Syria from the saddle . APTER XXIII. JERUSALEM CRANKS — JEWISH WAILING PLACE —HOLY CITY BY MOONLIGHT. SHOULD like, were such a thingpossible in an account of Palestine,to avoid writing of Jerusalem. The Holy City is to a Bible stu-dent the most interesting place onearth, and a separate volume wouldbe required if I should attempt toenter fully into all descriptions andimpressions. Thomson, Geikie, Merrill, and anumber of lesser lights, have writtenon the subject with far deeper knowl-edge than I possess; and as everyreader who is at all interested in such things has nodoubt already studied one
Syria from the saddle . APTER XXIII. JERUSALEM CRANKS — JEWISH WAILING PLACE —HOLY CITY BY MOONLIGHT. SHOULD like, were such a thingpossible in an account of Palestine,to avoid writing of Jerusalem. The Holy City is to a Bible stu-dent the most interesting place onearth, and a separate volume wouldbe required if I should attempt toenter fully into all descriptions andimpressions. Thomson, Geikie, Merrill, and anumber of lesser lights, have writtenon the subject with far deeper knowl-edge than I possess; and as everyreader who is at all interested in such things has nodoubt already studied one or more of these writers, Ishall content myself with simply touching here andthere on such points as seemed most interesting to me,an unlearned outsider. In the first place, Jerusalem is the Mecca of all sortsand conditions of cranks. When a man (or more often awoman) starts to ride some religious hobby, that hobbyshead is almost invariably turned toward we find the crank who wishes to buy Calvary 211. 212 SYRIA FROM THE SADDLE. and build a theological seminary there ; here, the crankwho, newly converted to Romanism, rushes to the HolyCity for evidences of early Christianity, and therebyearns from the ungodly the title of Saint Chaser;here, again, are the innumerable Hebrew cranks whobelieve from certain signs that the coming of their Mes-siah is at hand, and have journeyed to Jerusalem toawait the event, living in the interim a hand-to-mouthexistence in a collection of shanties and lean-tosknown, because of the materials of which it is built, asthe Box Colony. Another band of cranks have followed a womanwho claims to be their prophetess, and live togetherin Jerusalem as a free-love community, believing thatnone of them shall see death until Christ comes. Thefact that several of the band have died during the pastfew years does not seem to weaken their faith. I could go on enumerating the noble army of cranksgathered here for pages if necessary. To a casual lo
Size: 1227px × 2037px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidsyriafromsad, bookyear1896
