FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422  
423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   >>   >|  
viour fell here, also, and made this depression with his elbow. There were other places where the Lord fell, and others where he rested; but one of the most curious landmarks of ancient history we found on this morning walk through the crooked lanes that lead toward Calvary, was a certain stone built into a house--a stone that was so seamed and scarred that it bore a sort of grotesque resemblance to the human face. The projections that answered for cheeks were worn smooth by the passionate kisses of generations of pilgrims from distant lands. We asked "Why?" The guide said it was because this was one of "the very stones of Jerusalem" that Christ mentioned when he was reproved for permitting the people to cry "Hosannah!" when he made his memorable entry into the city upon an ass. One of the pilgrims said, "But there is no evidence that the stones did cry out--Christ said that if the people stopped from shouting Hosannah, the very stones would do it." The guide was perfectly serene. He said, calmly, "This is one of the stones that would have cried out. "It was of little use to try to shake this fellow's simple faith--it was easy to see that. And so we came at last to another wonder, of deep and abiding interest --the veritable house where the unhappy wretch once lived who has been celebrated in song and story for more than eighteen hundred years as the Wandering Jew. On the memorable day of the Crucifixion he stood in this old doorway with his arms akimbo, looking out upon the struggling mob that was approaching, and when the weary Saviour would have sat down and rested him a moment, pushed him rudely away and said, "Move on!" The Lord said, "Move on, thou, likewise," and the command has never been revoked from that day to this. All men know how that the miscreant upon whose head that just curse fell has roamed up and down the wide world, for ages and ages, seeking rest and never finding it--courting death but always in vain--longing to stop, in city, in wilderness, in desert solitudes, yet hearing always that relentless warning to march--march on! They say--do these hoary traditions--that when Titus sacked Jerusalem and slaughtered eleven hundred thousand Jews in her streets and by-ways, the Wandering Jew was seen always in the thickest of the fight, and that when battle-axes gleamed in the air, he bowed his head beneath them; when swords flashed their deadly lightnings, he sprang in their way; he bared his
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422  
423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

stones

 

Hosannah

 
memorable
 

Christ

 

Jerusalem

 

pilgrims

 

people

 

rested

 

Wandering

 

hundred


miscreant

 
approaching
 
rudely
 

moment

 
eighteen
 

Saviour

 

pushed

 

revoked

 

akimbo

 

command


likewise

 

doorway

 

Crucifixion

 

struggling

 
thickest
 

battle

 
streets
 

slaughtered

 

eleven

 

thousand


gleamed

 
lightnings
 

deadly

 

sprang

 

flashed

 
swords
 

beneath

 
sacked
 

courting

 

longing


finding

 

seeking

 
wilderness
 

desert

 

traditions

 
warning
 

solitudes

 
hearing
 

relentless

 

roamed