Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land Impressions of Travel in Body and Spirit   By: Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

BOOKS BY HENRY VAN DYKE

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

THE RULING PASSION. Illustrated in color. $1.50

THE BLUE FLOWER. Illustrated in color. $1.50

OUTDOORS IN THE HOLY LAND. Illustrated in color net $1.50

DAYS OFF. Illustrated in color. $1.50

LITTLE RIVERS. Illustrated in color. $1.50

FISHERMAN'S LUCK. Illustrated in color. $1.50

THE BUILDERS, AND OTHER POEMS. $1.00

MUSIC, AND OTHER POEMS. net $1.00

THE TOILING OF FELIX, AND OTHER POEMS. $1.00

[Illustration: The Gate of David, Jerusalem.]

OUT OF DOORS IN THE HOLY LAND

Impressions of Travel in Body and Spirit

by

HENRY VAN DYKE

Illustrated

New York Charles Scribner's Sons MDCCCCVIII

Copyright, 1908, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published November, 1908

To

HOWARD CROSBY BUTLER

MASTER OF MERWICK

PROFESSOR OF ART AND ARCHÆOLOGY

WHO WAS A FRIEND TO THIS JOURNEY

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

BY HIS FRIEND

THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

For a long time, in the hopefulness and confidence of youth, I dreamed of going to Palestine. But that dream was denied, for want of money and leisure.

Then, for a long time, in the hardening strain of early manhood, I was afraid to go to Palestine, lest the journey should prove a disenchantment, and some of my religious beliefs be rudely shaken, perhaps destroyed. But that fear was removed by a little voyage to the gates of death, where it was made clear to me that no belief is worth keeping unless it can bear the touch of reality.

In that year of pain and sorrow, through a full surrender to the Divine Will, the hopefulness and confidence of youth came back to me. Since then it has been possible once more to wake in the morning with the feeling that the day might bring something new and wonderful and welcome, and to travel into the future with a whole and happy heart.

This is what I call growing younger; though the years increase, yet the burden of them is lessened, and the fear that life will some day lead into an empty prison house has been cast out by the incoming of the Perfect Love.

So it came to pass that when a friend offered me, at last, the opportunity of going to Palestine if I would give him my impressions of travel for his magazine, I was glad to go. Partly because there was a piece of work, a drama whose scene lies in Damascus and among the mountains of Samaria, that I wanted to finish there; partly because of the expectancy that on such a journey any of the days might indeed bring something new and wonderful and welcome; but most of all because I greatly desired to live for a little while in the country of Jesus, hoping to learn more of the meaning of His life in the land where it was spent, and lost, and forever saved.

Here, then, you have the history of this little book, reader: and if it pleases you to look further into its pages, you can see for yourself how far my dreams and hopes were realised.