The great pyramid passages and chambers

LETTER XV.

Hotel Fast, Jerusalem. Monday, Sth July, 1909.

DEAR BRETHREN,—Our forces are now divided into two companies. Morton and Jack left at eight o'clock this morning for Jaffa, en route for the Great Pyramid, which (D.V.) they will reach to-morrow. We should all have gone together, but Stanley is not yet well enough. He has now been in bed for nine days, but this afternoon I lifted him on to a rocking-chair. He feels fairly well, except that he is still rather weak. His temperature now fluctuates between 99° and 100° F. We hope that he will have recovered sufficiently in a day or two to let him see Jerusalem, perhaps to take him a drive to Bethlehem or Bethany or both. There is now no boat from Jaffa to Port Said till Saturday, so that, however well he may be, we cannot leave here till then.

414 As a result of our waiting on, we have been able to arrange for the lecture, “ Where are the Dead?” in this hotel. Last week I was too ill to give it, but lam now feeling very well. Brother Cotton joined us on Saturday evening, and last night he and Mr. Jamal accompanied me to the Rev. Mr. Sykes of the Church Missionary Society. Brother Cotton showed him the draft of our programme and asked him if we could hire his Mission Hall. A long talk followed. He admitted that the problem of the heathen and of all others who die out of Christ was one which he could not answer, and stated that he would be very glad to hear what I had to say regarding it; but he did not think he would be acting rightly to let us have the use of his hall for such a lecture.

415 This morning, after we had seen Morton and Jack away, Grace and Brother Cotton called at Hughes’ Hotel, while I waited with Stanley. Hughes’ Hotel has a larger and more suitable room for a public lecture than Fast’s. The manageress, an Aberdeen lady, is consecrated to the Lord, and Brother Cotton, Morton and I had a nice talk with her yesterday. She seems to be favourably impressed with the Truth; but she told Brother Cotton this morning that she did not feel at liberty to let the room, because Mr. Hughes, who is abroad at present, objected not long ago to her letting it for a concert. She proposed that they should see Mr. Thomson who has a Mission Hall, and is superintendent of the Church Missionary Alliance of the American Free Church. Accordingly, they called on Mr. Thomson; but he emphatically refused. He said he had read the brochure, Where are the Dead? which had been loaned to him by the manageress of Hughes’ Hotel, and he did not at all agree with it, though he thought it a clever production, Brother Cotton was not surprised at this reception, for this Mr. Thomson was one of those to whom he sent the Divine Plan of the Ages shortly after coming to a knowof the Truth, and he remembered having received a strongly-worded letter from him, opposing the Truth. However, Mr. Thomson said he would come to hear the lecture.

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