ts
had foretold wuz born in Bethlehem, and the three wise men, fur apart,
knowin' nothin' of each other, wuz warned of his birth and wuz told to
foller the Star. They obeyed the heavenly vision and met on the
pathless desert, as the soul's and heart's desires of all good men and
wimmen meet who follow the Star!

Oh, sacred place! to be thus honored. What emotions I felt as my own
feet trod these roads, my own eyes looked on these sacred places.

The next morning after our arrival we went up to the Mount of Olives,
and from a tower two hundred feet high looked down on Jerusalem. The
Mount of Olives is a long, low ridge on the east of the city. The
Garden of Gethsemane is down on the foot of Olivet near the brook
Kedron. Here eight great olive trees much larger than the rest form a
sacred grove from whose melancholy shadows might well come that
agonizing cry to his disciples for human sympathy and love:

"Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

Here did Judas come over the brook Kedron with the hungry, cruel mob
and betray Him with a kiss. It wuz in this place that our Lord give
that glorious promise that lightens life and death:

"After I be risen I will go before you."

Every leaf of the old olive trees seemed trembling and full of
memories of that hour. To the west was the valley of Jehosiphet,
beyend is the city of the King. Back of you is Bethany, the home of
the friends of Jesus where he tasted sometimes the human sweets of
friendship, in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. A
beautiful soul Mary wuz, and Martha, poor creeter! I've always been
sorry for her, workin' away doin' the housework when she would much
rather, no doubt, set and listen as Mary did, but somebody had to be
cookin'. So she jest drouged round the house.

You can see the Dead Sea and the river Jordan, where our Lord wuz
baptized and the Dove descended out of the gardens of heaven and lit
on him, whilst the voice of the father God spoke, "This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased."

Not far away from there is Jericho. On the southwest rises the Hill of
Zion, one of the four hills on which Jerusalem stands. As I looked on
it I spoke to my pardner almost onbeknown to me, "Oh, Josiah! how
many times we've sung together:

'The Hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets.'

"But," sez I, "did you ever expect to set your mortal eyes on't?" He
wuz