WE left Port Said without regret at five o'clock in the evening of the day after our arrival. The deck of our steamer forward was occupied by a motley herd of deck-passengers, men, women, and children, the majority of whom were proceeding to Jerusalem for " holy week," which was now approaching.
Another traveler has so aptly described the scene that we borrow his description:" Our steamer for the time was an epitome of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Muscovite from his frozen steppes; the Albanian from his rugged mountains; the Greek from his olive-clad vales; the Pole, the Italian, the Frank; the son of the desert who drinks at the sources of the Nile, and the Edomite who roams by the eastern shore of the Red Sea; Ishmaelites from Mecca; Turks from the Bosphorus, and Armenians from the slopes of Ararat, obedient to an invisible but mighty influence, were all converging on a common center-that center an old town in the heart of the Palestine mountains. What a spell of undying potency is the name-Jerusalem! It touches the heart of all peoples, and draws them across sea and land. From her throne, which is but a heap of rubbish, she wields a sovereignty which is not possessed by any living capital.
“But there was another principle at work here, and one still more universal, and of still mightier force than any attraction or fascination with which past ages have invested Jerusalem. We shall do well to take note of that principle, for it is one of transcendent and awful import. What was it? It was, in a word, the burden of sin on the conscience. All these men were engaged on a pilgrimage of penance and expiation. They were seeking rest from a sense of guilt. We had before us a grand proof of the divinity of the Bible—such a proof; too, as sophistry could not possibly invent, or a cunning priesthood manufacture. It was humanity itself speaking with its own voice, and bearing witness to the truthfulness of its own condition as depicted on the page of inspiration. This burden pressing on all hearts, this cry for pardon rising from all lands, what is it but the world's confession of its fall, and its need of expiation? "
Fortunately the night was gloriously fine, and the stars looked down upon the waters with a brilliancy unknown in our northern latitudes, otherwise the lot of our fellow-passengers would have been miserable in the extreme.
Leaving them to their slumbers on the hard deck, we went below early, as we wished to be up betimes to catch the first glimpse of the Promised Land. At six o'clock next morning it broke upon our view, a low, long, yellow strip of land rising above the blue rim of the Mediterranean, broken by a slight eminence, towards which we were apparently steering. Ere long this resolves itself into a house-crowned hill, which the sailors tell us is Jaffa (pronounced Yafa), the ancient Joppa, and at half-past eight we cast anchor in the open roadstead, and await the arrival of the swarm of boats, which we can see emerging from behind a ridge of rocks, and racing madly towards us, impelled by their rival Arab crews.
Disembarking into these boats from the steamer is no easy matter, as one must be quick to choose the right moment as the boat rises on the swell. Having seen my luggage safely lowered, I was watching my opportunity, standing on the gangway, when I was suddenly picked up in one arm by a brawny Arab, and ere I could turn round found myself deposited safely in the boat, and looked up to find my Arab friend just seizing in like manner a clergyman of our party weighing some sixteen stone!
This Arab, David Sabungi by name, is a noted character; he has saved numerous lives by swimming off to wrecks, when no one else would face the waves, and no boat could live in the swell, and has received rewards from the English, French, and American Governments, besides numerous medals and orders. Only three days after our landing he received a gold watch and chain, which was publicly presented to him by the American Consul, as a recognition of one of his recent heroic exploits. Physically, he is as magnificent a specimen of a man as can be seen.
Even when safely in the boats, the troubles of some of our fellow-passengers were not over, as we found ourselves bobbing up and down on a nasty swell; but their miseries were short-lived, as our sinewy Arab boatmen rowed with a will, and we soon rounded the ridge of rocks we had descried from the ship, and found ourselves in smooth water, and ere long stepped ashore.
One's first impressions of any land are very apt to color one's impressions for the whole of one's stay therein, and it would be preferable on this account to land at Beyrout and work one's way south, instead of starting one's journey from Jaffa; for under Christian influence the former has progressed amazingly, while the latter forces upon our attention the miserable blight of Mohammedanism at every step.
The road from the quay (if by courtesy we could so term it) had not apparently been mended since Jonah fled this way three thousand years ago; it was littered with festering filth, and the stenches were awful. Picking our steps along dismal, unsavory lanes, we presently arrived at the reputed house of Simon the Tanner, with whom Simon Peter lodged when he, who held the keys of the kingdom of heaven by divine gift (Matt. 16:1919And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:19)), received the vision of the sheet, which instructed him that the kingdom was to be opened to the Gentiles also, who were no longer in God's sight accounted unclean, and that the time had come to apply the key to the door, and admit the first purely Gentile convert in the person of Cornelius.
The house is approached by a court, in which grows a fig-tree; it is probably ancient, and is certainly near the seashore. To us the actual site was of small importance, and this would do as well as any other. What was of importance was that here, or hereabouts, the mandate went forth to open the door of the kingdom to ourselves, and it is not too little to say that, but for Peter's vision, and the lesson it inculcated, we, as Gentiles, should still have been " without God, and without hope, in the world," and would certainly never have sought these shores.
We suppose no Christian passes through Jaffa without paying a visit to Miss Arnott's school, and thither accordingly we next wended our way. She and her coadjutor received us very kindly, and the children, who looked very cleanly and happy, sang for us several well-known hymns. Comparatively few Moslems, she told us, entrust their children to her care; those so entrusted inevitably have to marry Moslems, so that it is difficult to trace results; but doubtless " in that day " Miss Arnott will be enabled to rejoice over some who, even when shut up in harems, have cherished in their breasts the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Still, apart from the Moslems, there must be a great work to be done among the children of adherents of the Catholic and Greek churches. It seems strange that they should allow their little ones to be brought up under gospel-teaching, but self-interest, no doubt, over comes their scruples, as their children are naturally in a position to earn higher wages when they are able to speak English; we heard too that they were eagerly sought as wives, as the habits of cleanliness and neatness inculcated in the school made them far more desirable partners than girls would be who had been brought up in the filth and squalor of a Syrian home.
After viewing the schools we paid a visit to the orange gardens, of which there are many round Jaffa. The oranges, which, generally seemed to grow in pairs, are of great size, and very luscious, but they did not appear to be any cheaper than they are in England. Each garden is furnished with a well and tank, into which the water is pumped for irrigation purposes, and it is surprising to see the orange trees flourishing in what appears to be pure sand. The gardens are protected from marauders by immense hedges of prickly cactus, and he would be a bold man indeed who-attempted to force an entrance into them.
We had now seen all the sights of Jaffa, and it only remained to choose our steeds for our journey towards Jerusalem on the morrow. This is an important matter, for much of one's comfort in the long ride to Damascus and Beyrout, depends upon the choice one makes. A number of 'shaggy-looking little Syrian horses were accordingly brought for us to select from, and I tried several before I at last decided on one; but I might well have saved myself the trouble, as the sequel proved. But I must leave the narrative of the circumstances to the next number. J. F.