Hurlbut's story of Jesus for young and old; a complete life of Christ written in simple language

Front matter

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Coming to Jerusalem these strangers asked of every one whom they met: you tell us where to find the little child who is born to be the King of the Jews?"

Contents

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Preface 3

Why Everybody Should Know the Story of Jesus 9

Chapter 1

FIRST OF ALL, let us take a journey to the land where Jesus lived. We will sail in one of the bigocean steamers across the Atlantic, heading our prow a little to the south, and in eight days will pause at the Rock of Gibraltar, which stands on guard at the gate of the Mediterranean Sea. Do 3^011 know what "Mediterranean" means? It means, "among the lands"; and when 3'ou look at this sea on the map, } r ou see that it has lands around it on every side, with only a narrow opening at Gibraltar, where its blue waters pour into the Atlantic Ocean.

We will enter the Mediterranean Sea, and sail its entire length, past Spain and France and Italy on the left . We just miss touching the toe of Italy, for you know Italy runs into the sea like a great leg with a high-heeled boot upon its foot. And just be} r ond Italy we sail by Greece, which looks somewhat like a hand with fingers wide apart.

While we are passing 03- these lands on the left, we are also sailing past Morocco and Algiers, and Tunis and Tripoli on the right. We stop at Alexandria in Egypt, at one of the mouths of the river Nile, and soon after we leave the big steamer at Port Said, where the great Suez Canal begins.

There in the afternoon about ten days after our leaving America, we go on board a smaller ship, and sail northward past the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The next morning we awake to find our ship at anchor in front of a city on a hillside, rising up in terraces from the water.

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That cit} r is now called Jaffa, or Yafa; and it is the place where the steamers stop to send ashore those who are about to visit the Holy Land, for that is the name given to the land where Jesus lived. Do you remember in the Old Testament the story of Jonah, the prophet who tried to run awaA' from God's call to preach in the city of Nineveh? Well, it was from this city of Jaffa, then called Joppa, that Jonah started on his voyage, which ended inside the big fish. Perhaps you remember also the story of Dorcas, in the New Testa-

The Mediterranean Sea

ment, that good woman who helped the poor; and after dying was raised to life through the prayer of the Apostle Peter. Dorcas too lived at Joppa; and they show the house where, it is said, Peter stayed while he was visiting in that city.

Here at Jaffa or Joppa we end our long sea-vo}^age of about six thousand miles. We go ashore in a small boat, tossing up and down on the waves, for there is no wharf where a steamer can land its passengers. And now we are standing on the soil of the Holy Land, where .Ions lived. In Christ's time this land was called Judea. Jn our day its name is Palestine. 18

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It is a small country. If you will turn to the map of the United States, and look at New Hampshire, you will see a state in form quite like Palestine, and only a little smaller in size; for Palestine, or the Holy Land, contains about twelve thousand square miles, and New Hampshire a little more than nine thousand.

From Joppa we must go across Palestine if we would look at the part of the land among the mountains where Jesus lived.

We can now ride in a railroad train, some thing that Jesus never saw

while he lived on the earth; or we can go in a carriage, or on a horse, or on the back of a camel, as you will see some people riding, or in what they call "a palankeen," which is something like a coach-body set not on wheels, but between two pair of shafts, one in front, the other behind, and a mule harnessed in each pair, so that the rider has one mule in front and the other back of him.

There is no real harbor at Jaffa. Steamers must anchor

some distance out, and passengers are landed

by rowboats

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As we ride over the land we notice that at first it is vety level. This part of the country is called "the Sea Coast Plain," and a plain it surely is, almost as level as a floor. All around, } r ou see gardens and farms, orange trees and fig trees. If you could pluck one of these golden oranges and taste it, you would find that it is one of the sweetest and richest and juiciest that you have ever eaten, for the Jaffa oranges are famous

House of Simon, the tanner, in Joppa, where Peter stayed while visiting in that city

for thoir flavor. You ride between great fields of wheat and rye and barley, for this Sea Coast Plain is a rich farming land.

But after a few miles, ten or fifteen, we notice that we have left the plain and are winding and climbing among hills. In place of the farm-lands, we see here and there flocks of sheep with shepherds guarding them, just as the boy David watched over his flock three thousand years ago. Indeed, in our journey we might pass over the very brook where David found the round, 20

®f)e %ovb'& lanb smooth stones, one of which he hurled with a sling into the giant Goliath's forehead. This is the region of low hills, the foothills of the higher mountains beyond. It is called "the Shephelah," a name not easy to remember. In the Old Testament days, many battles were fought on these hills between the Israelites and the Philistines, their fierce enemies.

These foothills of the Shephelah are not many miles wide; and beyond them we come to the real Mountain Region of Palestine. Mountains rise on every hand, bare, stony, with scarcely any soil upon their steep sides, and with not a tree to be seen for miles. They are rocky crags, with here and there a village perched on their summits or clinging to their walls. This mountain land, more than the hills and plains below, was the home of the Israelites, the people from whom Jesus came. We wonder how they could ever have found a living in such a desolate land; but everywhere we see the ruins of old cities, showing thai once the land was filled with people. In those times, two thousand and more years ago, all these mountainsides, now bleak and rock-bound, were covered with terraces, where grew olive trees, fig trees and vineyards; where gardens blossomed and great crops were raised to feed the people. Even now in the spring and early summer, the valleys between these mountains are covered with flowers of every color. Scarcely another land on earth has as man}- wild flowers as this land of Pal-

:ddled camel

Zi)t Horb's Hanb estine. This mountain-belt, running from the north to the south throughout the land was the part of Palestine where nearly all the great men of Israel lived and died. Here among the mountains in the south is Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. In a mountain village in the north. Nazareth, was the home of Jesus during nearly all his life; and over these mountains even-where in the land, Jesus walked in the three years of his preaching and teaching.

W e pass over these mountains from east to west, and then from the heights we look down to a valley which runs north and south, the deepest in all the world, where we can see a little river with many windings, and rapids and falls, rolling onward to drop at last into a blue lake in the south. This river, as you know, is the Jordan, crossed by the Israelites when they first came to this land; the river where Xaaman washed away his leprosy, where Elijah struck the waves with his mantle and parted them, and in whose water Jesus was baptized.

We journey across this Jordan valley, from ten to twenty miles wide, and then we climb again high and steep mountains. This region is called the Eastern Table Land, because the mountains gradually sink down to a great desert plain on the east, Here we see the ruins of once great cities, where now only a few wandering Arabs pitch their tents.

We have now crossed the land of Palestine, and we have found that it contains five parts lying in a line: first, the Sea Coast Plain; second, the Shephelah, or foothills; third, the Mountain Region; fourth, the Jordan valley; and fifth, the Eastern Table Land.

Bui we must keep in mind that the land when Jesus lived there was very different from the land as we see it. Now it is a poor land; then it was rich. 22 ftfje lorb'S Hanb

Now its villages are made of miserable mud-houses, where live people who look half starved; then it was a land of well-built towns and happy people. Now we find roads that are mere tracks over the stones; then there were good roads everywhere. Now the hills rise bare and rocky; then they were covered with gardens. Now scarcely a tree can be seen in miles of travel; then the olive and the vine and the palm grew everywhere. We see the land in its ruin; Jesus saw it in its riches.

The valley of Gehenna, to the east of Jerusalem

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Chapter 2

NEARLY ALL the people living in Palestine in the time of Jesus were of the Jewish race. Two thousand years before Jesus came, a great man was living in that land, named Abraham. To this man, God gave a promise that his children and their children after them for many ages should live in that land and own it. Abraham's son was named Isaac, and Isaac's son was named Jacob. All the people of Palestine had spiung from the family of Jacob, and by the time Jesus came, these descendants of Jacob, as they were called, were in number many millions, and were to be found in other lands besides Palestine; although more of them lived in Palestine than in any other land.

Jacob, Abraham's grandson, was also named Israel; and on that account all the people sprung from him were called the Israelites. Jacob or Israel had twelve sons, from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel. But one son, named Judah, had more descendants or people springing from him than any other; and as most of the people in Palestine were of Judah's family, all of them were spoken of as Jews, a word which means sprung or descended from Judah. So the people to whom Jesus belonged were sometimes called Israelites, but more often Jews. They had another name, " Hebrews," but. that was not used as often as the two names, Israelites and Jews.

For many years, long before Jesus came, the Jews were rulers in the land of Palestine, with kings of their own pace, as David and Solomon in the early times, 24

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and King Jeroboam and King Hezekiah later. But in the time of Jesus, the Jews were no longer rulers in their own land. Palestine was then a small part of the vast Roman Empire, which ruled all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Its chief was an emperor, who lived at Rome in Italy. At the time when Jesus was born the emperor was Augustus. He was then an old man, and died very soon after the birth of Jesus. The

Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, where Herod lived

emperor who followed him was named Tiberius, and he ruled most of the years that Jesus was living in Palestine.

But there was another king ruling the land of Palestine under the Roman emperor, at the time when Jesus came. His name was Herod, and because he was a very wise and strong man, although a very wicked man, he was called Herod the Great. He ruled the land of Palestine, but in his turn obeyed the orders of

Cfje people in tfje TLotb'Z TLanh

the emperor Augustus at Rome. Herod also was a very old man at the time of Jesus' birth, and died soon afterward.

When Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four parts. Each of these parts had a king of its own, and three of these kings were Herod's sons. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee in the northwest, and Perea in the southeast; Herod Philip was over the country in the northeast; and Herod Archelaus ruled the largest portion, in the south. Xone of these little kings were good men. They had their father's wickedness, but did not have his ability to rule. One of them, Archelaus, was so bad that all the people asked the emperor at Rome to take his rule away. This the emperor did, and sent a man from Rome to govern the land in his place. You have heard of the Roman governor who was over this part of the land while Jesus was teaching. His name was Pontius Pilate; and he it was, you remember, who sent Jesus to die upon the cross.

The land of Palestine at that time was divided into five parts, which were called "provinces." The largest of these provinces was Judea, the one on the south, between the Dead Sea and the river Jordan on the east, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. North of Judea was a small province called Samaria, where lived a people who were not Jews but Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans, in turn, hated the Jews. Samaria was governed as a part of Judea, not with a separate ruler. These were the two provinces at first under Archelaus and then under the Roman governor.

In the north of Palestine, west of the river Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, was the province of Galilee, a country full of mountains, where Jesus dwelt for nearly 26 tEfje people in tfje Sorb's; Hanb all his life. The ruler of this province was Herod Antipas. He lived most of the time at a city which he had built beside the Sea of Galilee, and had named Tiberias, after the Roman emperor Tiberius.

Across the Jordan, on the east, opposite to Galilee was another province. In the Old Testament times, this land had been called Bashan, which means "woodland/ 'because it was a land of many forests. In the New Testament time it was generally spoken of as

"Philip's province," because its ruler was Herod Philip, the best of Herod's sons, and none too good, either.

South of Philip's province, and east of the river Jordan, was a province named Perea, a word meaning

Samuel anointing Saul to be the first king of Israel

®f)E people in tije Sorb's Hanb

"beyond/' because this region was beyond or across the river Jordan. At the time of Jesus' life, Perea was like Galilee, ruled by Herod Antipas. Once at least

Jesus visited this province; and here he told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which everybody has heard.

Although the mighty Roman empire gave to the Jews in Palestine a government that was just and fair, it was not a Jewish rule; and the Jews were not contented under the power of foreigners. They felt that they more than other nations were the people of God, and that they had a right to rule themselves, under kings of their own race. Also they read in their Bible the promises of the prophets that from Israel should come forth a king, out of David's line, who should rule the world.

This great King, whom the Jews hoped for and a heathen idol looked for, they called

"Messiah," a word in the Jews' language meaning the same as the word "Christ," which is a Greek word, meaning "the Anointed One," that is, "the King." You remember that in the Old Testament story the prophet 28

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Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel, that is, he poured oil on his head; and that afterward he chose the boy David to be the next king by the same sign. When we say "Jesus Christ/' Jesus is his name and " Christ" is his title; and we mean " Jesus the King."

We know that this promised King whom the Jews called Messiah was Jesus Christ who rules over the hearts of men everywhere; but the Jews thought that it meant a king like Herod or the emperor Tiberius, only better and wiser, who should live in a palace at Jerusalem, their chief city, and make all lands obey his will. This hope made the Jews very restless and unhappy under the Roman power. They were always looking for the coining of this mighty King of the Jews, who should lead them to conquer the earth.

In their worship the Jews were different from all the rest of the world. Every other people had gods of wood and stone, images before which they bowed and to which they gave offerings. In all the cities of that world were temples and altars to these idols, made by the hands of men. But in the land of the Jews were no images, no idol-temples, and no offerings to man-made gods. The Jews, whether

Interior of Jewish synagogue in Palestine

&fje people in tfje lorb's TLanh

in Palestine or in other lands, worshipped the One God who was unseen, the God to whom we also pray. In their chief city, Jerusalem, was a splendid temple where God was worshipped; and in every Jewish city and town were churches, where the people met to read the Bible, to sing the psalms of David, to offer prayer to God, and to talk together about God's laws. These churches were called "synagogues," and wherever Jews lived, synagogues were to be found. The Jews looked with great contempt upon the idol-worship of other nations, and were proud of the fact that ever since the days of their father Abraham, they had worshipped only the Lord God.

Ruins of ancient synagogue at Kefr Birim, in Galilee

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Chapter 3

IN THE land of Palestine one city was loved by the Jews above all other places. That was Jerusalem, the largest city in the land in the province of Judea. It was to the Jews everywhere, not only in Palestine but over all the earth, wherever Jews lived, "the holy city." From all parts of the land the people came at least once in every year, and many families, three times each year, to worship God in Jerusalem. At these great feasts, as they were called, all the roads leading to Jerusalem were thronged with travelers going up to Jerusalem for worship. And the Jews in other lands, many hundreds of miles away, even as far as Rome itself, tried at least once in their lives to visit the city. They sang about Jerusalem songs such as:

"If I forget thee, Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning; Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I remember thee not, If I prefer not Jerusalem Above my chief joy."

That which made Jerusalem a holy city was its Temple, a magnificent building on Mount Moriah, just across a valley from Mount Zion, where the larger part of the city stood. The Temple they called "The House of God," for in it the Jews believed their God made his home. In front of this Temple stood an altar, which was like a great box made of stone, hollow inside, and covered with a metal grating. Upon his altar a fire was kept burning night and day, and on the fire the

HL\)t Stranger bp tfje #olben 2Utar priests who led in the worship of God, laid offerings of sheep and oxen, which were burned as gifts to God; while around the altar the people stood and prayed to God as the offering, which the}- called "a sacrifice," was burning.

Inside the Temple building were two rooms. The room in front was called "the holy place," and in it stood on one side a table covered with gold, on which lay twelve loaves of bread as an offering to God; one

loaf for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. On the other side of the room stood a golden lamp -stand, with seven b ranc h e s, called "the golden candlestick." At the farther

Looking up the Kedron Valley toward Mt. Moriah onr l n f +V.p

room stood another altar, made of gold, smaller than the great altar in front of the Temple. On this golden altar the priest offered twice each day a bowl of incense, which was made by mixing some sweet-smelling gums, frankincense and myrrh, and burning them, so that they inn i icd a fragrant white cloud, filling the Holy Place.

Beyond the Holy Place was another room called "The Holy of Holies." Into this room no one entered except the high priest, and he on only one day in the year; for this inner room was set apart for the dwelling-place of God; and the Jews believed that in this room 32

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the light of God was shining so brightly that no one could endure it. In the first Temple built by King Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant stood in the Holy of Holies. This was a chest covered with gold, within which lay the two stone tables on which the Ten Commandments were written. But the Ark of the Covenant

The Mosque of Omar, now on the place where the Temple once stood

had been lost, and in the time of which we are speaking, nothing was in the Holy of Holies except a block of marble.

One day an old priest named Zacharias was offering incense upon the golden altar in the Holy Place. He had filled the bowl, which they called a censer, with the frankincense and myrrh, and had placed in it some coals of fire from the great altar in front of the Temple. 3 33

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He had come into the Holy Place, bringing his censer of incense, which sent its white cloud into the air, and was just about to lay it upon the altar, when he was startled at suddenly seeing someone standing by the golden altar on the right side.

Zacharias was surprised to see anyone in the room, for he knew that no one but himself had a right to be there. But he was still more surprised and filled with

High Priest, altar of incense, table for shew bread, and Ark of the Covenant fear when he looked at this stranger standing by the altar. He seemed like a young man, and his face and body and clothes were bright and shining like the sun, so glorious that the old priest could not bear to look upon him.

At once Zacharias knew that this glorious person was an angel sent from God. He trembled with fear; his knees shook, and he could scarcely keep from falling on the floor. The angel spoke to him, gently and kindly: 34

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"Zacharias, do not be frightened. You have nothing to fear. I have come to you with good news. God has heard the prayers that you and your good wife Elizabeth have been sending up to heaven for these man} r 3-ears. You shall have a son, and shall call his name John. Your son when he becomes a man will bring J03- and gladness to many people; for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord; and it shall be his work to make his people ready for the coming of the King for who m t h e y have been looking so long. You must see that your son never drinks any wine or strong drink, for he is to be set apart for God, to serve God only, and to speak the The g0,den cand,estick

word of God to the people, telling them that their King and Saviour is at hand."

The priest was so filled with surprise and fear that he could scarcely believe what he heard.

"How can these wonderful words be true?" he said. "I am an old man, and my wife is also old. We are too old now to have children. How can I believe all this?"

The angel was not pleased when he saw that Zacharias doubted his word, and he said:

"I am the angel Gabriel, that stands before God; and I have been sent from God to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Now, because you did

Cf)e Stranger bp tfje (golben &itar not believe God's word, you shall be stricken dumb, and shall not be able to speak until my words come true and your child is born."

And then the angel vanished out of sight as suddenly as he had come, and Zacharias was left alone.

All this time a greal crowd of people was standing outside the Temple, worshipping God while the offering was made. They wondered that Zacharias was waiting s<> long in the Temple; and they wondered more when he came out. and they found that he could not speak. He made signs to them, trying to show them he had seen an angel, but he did not tell them what the angel had said, for that was meant for himself only and not for others.

Each priest stayed for one week in the Temple and then went to his house; so after a few days Zacharias Left Jerusalem and returned to his house in the southern part of the land, not far from the old city of Hebron, the place where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the early fathers of the Israelites, were buried.

How happy Elizabeth was when her husband, by signs and by writing, told her of the angel and his promise that she should be the mother of one who was to bear the word of the Lord to the people. Such men, to whom God spoke and who spoke for God, were called •prophets." Many great prophets in past years had spoken the word of God to the Israelites, men like Samuel and Elijah and Isaiah. But more than four hundred years had passed away since the voice of a prophet had been heard in the land. Their promised son was to rise up and speak once more God's will to his people. Zacharias and Elizabeth might not live long enough to hear his voice as a prophet, but they had God's promise, and in that promise they were happy, waiting for their child to come and grow up to his great work.

Chapter 4

FOR OUR next story we visit Nazareth, a village in Galilee, nearly seventy miles north of Jerusalem. Galilee, as we have seen, was the northern province or division of the land, lying between the river Jordan and the Great Sea. The lower part of Galilee is a great plain, called " the plain of Esdraelon," or "the plain of Jezreel," where many battles have been fought in past times. The upper part of Galilee is everywhere mountains and valleys, with villages perched on the mountain tops or clinging to their sides, and sometimes nestled in the valleys. Just where the plain ends and the mountains begin, we find a long range of steep hills. If we climb to the top of this range, on one side we see the plain stretched out, and far in the distance the Mediterranean Sea; and on the other, or northern slope of the hills, we come to the cit}^ of Nazareth. There the mother of Jesus lived as a young girl before her son was born, and there Jesus lived during most of his life.

Nazareth is there still, although many of the old towns in that land have passed away; and now it is quite a city, but in the time of which we are telling it was only a village. All around it are hills. One can stand in the town and count fifteen hills and mountains, all in sight.

Its narrow streets climb the hills between rows of one-story white houses, many of them having a little dome on the roof. Around each roof in those times of which we are telling was a rail with posts on the corners,

^i)e angel Utssits; Jla^aretfj to prevent anj r one on the roof from falling off, for the flat roof was used as a place of visiting and of rest, since the house inside was dark, having no glass windows, but instead only one small hole in the wall. None of these houses had a door opening upon the street. Beside the road was a high wall, and in it a gate leading to an open court, at one end of which stood the house.

In the village was one fountain, to which all the women went for water. There were no wells or pumps or pipes with water in the houses; and around the fountain might be seen in the morning a crowd of women bringing water-jars empty, and carrying them home full of water, balanced on their heads. No one often saw a man carrying a jar of water, for this was looked upon as a woman's work.