The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy CruisePaine, Albert Bigelow
General
The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy Cruise
Paine, Albert Bigelow
Middle East -- Description and travel
We entered the "street which is called Straight," and came to the house
of Judas, where St. Paul lodged when he was led blind into Damascus,
trembling and astonished of the Lord. His name was Saul, and he had been
on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, by the authority of
Rome. The story is in the ninth chapter of Acts, and is too familiar to
repeat here. I believe, though, most of us thought the house of Judas
had some connection with the unfaithful disciple of that name, until
Habib enlightened us. Habib said that this was another Judas--a good
man--well-to-do for his time. The Street called Straight runs through
the Grande Bazaar, and the house of Judas is in the very midst of that
dim aggregation of trades. It is roofless and unoccupied, but it is kept
clean and whitewashed, and its stone walls will stand for another two
thousand years.
Next to the birth and crucifixion of the Saviour, the most important
event in the story of Christianity happened there. It seemed strange and
dream-like to be standing in the house of St. Paul's conversion--a place
which heretofore had seemed to exist only in the thin leaves and fine
print of our Sunday-school days--and I found myself wondering which
corner of the house St. Paul occupied, just where he sat at table, and a
number of such things. Then I noticed the drifting throngs outside,
passing and repassing or idling drowsily, who did not seem to know that
it was St. Paul's house, and paid no attention to it at all.
At the house of Ananias, which came next, Habib was slow in arriving,
and the Horse-Doctor gave us a preliminary lecture.
"This," he said, "is the house of Ananias, once fed by the ravens.
Later, through being a trifle careless with the truth, he became the
founder and charter member of a club which in the United States of
America still bears his name. Still later he was struck by lightning for
deceiving his mother-in-law, Saphira, who perished at the same time to
furnish a Scripture example that the innocent must suffer with the
guilty (see Deuteronomy xi. 16): This is the spot where Ananias fell.
That stone marks the spot where his mother-in-law stood. The hole in the
roof was made by the lightning when it came through. We will now pass on
to the next--"
That was good enough gospel for our party if Habib had only let it
alone. He came in just then and interrupted. He said:
"This is the house of Ananias--called St. Ananias, to distinguish him
from a liar by the same name. That Ananias and his wife, Saphira, fell
dead at the feet of St. Peter because of falsehood, a warning to those
who trifle with the truth to-day. St. Ananias was a good man, who
restored St. Paul's sight and instructed him in the Christian
doctrine."
We naturally avoided the Doctor for a time after that. His neighborhood
seemed dangerous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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