w stone walls--enter: it is the Garden of
Gethsemane. Eight aged olive-trees are still standing there; but Jesus
comes there no more with his beloved disciples. What a night was that
when He wept and prayed--when the angel comforted Him--and Judas betrayed
Him.
The mountain just above Gethsemane is the Mount of Olives. Beautiful
olive-trees are growing there still. There is a winding path leading to
the top. The Saviour trod upon that Mount just before he was caught up
into heaven. His feet shall stand there again, and every eye shall see
the Saviour in his glory. But will every eye be glad to see Him?
O no; there will be bitter tears then flowing from many eyes.
And what kind of a city is Jerusalem?
It is a sad and silent city. The houses are dark and dirty, the streets
are narrow, and the pavement rough. There are a great many very old Jews
there. Jews come from all countries when they are old to Jerusalem, that
they may die and be buried there. Their reason is that they think that
all Jews who are buried in their burial-ground at Jerusalem will be
raised _first_ at the last day, and will be happy forever. Most of the
old Jews are very poor: though money is sent to them every year from the
Jews in Europe.
There are also a great many sick Jews in Jerusalem, because it is such an
unhealthy place. The water in the wells and pools gets very bad in
summer, and gives the ague and even the plague. Good English Christians
have sent a doctor to Jerusalem to cure the poor sick people. One little
girl of eleven years old came among the rest--all in rags and with bare
feet: she was an orphan, and she lived with a Jewish washerwoman. The
doctor went to see the child in her home. Where was it? It was near the
mosque, and the way to it was down a narrow, dark passage, leading to a
small close yard. The old woman lived in one room with her grandchildren
and the orphan: there was a divan at each end, that is, the floor was
raised for people to sleep on. The orphan was not allowed to sleep on the
divans, but she had a heap of rags for her bed in another part. The
child's eyes glistened with delight at the sight of her kind friend the
doctor, he asked her whether she went to school. This question made the
whole family laugh: for no one in Jerusalem teaches girls to read except
the kind Christian lady I told you of.
THE DEAD SEA.
The most gloomy and horrible place in the Holy Land is the Dead Sea. In
that place there onc
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