Palestine Is In Hands Of Jews

FUTURE OF CRADLE OF CHRISTIANITY DEPENDS ON THEM. · Work Among Moslem and Hebrew As Seen By Dr. D. W. Torrance. · MISSIONARY SPEAKS AT ASYLUM HILL CHURCH.

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“That the future of Palestine is in the hands of the Jews was the belief expressed by Dr.

David Watt Torrance, the medical missionary of the United Free Church of Scotland, stationed at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee who is spending a few weeks in this city, in the course of his address on ‘Work Amongst the Moslems and Jews in Palestine,’ at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church yesterday morning. Dr.

Torrance explained at the beginning of his address that it was not his purpose to preach a sermon, but rather to paint a picture of the work and of the tragedy of having to send missionaries to Palestine, the cradle of Christianity, the place where theoretically there should be the least need of a missionary.

Palestine, in connection with our Lord, was a point of great strategic importance and the speaker expressed the belief that it was to be so again in the future. He then gave a short sketch of the history of Palestine, the crucifixion, the fall of Jerusalem, and the dispersal of the Jews, Christians and Romans. Tiberias was one of the four holy cities of the Jews.

It was a Jewish capital for about two centuries and there the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled. There also is a University for Jews, and the Jews come there yearly in great numbers to visit the tombs of their famous rabbis. Dr. Torrance then took up the rise of Mohammedanism during the seventh century in Arabia, the cradle of Mohammedanism and Mohammed.

Here Mohammed, aspiring after holiness and religion, was raised. Here he, coming in contact with debased Judaism and Christianity, and not being satisfied, evolved the religion which bears his name.

In a little more than 100 years this religion spread from its home to the surrounding countries, including Palestine, across the whole northern coast of Africa and into Spain, and was only stopped from occupying France by the victory of Charles Martel.

Following this, the Crusaders strove with the sword of steel to regain the control of Palestine and sadly failed, and the Moslems have remained undisputed in its government until the present day. Modern Christendom has thrown aside the sword of steel and is using the sword of the spirit, with far greater success.

The speaker then took up Palestine as it is today, giving an outline of its natural features, its richness of soil, and of its neglected and starved condition, its very hills, once terraced and covered with vines and fig trees, now staring one in the face like hungry ribs. He took up the unique feature of the Jordan River, beginning at the foot of snowy Mt.

Herman, which is between 9,000 and 10,000 feet high, passing down through Lake Merom, which is at sea level, thence on down the chasm to the Sea of Galilee, 680 feet below sea level, and winding reluctantly away in serpentine coils to its death in the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below sea level, and 1,300 feet deep. Dr.

Torrance then gave a detailed description of the Sea of Galilee, itself, telling how the ancient cities of the Scripture, associated with the life of the Lord, had passed away, an awful commentary on the woes mentioned against them by Christ, himself, for their neglected opportunities.

Tiberias, the headquarters of the mission, the only town left, although there are numerous villages, probably was never entered by Christ. The present city occupies only a part of the ancient city of Herod Antipas, but its walls are, perhaps, identical in site with those of the times of the Crusader.

Immediately behind the hospital, which was started in 1884, is the site of the Castle of Tancred. The climate at Tiberias, on account of its low depression, is peculiar in the extreme.

During the summer months it has a tropical temperature, the thermometer reaching 118 degrees in the shade, but in the winter it is fit to become a most popular health resort, both on account of its natural beauty, its associations—both sacred and profane—its hot springs and its warm, well modulated temperature. At first his efforts, Dr.

Torrance said, met with opposition from the Jew and Turk, and he was forced to live in a native house. The first hospital was fourteen feet square. At one time a Moslem priest, in order to extract baksheesh from him, got up an accusation of murder against him, which was carried on for eighteen years without the priest realizing any money.

It seems that an Arab had met with an accident in which he broke one of his legs. He was attended by native surgeons, and, as a result of the treatment, gangrene set in. When in a nearly dying condition, he was brought to the hospital for treatment, and, shortly after his leg was amputated, died.

According to the Moslem faith, a Moslem who loses a leg in his natural life, never regains it in the world to come. The Arab’s wife was naturally upset by the death of her husband, and, when she left the hospital, she chanced to meet the Moslem priest, who questioned her, after which he took her before a Cadi and had a charge of murder preferred against the doctor. Dr.

Torrance said, however, that his assistants stood by him, and that the difficulty has now been overcome.

An interesting part of his work has been the camping trips among the villages and the Bedouins, where he has spent much time giving health lectures, a particular feature of which was the cautioning of the natives against their habits of laziness, which permitted them to drink the filthy water in the old abandoned Roman cisterns, rather than to walk a small distance to the natural springs.

The result of these trips was the increased interest taken by the natives in the hospital, who half-support it themselves. At present there are about 2,000 visits a month to the institution, and the forty beds are constantly full.

Plans are under way for the extension of the hospital, the addition of a maternity hospital for the training of midwives, the extension of the nurses’ training home, and the establishment of a new medical mission hospital in the further East in the Hauran, among the Druses and the Arabs, who at present are flooding the parent institution.

In the hospital patients of all religions are received and people who, outside the institution would be flying at one another’s throats, are seen working together like brother and sister. The environment outside is one of Turkish oppression, bigotry and ignorance, while inside is that of a Christian home.

A short time ago a prominent Moslem chief came to visit his son, Derweesh, who was undergoing treatment in the hospital. He was struck with amazement at the comfort and beauty of the place and exclaimed, ‘God give victory to the Sultan,’ believing that he had built the hospital.

When told of his mistake he said, ‘God give victory to the Queen of England,’ and when again informed of his mistake, asked, ‘Who am I to thank for this?’ Dr.

Torrance then explained to him the names of the different congregations, Sunday schools and individuals supporting the beds, mentioning, as he did so, that the bed his son was lying in had no name except the Scripture verse, ‘Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.’

The Moslem then inquired again as to what supported the bed, and received the reply that God knew who supported it. At that the Moslem went into a corner and removing his girdle, which proved to be a purse, shook out every coin, amounting to several pounds, and gave them to the doctor to use in the name of the Messiah.

Late that night the physician, while in his study, was found by his assistant, who, instead of calling him for an accident, said that Derweesh’s father, on retiring, had found another gold coin in his girdle and had brought it to the hospital. His home and town in the Hauran are now open to the Christian missionary. Dr.

Torrance told several other anecdotes of a similar character, after which he took up the Jew in Palestine, saying that the Jews of late have been like parasites living on the Haluka, a fund sent by their brethren in Europe, to support them in holding the Holy Sites, and to support them in study and prayer, but which, in reality, was proving to be a pension on laziness and was having a most deteriorating influence on the progress of the land.

Things were changing though. The Jew was beginning to work, agricultural colonies have been established, and today the best crops in Palestine were sown by Jewish hands. Hebrew was being revived as a living tongue and, altogether, a new era had begun.

In his experience he had found that the Jews were not opposed to Christ, but to the debased persecuting Christianity with which they had come in contact. In conclusion, Dr. Torrance said that it was well worth while establishing Christian missions among them.

There were no people, in comparison with their numbers, who wielded so much influence in the world today, and if they were won to Christ what could they not do for the world? Dr. Torrance is on a leave of absence, and, with his wife, is spending a few weeks in this city.

During his stay he is planning to speak to the prisoners at the state prison on Palestine, believing that it will be of interest in connection with the fresco, ‘Christ After the Resurrection Forgiving Peter at the Sea of Galilee,’ soon to be presented to the prison and placed in the chapel, by Miss Genevieve Cowles of Farmington.

Miss Cowles spent three years in Tiberias collecting material for her work.”

How this transcription was made

Transcribed in full from the scan, read column by column at seven times magnification. The first pass read only the headline block and the opening sentence; the rest is now read off the page. Spellings are the paper’s own, including Mt. Herman, Haluka and Cadi.

Context added by this archive

A Scottish medical missionary at Tiberias, reported in Hartford in 1911, and the headline asserts as settled fact something that was not true of the population: Palestine is in hands of Jews. The subheads name the people the mission worked among — Moslem and Hebrew — so the paper knew who lived there while the headline said whose the country was.

What the future of the place is made to depend on, in the second line, is Christianity.

Cite this clipping

"Palestine Is In Hands Of Jews," Hartford Courant, 31 July 1911. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1911-006. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1911-006