Book: A Trip Abroad

D >> Don Carlos Janes >> A Trip Abroad




It was late in the afternoon of October ninth when we got off the train
at the Jerusalem station, which is so situated that the city can not
be seen from that point. By the time we had our baggage put away in a
native hotel outside the city walls it was dark. We then started out
to see if there was any mail awaiting me. First we went to the Turkish
office, which was reached by a flight of dark stairs. Mr. Ahmed went
up rather slowly. Perhaps he felt the need of caution more than I did.
According to my recollection, they handed us a candle, and allowed us to
inspect the contents of a small case for the mail. We found nothing, so
we made our way down the dark stairway to the German office, situated
on the ground floor, nicely furnished and properly lighted, but there
was no mail there for me, as mail from America goes to the Austrian
office, inside the Jaffa gate.

The next day was Lord's day, and for the time being I ceased to be
a tourist and gave myself up mainly to religious services. I first
attended the meeting conducted by Bro. Joseph at the mission to Israel.
It was the first service I had attended, and the first opportunity that
had come to me for breaking bread since I left London, the last of
August. After this assembly of four persons was dismissed, I went to the
services of the Church of England and observed their order of worship.
The minister was in a robe, and delivered a really good sermon of about
fifteen minutes' duration, preceded by reading prayers and singing
praise for about an hour. By invitation, I took dinner with Miss Dunn,
an American lady, at whose house Bro. Joseph was lodging. As she had
been in Jerusalem fifteen years and was interested in missionary work,
I enjoyed her company as well as her cooking. After dinner I went to a
little iron-covered meeting-house called the "tabernacle," where a Mr.
Thompson, missionary of the Christian Alliance, of Nyack, New York, was
the minister. At the close of the Sunday-school a gentleman asked some
questions in English, and the native evangelist, Melki, translated them
into Arabic. By request of Mr. Thompson, I read the opening lesson and
offered prayer, after which he delivered a good address on the great,
coming day, and at the close the Lord's Supper was observed. I
understood that they did this once a month, but it is attended to weekly
at the mission where I was in the morning. At the tabernacle I made the
acquaintance of Mr. Stanton, a Methodist minister from the States; Mr.
Jennings, a colored minister from Missouri, and Mr. Smith, an American
gentleman residing in Jerusalem. There was another meeting in the
tabernacle at night, but I staid at the hotel and finished some writing
to be sent off to the home land.

Monday was a big day for me. Mr. Ahmed and I went down inside the Jaffa
gate and waited for Mr. Smith, who was our guide, Mr. Jennings, and a
Mr. Michelson, from California. Mr. Smith had been a farmer in America,
but had spent three years at Jerusalem and Jericho. He was well
acquainted with the country, and we could depend upon what he told us.
Add to all this the fact that he went around with us without charge, and
it will be seen that we were well favored. On this Monday morning we
started out to take a walk to Bethany, the old home of that blessed
family composed of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We passed the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher, walked along the street called the Via Dolorosa, and
saw several of the "stations" Jesus is supposed to have passed on the
way to the execution on Calvary. We passed the traditional site of the
"house of the rich man," the "house of the poor man," and the Temple
Area. After passing the Church of St. Anne, we went out of the city
through St. Stephen's gate, and saw the Birket Sitti Mariam, or Pool
of Lady Mary, one hundred feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and once
twenty-seven and a half feet deep. It is supposed that Stephen was led
through the gate now bearing his name and stoned at a point not far
distant. Going down the hill a few rods, we came to the Church of St.
Mary, a building for the most part underground. It is entered by a
stairway nineteen feet wide at the top, and having forty-seven steps
leading to the floor thirty-five feet below. We went down, and in
the poorly lighted place we found some priests and others singing or
chanting, crossing themselves, kissing a rock, and so on. This church
probably gets its name from the tradition that the mother of Jesus was
buried here. Just outside the church is a cavern that is claimed by some
to be the place of Christ's agony, and by others, who may have given the
matter more thought, it is supposed to be an old cistern, or place for
storing olive oil or grain. Perhaps I would do well to mention here that
tradition has been in operation a long time, and the stories she has
woven are numerous indeed, but often no confidence can be placed in
them. I desire to speak of things of this kind in such a way as not to
mislead my readers. It was near this church that I saw lepers for the
first time. The valley of the Kidron is the low ground lying between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. The water flows here only in the wet
part of the year. Crossing this valley and starting up the slope of the
Mount of Olives, we soon come to a plot of ground inclosed by a high
stone wall, with a low, narrow gateway on the upper side. This place is
of great interest, as it bears the name "Garden of Gethsemane," and is
probably the spot to which the lowly Jesus repaired and prayed earnestly
the night before his execution, when his soul was "exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death." It is really a garden, filled with flowers, and olive
trees whose trunks, gnarled and split, represent them as being very old,
but it is not to be supposed that they are the same trees beneath which
Jesus prayed just before Judas and "the band of soldiers and officers"
came out to arrest him. There is a fence inside the wall, leaving a
passageway around the garden between the wall and the fence. Where the
trees reach over the fence a woven-wire netting has been fixed up, to
keep the olives from dropping on the walk, where tourists could pick
them up for souvenirs. The fruit of these old trees is turned into olive
oil and sold, and the seeds are used in making rosaries. At intervals
on the wall there are pictures representing the fourteen stations Jesus
passed as he was being taken to the place of crucifixion. This garden
is the property of the Roman Catholics, and the Greeks have selected
another spot, which they regard as the true Gethsemane, just as each
church holds a different place at Nazareth to be the spot where the
angry Nazarenes intended to destroy the Savior.

Leaving the garden, we started on up the slope of Olivet, and passed the
fine Russian church, with its seven tapering domes, that shine like the
gold by which they are said to be covered. It appears to be one of the
finest buildings of Jerusalem. As we went on, we looked back and had a
good view of the Kidron valley and the Jews' burial place, along
the slope of the mountain, where uncounted thousands of Abraham's
descendants lie interred. Further up toward the summit is the Church of
the Lord's Prayer, a building erected by a French princess, whose body
is now buried within its walls. This place is peculiar on account of at
least two things. That portion of Scripture commonly called "the Lord's
prayer" is here inscribed on large marble slabs in thirty-two different
languages, and prayer is said to be offered here continually. There is
another church near the Damascus gate, where two "sisters" are said to
be kneeling in prayer at all hours. I entered the beautiful place at
different times, and always found it as represented, but it should not
be supposed that the same women do all the praying, as they doubtless
have enough to change at regular intervals. The Church of the Creed is,
according to a worthless tradition, the place where the apostles drew up
"the creed." It is under the ground, and we passed over it on the way
to the Church of the Lord's Prayer. The Mount of Olives is two thousand
seven hundred and twenty-three feet above sea level, and is about two
hundred feet higher than Mount Moriah. From the summit a fine view of
Jerusalem and the surrounding country may be obtained. The Russians have
erected a lofty stone tower here. After climbing the spiral stairway
leading to the top of it, one is well rewarded by the extensive view.
Looking out from the east side, we could gaze upon the Dead Sea, some
twenty miles away, and more than four thousand feet below us. We visited
the chambers called the "Tombs of the Prophets," but the name is not a
sufficient guarantee to warrant us in believing them to be the burial
places of the men by whom God formerly spoke to the people. On the way
to Bethany we passed the reputed site of Beth-page (Mark 11:1), and soon
came to the town where Jesus performed the great miracle of raising
Lazarus after he had been dead four days. (John 11:1-46.) The place
pointed out as the tomb corresponds to the Scripture which says "It was
a cave" where they laid him. Twenty-six steps lead down to the chamber
where his body is said to have lain when the "blessed Redeemer" cried
with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." Whether this is the exact spot
or not, it is probably a very ancient cave. One writer claims that it
is as old as the incident itself, and says these rock-cut tombs are the
oldest landmarks of Palestine. Tradition points out the home of Lazarus,
and there is a portion of an old structure called the Castle of Lazarus,
which Lazarus may never have seen. Bethany is a small village, occupied
by a few Mohammedan families, who dislike the "Christians." On the
rising ground above the village stands a good modern stone house,
owned by an English lady, who formerly lived in it, but her servant, a
Mohammedan, made an effort to cut her throat, and almost succeeded in
the attempt. Naturally enough, the owner does not wish to live there
now, so we found the building in the care of a professing Christian,
who treated us with courtesy, giving us a good, refreshing drink, and
permitting us to go out on the roof to look around.

From this point we turned our footsteps toward Jerusalem, "about fifteen
furlongs off"--that is, about two miles distant. (John 11:18.) When
we reached the lower part of the slope of Olivet, where the tombs of
departed Jews are so numerous, Mr. Michelson and Mr. Jennings went on
across the Kidron valley and back to their lodging places, while Mr.
Ahmed, Mr. Smith and I went down to Job's well, in the low ground below
the city. The Tower of Absalom, the Tomb of James, and the Pyramid
of Zachariah were among the first things we saw. They are all burial
places, but we can not depend upon them being the actual tombs of those
whose names they bear. The first is a peculiar monument nineteen and
one-half feet square and twenty-one feet high, cut out of the solid
rock, and containing a chamber, which may be entered by crawling through
a hole in the side. On the top of the natural rock portion a structure
of dressed stone, terminating in one tapering piece, has been erected,
making the whole height of the monument forty-eight feet. The Jews have
a custom of pelting it with stones on account of Absalom's misconduct,
and the front side shows the effect of their stone-throwing. The Grotto
of St. James is the traditional place of his concealment from the time
Jesus was arrested till his resurrection. The Pyramid of Zachariah is
a cube about thirty feet square and sixteen feet high, cut out of the
solid rock, and surmounted by a small pyramid. It has many names cut
upon it in Hebrew letters, and there are some graves near by, as this is
a favorite burial place. Some of the bodies have been buried between the
monument and the wall around it in the passage made in cutting it out of
the rock. Going on down the valley, we have the village of Siloam on the
hill at our left, and on the other side of the Kidron, the southeastern
part of the Holy City. St. Mary's Well is soon reached. This spring,
which may be the Gihon of 1 Kings 1:33, is much lower than the surface
of the ground, the water being reached by two flights of stairs,
one containing sixteen steps, the other fourteen. The spring is
intermittent, and flows from three to five times daily in winter. It
flows twice a day in summer, but in the autumn it only flows once in the
day. When I was there, the spring was low, and two Turkish soldiers were
on duty to preserve order among those who came to get water.

The Pool of Siloam, fifty-two feet long and eighteen feet wide, is
farther down the valley. The spring and the pool are about a thousand
feet apart, and are connected by an aqueduct through the hill, which,
owing to imperfect engineering, is seventeen hundred feet long. From
a Hebrew inscription found in the lower end of this passageway it was
learned that the excavation was carried on from both ends. A little
below the Pool of Siloam the valley of the Kidron joins the valley of
Hinnom, where, in ancient times, children were made "to pass through the
fire to Moloch" (2 Kings 23:10). Job's Well, perhaps the En Rogel, on
the northern border of Judah (Joshua 15:7), is rectangular in shape and
one hundred and twenty-three feet deep. Sometimes it overflows, but it
seldom goes dry. When I saw it, no less than six persons were drawing
water with ropes and leather buckets. The location of Aceldama, the
field of blood, has been disputed, but some consider that it was on the
hill above the valley of Hinnom. There are several rock-cut tombs along
the slope of the hill facing the valley of Hinnom, and some of them are
being used as dwelling places. The Moslems have charge of a building
outside the city walls, called David's Tomb, which they guard very
carefully, and only a portion of it is accessible to visitors. Near this
place a new German Catholic church was being erected at a cost of four
hundred thousand dollars. We entered the city by the Zion gate, and
passed the Tower of David, a fortification on Mount Zion, near the Jaffa
gate.

On the ship coming down from Beyrout I had a conversation with a man who
claimed to have been naturalized in the United States, and to have
gone to Syria to visit his mother, but, according to his story, he was
arrested and imprisoned by the Turks. After being mistreated in the
filthy prison for some time, he secured his release by bribing a soldier
to post a letter to one of the American authorities. He expressed a
desire to visit Jerusalem, but seemed afraid to get back into Turkish
territory. Learning that I was going there, he wrote a letter to the
Armenian Patriarch, and I presented it one day. In a few minutes Mr.
Ahmed and I were led into the large room where the Patriarch was seated
in his robe and peculiar cap. Meeting a dignitary of the Armenian Church
was a new experience to me. I shook hands with him; Mr. Ahmed made some
signs and sat down. In the course of our limited conversation he said
rather slowly: "I am very old." Replying to a question, he informed me
that his age was eighty years. I was on the point of leaving, but he
hindered me, and an attendant soon came in with some small glasses of
wine and a little dish of candy. The Patriarch drank a glass of wine,
and I took a piece of the candy, as also did Mr. Ahmed, and then we took
our leave.

The eleventh day of October, which was Tuesday, was occupied with a trip
to Hebron, described in another chapter devoted to the side trips I made
from Jerusalem, but the next day was spent in looking around the Holy
City. Early in the morning the Mamilla Pool, probably the "upper pool"
of 2 Kings 18:17, was seen. One author gives the dimensions of this
pool as follows: Length, two hundred and ninety-one feet; breadth, one
hundred and ninety-two feet; depth, nineteen feet. It is filled with
water in the rainy season, but was empty when I saw it. Entering the
city by the Jaffa gate, I walked along David and Christian Streets, and
was shown the Pool of Hezekiah, which is surrounded by houses, and was
supplied from the Mamilla Pool.

The next place visited was that interesting old building, the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher, where our Lord is supposed to have been buried in
Joseph's new tomb. Jerusalem has many things of great interest, but some
few things are of special interest. The Temple Area and Calvary are of
this class. I am sure my readers will want to know something of each,
and I shall here write of the latter. No doubt the spot where Jesus was
crucified and the grave in which he was buried were both well known to
the brethren up to the destruction of the city in the year seventy.
Before this awful calamity the Christians made their escape, and when
they returned they "would hardly recognize the fallen city as the one
they had left; the heel of the destroyer had stamped out all semblance
of its former glory. For sixty years it lay in ruins so complete that
it is doubtful if there was a single house that could be used as a
residence; during these years its history is a blank." There is no
mention of the returned Christians seeking out the site of either
the crucifixion or burial, and between A.D. 120 and A.D. 136 Hadrian
reconstructed the city, changing it to a considerable extent, and naming
it Aelia Capitolina. This would tend to make the location of Calvary
more difficult. Hadrian built a temple to Venus, probably on the spot
now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Eusebius, writing
about A.D. 325, speaks of Constantine's church built on the site of
this temple. It is claimed that Hadrian's heathen temple was erected
to desecrate the place of Christ's entombment, and that Constantine's
church, being erected on the site of the temple, and regarded as the
place called Calvary, fixes this as the true site; but whether the
church and temple were on the same site or not, the present church
stands where the one built by Constantine stood, and is regarded by the
mass of believers as the true location.

Constantine's church stood two hundred and eighty years, being destroyed
by Chosroes II., of Persia, in A.D. 614, but was soon succeeded by
another structure not so grand as its predecessor. In 1010, in the
"reign of the mad caliph Hakem," the group of churches was entirely
destroyed, and the spot lay desolate for thirty years, after which
another church was erected, being completed in eight years. This
building was standing in 1099, the time of the Crusaders, but was
destroyed by fire in 1808. This fire "consumed many of the most sacred
relics in the church. Marble columns of great age and beauty crumbled in
the flames. The rich hangings and pictures were burned, along with lamps
and chandeliers and other ornaments in silver and gold. The lead with
which the great dome was lined melted, and poured down in streams." The
building now standing there was finished in 1810 at a cost of nearly
three millions of dollars, one-third of this, it is said, being expended
in lawsuits and Mohammedan bribes. It is the property of several
denominations, who adorn their separate chapels to suit themselves.

The church is entered from a court having two doors or gates. Worshipers
pass through the court, and stop at the left-hand side of the door and
kiss the marble column, which clearly shows the effect of this practice.
Just inside of the building there is a guard, composed of members of the
oldest Mohammedan family in the city. The reader may wonder why an armed
guard should be kept in a church house, but such a reader has not seen
or read of all the wickedness that is carried on in the support of
sectarianism. Concerning this guard, which, at the time of the holy fire
demonstration, is increased by several hundred soldiers, Edmund Sherman
Wallace, a former United States Consul in this city, says in his
"Jerusalem the Holy": "This Christian church has a Moslem guard, whose
duty it is to keep peace among the various sects who profess belief in
the Prince of Peace. * * * It is a sickening fact that Moslem brute
force must compel Christians to exercise, not charity toward each other,
but common decency and decorum. But it is a fact nevertheless, and will
remain apparent to all so long as priestcraft takes the place of New
Testament Christianity and superstition supplants religion."

A little beyond this guard is the "Stone of Unction," upon which many
believe Jesus was prepared for burial, but the original stone for which
this claim was made is not now visible, being covered with the present
slab to keep it from being worn out by the kissing of pious pilgrims.
It is eight and a half feet long and four feet wide. Pilgrims sometimes
bring the goods for their burial robes here and measure them by this
stone. Some large candles stand by it, and above it are eight fine
lamps, belonging to the Greek and Roman Catholics, the Copts, and
Armenians. Not far away is a small stone, which I understood was called
the place where the women watched the preparation by Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus. (John 19:38-42.)

In the center of the rotunda, with its entrance facing the east, is the
Chapel of the Sepulcher, the holiest place in all this holy building.
Passing through the small door, the visitor finds himself in the Chapel
of the Angels, a very small room, where a piece of stone, said to have
been rolled away from the grave by the angels, is to be seen. Stooping
down, the visitor passes through a low opening and enters the Chapel of
the Sepulcher proper, a room only six and a half feet long and six feet
wide. The "tomb" is at the right hand of the entrance, occupying about
half of the floor, above which it rises two feet. It is covered with
marble, so that even if this were the very spot where the Lord and
Savior was laid by the hands of kind friends, the modern visitor would
not know what it looked like when that event took place. The little
chapel, capable of accommodating about six people at a time, contains
some pictures and forty-three silver lamps, the property of the Copts,
Armenians, Greek and Roman Catholics. A priest stands on guard, so that
no damage may be done to any part of the place.

The Greek chapel, the largest, and to my notion the finest that I saw,
is just in front of the sepulcher. From its having two sections and a
partition, I was reminded of the tabernacle of the wilderness journey.
Services were being conducted once while I was there, and I saw the
Patriarch and others, gorgeously robed, going through with a service
that was at least spectacular, if not spiritual. At one point in the
exercises those participating came down close to where I was standing,
passed around the spot designated "the center of the world," and went
back again to the farther end of the richly ornamented room. One of the
priests, with hair reaching down on his shoulders, bore a silver vessel,
which I suppose contained burning incense. The long hair, beautiful
robes, the singing, praying, and such things, made up a service that
reminded me of the days of Solomon and the old priesthood.

The demonstration of the "holy fire" takes place in this church once a
year, and there are thousands who believe that the fire passed out from
the Chapel of the Angels really comes from heaven. This occurs on the
Saturday afternoon preceding Easter, and the eager, waiting throng, a
part of which has been in the building since the day before, soon has
its hundreds of little candles lighted. As the time for the appearance
of the fire approaches the confusion becomes greater. Near the entrance
to the sepulcher a group of men is repeating the words: "This is the
tomb of Jesus Christ;" not far from them others are saying: "This is
the day the Jew mourns and the Christian rejoices;" others express
themselves in the language: "Jesus Christ has redeemed us;" and
occasionally "God save the Sultan" can be heard.

Mr. Wallace, from whose book the foregoing items are gleaned, in telling
of a fight which took place at one stage of the service, describes it as
"a mass of wriggling, struggling, shrieking priests and soldiers, each
apparently endeavoring to do all the possible injury to whomever he
could reach. * * * But the fight went on. Greek trampled on Armenian,
and Armenian on Greek, and Turk on both. Though doing his very best, the
commanding officer seemed unable to separate the combatants. The bugle
rang out time after time, and detachment after detachment of soldiers
plunged into the melee. * * * This went on for fifteen minutes. Just
how much damage was done nobody will ever know. There were a number
of bruised faces and broken heads, and a report was current that two
pilgrims had died from injuries received." This disgraceful and wicked
disturbance is said to have been brought about by the Armenians wanting
two of their priests to go with the Greek Patriarch as far as the
Chapel of the Angels. And it is furthermore said that the defeat of the
Armenians was brought about, to some extent at least, by the muscular
strength of an American professional boxer and wrestler, whom the
Greeks had taken along in priestly garb as a member of the Patriarch's
bodyguard. It is not surprising that Mr. Wallace has written: "The
Church of the Holy Sepulcher gives the non-Christian world the worst
possible illustration of the religion of Him in whose name it stands."

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