In Galilee-Thornton Chase

THE HOLY LAND the view was fine of the city below and of the tomb of the bab high up on the mountain side above we could scarcely appreciate the sacredness of that historic ground but as we looked up to the tomb and thought of its meaning of the wonderful lives of the bab and of baha ullah of their sufferings and apparent defeat at the hands of oppressors and of the victories which are now following the word of truth for which they suffered we began to realize that we had indeed entered the border of the holy land the land that abraham knew where melchizedek dwelt where elijah prophesied and sacrificed on carmel unto the lord whose fire descended upon his altar and put to shame the hosts of baal it was on the top of carmel that elijah bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees before the lord and there at the seventh time behold there ariseth a cloud out of the sea as small as a man's hand and it came to pass in a little while that the heaven grew back with clouds and wind and there was a great rain how prophetic becomes this history in the light of present events there jesus walked and taught capernaum is near nazareth twelve miles away and it is but a short distance to the sea of galilee where the fishers drew their nets and left them at the command come follow me and i will make you fishers of men this was the land of zebulun and naphtali by the way of the sea which was covered with darkness until that light shone forth upon it and now again it is plunged in gross darkness all heedless of the light which has again risen upon it of the glory that is within it which is even now flaming forth from its ancient prison to the farthest bounds of mankind the light which is the same yesterday today and forever and which shall illumine the darkness of ignorance and awaken man to the dawning day of service love and peace the afternoon following our arrival in haifa i was writing at a table on the little verandah of the hospice looking toward akka nine miles away when a beautiful thing appeared the day had been showery and about four o'clock a splendid double rainbow shone forth it seemed to rest on the eastern part of haifa where the gate opens out to the way of the sea its further end was directly at the gate of akka and the western sun shone brightly on the glistening city just beyond the long inward curving shore-line of the blue sea with its white breakers swept in under the rainbow and beneath its glorious arch the distant lebanon hills showed their purple sides and snow-capped ranges for over half an hour that vision of beauty remained peace there was its sign declared of old there was the ancient symbol of the creative holy spirit brooding over that place of promise and i seemed to see beneath its ark of glory temples of silver with domes of gold gates of pearl and all precious stones and i realized that the city hath no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of god did lighten it and the lamp thereof is the lamb and he said unto me son of man this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where i will dwell in the midst of the children of israel forever and the name of the city from that day shall be the lord is there mount carmel the next day according to arrangement mr and mrs agnew went to akka while mr scheffler and i moved to the hotel pross on the top of mount carmel where we were met by mr snyder a german minister and missionary who keeps it we found him a kindly host quiet and simple everything was thoroughly clean and comfortable several english and american women tourists were there school teachers and some missionaries returning from india they were resting before going to nazareth damascus and beirut in the evening a lady told of her trip that day to akka she said the house of the new prophet was pointed out and someone suggested that she might like to meet him she assented and one went into his garden and asked permission for the meeting which was granted he was a man of striking and attractive appearance and met her most graciously and presented her with a rose he was carrying through an interpreter she asked him several questions which he answered in a courteous and gentle manner and she could see no difference in what he said from the teachings of jesus considerable conversation ensued and one lady said she had heard that americans sometimes came all the way there expressly to visit him and receive his teachings and she wondered how they could be such fools she also supposed they brought much money to him mr scheffler and i sat there longing to open our mouths and loosen our tongues but beyond asking some simple questions we remained silent one asked the lady what she had done with the rose she replied that she had pressed it and intended to keep it as a souvenir in the over to the headland that rises boldly from the sea roadsides and fields were painted with blossoms and we delighted in their variety colors and fragrance there were myriads of flowers daisies forget-me-nots sweet peas lilies roses and the flaming red poppies everywhere we gathered them as we went only to drop some as we found others more beautiful we were happy as children wandering over the hills and talking of things most dear to our hearts when we returned to the hotel we filled every available dish with flowers and pressed what we could in our diaries the tomb of the bab the next day we walked to the tomb of the bab we went on the smooth broad road along the ridge until we came to the top of the trail which goes almost directly down the side the same on which we had seen donkeys loaded with wood picking their way the day before it was very steep and all of loose crumbling stones the sides of the mountain are terraced and cultivated everywhere the larger loose stones are gathered into walls the rich reddish-brown soil and smaller stones are levelled or gently sloped from the foot of one wall to the top of another thus making steps from ten to twenty or thirty feet wide in which our fig and olive trees grapes and vegetables men and women were loosening the soil with mattocks after going down about a thousand feet we came to the road and found a neat carriageway between walls leading from the main roadway to the tomb it was a square of brownish-yellow limestone with white iron-panelled doors simple in architecture and with little outside ornament a considerable space was cut out from the side of the mountain and levelled around the tomb a portion of it is a stone surface in which is the mouth of a large cistern for water another portion is a flower garden beyond which is the house of the caretaker a persian bahai he lives there with his wife and baby and has an arab assistant when we came on to the stone platform we saw no one but in a few minutes the arab appeared came over to us and said akka and abbas we smiled and nodded assent he went to the garden and brought a flower to each of us then the caretaker rahmatullah came from the house with his little baby boy and greeted us he brought out chairs and i asked him to sit with the baby for a picture he excused himself went into the house and after a few minutes appeared dressed in his best clothes a long black coat hiding the flowing costume in which i wished to photograph him but the picture was never taken for just then two persians appeared who had come up to the trail from below they greeted him joyfully with the greatest name embracing him and then as we also repeated that name they took us in their arms with expressions of great gladness and praises to god they were mirza muhammad ali yazdi and haji muhammad shushtari of cairo with his seven-year-old boy they could speak no english but they had a message for us which was that cooks would come for us the next morning to take us to akka although we understood their meaning it was further assured by the persian who went into the house to consult his wife who must have known some english for he returned saying to-morrow morning go then the door of the tomb was opened and we were invited to enter it is simple and beautiful although it is not finished it is divided into three large compartments a centre and two sides and these into sections named after notable babis and bahais the floor of the centre is slightly raised the roof is in arches those of the sides being at right angles to the arches of the centre we bowed in silence for a few minutes then withdrew and bade our friends adieu while they exclaimed again and again the persian expression for you are welcome as we left the road and began to climb the trail we looked back and saw them going into the little grove of ten cypress trees in a circle on the hillside just above the tomb it is said that baha'u'llah used often to sit in that grove which commands a beautiful view of the sea and the valley of akka when we had gone up the trail some distance and reached the end of our first breath we rested and noticed a lithe young arab hurrying up from below when he reached us we found that he had a note from cooks saying that they would call for us the next morning at any hour we would name to take us to akka The messenger was on his way to the hotel, and finding us on the way, saved him a long climb, but lost him no back sheesh.

Then we hastened up the mountain with joy in our hearts, and our feet lightened by the glad anticipations for the next day.