The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy CruisePaine, Albert Bigelow
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The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy Cruise
Paine, Albert Bigelow
Middle East -- Description and travel
It is the biggest humbug in all Christendom. Of the scores of sites and
relics enclosed within its walls, it is unlikely that a single one is
genuine. With all respect to Queen Helena's talent for dreams, her
knowledge of Scripture must have been sparing, or she would have located
Calvary outside the walls of Jerusalem. This place is in the heart of
the city--was always in the heart of the city, in spite of all
gerrymandering to prove it otherwise; and it was more of a flat or a
hollow in the time of Christ than it is now.
As for the other traditions and trumpery gathered in this ecclesiastical
side-show, they are unworthy of critical attention. Probably not one in
a million of the readers of _Innocents Abroad_ but thought the finding
of the Grave of Adam one of Mark Twain's jokes. Not at all; it is
located here under Calvary, and the place from which came Adam's dust
(the Centre of the World) is close by. Then there is that Stone of
Unction, which every one of intelligence knows to be a fraud, and there
is the stone which the angel rolled away, and Adam's skull--they have
that, too.
It would seem that the human animal had exhausted his simian inheritance
then. But no, he can never exhaust that--it is his one limitless gift.
He has gone right on adding to his heap of bones and crockery, enlarging
the museum from time to time to make room. And he will add more. The
future is long, and it is only a question of time and faith when he will
bring over the tombs of the patriarchs from Hebron, the Grotto of the
Nativity from Bethlehem, the House of Judas from Damascus, and the
Street that was called Straight. Oh, he can do it! A creature who can
locate the Holy Sepulchre, the Grave of Adam, the Centre of the World,
Mount Calvary, and fifty other historical sites all within the radius of
a few feet, and find enough of his own kind to accept them, can do
anything. As an insult to human intelligence and genuine Christian
faith, I suppose this institution stands alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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