Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS. In writing about Alexandria, I hardly alluded to the state of Christian missions or of the Christian Church in that city. And should any reader look for information on these matters respecting any of the places we visited, he will, I am bound to say, be disappointed. But let not my silence be misinterpreted. It does not arise, verily, from forming a low estimate, but rather a high one, of the importance of such inquiries. For a long and somewhat varied experience has taught me the extreme difficulty of ascertaining facts on a subject involving so many nice and delicate questions as the actual state of any mission, whether to Jew or Gentile. And having had, in the limited period to which I was compelled to confine my'journey, neither the time nor opportunity necessary for inquiry, I feel that it would probably do more harm than good were I to give an opinion on such matters. It is possible that, with this explanation, I may record impressions made upon me by missionary operations, but I will not attempt to do more. I refuse to be cited by any party as a competent witness. Although Alexandria is, as I stated before, the starting- point for Palestine (our ultimate destination), yet who could be in it without seeing Cairo 1 who could be in Cairo without seeing the Pyramids, and doing the usual round of travellers, since the Deluge, or thereabouts ? and who, being in Cairo, could omit a visit to the Red Sea ? and who could be at the Red Sea, and not, if possible, visit Sinai ? Alas ! our itinerary ends, like that of Pharaoh, at the Red Sea, for we could not follow Mosesfurther. Of course then we went to Cairo, and in a few pages of easy talk I will tell what we saw there. " It is a moighty queer thing entirely, you may depend," said an Irishman, ...