Pilgrims

“ It was nearing the sunset hour when a little band of men in pilgrim garb, approaching from the west and climbing the long, hilly ridge, came within sight of this "isle of rest." Twelve pilgrims there were in all, in dress and appearance very unlike the fair-haired Britons who at that time dwelt in the land. One, he who led the way, was an old man. His hair was white and his long, white beard fell upon his breast, but he was tall and erect and bore no other signs of age. In his hand he carried a stout hawthorn staff. ”

“ Those peculiar outward emblems, which were its badges at first, were of transient duration; like the clay and ligaments with which the graft is held in its place, made to be brushed away as soon as the scion is firmly united. The spirit of the Pilgrims was a life-giving spirit; activity, thrift, intelligence, liberty, followed in its train; and as for courage, a coward and a Puritan never went together. ”

“ Early in the afternoon we overtook another procession of pilgrims; but in this one was no merriment, no jokes, no laughter, no playful ways, nor any happy giddiness, whether of youth or age. Yet both were here, both age and youth; gray old men and women, strong men and women of middle age, young husbands, young wives, little boys and girls, and three babies at the breast. ”

“ The circle of darkness is drawn about a little group of Pilgrims who have come ashore on a sandy and inhospitable coast. On one side is a vexed and wintry sea, three thousand miles of tossing waves and tempest, beyond which lie the home, the hedgerows and cottages, the church towers, the libraries and universities, the habits and associations of an old civilization, the strongest and dearest ties that can entwine around a human heart, abandoned now definitely and forever by these wanderers ”

“ Yet, to the everlasting honor of the Pilgrims let it be said, no other face betrayed hesitation or fear. Whatever was in their hearts, men, women, and children all took up their burdens and set forth up the hill. ”

“ I have always had a liking for pilgrimages, and if I had lived in the Middle Ages would have spent most of my time on the way to Rome. The pilgrims, leaving all their cares at home, the anxieties of their riches or their debts, the wife that worried and the children that disturbed, took only their sins with them, and turning their backs on their obligations, set out with that sole burden, and perhaps a cheerful heart. ”

“ The pilgrimage is not unlike that conjectured by a noble and worthy order which takes its initiates to the far East, travels them through the unmarked desert, over blistering sands, and under a sky of brass, while the breath of the winds is like that of a furnace, scorching the weary pilgrims as step by step they fight on to the Mecca. ”

“ Step cautiously between the bright-eyed people who watch, furtively alert, like shy woodland creatures, as they crouch low over their fires, for the evening has suddenly become chilly with the loss of the sun. These are pilgrims come from afar, and they will lie down to sleep just as they are in the open. ”

“ THE WONDERFUL PILGRIMAGE TO AMARNATH In all India there is nothing more wonderful than the pilgrimages of millions, which set like tidal waves at certain seasons to certain sacrosanct places—the throngs that flock to holy Benares, to Hardwar, and to that meeting of the waters at Prayag, where the lustral rites purify soul and body, and the pilgrims return shriven and glad. ”

“ Again the pilgrims are in motion; they wind their pathless way round rocks and fissures; they have reached the greatest height of the sterile platform; and as they gaze on the valleys whose waters hasten to join the Pacific Ocean, and bid adieu, perhaps for the last time, to the dear friends they have left in the distant east, how intense must be their feelings, as thoughts of the past and the future blend themselves in their anxious minds! ”

“ Now in my dream, I saw that the pilgrims went forward till they came to the river of God, their way lying along by the river-side, where grew trees bearing all manner of delightful fruits, which the pilgrims tasted to their wonderful refreshments: They also drink of the waters of the river, whose virtue is to rejoice the heart more than wine; and there being pleasant green pastures all along the banks of the river, they laid down sometimes to repose themselves there, and then rose up to prosecute their journey ”

“ When first the Pilgrims planted their feet on Plymouth Rock, frozen ritual and creed should forever have melted away in the fire of love which came down from heaven. The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom, in the rights of conscience. ”

“ Pilgrim, thou hast craved permission to pass through our solemn ceremonies, and enter the asylum of our Encampment; by thy sandals, scrip, and staff, I judge thee to be a child of humility; charity and hospitality are the grand characteristics of this magnanimous Order; in the characters of Knight Templars, you are bound to give alms to poor and weary pilgrims, traveling from afar; to succor the needy, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and bind up the wounds of the afflicted. ”

“ Having entered the holy city yesterday, they are returning from their first visit to that sacred spot where I am going in my turn; poor pilgrims who come here by the thousand, on foot, sleeping out of doors in the rain or the snow, suffering with hunger and dying on the way.
In proportion as you approach, the Oriental objects in the stalls give place to objects of an obscure Christian piety: thousands of chaplets, crosses, religious lamps, and images or icons. ”

“ Knights, citizens, and serfs, travelled eastwards in company, taking with them their wives and children, singing psalms as they went, and looking with fearful eyes upon the sky, which they expected each minute to open, to let the Son of God descend in his glory.
During the thousandth year the number of pilgrims increased. Most of them were smitten with terror as with a plague. Every phenomenon of nature filled them with alarm. ”

“ The pilgrims ascended into the fifth circle, and beheld the expiators of Avarice grovelling on the ground, and exclaiming, as loud as they could for the tears that choked them, "My soul hath cleaved to the dust." ”

“ So they went up to the mountains to behold the gardens and orchards, the vineyards and fountains of water, where also they drank and washed themselves, and did freely eat of the vineyards. Now there were on the tops of these mountains shepherds feeding their flocks, and they stood by the highway-side. The pilgrims, therefore, went to them, and leaning upon their staves (as is common with weary pilgrims when they stand to talk with any by the way) , they asked, "Whose delightful mountains are these, and whose be the sheep that feed upon them?" ”

“ The pilgrims all assemble in the great church, and already, long before the wonder is worked, they are wrought by anticipation of God’s sign, as well as by their struggles for room and breathing space, to a most frightful state of excitement. ”

“ The Pilgrims, with all their faults—for faultless they were not—were men of an ardent piety, whose faith rose up to heaven with an almost profane confidence and laid hold on the arm of God as their sustaining and guiding power. ”

“ The Landing of the Pilgrims.
"The Landing of the Pilgrims," by Felicia Hemans (1749-1835) , is a poem that children want when they study the early history of America.
The breaking waves dashed high
⁠On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
⁠Their giant branches tossed.
And the heavy night hung dark
⁠The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
⁠On the wild New England shore
Not as the conqueror comes,
⁠They, the true-hearted, came ”

“ In this peace I assuredly experienced a foretaste of the joy which is theirs who have reached the pilgrim's goal; for, as I stood over against the robbers, so those pilgrims surely stand over against all the powers of this world; neither do they fear such, nor do they hope for anything from them, but abide in peace. ”

“ Many of the pilgrims, even cripples who drag themselves along with great difficulty, make pilgrimages of this character in fulfilment of some vow, and in the hope that by fulfilling the vow they may be healed of their sickness. A pilgrim is accounted a holy person in the eyes of a Russian. No door, not even that of the richest, is closed against a pilgrim, and no voice is ever raised against one. ”

“ We have read many stories about the lives of our forefathers in America, but perhaps we realize more clearly just what that life must have been when we look at this picture, “Pilgrims Going to Church.” It makes us realize why the Pilgrims came to this country and willingly endured such terrible hardships,—that they might go to their own church and worship according to their own conscience. ”

“ Pilgrims homeward-bound, as you readily understand, at different stages of their journey will picture Heaven to themselves differently, according as light or darkness, joy or sorrow encompass them. Some will picture Heaven as the Everlasting Holiday after the drudgery of school life, others as Eternal Happiness after a life of suffering and sorrow, others again as Home after exile, and some others as never-ending Rapture in the sight of God. ”

“ What was a Pilgrim? (A pilgrim is a wanderer. We think first of the Puritan fathers when we speak of Pilgrims, but the Pilgrim who appeared to Lord Douglas was a palmer who showed by his garb and his olive branch that he had been to the Holy Land.) See picture, page 319. ”

“ And I brought all that I met and all that I had experienced to Jerusalem, so that when the chorus of thanksgiving went up in the monastery on the day when we arrived, all my world was singing in it.
Sometimes I met pilgrims, especially at monasteries, and sometimes sojourned with one along the road, but it was not until we reached the pilgrim-boat that we found ourselves many and together. For the greater part of the pilgrim life is necessarily in solitude. A great number of pilgrims starting together and marching along the road is almost unthinkable. ”

“ The peculiar situation of the Pilgrims tended to increase that rugged individuality, that self-confident earnestness, that somewhat dogmatic vigor, which already characterized them, and which is still a salient trait of their descendants. ”

“ We have given the pilgrims a good many examples that might benefit them, but it is virtue thrown away. They have never heard a cross word out of our lips toward each other—but they have quarreled once or twice. ”

“ Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, ⁠101
⁠Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
⁠And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. ⁠104
Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
Jul. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
Rom. O! then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. ⁠108
Jul. ”

“ It is matter of surprise and regret to most persons that the Pilgrims took so little pains to perpetuate the memory of their graves, and their doing so would have been a wonderful aid to those who would read the palimpsest of the past. ”

“ It is not to be supposed that the Pilgrims had an adequate conception of the continent, or of the magnitude of their mission on it, or of the nation to come of which they were laying the foundations. They did the duty that lay nearest to them; and the duty done today, perhaps without prescience of its consequences, becomes a permanent stone in the edifice of the future. They sought a home in a fresh wilderness, where they might be undisturbed by superior human authority ”

“ One of them, desirous to embark at Alexandria for Palestine, presented himself with his scrip and staff on board a ship, and offered a book of the holy Evangelists in payment for his passage. Pilgrims, on their route, had no other defence against the attacks of the wicked but the cross of Christ, and no other guides but those angels whom God has told “to watch over his children, and to direct them in all their ways.”
The greatest merit in the eyes of the faithful, next to that of pilgrimage, was to devote themselves to the service of the pilgrims. ”

“ From the land of their fathers afar, and anear the keen Iroquois knives.
But the pilgrims, to fear ever strangers, to the Cross had entrusted their lives.
Not sordid were they. Not the treasures of earth they had come to pursue,
Not for honor nor glory. Far nobler the object our sires had in view.
To carry the cross to the savage, braving danger and hardship they came.
They came for the love of the Virgin, a city to found in her name.{42}
Their hearts were o’erflowing with gladness. ”

“ The Pilgrims, a class of deeply conscientious non-conformists, who, because of the persecutions endured, had in the land of their birth no certain abiding place, and many of whom for ten years found an asylum in Holland, had now, by some mysterious influence, turned their thoughts and hopes to the New World. ”

“ Women will sometimes cut pieces from the pilgrim's garments which are supposed to be holy. At the pilgrims home many sheep are killed and a variety of fine meats are cooked. People gather there to eat and drink and they say to the host, "God bless your pilgrimage." He will answer, "May the prophet give you success and grant that you, too, may visit the Holy Place." ”

“ Gullible pilgrims come from many leagues around to be cured of their ills, and have left behind hundreds of doll-like figures of themselves or the ailing limb or member made of candle wax that breaks to bits between the fingers. ”

“ The Pilgrims “grew in knowledge and gifts and other graces of the Spirit of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness; and as many came unto them from divers parts of England, they grew to be a great congregation. If at any time differences arose or offences broke out—as it cannot be but sometimes there will, even among the best of men—they were ever so met with and nipped in the bud betimes, or otherwise so well compassed, as still love, peace, and communion, were preserved ”