FULFILLING THE PROPHECY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2244, 4 October 1889, Page 2

FULFILLING THE PROPHECY.

JERUSALEM. ONOBMORB OOOUPIBD BY THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. Thirty thousand out of the forty I thousand people of Jcrua ilem are Hebrew! I and the Israelites bid fair to again become the predominant people m Palestine. The Turkish Gova'nm nt, wbioh has for agei prohibited them from living longer than ihiee weeks at n time m the Holy Land, is, under the influenoe of foreign governuients, relaxing its reßtricti ns and at prePQut they ure coming h re by the hundred. They are engaging i a business and they now cootrol a great part of the trade of Jerusalem Borne of them feel that tbe diy whea the prjphecy of the Bible that thoy f>hn)l again inhabit their land shall be fulfilled is at hand, and one curious tribe from Southern Arabia claims to have rece ved a revelation that they mast leave their desert country and borne back to Palestine. They have lived m Tomei Arabia for the past 2500 yean. Thoy are of tho tribe of Gad, and they left Palestine 700 years before Ghriet was born. Thy «re bringing with them many valuable old documents which pro*e their orig n, and not a few of them are engaged m ngrlculture near Jerusalem t Then are 150 synagogue! In Jerusalem, br.t 'heee as a rule are small and they are not so fine as the oth<r ehurohea of the city. I was m Jerusalem at the time of the celebration of th« P*«<over, and I wn told that the feast m now celebrated muoh '.he same aa it was m tbe days of the naat, Bave that a piece of burnt bone now takes the plaoe of the lamb. At this tlms they turned out m holiday attire, and I was surprised t < see rioh gowui of velvet and silk of blue, yellow, and green on some of the men whom lhid seen before m little more lhan rag*. I attended the rynageguas on tbe fo'lowing da? and found them all full. The rabbis were gorgeously olad, and I have seldom seen more devout congregations. The men were all reading Bebrew out aloud and In the room* adjoining I found women talking over the Scriptures or listening to the elder wom»n among them who were reading. The rabbis of Jerusalem are not engaged m business, rioma of them not as judges and m quarrels the suits are alwayß settled by them The ohief rabbi is now more than ninety years, old. ... He is a very intelligent and bright old m»n, and h highly reapeoted m Jerusalem. '■''■ . O»e of the greatest sigh* ■ of Jerusalem is the wailing plaoe, whrre every Fdday oerUin aaota meet on the walls of the Mosqas of Omir, whioh oaauples the site of Solomon's temple, and . with their heads bant against the stones, sorrow over the loss of Jerusalem, and pray God to give tbe land back to his ohosen people. This oustom baß been observed slooe the days of the Middle Ages, and It Is one of the saddest sights. I visited U last week. In a narrow alley surronnded'by miserable bonsai — on stone fUgs which have been worn by the bare feet of thousands of devoted Israelites -against a wall of great blooks of marble whloh raaohed for fifty or more feet above then*, a long line of men inlooggowna and of women with shawls over their beads stood with their heads bowed, praying and weeping. Of any of the Iman had white beards, an i the long oaily looks which fell down m front of their eati were of silver. Others were j ait In thill prime, and I could not bat wander whan 1 saw the forms of these at times almost convulsed with emotlod. Eaoh had % well-thumbed Hebrew Bible In hit hand, and from time to time the party broke out into a kind of ohaot, an old greyhalred man acting as leader, and the rest oomlng In (> the refrain. The chant was m a strange tonguo, bat as translated It lias follows:— Leader— For the palaoe that lies . duo* late. Response —We sit In solitude and mourn. Leader— For the walls that are destroyed. Reiponae —We sit In solitude and mourn. '"■ Leader — For our Majesty that Is daparted. . V. .-. Rssponse —We sit In solitude and mourn. Leader — For our great men who lie d«ad. Response —We sit In solitude and mourn. Leader— For oar priests who have stumbled. Response —We sit In solitude and mourn. Leader — For oar kings who have desplsed Him. Response r- We alt m solitude and mourn. The effaot of this chant oaunot be ap* predated without hearing It. The old men, the weeping women who kiss tha stones of the wall ihat separates them from what was onoe the lite of Solomon'a temple, and whloh Is even now the holiest spot oo the earth to the Hebrew, tha genuine feeling expressed by all, and the faith that they show In thus coming hafe, week after week, and year after year f li wonderfully Impressive. It Is Indesd one of the strange sights of this strangest of cities. A nation Is moutned for, and other chants wbtoh they otter eontaln expressions snoh aa the following :—" We ptay Thee bave mercy on Zton; gather tha ohlldren of Jerusalem together ; may tba kingdom soon return to Zion; comfort those who mourn over Jerusalem ; may peace and joy .abide with Zjon, and tha branch of Jesse spring op at Jerusaltm." Among the ourions features of thia alliance are a sum her of agricultural colonies m different parti of Palestine; There is an agricultural school near Jaffa wbioh hns more than 700 pupils, and there are eight of these agricultural colonies One of their farms, near Jaffa has 28,000 acres. It is situated on tha plains of Sharon, where the Philistine* lived, and it has tens of thousands of vines and olive trees. The Turks are very much averse to selling land 1 ti) the Hebrews, but the latter show themselves to be as good farmers as they are business men, and the terraoed condition of the hills about Jerusalem showi that the Holy Land wai far better cultivated; under them than it has been under ' 'their conquerors. - A large amont of land jttet outside of tbe olty of Jerusalem ii now either m the hands of the Israelitles or of their charitable institutions. Mr Behar, the head of the Rothsohild schools, tells me they have last bought the <jlertiß&lem. Hotel and will add it to their sohool. Sir Moses Be Montefiore, who managed the fund left by a rioh Haw Urleanß Israelite, built many good houses for them on the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and there are a number of Hebrew hoopltnta. Among the people who confidently believe that the Hebrews will soon again own Palestine fa a colony of fifteen persons who live In a fiae house built on the very walls of Jerusalem, and who are known as " the Americans." These people are wot Hebrews at all. They are Christians who hare come here from different parts of the United States, and more especially from Chicago, to await the fulfilment of the propheoy that God will regenerate the world, beginning at Jerusalem. They believe this day Is cloia at bnnd and they say that It has begmn In the Jews oomlng back to Palestine. They »oe Un fulfilment In the Improvements that are golog on In Joruaalem, and cite the new rt>4ds that havo been bulU over the oouotry as one of tbe evidences of It. They are evidently people of means as well aa of refinement and culture. When I vllt'ed. (hem the other day 1 talked with; several of thorn and fouqd ihefcfc Injej-/ llgent acd'WeU educated." I asked oafa an to -.heir beliof, and was answerad ttat they took the Bible as their guide w»d tht thoy had 'come 'to Jerusalem to ende*vor to- follow Itf preoepts *Wlsj 11*% npon 1 ||n irtlf^ Tfoej bTI ||

particular creed, fend one of them said, when asked at to this, that there It too maeb preaohlng and too lUtla go<d living. They do no missionary work and ■ay that they have not yet felt called upon to pre»ob,— (Correspondent of Bxoba gi<)