The great flat rock on the summit of Mount Moriah over which the dome of the Mosque of Omar now rises was the ancient threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. In many parts of Palestine to-day a flat rock or a hard piece of ground is selected as a threshing-floor upon which the ripe grain is laid down to be trodden out by cattle or mules. David purchased this particular floor from Ornan as an offering to the Lord so that the people might be freed from a terrible pestilence then raging in Jerusalem. The Bible account continues: “Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.” And right away he began preparations for the temple which was actually built on this spot by his son Solomon. The Moslems have their own tradition regarding this rock. Since ancient times it has been the custom in the Holy Land to bring the harvested grain to the community threshing-floor, which is soon walled with toppling piles of sheaves, each pile belonging to a different farmer. The owners of the wheat sleep on the threshing-floor at night so as to keep watch over their property. According to the Mohammedan story, two brothers, one married, the other a bachelor, lay down to sleep beside their respective piles. The married brother, waking in the night, began to think how much grain he had and then of his brother’s lot compared with his own. “Poor fellow,” said the married man, “he has no wife and children to comfort him and make his life happy. To even things up a little I will slip over and add some of my sheaves to his and he will never know I have given them to him.” This he did, and then fell fast asleep again. A little later the bachelor brother woke and thought of his great stacks of grain and how he, being unmarried, needed so much less than his brother. “Poor fellow,” thought he, “I who am free have much more than I need, I will give him some of my grain while he sleeps, for he would never take it from me if he knew I was giving it.” So he transferred a generous portion of wheat from his heap to his brother’s. In the morning both were astonished to find their piles exactly the same size as they had been the night before. Then a prophet appeared to them and told them what had passed in the night. He said that God, who had seen and approved the evidences of their brotherly kindness, had decided to make this threshing-floor the place of prayer for the whole world. [Illustration: Priests of the Greek Church bless the waters of the Jordan at Easter, when hundreds of pilgrims bathe in the river, many of them clad in their burial shrouds. Across the Jordan Joshua led his hosts dry-shod to the assault on Jericho] [Illustration: Sturdy character shows in the faces of these Russian women, who patiently trudge from shrine to shrine. The Russians are perhaps the most devout of all the thousands of pilgrims who come to the Land of Christ]