Three Days in Gilead

Gerasa! Beautiful though in ruins. What glory must once have been thine! But where are the warriors who passed in triumph through thy gates? Where are the builders of thy temples?... Where are the people who thronged thy theaters and trod thy beautiful streets?... Gone! gone forever! Surely how frail is man! How fleeting his glory! -from Chapter IV: At Gerasa Little is known today about Elmer U. Hoenshel. He tells us in this brief pleasant 1909 travelogue of the Holy Land that he is a schoolteacher and an American. That he journeyed to the Middle East not to indulge in Biblical archaeology but merely to observe and experience. That he put down his lingering memories of his five-month trip in late 1900 and early 1901 for the benefit of his friends and family. Hoenshels writing-enthusiastic passionate expressive; alive with images of sacred associations and the strangely impressive Oriental sky-is an all but anonymous letter from the past a glimpse into times and places long gone.