DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0193
182
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
I was a changed man since the day before; my
buoyancy of spirit was gone, and I was depressed
and dejected. I sent a messenger, however, for
the guide ; and, while I was sitting under the
walls, hesitating whether I should expose myself
to the long and dreary journey before me, I saw
four men coming across the desert towards the con-
vent. They were the priests and three of his Chris-
tian flock ; and their greeting was such as to make
me reproach myself for the injustice I had done
the Arab Christians, and feel that there was some-
thing in that religion, even in the corrupt state in
which it existed there, that had power to open and
warm the heart. The priest was a tall thin man,
his dark face almost covered with a black beard
and mustaches, and wore the common blue gown
of the better class of Arabs, with a square black
cap on his head, and his feet bare. I could not
understand him, but I could read in his face that
he saluted me as a brother Christian, and wel-
comed me to all that a brother Christian could
give.
Living as we do, in a land where the only reli-
gious difference is that of sect, and all sects have
the bond of a common faith, it is difficult to realize
the feeling which draws together believers in the
same God and the same Redeemer, in lands where
power is wielded by the worshippers of a false re-
ligion. One must visit a country in which religion
is the dividing line—where haughty and deluded
fanatics are the masters—and hear his faith reviled
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
I was a changed man since the day before; my
buoyancy of spirit was gone, and I was depressed
and dejected. I sent a messenger, however, for
the guide ; and, while I was sitting under the
walls, hesitating whether I should expose myself
to the long and dreary journey before me, I saw
four men coming across the desert towards the con-
vent. They were the priests and three of his Chris-
tian flock ; and their greeting was such as to make
me reproach myself for the injustice I had done
the Arab Christians, and feel that there was some-
thing in that religion, even in the corrupt state in
which it existed there, that had power to open and
warm the heart. The priest was a tall thin man,
his dark face almost covered with a black beard
and mustaches, and wore the common blue gown
of the better class of Arabs, with a square black
cap on his head, and his feet bare. I could not
understand him, but I could read in his face that
he saluted me as a brother Christian, and wel-
comed me to all that a brother Christian could
give.
Living as we do, in a land where the only reli-
gious difference is that of sect, and all sects have
the bond of a common faith, it is difficult to realize
the feeling which draws together believers in the
same God and the same Redeemer, in lands where
power is wielded by the worshippers of a false re-
ligion. One must visit a country in which religion
is the dividing line—where haughty and deluded
fanatics are the masters—and hear his faith reviled