We then cross the Plain of Rephaim where David put to flight the army of Philistines, and if our trust in the guide were sufficient we might pause to see what is said to be the old site of the tree that made the cross on which the Son of God was crucified. Under the altar of a chapel there the monks show where the stump of the tree once stood, and the Pilgrim falls down and worships it.
Pilgrims are legion, particularly the Russians, a party of whom we see now at a Syrian inn: but there are many others, and they come from all the corners of the earth often in hunger and thirst through the heat, begging food by the way, and sleeping under the stars at night. Their faith is mighty, their zeal a burning flame and their satisfaction intense. Only a soul entirely free from the trammels of the world, can know and kiss the marble slab which covers a hole, from which a tree is said to have been taken two thousand years ago!
At every turn in Palestine there is something to remind us that the Bible was written there. Entering this market square we halt in the presence of a transaction going on which reminds us of an illustration used in one of Jesus' talks. Grains of various kinds are lying in piles on the bare ground, which has been previously swept clean. The purchaser, not the seller does the measuring. It takes several minutes to fill the measure. Putting in a few handfuls the purchaser presses it down. After it is full to the brim he begins to build a cone, adding a handful at a time and patting it gently. Then as it approaches an apex he makes a hole in the top and fills that. Last of all he holds up a handful and allows the grains to drop very gently and as long as the grains remain upon it he is at liberty to add to the measure. Doubtless Jesus often witnessed the same process as he passed through the markets. It was such an incident as this which suggested his words, "Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down, and shaken together and running over shall men give unto your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again."
When they came nigh to Bethlehem, the beloved wife for whom he had served fourteen years, died in the pangs of motherhood, and was buried upon a green slope of the roadside. This is the way one of our great artists has pictured the deathbed. There is something remarkable, something inexplicable, that a man of Jacob's wealth should have buried his beloved in such an exposed and public place, and entirely among strangers, when Machpelah the Sepulchre, of his ancestors, was at Hebron, only a few miles away. Long after this, when he was about to die in Egypt, Jacob told his son Joseph the touching story of his mother's death and burial, and that makes it the more extraordinary that Joseph being the Lord of Egypt, a prince of vast power and wealth, did not transfer the remains of his mother on the highway to the family sepulchre, where Sarah, the wife of Abraham; Rebecca the wife of Isaac; and Leah, the unloved wife of Jacob lay. And we have no explanation of these singular circumstances. The tomb of Rachael, however, in this public place, was known and commemorated when Moses led the host of Israel out of the wilderness; nor has it been lost or overlooked, nor has its identity been questioned to the present hour.
Continuing our own pilgrimage along the Bethlehem road, we come to this little mosque built of coarse white limestone, with a low dome of masonry that stands by the roadside in most unattractive surroundings. It is, however, to multitudes of people one of the most sacred places on earth. About four thousand years ago a young man, named Jacob, came along that way. He had served a deceitful father-in-law seven years, for one of his daughters, and has been betrayed into marriage with another and then had served seven years longer for the right one. His wives and little ones, his man-servants and maid-servants, his herds and flocks, following him as he moved slowly toward Hebron, where his father Isaac dwelt.
The dust of Rachel has long since disappeared, when and how no one can say, but her tomb is more holy in the eyes of Israel than any other place in Palestine, and as sacred to the Mohammedans as to the Hebrews. The present mosque was restored by Sir Moses Montefiore, although it belongs to the Moslems. It has here beside the Tomb of Rachel that Samuel the prophet, met Saul, the son of Kish, when the latter was searching the gullies around Bethlehem for his father's live stock that had gone astray, and anointed him with the holy oil to be King of Israel.
After leaving the Tomb of Rachel the road divides, as you see it here, one branch leading to Hebron and the other to Bethlehem. (The Pool of Solomon at which we looked a few minutes ago is really on the Hebron road). This road which we are traveling is one of the only two made roads in Palestine. Another from Jerusalem to Jericho was constructed together with this one by a progressive Pasha, who in consequence of this enterprise of road-building lost his head at Constantinople.
We enter Bethlehem at the market square, where doubtless, Samuel came, driving a heifer, seeking a king among the chief men of Judah. On this occasion he found the monarch whom he was seeking in the ruddy faced shepherd boy, David the son of Jesse, the young Hebrew whom Michael Angelo long afterward represented in this celebrated statue.
The dedication of this version is to the Most High and Mighty Prince James, who accession to the throne is likened to the sun in its strength while Queen Bess is spoken of as "that bright occidental star." To the minds of most persons, the praise of the king in this dedication is rather more than he deserved, and we can only hope that the authors meant all they wrote. Although this version is known as the "Authorized" Version, and is said to have been published by his Majesty's command, it was never approved by Parliament, nor even submitted to it, nor to the Privy Council, nor to Convocation. Within half a century it had driven all other versions from the field, and taken its place as the Bible of the English people. It is read today in every quarter of the globe. There are more copies of it issued than of all others put together. Its characteristic words are those of Honest William Tyndale, and most of its many excellencies were impressed on it by him.
Now although the "Geneva" Bible was so extensively circulated in England it was not an authorized version, and it was further open to the objection that the notes reflected the views of one particular school of theology. To remedy this condition of affairs, Mathew Parker, the celebrated Archbishop of Canterbury, undertook the prepartation of another version. He distributed the Bible in parts to various Bishops for them to translate. He revised the entire work himself. The preparation of this Bible appears to have extended over three or four years, and the letter accompanying the splendid copy which was presented to Elizabeth bears the date of October 5, 1568. This book is commonly known as the Bishop's Bible, and was used in the English Churches for forty years. The Genevan, or Breeches Bible, however, still was popular for private use, and it is a superior translation to Parker's version.
