. Jerusalem, by being the capital of Israel, brings 
 together such crowds of pilgrims and fanatics and has been 
 the scene of such unseemly, even fatal clashes between the 
 misguided or supposed followers of Christ, that the people 
 bom and reared under the shadow of the Temple and of 
 Calvary, are, instead of being helped to the .Saviour by their 
 nativity in these places, rather hindered from coming to 
 Him! And as a result of man's perversions and perverse- 
 ness, the land that should go far to interpret God's loving 
 purpose in the Gospel of His Son (and does do so to the 
 intelligent and unfettered soul) is to the native untutored 
 folk here a stumbling block and a rock of offence. 
 
 Without this seemingly unnecessary handicap, the intel- 
 lectual and moral condition of these people offers sufficient 
 difficulties to satisfy the most strenuous. Ignorance lacks 
 only a small per cent of being unanimous and its twin- 
 brother, poverty, is co-extensive with it. And with the 
 narrow vision, ambition cannot thrive and in the homes of 
 penury, hope fights hard to live, and as a result the people 
 become listless, inert, and stolid. To see the dullness and 
 deadness of any people is painful enough, but to see these 
 things in this land of spiritual vision and apostolic achieve- 
 
 70 
 
ment is too pathetic for words. Under these unroseate cir- 
 cumstances, the work of winning to Christ these millions is 
 being prosecuted. The oldest and largest work is that by 
 the Church of England. I speak only of Protestant mis- 
 sions. My opportunity of first-hand knowledge was all too 
 limited, yet w^hat I saw and heard was doubtless typical of 
 the whole. Several of our party went over the English 
 College in Jerusalem and spent a pleasant hour with its 
 earnest young president. The college is young, small, in 
 hired quarters, and hardly a real college, yet doing good 
 work and with as encouraging a prospect as many another 
 institution of similar character. The opposition which was 
 most disheartening to me was that existing between this 
 institution and the Bishop Gobat School, also under the 
 Church of England and situated in Jerusalem. These rival 
 schools, as I was informed by disinterested parties, are car- 
 rying on a contest between high and low churchism! What 
 a pity the question of candles, phylacteries and foolishness 
 had not been left beyond the English channel so as not to 
 eonfuse and hinder in giving the cup of salvation to the 
 thirsting ones in the land of Jesus. 
 
 We had a glimpse of the church and hospital at Nablu5 
 (Shechem) and met several of the workers there. But one 
 of the best as well as the largest works of the Missionary 
 Society is in Nazareth. We had time to visit only the 
 girls' orphanage. This is ideally located, with beautiful 
 grounds and ample buildings and most efficiently managed 
 by some English ladies who were as hospitable to us as they 
 are devoted to these seventy fatherless little girls of Naza- 
 reth. Besides the three places mentioned, this church has 
 workers also in Jaffa, Haifa, Bethlehem and many country 
 villages. There are forty-five day schools for boys and girls 
 (the sexes have separate schools), two boarding schools for 
 boys and three for girls. This educational department in 
 point of the number of missionaries as well as efficiency 
 
 71 
 
most impressed me. Medical missions, with nine physicians, 
 a number of nurses, and two hospitals, come next in size 
 at least, while last, numerically, come the eight English 
 clergymen. In the regular preaching, the work struck me, 
 in comparison with the other departments, as being very 
 much under-manned, and for this reason, if not others, as 
 being the least aggressive form of the Missions' work. 
 
 The Christian and Missionai*y Alliance has a small work 
 in Jerusalem, Hebron and Beersheba. In the first two 
 places schools are conducted, in the first of which some of 
 us spent part of an afternoon; while in the hall of the Mis- 
 sion school in Hebron our party was kindly permitted co 
 eat their lunch and rest several hours. These workers are 
 few in number, and while their church relation is anoma- 
 lous and open to criticism, they are self-sacrificing and red 
 hot in their evangelistic zeal. 
 
 The German Lutherans have a number of semi-mission 
 or philanthropic institutions in Jerusalem, though accord- 
 ing to my informant, their attention is paid largely to Ger- 
 man colonists and pilgrims. 
 
 Perhaps Palestine is better manned than the majority of 
 mission fields, yet considering the peculiar difficulties, the 
 world-wide interest in this land and the fields white unto 
 harvest, one could not help wishing here a larger and more 
 aggressive work. At the same time, after seeing so many 
 corrupt forms of religion and so much irreligion, for the 
 few sacrificing lives our hearts were glad, and were per- 
 suaded that their fruits will certainly be larger as the years 
 go by. 
 
 Our Church has no financial part in any work in this 
 country. Yet for the sake of these Christless thousands 
 in the land that gave us Jesus, may each of us feel a new 
 interest, and forget not in our supplications to remember 
 these fainting ones under sin's heavy load and the mission- 
 ary endeavor in their behalf. 
 
 72 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 This letter does not purport to be critical or scholarly, 
 but aims only to give some of the impressions that came to 
 the writer during the six weeks' journeyings in the lands of 
 the Mosque and the Minaret. For impressed we were. None 
 but dead men could be unimpressed. 
 
 One thought that would not leave me, is that Mohamme- 
 danism as a religion is a genius. A twin thought and one 
 inseparable from its mate is, that it is an evil genius. The 
 history of this religion from its beginning in the seventh 
 century till it numbers 225,000,000 followers today, or 
 one-seventh of the human family, is startHng. Besides 
 overrunning Africa, Asia, part of Europe, and possessing 
 a thousand islands in many seas, we have over a quarter 
 of a million under our own Stars and Stripes in the Phil- 
 ippines. This brief statement proves the genius of Islam 
 just as a little scrutiny of the fruitage of these thirteen 
 centuries will prove how evil a genius it has been and is. 
 
 There have occurred to me a number of phases, making 
 up this composite genius, and for what they are worth they 
 are briefly given below. 
 
 First. Its Geographical Center — Mecca. It may seem 
 an indifferent thing that this religion has a local world- 
 capital which is to every believer the center of the world. 
 Yet this doubtless has been and certainly today is a most 
 powerful unifying factor. Thither they go from all over 
 the Moslem world, and in so doing gain for themselves great 
 merit. The fact that Mecca is isolated and extremely hard 
 to get to but enhances the value to the pilgrim by increas- 
 ing the difficulties to be overcome. The prayer-niche in 
 every Mosque and every worshipper in prayer, faces Mecca, 
 
 73 
 
so that the architecture of one and the physical attitude 
 of the other brings before the faithful a picture of the Holy 
 Cit}^, his Jerusalem, the citadel of his great prophet. A 
 concrete capital appeals mightily to man who is so largely 
 concrete. 
 
 Second. Another thing, seemingly insignificant, which 
 helps to make powerful this faith is its short epigrammatic 
 shibboleth: *^ There is no God but one, and Mohammed is 
 his prophet." The child learns it among his first lessons. 
 The most ignorant know it and the scholarly know little 
 more. Each devout worshipper repeats it thirty-five times, 
 five times every day, and it is the battle cry of the soldier 
 as he rushes into death. As Mecca among places ~is the 
 center of the Moslem world, so this shibboleth is the heart 
 of the Moslem creed. 
 
 Third. In few particulars is this Eastern faith more won- 
 derful than in its adaptability to the Oriental temperament. 
 They like form, and the five daily calls to prayer, the ablu- 
 tions and other requirements satisfy this demand. They 
 grow from listlessness into stoicism and find this disposi- 
 tion met in the fatalism of Mohamet. In common with his 
 Western brother, the man in the East loves self-merit and 
 this desire is gratified, too, while no religious duty imposed 
 by his religion is much more to his liking than the fighting 
 enjoined by his creed, or at least by its history. The Ori- 
 ental is superstitious to the last degree, but not so much 
 that his religion doesn't satiate him in this commodity and 
 still have some to spare. 
 
 Fourth. Their method of religious education (and that 
 is nearly the only kind they have) may violate every rule 
 of pedagogy but it accomplishes wonders in the way they 
 wish it. Their method seems to be to memorize the Koran. 
 Child, youth, even old men do it. In the Arab University 
 in Cairo, with its twelve thousand students, I saw every 
 age from seven years to seventy and seven — or to old gray- 
 
 74 
 
headed men at least — swaying their bodies back and fortl? 
 as they mumbled over portions of the Koran. The Koran 
 is magnified till it stands out before them unrivaled. From 
 their standpoint they know it and believe in it absolutely, 
 consequently when it commands or prohibits, the Moslem 
 world obeys to an extent truly remarkable. And, by the way, 
 what wonders they have wrought by this method in behalf of 
 their faith is an illustration, if extreme, of what we Pres- 
 byterians may secure for our precious faith by a greater fi- 
 delity in memorizing the Word of God and the Catechisms. 
 
 Fifth. Their Shibboleth has been called the gTeat truth 
 and the great lie. It is well described so. And on the 
 strength of that truth, which appeals to every rational man 
 with irresistible force, that is seen in nature and in man, 
 the great lie rode in. Mohamet so joined in unholy union 
 these two statements, that the true one might tow down 
 the centuries the false one, till aided by unbelief and lust 
 it should grow in strength to go in its own power. In an 
 age of oncoming idolatry, Islam's genius showed itself by 
 putting paramount a much needed doctrine, ^^ There is but 
 one God;'' and showed this genius to be evil by linking to 
 it the lie, ** Mohamet is his prophet.'^ 
 
 Sixth. Following a suggestion from the preceding para- 
 graph, we find still another phase of this evil genius. Mo- 
 hamet, who came in frequent if not daily contact with Jews 
 and Christians, instead of antagonizing them by utter re- 
 jection of the Bible, was shrewd enough to take from the 
 Scriptures (accepted in whole or in part by these sects) 
 some of its greatest characters, such as Noah, Abraham, 
 David and Christ. These characters he remolded accord- 
 ing to his own fancy which meant their distortion and sub- 
 ordination to himself. In an hour's conversation with an 
 intelligent Moslem, he seemed greatly shocked and pro- 
 tested vigorously when I asked him his reason for not ac- 
 cepting Christ. '^We do believe in Christ, but He is not di- 
 
 75 
 
vine; He did not die and therefore did not make any atone- 
 ment. . . . And last and greatest is Mohamet." Tims 
 has this religion thrived, not by directly denying God's 
 Word, but by subtly changing it or part of it into a lie. 
 
 Seventh. To add only one more phase, Mohammedanism 
 is an easy religion and man likes that kind. Its morals are 
 loose. The founder himself taught by precept and example 
 how and when the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and possibly 
 other of the Commandments could be piously broken. This 
 license to sin under the cover of religion appealed to the 
 Eastern sinner who wanted to sin and at the same time be 
 religious. Poor carnal man loves the carnal, and this re- 
 ligion accommodates this propensity — sanctifies his carnal- 
 ity, so to speak. 
 
 ''And its fruits?'' you say. Judged by this scriptural 
 meter, the tree of Islam is one of the sourest of wild crabs. 
 It is self-condemned. Its a long dark story — many of these 
 fruits I have read of, some I have seen. There is blood, 
 rivers of blood — not sacrificial or sacrificing — but to satiate 
 cruelty, rapine, lust and to spread the faith! Deadening 
 conservatism, superstition, fanaticism — these are painfully 
 apparent in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Turkey today. 
 
 Other marks of this evil genius are degradation of wo- 
 man, brutalizing of man, and spoliation of home. Poverty 
 of every kind is found everywhere in its wake — ^poverty of 
 material wealth in some of the richest lands of the world, 
 impoverishment of mind, illiteracy being all but a universal 
 blight in Moslem lands and worst of all poverty of moral 
 and spiritual graces. 
 
 And if one asks (as he must when he lives in this at- 
 mosphere a few weeks), how did Islam arise so near to the 
 land of the Bible and so thoroughly overpower this and all 
 contiguous countries, the answer is not far to seek. The 
 Christian church had been planted in Arabia, as well as in 
 Egypt, Asia Minor and Syria ,and of course Palestine, but 
 
 76 
 
it did what Christ warned the seven churches of Asia 
 against, corrupting doctrine, and consequently Christian liv- 
 ing and activity. With a cornipted creed, a compromising 
 life and inevitably a non-missionary spirit, the Church of 
 Jesus Christ was in time run out of its first and what 
 should have been its strongest territory, the land of its na- 
 tivity. Can any one read history here and see not a 
 solemn warning for the Church of today? 
 
 Against this religion, strongly entrenched, the scattered 
 missionary forces have been quietly working and praying 
 and — waiting. The full victory is not today, nor probably 
 tomorrow, but its futurity does not affect its certainty. But 
 the past is not without its trophies. Though the missions 
 *o this pagan faith are probably less known, their workers 
 have not been less patient and persevering and heroic than 
 those to India, China and Africa. Of missions in Egypt and 
 Palestine I have spoken in previous letters; of missions in 
 Syria and Turkey I have not time to speak at length. I 
 may add, however, that I heard a good sermon by a big 
 Irish Presbyterian missionary in a native church in that 
 most fanatical Moslem city — Damascus, saw beside the im- 
 mense ruins of heathen temples at Baaibec a mission school 
 and church and was shown over the magnificent Protestant 
 Syrian College at Beirut with its 848 students from all 
 over the Turkish Empire. 
 
 Back of politics, I was told more than once, that the 
 leavening work of this college and Roberts' College at Con- 
 stantinople, was the primary reason of last year's revolu- 
 tion, which resulted in the overthrow of old Abdul Hamid 
 and his miserable regime. We can often see improvements 
 in matters of liberty and civilization more plainly than 
 spiritual life and advance, but as effect must follow ade- 
 
 77 
 
quate cause, so are there the fruits of redemption among 
 this obdurate people. And these new proofs of God's 
 power, and seals of His blessing are also earnest of what 
 will be when His church by faith, prayer, and obedience, 
 fully witnesses here of the Christ. 
 
 78 
 
FOUR SUNSETS. 
 
 I dare not say they were more beautiful than some all 
 of us have seen in North Carolina; not more beautiful, but 
 different. And I am foolishly attempting to give some idea 
 of them to those who were not with me to see and enjoy 
 them. 
 
 We had had a strenuous day, riding donkeys out across 
 the Nile Valley into the desert to see the Sakkara Pyramid. 
 And when we were back to the Nile and aboard our boat, 
 the afternoon was far spent. Down this great river for fif- 
 teen miles we were lazily riding to Cairo. Hardly were we 
 half way when a silence came over our party as all eyes 
 turned to watch the sun about to drop into the yellow sands 
 of the Lybian desert. There was present the charm of the 
 Nile as its waters lapped our boat. There was the beauty 
 \of green-fringed banks, almost black in the dying light, 
 while here and yonder were clumps of quaint homes of still 
 quainter people; beyond the blossoming valley could be seen 
 one or two projecting points of barren sand dunes, above 
 was a cloudless sky, and diffused between our feasting eyes 
 and the sun of this closing day, was a light, soft and rest- 
 ful. 
 
 Suddenly, as if anxious to escape our impertinent stare, 
 bigger and softer the sun grew as faster and faster he hur- 
 ried our of our sight. Now he touches Lybia; now is half 
 buried in its sand. Look! only his eyes and forehead are 
 seen as he gives us a parting peep. Another moment — a 
 golden crescent, a point, a glow; then a sigh, a murmur 
 of admiration from all as one, and that fair Egyptian day 
 lay dead. 
 
 79 
 
To add a further interest as well as beauty, after the 
 sun was gone in the west, we saw just out of the Arabian 
 Desert on the east, the full orbed vestal of night, smiling 
 her greetings at us and proifering her help to guide us 
 safely down the Nile. 
 
 Few spots in our itinerary were all of our party more 
 anxious to see than the Sea of Galilee. Rounding a low 
 green mountain, we caught our first view of this sea, nest- 
 ling far below us. It was raining, and in the rain we 
 alighted on its bank and in the soaking weeds and grass, 
 ate our lunch. While waiting for the tents to arrive and 
 to be pitched, some of us, despite the warning clouds, put 
 out in boats for Capernaum, eight miles away. It rained 
 harder and harder, and Galilee showed she had not forgot- 
 ten how to shake herself into a tempest. But on we went, 
 though some were sick and others, if not scared, at least 
 were nervous. Returning late in the afternoon, the wind 
 and rain had ceased and the clouds had become leaden. Our 
 little boat, hugging the shore, came opposite the plain look- 
 ing westward that lies between Magdala and Bethsaida. 
 Then suddenly the sun, though hidden, blazed from behind 
 the clouds, with a glory that diffused itself down 
 to and across the little sea. It was a sunset 
 different from any I had ever seen. The effect was some- 
 what as if some city between which and you a great moun- 
 tain intervened should be burning in the night. No clear 
 outline, or rivalling colors on jealous clouds were there, 
 but all about one rich, soft, mellow glory. As this light 
 grew from dimness into darkness, we filled the evening air 
 with that beautiful hymn, ' ' Sweet Galilee, ' ' while the steady 
 stroke of our sturdy boatmen were bearing us, wet, tired, 
 hungry and happy to our tents on the shore below Tiberias. 
 
 And we will be pardoned, I know, when we confess that 
 there was enough sentiment in us that made it impossible 
 to dissociate this lake from the works and words and bless- 
 
 80 
 
ed presence of Him whose glory these two thousand years 
 has lingered here and whose still hovering presence added 
 to the charm of our first and last closing day on Galilee. 
 • The two preceding sunsets we saw from the water, the 
 two following froril the land. Or two we saw from boats 
 and two from trains. 
 
 All day long we had had a wild and wonderful climb out 
 of Palestine, up rugged and desolate mountains, across 
 Sjnria's plain and toward the close of day were drawing 
 near to Damascus. Our train was going north, down a 
 gently sloping plain; to our east were mountains, and to 
 our west the long irregular and snow-clad backbone of Mt. 
 Hermon. Behind this mountain the sun was soon to set. 
 Above lofty Hermon, circling about as birds making ready 
 for their evening perch were some banks of white clouds. 
 Between these clouds and the mountain was a narrow clear 
 space. The sun was making ready to cross this, then would 
 be the end. It is foolhardy to try to describe it. I make no 
 such attempt, but give only a hint here and there to help 
 your imagination fill out the glory between. 
 
 The clouds, taking advantage of their height, caught great 
 annfuls of the sun's divinest colors and flung them lavishly 
 at our feet. The long ridge of the mountain, as the sun 
 dropped behind it, turned from white into golden snow — • 
 golden and set with ten million diamonds as each crystal 
 glistened and scintillated in the evening glow. Watch the 
 colors change! The brilliant bright of the golden snow be- 
 comes richer and darker; one by one, then hundreds by 
 hundreds, of these crystaline diamonds of ice, winked wear- 
 ily at us and went to sleep, till, as our train sped on and 
 swerved to the east, only a soft golden glow stood out be- 
 fore the oncoming evening star. 
 
 An early breakfast in Athens, a four hours' ride witli 
 our train skirting the Bay of Salamis and the Saronic Gulf, 
 
 81 
 
a three hours' ramble among the ruins of old Corinth and 
 we were again on train for another four hours' run to Pat- 
 ras, on the western shore of Greece, where our waiting ship 
 rode at anchor in the Ionian Sea. Through olive, grape 
 and wheat fields we sped, with mountains to our south and 
 the quiet blue of the Corinthian Gulf to the north and be- 
 yond classic and snow-crowned Parnassas. Our fourth sun- 
 set was to be near the end of this day's journey and fitted 
 perfectly into this beautiful Grecian scene. The fact is, the 
 sun did not set once that afternoon, but three times. This 
 unusual feat, added to the actual charm, is why I am tell- 
 ing you of it. As the sun was, as one would say, "a, half- 
 hour high," there came directly between it and our eyes a 
 great mountain across the gulf. We saw the sun set beliind 
 this mountain; set while yet it was day. Another ten min- 
 utes as our train swiftly followed the bending track as it 
 gTipped the curving shore and we were beyond that large 
 mountain and there over a much lower mountain was the 
 sun with another soft good-night smile at us. Here we 
 watched the second sunset, as the King of Day quickly 
 dropped again out of sight and was, as we thought, hurry- 
 ing on to wake up the Chinese. But as we were in a strange 
 land and therefore expecting strange things, we kept watch- 
 ing to see if something else would not happen, or at least 
 to enjoy the stealing on of darkness. 
 
 But instead of darkness we were to have another sunset. 
 by this time our train, nearing Patras, was past this second 
 mountain and out yonder in the Ionian Sea with five min- 
 utes more of life, was our same old sun, getting ready for 
 his third retiring on this same day. With face bigger and 
 beaming more than ever, giving us a gracious good night, 
 pillowing his head on Ionia's soft and heaving bosom, he 
 drew up the cover of the deep. And God slowly drew the 
 curtains of the coming night and stationed about his couch 
 
 82 
 
a thousand shining sentinels. And by their kindly light, in 
 the gloaming of that Grecian evening, we disembarked from 
 our train and the cheery lamps on our ship, awaiting us in 
 the harbor, invited us to rest and to our further voyage. 
 
 Must not the God of these and other sunsets, be Himself 
 a God of beauty and glory? Can these masterpieces be, 
 with no master? How wonderful a God and one to be adored 
 is He who with the richest pigments of earth and cloud and 
 heaven, paints on the broad canvas of the horizon such 
 matchless moving pictures of glory! Shall we see and 
 praise the work and not the workman? If the handiwork 
 so entrances, how much more the fashioning hand. /So 
 that we, as truly as David, may say, ^^The heavens declare 
 the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handi- 
 work." And not alone in these isolated cases in foreign 
 lands, but as God maketh the sun to shine and to set for 
 the just and the unjust, and sendeth along with His bless-, 
 ing the early and latter rain, that one who is wise will see 
 each succeeding day, beauty and blessings in God's world 
 and always see above the earthly, the heavenly, in the gift 
 the Giver, and beyond the glory that now is, the sure prom- 
 ise of a far exceeding glory, yet to be. 
 
 83 
 
FOUR GREAT CHURCHES. 
 
 In every Southern landscape, whether country or city, 
 one of the prominent features is the church or churches. lu 
 London and Rome, even in pagan Constantinople and Jerus- 
 alem, the places of worship stand out in bold relief from 
 the forests of buildings. As well not go to the last two 
 cities as not to see the Mosques of Omar and St. Sophia; 
 and no one has been to the mighty capitals on the Thames 
 and the Tiber who has not seen St. Paul's and St. Peter's. 
 Of these four places of worship we wish to speak. The first 
 two are really not churches, and the Moslem would be 
 dreadfully insulted at his two sacred Mosques being put 
 in the same catalogue with sanctuaries of the Infidel of the 
 West. But if the Christian can stand it, the pagan will 
 have to also. 
 
 It seems invidious in speaking of mosques to leave out 
 Mahomet Ali, in Cairo, and among cathedrals, stately Notre 
 Dame, beside the Seine. But when a volume might be writ- 
 ten about each one of these, it seems sufficiently bold in the 
 space of a letter to attempt these four chief places of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 The Mosque of Omar has its name from General Omai, 
 not because he was particularly pious, even after the Mos- 
 lem fashion, but because he wrested Jeinisalem from the 
 hand of the Christian. The other part of its name, 
 '^Mosque," is a misnomer, for in the correct sense of the 
 word, it is not a mosque at all. It lacks the necessary min- 
 aret, and the interior, where the faithful usually worship, 
 no human foot is allowed ever to tread. 
 
 For situation, this mosque is beautiful and even more 
 
 84 
 
historic than beautiful. It is not only in Jerusalem, but on 
 the spot in that holy city where perhaps nine-tenths or more 
 of the interest in that city centers — the temple site. There 
 is practical agreement that this mosque is on Moriah, where 
 Abraham offered up Isaac, and where Solomon, Zerrubbabel 
 and Herod built temples. Any building, be it ever so rude, 
 in so sacred and world-affecting a locality, could not but be 
 famous. But the Mosque of Omar so far from being rude 
 is most imposing, of richest material, of most symmetrical 
 proportions and of faultless design. 
 
 Of octagonal shape (each side being sixty-four feet), 
 with many massive windows of exquisite mosaic of glass and 
 marble, with graceful arches surmounted by an immense 
 gilt dome, the exterior, whether viewed from the Mount of 
 Olives in the distance, or nearer at hand, from Calvary, 
 Zion or Moriah itself, is full of eye-satisfaction. It is said 
 to be the finest building in Asia, and some have pronounced 
 it the most beautiful building in existence. 
 
 The interior is entirely unique. The object of its erec- 
 tion seems to have been to cover and guard the *'Dome of 
 the Rock," which is alike sacred to Moslem and Christian. 
 Directly under the dome of this mosque, guarded from in- 
 trusion by a strong railing, in subdued light approaching 
 semi-darkness, is the natural rock (57 by 43 feet) on which 
 for a thousand years Israel offered sacrifices. Two concen- 
 tric circles of marble columns make two circular corridors 
 around this sacred rock. The upper portion of the interior 
 wall is an artistic design in mosaic and above that a band 
 of deep blue on which in gilt Arabic letters are texts from 
 the Koran. And pagan temple though it be, we found here 
 a delicious quietness, a restful refuge and a sweet solem- 
 nity as well as a lingering echo of that Divine voice heard 
 so often here in the long ago. 
 
 Between the Golden Horn and Marmora, in the city of 
 
 85 
 
Constantine (for such is the meaning of Constantinople), 
 hard by where two great seas and continents meet and 
 where meet also paganism and Christianity, as well as the 
 orient and the Occident, stands magnificent .St. Sophia. For 
 more than a thousand years this city, which then lay on 
 the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, was called Chalcedon, 
 till indeed the Greeks settled on the opposite shores in Eu- 
 rope and called the city Byzantium. This name in turn 
 gave way in the fourth century for the name of the great 
 ruler of the new empire, whose capital it became. In this 
 city of three names and three millenniums, in both Europe 
 and Asia, and on the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the 
 Sea of Marmora, swarm legends and fairly teem history of 
 contending empires and religions. So at this meeting place 
 of continents and seas, of races and religions, of myth and 
 fact, on the site of an early heathen temple (and thus from 
 time immemorial a place of worship) Constantine erected 
 the first St. Sophia, and not willing to name it after any 
 man, dedicated it to Christ himself under the title of Sancta 
 Sophia, or the Holy "Wisdom. 
 
 Here in 404 the eloquent Chrysostom preached and so 
 denounced imperial sins that he was banished. The popu- 
 lace were so enraged by the preacher's banishment that they 
 burned to the ground the noble structure — not a bad pro- 
 ceeding when the uncensorable preacher is so treated. A 
 second building was burned in the sixth century, when Jus- 
 tinian built the present imposing structure. An angel is 
 said to have given him the plan in a dream. The emperor 
 worked with the men and angels were popularly believed to 
 have helped. On Christmas eve, 573, the emperor entered 
 the completed structure and exclaimed, *^ Solomon, I have 
 conquered thee." For eight hundred years it continued a 
 Christian church. After centuries of vain efforts by the 
 Moslems, Mohammed II, in 1453, took the city and rode his 
 horse into St. Sophia, and high on a marble column the 
 
 86 
 
bloody print of his hand is still shown the traveller. The 
 Greek altar was taken down, the minaret was erected, and 
 every day since from it the muezzin has called the faithful 
 
 to prayer. 
 
 No adequate idea can be given of this magnificent edifice. 
 It is so enclosed on the exterior by surrounding buildings 
 that its vastness and richness are not realized till the trav- 
 eler enters. Inside, with slippered feet and hungry eyes we 
 leisurely strolled under the vaulted dome, between rows of 
 exquisite marble and poiphyry columns and around the whole 
 circuit of its many-niched walls. With the dome one hun- 
 dred and eighty feet above our heads and broad naves be- 
 fore us, the impression was of vastness. Standing, as it 
 seems, on acres of richest Persian rugs, surrounded by pillars 
 of serpentine and porphyry, some taken from the temple of 
 Diana in Ephesus, others from the temple of the Sun at 
 Baalbek, besides other booty from conquered cities and 
 above on all sides in eastern lavishness, gold figures, letter. 
 ing and emblems— the impression was of richness. High on 
 the walls in large graceful Arabic script of gold, the words: 
 ''There is but one god, and Mahomed is his prophet,'' 
 silently proclaims Moslemism. While here and there, still 
 visible despite the efforts to erase, are Christian emblems 
 and faint yet traceable, over the former place of the altar 
 is to be seen the gilt figure of Christ in the act of blessing 
 —a prophecy this of the unconquerable Christ who will yet 
 again receive worship here. To a soldier, destroying these 
 Christian emblems, Mahomet the conqueror, killing him at 
 a blow, said: ''Let these things be; who knows but that 
 in another age they can serve another religion than that of 
 
 Islam." ^ ^ ^ 
 
 On the banks of the Tiber, near the old Caesar homestead, 
 and where dwelt also wealth and law, power and profligacy, 
 stands the most bewilderingly wonderful building we have 
 ever seen— St. Peter's. Joining it is the White House of 
 Romanism, the largest palace in the world, with its mora 
 
 87 
 
than eleven hundred rooms. Here more powerful than the 
 old-time Roman Emperors, lived in the middle ages the Ro- 
 man Pontiff and here he still lives, though shorn of his 
 former power. Here also dwell a small army of shrewdest 
 diplomats and ecclesiastical statesmen, and in adjoining 
 quarters are the famous Vatican galleries of painting and 
 sculpture. Here in closest juxtaposition is the trinity — St. 
 Peter's, the Vatican and the Vatican Museums — that with 
 religion, art, architecture and music attracts the world. It 
 was a wise, if not wily churchman who thus located St. 
 Peter's, it was consummate genius and skill that designed 
 and built this imperial building, it was the gold of the world 
 that footed the bills and today it abides, a ceaseless wonder 
 in this world so full of wonders. The Piazza of St. Peter's 
 is a square or open court (a home-made North Carolinian 
 would call it the front yard) surrounded by an immense 
 colonnade of three rows of pillars, sixty-four feet high, 
 upon the top of which are balustrades with 162 statues of 
 various and sundry saints. In the center of this piazza is 
 a tapering obelisk from Heliopolis, on each side of which 
 is a generous fountain, while up a flight of steps approach- 
 ing the church are statues of Paul and Peter, and on top of 
 the church walls are large figures of Christ and the apostles. 
 This ''front yard" is spacious and regal enough to prepare 
 you for great things within. And this preparation is no 
 false alarm. One is here never allowed to lose sight of 
 Peter. Within these walls he is omnipresent in emblem. 
 Beside the statue guarding the entrance, an inimitable 
 mosaic of him walking on the water is before the door 
 within the vestibule, down the main nave is a bronze figure 
 with his much-kissed toe and around the base of the central 
 dome are the words, in Latin, ''Thou art Peter, and npon 
 this rock I will build my church, and I will give unto thee 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Further on is the 
 Altar of St. Peter, under which some of his bones rest (his 
 bones are in great demand, and from the various places 
 
 88 
 
claiming them he must have had an extra set), and where 
 only the Pope may read mass; still farther is the bronze 
 throne holding the wooden chair reputed to have been used 
 by Peter. Though figures are dead things, yet it will help 
 to picture the vastness here to tell the complete length is 613 
 feet, the width 446 feet, and the interior height of the dome 
 is 440 feet. It is said 80,000 people on Easter, find standing 
 room within these walls. This immense space from the tes- 
 selated marble floor to the emblematic designs on the arching 
 dome and from wall to wall is filled with such a wealth of 
 statuary, paintings, mosaics and gold decorations as to daze 
 the ordinary mortal. All about are many chapels and altars 
 with burning lamps and kneeling worshippers, w^hile again 
 the whole interior is at once a graveyard, a Catholic Hall of 
 Fame, a gallery or series of galleries of paintings and sculp- 
 ture and of music and architecture. Again I want to invoke 
 the help of Arithmetic. The cost of the main part of this 
 building was $60,000,000, but the whole of St. Peter's, with 
 its priceless furnishings, is worth many times that amount. 
 I believe it was to raise $50,000,000 for its completion that 
 indulgences were put on the market and that a too indus- 
 trious sale af this novel and popular article of commerce 
 by one John Tetzel aroused Martin Luther, who, under God 
 aroused Europe, which latter arousement is familiarly known 
 as the Reformation. 
 
 One evening alone, I heard the Sistine choir sing at Ves- 
 pers, as I strolled quietly around and through the sombre 
 shadows of the tombs of popes and prelates, martyrs and 
 fonfessors, when all had gone except a stray worshipper or 
 \4sitor who happened like myself to have tarried late. The 
 oncoming darkness, the smoking incense and burning candles 
 on different altars, the silence, the solemnity, the flitting 
 here and there with soft footfall of robed figures, made a 
 scene or rather an experience weird, almost uncanny and 
 unforgettable. 
 
 ''Impressions?" you say. Without the slightest irre- 
 
 89 
 
verence, I felt that this and similar churches have become 
 more sights for tourists than sanctuaries for worshippers. 
 I disliked the guides and guards, though I suppose these 
 are necessary, the mendicants and venders, the fees and the 
 general air of a museum or show rather than of a church. I 
 felt when I saw the box and above ^t the sign, ''For the 
 decoration of the cathedral," that I'd come nearer giving 
 something to defray the expense of taking down some of the 
 surplus of the decorative commodity. It seemed to me these 
 obscured rather than revealed God. I felt that religion so 
 near its alleged fount should have less of formalism and 
 more of spiritual spontaneity. And I felt that such mag- 
 nificence did not comport with such misery and poverty as 
 abounds in Italy. I felt like saying with one of old, though 
 I hope from a purer motive. ''Why was not this . . . sold 
 . . . and given to the poor." Yet for whatever of God any 
 soul may have found, so far from denying, would I rather 
 rejoice. I was glad it is not mine to judge. And in the 
 presence of all but infinite complexity, I felt grateful for 
 the simplicity of my North Carolina church. And until the 
 day God is pleased to revive and purge the worship of these 
 many millions of my brother-men who bow at this and kin- 
 dred shrines, may we trust that through the labyrinth of 
 ceremony and the maze of encumbering adornment that they 
 might not entirely miss seeing and knowing Jesus the Christ. 
 St. Paul's — time and space positively forbid. 
 
 90 
 
FOUR EUROPEANISMS. 
 
 Like oiir country Europe and the farther East have quite 
 an assortment of isms and like ours theirs are good, bad and 
 indifferent. At least I am positive about the bad variety 
 and I trust that the first mentioned kind was more numer- 
 ous than I actually saw. To see and study these systems 
 of social, political and moral order was to me more interest- 
 ing than to ramble through castles. The former are factors 
 in the titanic struggle of the present. The latter only sur- 
 vivors of the finished combat of yesterday. 
 
 Militaryism. 
 
 One of the most striking differences, occupationally 
 speaking, between Europe and America is the absence here 
 and the omnipresence there of the soldier. One may travel 
 thousands of miles here and not see a soldier, much less 
 forts and barracks, but in Europe the traveller encounters 
 with a monotonous regularity battleships by sea and forts 
 and soldiers by land. We frequently saw from our car win- 
 dows cavalry and infantry on the march through the coun- 
 try or drilling on their numerous parade gTounds. They 
 swarmed in every city and we soon learned whenever we 
 saw an immense barn-like building to ask no questions but 
 call it '' barracks" and go on. I know full well how the 
 ordinary mortal hates figures, yet they are necessary evils 
 and sometimes serve you a good turn. For instance, the 
 figures I am going to give below will fill this column about 
 as thick as the foreign landscape is filled with soldiers and 
 so help you to some appreciation of how big and important 
 is my first ism. The standing army of Europe is nearly 
 5,000,000 men, while that of the United States is only 
 56,000. That is its size in time of peace when there's noth- 
 
 91 
 
ing to do but drill and make faces across the frontier at 
 the other fellow. The military strings are so fixed that on 
 a war footing the ai-mies of Europe number only 37,000,000 
 men! And very naturally this costs something. The mili- 
 tary bill of Europe in time of peace is in round numbers 
 $2,000,000,000 per year. That is, two thousand millions, or 
 enough to build 20,000 good sized cotton mills or, to better 
 purpose, enough to flood the heathen world with the gospel 
 and have a snug sujn to help Europe feed her large pauper 
 class. France's army in time of peace is 613,000; in other 
 words, though smaller in area than Texas, her army is eleven 
 times as big as that of the whole United States. Italy, less 
 than one-thirty-fourth the size of our country, has 260,000 
 men in her army or nearly five times as many as we have. 
 In proportion to area Italy's army is 170 times as large as 
 ours. And all these thousands just to protect against the 
 general public, Vesuvius, earthquake-riven Reggio, a grotto 
 or two and a few ruins ! Switzerland, less than one-third the 
 size of North Carolina, stuck on the top of the dome of Eu- 
 rope, where an invading army if unopposed could hardly get 
 to, you would think would have a very small army. Yet her 
 standing (and sliding) army numbers 145,000, or nearly 
 three times that of our land, which comprises virtually a 
 continent beside governing great islands in distant oceans. 
 But those glaciers must be defended at all hazards! 
 
 These five million men out of the producing and in the 
 consuming class have helped to make extremely grave the 
 economic question which stirs and threatens Europe today. 
 To this we shall refer again. Then not less important and 
 far-reaching it seems to me, is the social, moral and religious 
 problems raised by such large armies. These men impressed 
 by law into the service, away from home and its healthful 
 ties, out of the ordinary and natural pursuits create a diffi- 
 cult moral problem. For the soldier's camp is by no means 
 a camp-meeting, neither a Sunday school, but religiously 
 speaking a difficult and unfavorable field for moral and spir- 
 
 92 
 
itual culture. And I do not write unsympathetieally about 
 the army for I am a soldier myself — have I not fought val- 
 iantly for three summers at Morehead City and last summer 
 at Chickamauga with the invincible First North Carolina 
 Infantry? — but like all sensible people, I recognize the 
 necessity even in this land for a standing army and even in 
 these pipingest times of peace. I quite love the soldier of 
 my own land but the illimitable magnitude of the armies of 
 Europe, all but overcame me. 
 
 Clericalism. 
 
 This ism — one of the sleekest of the lot — got onto my 
 nerves, too. Next to the soldier in visibility and multi- 
 plicity seemed to be the priest, who, uniformed, was like 
 the soldier, an easy mark for identification. Sometimes 
 they went singly, more often by twos and not infrequently 
 in droves or squads. From the signs I saw and the expres- 
 sions I heard, though its a sad statement to make, yet T 
 believe it is true at least in Italy and France that the aver- 
 age man hates the clergy and the church. In Rome, I was 
 told that many who keep the forms of religion, in their 
 hearts mistrust and dislike the church and its leaders. True, 
 in this land such men are to be found, but they are excep- 
 tional rather than general. And we all know that the 
 church and her ministry in doing their duty will often make 
 enemies. That suggests the question, why this unfriendly 
 attitude of Europe's masses towards the church? (By 
 church I mean, unless expressly stated, the Roman Catholic 
 church). No one statement can give the whole answer. 
 Her corrupt creed and life, her cumbrous forms go far to- 
 wards answering the question, but the reason I wish to 
 speak of, specially, is because the church is in politics up 
 to the hilt and is a past-master at the game. Thus the 
 church is a party, rather a leader, in engendering the most 
 bitter partisan prejudices and enmities that can charac- 
 terize politics. And rightly, the church must take its part 
 of the '^ cussing" and bitterness. And usually the church, 
 
 93 
 
©specially in Latin Europe, is with the classes against the 
 masses, with the reactionary against the progressive, and 
 with the mediaeval against the modern. And the reason the 
 church is in politics, ordinarily at least, is the same reason 
 the politician is in it — ^for self. This makes of the church 
 and religion, too (for the masses know nothing about relig- 
 ion apart from the Roman Catholic church) a political issue 
 and a very mean issue at that. All are familiar with the 
 bitter struggle that led up to the separation of Church and 
 State in France two years ago. ,Some will recall the fierce 
 struggle in Belgium in the recent spring elections, how bit- 
 terly Romanism fought for continued supremacy and how 
 narrowly she won. Towering above all other questions iu 
 that election was what might be termed the European Issue 
 — Clericalism. In Italy the same feeling of anti-clericalism 
 seemed to be strong, but for lack of a leader, the opportune 
 time and perhaps other reasons, is lying low at present. 
 Right now Spain is on the point of revolution — the one 
 issue being clericalism. The Spanish Premier sizes up the 
 situation in these words, '^ Different political groups have 
 different ideas, but they are one against clericalism." 
 
 I may be mistaken, but rising above all Protestant, much 
 more Presbyterian bias, the condition of the church gener- 
 ally in Europe impressed me as being deplorably sad, and 
 incompetent and hopeless in grappling with the present con- 
 ditions. But this darkness would be really delightful if 
 one knew it presaged another Reformation. 
 
 Socialism. 
 
 Prominent among the progeny of militaryism, relict of the 
 late feudalism, is socialism. This is a very large family 
 whose members have varying degrees of badness and per- 
 haps of goodness. Some of these socialistic children are 
 repulsive and others have more attractive features. So 
 many kinds of socialism makes it impossible to give an 
 accurate definition. It is an economic and social revolt 
 against the old order of things in both Church and State 
 
 94 
 
and to help carry its point has, of course, entered politics. 
 Every law-makino: body of Europe has Socialistic members 
 and socialism polls in Europe nearly 6,000,000 votes and has 
 650 papers. Germany alone has 3,000,000 socialist votes, 
 next in strength comes France, then Austria-Hungary, Bel- 
 gium, Italy, Great Britain, etc. The writer is many leagues 
 removed from being a socialist, yet if bis lot had been cast 
 in France, Germany or Italy, he would be very much nearer 
 one than he is in this land of civil and religious freedom 
 and of equal opportunity. Without excusing any of the 
 extremes of socialism or apologizing for its errors, it does 
 seem that conditions in Europe furnish considerable war- 
 rant for the rise of this new cult. Human nature can stand 
 a great deal, but it can't and happily won't stand every- 
 thing, and against the mediaevalism of Church and State, 
 represented in part by militaryism and clericalism of which 
 we have spoken, socialism stands as a protest — a misdirected 
 and perverted protest perhaps, yet a protest vigorous and 
 not without results. And the wise prince and priest instead 
 of sneering at it will study themselves to find what in them 
 makes possible the rise of such a vagary. To one reared iu 
 the thought of the South — the old South to large degree, 
 blessed land where among other things freedom means the 
 freedom from so motley a gang of isms of malcontent and 
 selfishness — socialism, its name, principles, and methods 
 were repugnant, yet may it not be that in the strange provi- 
 dence of God, that He is mining Europe with this new ex- 
 plosive for an epochal overturning, which will clear away 
 some of the hindering rubbish of dead centuries and usher 
 in a happier day? 
 
 Atheism. 
 
 This is the darkest ism of all. I know the danger, Elijah- 
 like, of saying, '^I, even I only, am left.'' And I am there- 
 fore making a liberal allowance for the personal equation. 
 After all these precautionary steps, it still seems beyond 
 doubt that there is abroad over Europe and in high favor, 
 
 95 
 
a spirit of irreligion reaching very often to the extreme of 
 the baldest Atheism. After reading the signs, as well as 
 between the lines, and after receiving indefinable intuitions, 
 reluctantly I had to believe that a sadly large multitude of 
 Europe's seething millions have settled down to a life in 
 whose theory and practice there is no god. This condition, 
 whether called Atheism or by some softer term, has as one 
 of the contributing causes — clericalism. 
 
 Starting from the Roman church, with its out-of-touch- 
 ness with man, many millions have drifted, till they became 
 churchless. Here these spiritual wanderings were but be- 
 gun. On and on they would go, some to a pure godlessness, 
 some to a Christless rationalism, other to commercialism or 
 pleasure, till a multitude whom no man can number can be 
 described by no better words than Paul's ** having no hope 
 and without God in the world." And that I would call 
 Atheism. Of course there are bright spots to break the dread-, 
 ful monotony of darkness. Europe has her remnant accord- 
 ing to the election of grace and no one dare say it is a 
 small remnant either. Again the writer has no figures to 
 go by, even figures of church connection being far from con- 
 clusive. The traveler, in studying the heart condition of a 
 continent, must judge largely by impressions, where it is 
 easy to err and impossible to be accurate, much less infal- 
 lible. And the foregoing is given only as impressions, yet im- 
 pressions not hastily, but seriously and reluctantly formed. 
 
 In our own land there is very much godlessness, but for 
 her comparatively pure religion, her separation of Church 
 and iState, her freedom, and her innocence of possessing so 
 much governmental rubbish and ecclesiastical junk, I came 
 home devoutly thanjs:ful. And above these learned nations 
 across the Atlantic, with their ancient lore, it seemed to me 
 that the world must look, not to Rome or Berlin or Paris, 
 for the path to civil liberty, and for the matured fruit of 
 the religion of Jesus, and for the evangelization of the 
 world, but under God to that newly chosen people of God's 
 providence, in the West, where far from the ruins of em- 
 pires and religions, God has in mercy cast our lot. 
 
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