A Voice from Jerusalem: Or, A Sketch of the Travels and Ministry of Elder Orson HydeHyde, Orson
Religion
A Voice from Jerusalem: Or, A Sketch of the Travels and Ministry of Elder Orson Hyde
Hyde, Orson
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions; Jerusalem -- Description and travel; Middle East -- Description and travel
The customs and manners of the people of the east are so similar to
what they were in the days of our Saviour, that almost everything which
the traveller beholds is a standing illustration of some portion of
scripture: for example, I saw two women grinding wheat at a little
hand-mill, consisting of two small stones with a little rude tackling
about it, the whole of which one man might take in his arms and carry
almost any where at pleasure. One would turn the top stone until her
strength was exhausted, and then the other would take her place, and
so alternately keep the little grinder in operation. It appears that
our Lord foresaw the perpetuity of this custom, even to the time of his
second coming; for he said, "Two women shall be grinding at the mill;
one shall be taken and the other left; and for aught I know, these two
I saw were the identical ones. I also saw the people take a kind of
coarse grass and mix it with some kind of earth or peat that had been
wet and reduced to the consistency of common mortar, and then lay it
out in flattened cakes to dry for fuel. I then, for the first time
in my life, saw the propriety of our Saviour's allusion, "If God so
clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, &c." I might swell this letter to a volume upon these
subjects, but I forbear for the present. One may read of the customs of
the East, but it is not like seeing them. To read of a good dinner may
brighten up a man's ideas about eating, especially if he be a little
hungry; but to sit down at the luxurious board and eat is far more
satisfactory. The two cases are not exactly parallel, yet the latter
serves to illustrate the former.
As I walked about the environs of the town, my spirit struggled within
me in earnest prayer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he
would not only revolutionize this country, but renovate and make it
glorious. My heart would lavish its blessings upon it in the greatest
prodigality in view of what is to come hereafter. After returning to
the city, I found my feet and legs completely coated with dust; for the
whole face of the country was like an ash bed in consequence of the
great length of the dry season. I then thought how very convenient it
must have been for the ancient disciples to fulfil one injunction of
the Saviour, "shake off the dust of your feet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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