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Wayfaring Men

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In the primitive ages of the world there were no public inns or taverns. In those days the voluntary exhibition of hospitality to one who stood in need of it was highly honourable. The glory of an open-hearted and generous hospitality continued even after public inns or caravanserais were erected, and continues to this day. in the east, Job 22:7; Job 31:17; Genesis 18:3-9; Genesis 19:2-10; Exodus 2:20; Judges 19:2-10; Acts 16:15; Acts 17:7; Acts 28:7; Matthew 25:35; Mark 9:41; Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 5:10; Hebrews 13:2 . Buckingham in his "Travels among the Arab Tribes," says, "A foot passenger could make his way at little or no expense, as travellers and wayfarers of every description halt at the sheikh's dwelling, where, whatever may be the rank or condition of the stranger, before any questions are asked him as to where he comes from, or whither he is going, coffee is served to him from a large pot always on the fire; and a meal of bread, milk, oil, honey, or butter, is set before him, for which no payment is ever demanded or even expected by the host, who, in this manner, feeds at least twenty persons on an average every day in the year from his own purse; at least, I could not learn that he was remunerated in any manner for this expenditure, though it is considered as a necessary consequence of his situation, as chief of the community, that he should maintain this ancient practice of hospitality to strangers.—We had been directed to the house of Eesa, or Jesus. Our horses were taken into the court yard of the house, and unburdened of their saddles, without a single question being asked on either side; and it was not until we had seated ourselves that our intention to remain here for the night was communicated to the master of the house: so much is it regarded a matter of course, that those who have a house to shelter themselves in, and food to partake of, should share those comforts with wayfarers." The passage in Isaiah 35:8 , "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," receives elucidation from some of the accounts of modern travellers. Irwin, speaking of his passing through the deserts on the eastern side of the Nile, in his going from Upper Egypt to Cairo, tells us, that, after leaving a certain valley, which he mentions, their road lay over level ground. "As it would be next to an impossibility to find the way over these stony flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves no impression, the different bands of robbers," wild Arabs, he means, who frequent that desert, "have heaped up stones at unequal distances for their direction through this desert. We have derived great assistance from the robbers in this respect, who are our guides when the marks either fail, or are unintelligible to us." "It was on the 24th of March," says Hoste, "that I departed from Alexandria for Rosetta: it was a good day's journey thither, over a level country, but a perfect desert, so that the wind plays with the sand, and there is no trace of a road. We travel first six leagues along the sea coast; but when we leave this, it is about six leagues more to Rosetta, and from thence to the town there are high stone or bark pillars, in a line, according to which travellers direct their journey."