Bethany
On the eastern side of the Mount of Olives, and but a half an hour’s walk from Jerusalem, is the town of Bethany—the house of dates—so called because of the tall date palm trees which once grew among the little white dwellings. The Arabic name is El-Azariyeh—the place of Lazarus. The palms are all gone now. It is now and always has been a poor, small mountain hamlet with nothing to charm except its seclusion and nothing to interest the Christian world save its associations. It is made sacred as the place where our Redeemer rested and prayed, and where no noisy crowd broke in upon His meditations. Lazarus, probably a rich man, lived there with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Jesus was invited to abide with them on one occasion, and always afterwards on his visits to Jerusalem made a home at the vine-clad cottage of Lazarus. “There,” says Porter, “no sound of the busy world followed him in the quiet home of Martha, and in some lonely recess of Bethany’s secluded dell he rested and prayed.” It was here that Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. It was here that Martha, tired of “much serving,” said, “Master, dost thou not care that my sister leaveth me to work alone?” It was then that Jesus warned Martha against undue anxiety, and exalted Mary’s choice of the good part never to be taken from her. It was here that Martha met Jesus when he came at the time of the death of Lazarus and where the great miracle was wrought.
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