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SACRED STREAMS:

THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF

BY

PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S.,

Author of

Romance of Natural History etc.

WITH FORTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS AND MAP,
91 Ncfo Gftution, Hcbiscti tlje Sutljor,

Jfonbon :

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,

2 7, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLXXXIII.

Butler & Tanner,

The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The want of works suitable for reading on the
Lord’s Day has been often felt. Parents, teachers,
and others, who have the care of youth, who feel the
responsibility of training up their charge in the know*
ledge and fear of the Lord, are often at a loss how to
direct the employment of time on this sacred day.
There are many hours not occupied in attendance on
the public means of grace, which they feel ought not
to be spent in secular occupations, or mere amuse¬
ment. A book, which shall convey Divine truths in a
manner calculated to win the attention, engage the
interest, and allure the reader on from page to page
with unabated pleasure, cannot but be valuable. We
can hardly expect that our children and domestics,
who have never yet become experimentally acquaint¬
ed with Divine grace, should be able to relish works
of a doctrinal or devotional character, which afford
food and minister refreshment to a spiritual person.
And yet it would be culpable negligence to permit
them to follow their own inclinations, without an
effort to instruct their minds and win their hearts to
God.

The author of the present volume proposed to him¬
self the production of a work which should embrace

IV

PREFACE.

many subjects of varied interest, treated in a lively
and attractive manner, yet not out of keeping with
the sacred engagements and associations of the
Lord’s Day, to meet this want The Rivers and
Streams of Palestine and the neighbouring lands,
hallowed by their mention in the Book of God, and
the narratives of high interest connected with these
scenes in Holy Writ, are the immediate subjects of
the work ; while it has been the object of the author
to draw from these events and scenes the lessons of
heavenly wisdom, the truths of spiritual import,
bearing on the faith and practice of man, for which
they have been recorded. It is hoped that the whole
spirit and tone of these pages, as well as every senti¬
ment in them, may be found to be in harmony with
“ the doctrine which is according to godliness,0 and
to promote the glory of the Lord Jesus.

London, Sept., 1850.

In the present edition every page has been carefully
revised by the author. A few corrections have been
made, and a few facts have been introduced, which the
progress of knowledge during more than a quarter of
a century has brought to light. Some additions have
also been made to the spiritual instruction ; of which
the most important is the exposition at page 221, on
the Baptism of the Lord Jesus.

Torquay, June, 1877.

CONTENTS.

PAGH

Introduction . i

CHAPTER I.

THE RIVER EUR HR A TES.

Paradise — The Fall — Grace — The Promised Seed — Sacrifice

— Reconciliation — Righteousness ..... 7-19

Babel — The Builders — The Tower — The Confusion of Tongues

— Birs Nimroud ........ 19-26

The Migration of Abram — The Mesopotamian Valley —

The Cavalcade — Abram and Lot — The Call of Abram —

Sojourn at Charran — The Stranger and Pilgrim . . 27-39

The Mission of Eliezer — Prayer — Rebekah — The Return —

The Antitype ......... 39-48

Babylon — The Hanging Gardens- The Palace — The Court —

Daniel — The Great Image — The Kingdom of Christ . 4S-61

The Captives — Israel’s Desolation — Seraiah’s Mission — The
Doom of Babylon — Belshazzar’s Feast — The Writing on
the Wall — Daniel’s Interpretation — Cyrus — The Last
Night of Babylon ........ 62-74

Subsequent History — Topography — Ruins of Babylon —

The Euphrates Expedition — Physical History — A Solemn
Contrast . . 75—93

CHAPTER II.

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

Physical History — Site of Paradise — Pison — Gihon — Tigris

— Topography — Nineveh — Assyria ..... 95-101
The Mission of Jonah — The City — The Painted Walls —

The Throng at the Gate — The Woe — Royal Penitence —

The Proclamation — The Petulant Prophet — Evening —
Morning — The Fast — The Sheltering Gourd — The Divine
Reproof — Corruption of the Heart — The Lord’s Mercy 102-120

VI

CONTENTS.

Subsequent History — Arbaces — Shalmaneser — Sen¬
nacherib — Esarhaddon — Nahum’s Prophecy — The Fall of
Nineveh — Recent Discoveries — Ruins — Sculptures —
Other Relics — Truth of Prophecy .....

The Lower River — Topography — Seleucia — Ctesiphon —
A1 Modain — Bagdad .......

Daniel’s Vision — The Glory of the Lord — Its Effects upon
Daniel — The Second Coming of Christ ....

CHAPTER III.

THE RIVER CHEBAR.

The Captivity of Israel — The Khabor — The Greater Zab
— Koordistan — Lakes — The Flamingo — Mountains — The
Koords — The Chaldeans — The Yezidis — Halah — Habor
— Gozan — Hara — Adiabene — The Siege of Samaria — -
Sieges in the Assyrian Sculptures .....

The Vision of the Glory of God — Ezekiel — The
Shechinah — The Kingly Glory — The Cherubim — The
Wheels — The Throne — The Departure of the Glory — The
Rejection of Israel — The Return of the Throne —
Universal Blessing ........

CHAPTER IV.

THE RIVER ULAI.

Topography — Uncertainty of Identification — The Abzal —
Dizful — Khuzistan — Climate — Vegetable Productions —
Animals — Ruins of Susa — Ancient Relics — Tomb of
Daniel — Lions — The Royal River .....

Daniel’s Vision — The Two-horned Ram — The One-horned
Goat — Symbolic Animals — The Little Horn — Fulfilment
of the Prophecy — Ultimate Result .....

Haman and Esther — Ahasuerus’ Banquet — Haman’s Plot
— His Defeat — Prosperity of the Jews . . . .

CHAPTER V.

THE RIVER JORDAN.

The Jordan — Mountain Ranges — The Ghor — Sources —
Paneas — Phiala — Tel-el-Kady — Hasbeyah — Waters of
Merom — Lotus Lily — Lake of Gennesarefc — Lower Jordan

PAGB

120-131

I3I-I35

135-138

139-155

155 -i66

1 67-177

177-184

184-1S7

CONTENTS.

— Rapids — Windings — Scenery — Trees and Flowers —
Double Valley — Dead Sea — Its Ancient Condition — De¬
pression — Pillar of Salt — Scene of Desolation — Apples of
Sodom — Geological Character .....

The Dividing of the Waters — The Wilderness Sojourn
— The Plains of Moab — The Spies — The Passage — The
Twelve Stones — Death of the Believer ....

The Baptism of our Lord — Bethabara — Hope Deferred —
The Baptist — Jesus Baptized — Mystic Teaching of the
Incident — Results — The Scene of the Baptism — The
Pilgrims .........

The Fords of the Jordan — The Judges — Ehud and
Eglon — Gideon — The Three Hundred — Faithfulness of
Jehovah — Jephthah — Shibboleth .

The Translation of Elijah — Testimony — Apostasy —
Elisha’s Request — The Chariot — The Rapture — The
Mantle — The Change of the Quick .....

Naaman the Syrian — Plappiness not Dependent on Cir¬
cumstances — The Leper — The Little Maid — The Cleans¬
ing — The Fountain for Sin

The Swimming Iron — The Sons of the Prophets — The
Tamarisk Tree — The Axe-head — The Tenderness of God

C^sarea Philippi — Peter’s Confession — Interesting Monu¬
ment ..........

Dan — Early Idolatry — The Golden Calf — Fountain of T el-el -
Kady — Tortoise — Buffalo ......

CHAPTER VI.

THE RIVER JARMUK.

Topography — Ashtaroth Karnaim — Beautiful Lake — Moun¬
tains of Bashan and Gilead — Magnificence of the Scenery
— Trees of Bashan — The Kingdom of Og — The Eastern
Tribes — The Boundary of the Land ....

The Country of the Gadarenes — Demoniacal Possession
— The Man among the Tombs — Demons and Swine — A
Sinner’s Deliverance — Gadara — Its Ancient Sepulchres .

CHAPTER VII.

THE RIVER JAB B OK.

Topography — Gilead — Bozrah — Picturesque Ravine — A spect

vii

PAGP.

189-213

2 I 3-22 I

221-228

229-238

239-245

245-250

250-253

254-256

256-260

261-272

272-278

viii

CONTENTS.

of the River — The Wild Boar — Forests of Gilead — Jacob
at the Ford — The Prayer — The Wrestling — The Blessing

Rabbah-Ammon — Bedstead of Og — Joab’s Conquest —
Philadelphia — Present Desolation .....

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RIVER ARNON.

Thf, Wady Mojeb — Picturesque Ravine — Wild Beast —
Gazelle ..........

The Border of Moab — Defeat of Sihon — Aroer — The City
in the River — Interesting Egyptian Record

The Doom of Moab — The Prophecy — The Present Fulfil¬
ment — Wanderers in Misery ......

CHAPTER IX.

THE BROOK ZERED.

The Boundary of the Desert — Doubtful Identity — Es
Saideh — Beni Hamed — Wady Ahsa — Mount Seir — The
Faithless Spies — The Forty Years’ Wandering

CHAPTER X.

THE BROOK CHERITH.

Et.tjah’s Retirement — Brook near Bethshan — Wady Kelt
— Jericho — Caverns — The Brook — Drought — The Judg¬
ment of Apostasy — Obedience — The Ravens — A Trial of
Faith — An Encouragement of Faith — Solitude with God

CHAPTER XI.

THE BROOK KEDRON.

TorooRAniY — The Valley of Jehoshaphat — Jewish Tombs —
Gloomy Ravine — Convent of Mar Saba — Flowers — The
Cony ..........

The Chastisement of David — His Grievous Fall — The
Rebellion of Absalom — Ahithophel — The Weeping King
— Sin in Believers ........

The Burning of Idols — Israel’s Apostasy — Godly Kings
of Judah — Asa — Josiah’s Reformation . . . .

PA GH

279-290

291-292

293-300

3OO-3O3

3°3-3°4

305-309

311-321

323-332

332-335

335-33?

CONTENTS.

IX

Gethsemane — The Agony and Bloody Sweat — The Surety¬
ship of Jesus — Resurrection — Present State of the Garden

CHAPTER XII.

THE POOL OF SILO AM.

The Blind Restored to Sight — A Pool and a Brook —
The Subterranean Channel — The Exploring Travellers .

CPIAPTER XIII.

THE RIVER KISH ON.

Topography — The Plain of Esdraelon — Its Fertility — Mount
Tabor — View from its Summit — Endor and Nain — The
Transfiguration — The Excellency of Carmel — Scriptural
Allusions — The Kishon ......

Deborah and Barak — The Canaanites — Cruel Bondage —
Prophetic Ministry — Zebulun and Naphtali — Sisera and
his Host — The Rout — The Swollen River — The Death of
Sisera — Jael’s Justification — Faithfulness to God .

The Prophets of Baal — Elijah’s Emergence — The
Assembly at Carmel — The Challenge — Baal’s Inanity —
The Altar of God — The Evening Sacrifice — The Fire
from Heaven — The Execution of the Seducers — Rain —
An Appeal ..... ....

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BROOK OF EL A II.

David and Goliath — Wady es Sumt — The Acacia — The
Terebinth — The Philistines — The Gigantic Champion —
Faith — The Sling and Stone — The Death of the Giant —
Tesus and Satan — The Spiritual Conflict . .

CHAPTER XV.

THE BROOK ESI! COL.

Tiie Israelitish Spies — Uncertain Locality — Valley near
Hebron — Sorek — The Search — Jericho — Lake of Gen-
nesaret — Lebanon — Galilee — Samaria — Fruitfulness of

PAGE

33S-341

343-347

349-357

357-364

364-369

371-379

X

C0NTEN1S.

Judah — Vines — Magnitude of Grapes and Clusters — The
Specimen — Modern Testimony — Culture of the Vine

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BROOK BESOR.

Topography — The River of Egypt — The Desert — The Wild
Ass — C ul ti vation — Paths — T rees — Gaza — W ady S heriah

David’s Chastisement — God’s Anointed King — The Out¬
cast — The Trial of Faith and Patience — Grace — Tempta¬
tion — Failure — Guile and Falsehood — A Dilemma —
— Philistine Jealousy — The Sack of Ziklag — Refuge in
God — Return to Ordinances — Urim and Thummim — The
Ephod — Our High Priest — The Oracle — The Pursuit —
The Dying Egyptian — The Rioting Banditti — The Re¬
covery of all — Abundant Spoil — Grace Abounding —
Participation of Blessing ......

Gerar — The Philistines — Their Origin and Character — High
Civilization — Affinity with the Egyptians — Freedom from
Idolatry — Abraham’s Unbelief and Prevarication — Veils
— Jehovah’s Faithfulness — Isaac’s Failure — The Valley of
Gerar — Wells Conferring Property in Land — Names of
Wells — Selfishness and Concession .

CHAPTER XVII.

THE RIVER NILE .

Topography — Ancient Renown— The White and the Blue
Rivers — Valley of Egypt — Periodical Overflow — Con¬
sequent Fertility — Ancient Monuments — Early Civiliza¬
tion — Abram’s Visit — Moses — The Plagues of Egypt —

Subsequent History .

Conclusion . .

PAGE

381-3$°

391-395

396-411

411-421

423-429

429

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Oriental Vegetation . .

The Euphrates ... .... ...21

Bricks from Babylon ......... 23

Birs Nimroud .......... 25

A Mesopotamian Valley ........ 27

The Persian Cyclamen ........ 29

Oriental Cattle .......... 33

Women at Well. . 45

Eagle-headed Idol .... ..... 52

Ancient Cups .......... 69

Cyrus takes Babylon ......... 73

Environs of Ancient Babylon . . . . . . . 77

Bir . 81

Hillah ........... 85

Jerboa ........... 89

The Tigris at Mosul ......... 99

Lion Hunting .......... 105

Assyrian Horses . . . . . . . . .107

Jonah’s Gourd . . . . . .117

Chariot of Nineveh . . . . . . . . .126

The Flamingo .......... 143

An Assyrian Siege . . . . . . . . .151

Sugar Canes and Poppies . . . . . . . .171

Coin of Persia . . . . . . . . . . 1 79

Ancient Gem .......... 181

Source of the Jordan ......... 193

The Mandrake . . . . . . . . . . 1 97

The Lotus Lily . . . . • . . . . .198

Apple of Sodom . . . . . . . . .211

Supposed Scene of the Baptism . 224

Mount Tabor . . . . . , . . . .231

Fresh-Water Tortoise ........ 257

Buffalo ........... 259

Oaks of Bashan. . . . . . . . . .265

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .

Kii

Boar in & Vineyard
The River Arnon
The Gazelle
The Kedron
The Pomegranate
The Cony .

The Pool of Siloam .
The Kishon
Grapes of Palestine ,
The Nile . . .

PAGH

. 285

. 297

. 299

O r* n

•

• 329

• 331

. 347

• 356

• 388

. 427

INTRODUCTION.

VERY pleasant are the associations which we ha¬
bitually connect with a river ; whether we think of
it as bubbling out of its crystal fountain in the
mountain-side ; — or dashing, in a sheeted cascade,
over green and slippery rocks, half hidden by jutting
ferns, whirled about in feathery tufts of spray by
every playful breeze, and lost in a perpetual cloud
of foam in the dark hollow beneath ; — or brawling
along the valley in its pebbly bed, murmuring and
fretting at the petty opposition it meets with ; — or
silently pursuing its broad and majestic course
through the plains and meadows, fertilizing cultivated
regions, reflecting from its peaceful bosom villages
and towns and domed cities =or, at length, having
received a hundred tributaries, dilating into the vast
estuary, bearing the proud fleets of commerce and
war, and almost rivalling in grandeur the ocean into
which it is pouring its everlasting tribute of waters.

Sweet is it, in the heat of summer’s noon, to sit on
the mossy bank, and watch the meandering stream,
now darkling and concealed from the sun by the
overhanging shrubs and trees, whose branches kiss

li

2

INTRODUCTION .

one another across its bosom, now sparkling out in
the bright sunbeams that reveal and illuminate every
stone and shell upon its bottom, — to feel its coolness,
and admire its clearness, and enjoy the thoughts and
images, associations and feelings, which it presents
to the mind, all peaceful, soothing, and refreshing.

And pleasant it is to muse on the varied scenes
and events and characters, with which it has been
connected in by-gone ages, and in which its memory
is embalmed. To say, Here, on these banks, was
marshalled the little band, feeble in numbers, but
strong in their love of their native soil, and in their
righteous cause, who met the swarming hosts of in¬
vading foes, and fought and conquered. Here, by
this stone, stood the dauntless man who dared to
withstand a tyrant’s cruel mandate, and delivered
his village from oppression. There, in that little cot,
was born the hero who led his country’s fleets to
victory, and caused her name to be mentioned with
reverence among the nations. Along this verdant
bank has often mused the poet, whose burning words
have found a response in many a land and language ;
and from the wild and beautiful scenery of this lovely
stream he caught his inspiration. Yonder rising
knoll has witnessed the experiments of the philoso¬
pher who subjected to man’s will and power the
elements of nature. The music of this murmuring
brook used often to soothe the soul of the philan¬
thropist, as he mused on his plans for ameliorating
the condition of his suffering fellow-men.

INTRODUCTION.

3

But if we in this temperate clime know a little of
the pleasant feelings connected with clear streams
and running waters, what must be their force in
lands where the severest trials of life are described
under the emblem of the fierce rays of the sun !
where the protecting care of Jehovah for His dear
people is called a “shadow from the heat,” the
“shadow of a great rock in a weary land!” and
where the sweetest joys of the heavenly rest are set
before the tired and tempted saints of God, under
similar imagery : “ Neither shall the sun light on
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb . . . shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters !”

In such lands, nothing is more natural than that
fresh streams and flowing rivers should be constantly
used by the inspired poets and prophets as emblems
by which to call up and shadow forth the sweetest,
holiest, and most comfortable thoughts. Is peace
spoken of ? It shall “ flow as a river.” Is judgment
or righteousness prayed for? It is that it may “run
down as waters, and as a mighty stream.” The
advantages of wisdom in a man’s heart are “ as deep
waters, and as a flowing brook.” Is a man under the
curse of God ? “ He shall not see the rivers, the

floods, the brooks of honey and butter.” Do deso¬
lation and confusion spread over the earth, wasting
and destroying like an irruption of the sea ? The
protection and preservation of the saints of God are
secured ; for “ there is a river, the streams whereof
shall make glad the city of God.” The Lord Jesus

4

INTRODUCTION.

is set fortli “as rivers of water in a dry place ; ” He
will, by-and-by, bless restored Jerusalem, so long
withered and forsaken, and “ extend peace to her like
a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing
stream ; ” He will Himself be to Israel “ a place of
broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley
with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby”;
for He is the Fountain and Well-spring of all
blessing.

How great must have been the joy and comfort
which the ancient people of God took in their rills
and brooks wherewith their thirst was quenched, and
by which fertility was given to the beautiful and
goodly land, — that “land of brooks of water,” of
hills and valleys, which Jehovah had given them,
and from which so many sweet images and allu¬
sions were drawn, turning their thoughts to earthly
and heavenly blessings, and to their gracious and
loving God !

And if historical and personal associations often
crowd upon the mind, as we walk by the bank of a
favourite stream in our own land, endearing it to our
imagination and heart, — with what a deepened in¬
terest should we tread where every spot is hallowed
by some ancient memory, some record of a history
in which God Himself is the chief actor ! Not a rill
or river but has some story to tell, some lesson to
teach, some song of praise to elicit, in lands where
angels talked with men, where inspired poets sang,
where prophets and seers unfolded the far-distant

INTRODUCTION.

5

future, where the visible glory of God dwelt, where
the arm of Jehovah was ever stretched out in bless¬
ing, deliverance, protection, or chastisement, where
patriarchs sojourned, and where, for a while, taber¬
nacled Jesus, the glorious “ Word made flesh.”

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

PARADISE.

The Fall — Grace — The Promised Seed — Sacrifice — Recon¬
ciliation — Righteousness.

BABEL.

The Builders — The Tower — The Confusion of Tongues — Birs
Nimroud.

THE MIGRATION OF ABRAM.

The Mesopotamian Valley — The Cavalcade — Abram and Lot
— The Call of Abram — Sojourn at Charran — The Stranger and
Pilgrim.

THE MISSION OF ELIEZER.

Prayer — Rebekah — The Return — The Antitype.

BABYLON.

The Hanging Gardens — The Palace — The Court — Daniel —
The Great Image — The Kingdom of Christ.

THE CAPTIVES.

Israel’s Desolation — Seraiah’s Mission — The Doom of Baby¬
lon — Belshazzar’s Feast — The Writing on the Wall — Daniel’s
Interpretation — Cyrus — The Last Night of Babylon.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

Topography — Ruins of Babylon — The Euphrates Expedition
— Physical History — A Solemn Contrast.

(Scrtesra

n., in.

A FAIR and goodly scene is spread before our
reverent imagination. A broad valley expands on
either hand, bounded by distant mountains, whose
purple peaks, range above range, glow in the beams
of the morning sun. Hill and dale, irregular undu¬
lations, broad swelling mounds, and gentle slopes,
afford perpetual variety to the surface. Through the
centre there flows, in winding course, a broad river,
the smoothness of whose mirror-like bosom is un¬
ruffled by a ripple, as it pours its volume of clear and
calm waters onward to the ocean. It is the majestic
Euphrates.

This is Eden, the garden of God. Everything that
can gratify the sense is here in abundance, unmingled
with anything that can hurt or annoy. “ Every tree
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,”
grows here ; the spreading arms of the banian, the
baobab, and the terebinth, cover the ground with a
refreshing shadow ; the massive forms of the oak
and the cotton-tree contrast with the taper elegance
of the poplar and the pine ; the graceful banana and
plantain wave their broad leaves, cut into strips by
the wanton breeze ; huge clumps of bamboos nod
like gigantic ostrich-plumes on the hillocks ; and
above all tower up into the sky the light and lofty

10

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

palms, waving their feathery green coronets against
the sparkling blue of heaven.

How temptingly the rich fruits hang and cluster in
these spicy groves ! On the highest knolls the juicy
apple and pear, the velvet peach, the bloomed plum,
the golden apricot, and the blushing cherry stand in
thick profusion ; in the lower glades, walled in by the
sheltering groves, are others richer still ; the brilliant
pomegranate, the yellow guava, the custard-apple, so
meltingly luscious, the odorous pine-apple, the citron
and orange, and the most delicious of terrestrial pro¬
ductions, the crimson mangosteen, invite the hand to
pluck them. The queenly date-palm is loaded with
its sweet bunches, over which the vine, climbing to
its lofty summit, has thrown a drapery of graceful
foliage, and formed a natural arbour, thickly hung
with empurpled clusters.

No trace of winter is here ; but the glories of
spring, of summer, and of autumn are united in one
sweet season, for which earth has no name. The
opening bud, the expanded flower, the matured fruit,
are everywhere seen together in beautiful harmony.
The air is redolent with the fragrance of flowers, and
the eye is enraptured with their beauty of colour and
of form. What gorgeous and fantastic parasites
droop from the branches of the great trees ! What
a magnificence of sheeted bloom is displayed by
those masses of purple rhododendrons !

The roses are here without thorns, and the fruits
are not defended by brambles. No naked spots of

PARADISE.

ii

brown barren earth appear, nor do any points of
jagged rock jut out through the verdant turf ; but
here and there its greenness is varied by precious
gems lying unheeded, as if they had dropped out of
a royal diadem. The topaz and the emerald and

WHlMPEfl

ORIENTAL VEGETATION.

the golden chrysolite, the rich ruby and the sparkling
diamond fling back most lustrously the rays of the
sun ; and where the placid river gently washes its
bordering sands, lie masses of gold and silver, some
in unformed magnificence, and others vying with the

12

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

vegetable productions around, in displaying various
arborescent and foliated forms of fantastic beauty.

Everything speaks of wisdom and power and
skill; but not of these alone: consummate goodness
is especially manifest. The scrupulous exclusion of
that not only which could injure or give pain, but
which could displease in the least degree, with the
accumulation of all that could afford delight, speaks
loudly of the benevolence of the Almighty Creator.
But who are the guests for whom this feast is spread ?
It is a new-born world on which we are looking, and
this garden is the very concentration of its glory, but
yesterday out of the hand of its Maker. Where are
the tenants for whom this residence is provided ?

Many living creatures walk among these groves,
and repose upon the enamelled greensward. The
wolf and the lamb are feeding together, and the
speckled leopard is lying down with the kid ; the
tiger is leaping in gamesome play around the rumi¬
nating kine ; and yonder the lordly lion is gently
licking with his rough tongue the fur of the gazelle
that is lying between his paws. These are all harm¬
less and guileless ; yet none of them seem capable of
more than a superficial enjoyment of the loveliness
amidst which they dwell. Yonder comes one who
by his superior size and mien may claim a higher con¬
sideration ; as he slowly marches through the grove
of teak-trees, the forest shakes with his tread, his eye
beams with intelligence and sagacity, and as he now
and then plucks a flower with his lithe proboscis, he

PARADISE .

*3

seems to have a higher appreciation of its beauty and
fragrance than his fellows. But as he draws nearer
we see that he is only one among them, and that the
fair garden was not made for him.

Is this beauteous scene then without an inhabitant
capable of enjoying and of ruling it ? No. Voices
come up from the banks of Euphrates, and there,
seated in a bower of jasmine and rose, are a pair of
God-like beings, to whom has been committed the
lordship of this paradise. Not like the beasts they
sit, but erect, and with their faces towards the
heaven ; nor clothed, but in naked dignity ; for as
yet there is no sin, and therefore no shame. Only
they two are seen, yet as they converse on high and
holy themes, a third voice, of awful yet gentle tones,
mingles with theirs. It is the voice of God, and yet
they are not afraid.

Do we seek to know the nature of the converse
between the Most High God and His creature man —
as yet unfallen and stainless ? The gracious Creator
speaks of the glories of His new-made world, and
appoints Man His vicegerent over it : “ Have do¬
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth/’ He speaks also of higher things ; and
to their grateful ears He reveals somewhat of His own
nature and character ; He tells them of His wisdom
and power, of His love and faithfulness, His holiness
and justice. He speaks to them of their relation to
Himself; of their duty; claims implicit and exact

14

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

obedience at all times from them ; promises ever¬
lasting continuance in happiness if they remain true
in allegiance to Him, but warns them that the conse¬
quence of disobedience will be DEATH. To all they
yield an intelligent and willing assent, and, conscious
of their uprightness, say Amen to the threatenings,
no less than to the promises. Finally, one test their
Almighty Sovereign gives them, whereby He will
prove their obedience. There are in the midst of the
garden two trees of mystic power. The one is the
tree of life, whose fruit, yielded every month, is in¬
tended to be, in case of obedience, the sacramental
pledge of immortality. The other is the tree of
knowledge of good and evil ; the fruit of which is
fair and beautiful to the eye, pleasant to the taste,
and good for food ; but it is hedged round by the
solemn prohibition of Jehovah, who thus promulgates
His only law : “ Of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The
knowledge of good shall be possessed while man
abstains in obedience to God : the fatal knowledge of
evil shall be introduced if he in disobedience partake
of its fruit. Thus is established, though but for a
brief season, the Covenant of Works. “ The man
that doeth them, shall live in them.”

It is evening. The effulgent sun, after having
climbed up to the zenith, has at length descended
to the horizon, and looks with slanting gaze upon
a scene whose loveliness he will not see on the

THE FALL.

15

morrow. A pleasant breeze is whispering among
the tremulous leaves of the grove, and breaking the
surface of Euphrates into a dancing and sparkling
ripple. The voice of the turtle comes plaintively
over the river, and the nightingale has already begun
his nightly hymn of praise. The beasts are gam¬
boling in sportive innocence, and all nature is enjoy¬
ing “ the cool of the day.”

But where are Adam and his wife ? Alas ! the
scene has no joy for them. They have listened
to the voice of the insidious tempter, and have eaten
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ! They
have gained the knowledge of evil which before
they knew not ; their knowledge of good amounts
only to the assurance that they have lost it. They
perceive — what hitherto had excited no feeling of
shame — that they are naked ; they have lost the
covering robe of innocence, which was the assurance
of God’s protection, and their bodily nakedness now
appears to them as an emblem and an expression
of that shameful and defenceless condition to which
their souls are reduced. They are engaged, in
moody and desponding silence, in endeavouring to
sew together the broad leaves of a fig-tree, to form
a flimsy covering for their exposed persons. Vain
attempt ! as if a guilty and condemned sinner could,
by any works or contrivances of his own, repel or
avert the threatenings of Divine wrath !

Hark ! from the accustomed bower comes a well-
known voice. Awful it had seemed in their in-

1 6 THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

nocence ; but now, — how does it thrill through their
trembling hearts ! In their insanity of terror they
seek to hide among the trees from the omniscient
Jehovah; but again the voice comes forth, “Where
art thou ?;’ And the terrific demand penetrates in
a moment all their disguises, and compels the re¬
luctant reply.

Oh, who would not have expected that now the
sentence hanging over the guilty pair would be at
once pronounced, and as quickly executed ! The
doom would have been righteous, nor could a breath
have been uttered against the spotless holiness and
justice of the Most High God, if He had now
glorified Himself in vengeance, as He had done be¬
fore upon the sinning angels. For “ whatever there
hath been in any sin, of unbelief, ingratitude, apos¬
tasy, rebellion, robbery, contempt, defiance, hard
thoughts of, and enmity against, God ; whatever
there hath been of idolatry, as comprehending faith
in, worship of, and obedience to, Satan, the god and
prince of this world ; of exorbitant pride, self-love,
and self-will, in affecting that independency, exalt¬
ation, and homage, which belong to God ; and that
inordinate love of the creatures, in seeking our
happiness in the possession and enjoyment of them ;
whatever of discontent, sensual lust, covetousness,
murder, and mischief, were ever yet contained in any
one, or all, of the sins which have been committed upon
earth ; — all concentred in this one transgression,”*

* Scott, in loc.

THE PROMISED SEED.

l7

But God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. It
is not for the execution of vengeance that He is now
come down, but for the exhibition of a glorious
attribute in His character, which had never yet been
manifested. That attribute is GRACE. The Al¬
mighty God hath once glorified Himself by inflict¬
ing righteous wrath upon the angels that kept not
their first estate ; He will now still more greatly
glorify Himself in freely forgiving guilty man.

The poor culprits, indeed, little expect the ex¬
hibition of mercy, and are only intent on hiding
their sin or extenuating its guilt. But Jehovah, un¬
solicited, and without waiting for any humiliation on
their part, reveals His purpose, and takes the side
of the sinner against the insidious destroyer. A
Deliverer is promised, the Seed of the woman, who
shall successfully contend with him before whom they
have fallen. He is to be the woman’s Seed, that He
may gain the victory in human form and nature
in which it has been lost. But He is to be mightier
than Satan, the great enemy of God and man ; and
therefore Divine. Here, then, is the great promise
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh,
as the repairer of the breach, and the reconciler of
man to God.

Not without cost, however, can the reconciliation be
accomplished. “ Thou shalt bruise his heel.” The
Son of God, when, at the appointed time, He comes
to carry out this purpose of grace, must accom¬
plish it by His own sufferings and death. Satan and

c

1 8 THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

his seed, in the fury of their rage, shall succeed
in crucifying the Lord of glory, and thus appear to
gain a momentary triumph. But this is, in truth, the
victory; for, by His giving up Himself as a sacrifice
for sin, and as a surety for guilty man, the righteous
claim of God’s holy law is fully met, and Satan’s
power over the believing sinner for ever crushed and
broken. Thus, by the voluntary humiliation of the
Son of God, putting away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself, the majesty of the Divine holiness is more
gloriously vindicated than it could have been even
by the infliction of the penalty on the guilty sinner ;
while at the same time it makes a way for the
outflowing of that mighty grace for which the
praises of countless millions of redeemed saints shall
go up to God throughout eternity.

To impress these solemn but most blessed truths
on the hearts of the pardoned sinners, and to teach
them to exercise an active and personal faith on the
promised Saviour, a striking scene is now enacted :
an altar of earth is quickly formed ; an innocent lamb
is selected from the flocks playing around, and dies
by the hand of God ; and the body, placed on the
altar, is consumed by fire from heaven. They arc
thus vividly taught that God accepts an innocent
victim, of whom this lamb is a shadow, instead of
the guilty, — the guilt being transferred or imputed
to the representative. Through the sign they look
to the thing signified, thankfully accept God’s Lamb
as their surety, and joyfully behold the flame of

SACRIFICE.

19

Divine wrath averted from themselves and falling
upon their representative.

And now the skin of the slain victim is, by the
hand of God Himself, made into garments, with which
He clothes their nakedness; and their own poor
fig-leaves are gladly cast aside for ever. In this they
are taught not only a sinner’s need of a righteous¬
ness to cover him, better than any he can procure,
but that God Himself provides that righteousness,
and clothes him with it ; and that this is none other
than the righteousness of the Lamb of God, whose
blood has already made atonement for his guilt.

Reader ! Have you ever felt the need of blood to
cancel your guilt, and of a spotless righteousness to
cover your soul before God ? And have you found
these in Christ ?

(fbtVLWM XI.

Nearly eighteen centuries have passed away ; and
the lovely garden of Eden has been so defaced and
destroyed by the overflowing of the Flood, that not
a vestige even of its situation remains. But “that
great river, the river Euphrates,” still flows through
the same region as before, and on its banks we again
take our stand.

Since our first scene the earth has been peopled,
depopulated, and is now fast filling with people again.
But they have not learned righteousness from God’s

20

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

judgments. Pride, self-will, a haughty independency
of God, and a daring defiance of His purposes, are
their characteristics. They seek to aggrandize them¬
selves; to do deeds of renown that shall exalt their
own glory, and make their names to be remembered
with admiration among men. The Divine command
to replenish the earth is already operating, and
families are beginning to wander away eastward
and westward and northward and southward. But
to the majority this is displeasing, and they seek to
resist, and if possible, to prevent, this dispersion, and
to form a great centre of unity, around which all the
families of mankind shall gather under one govern¬
ment. And other still more infidel thoughts are
working in their hearts : forgetful or regardless of
the promise, that there shall be no more a flood
to destroy the earth, they task their ingenuity to
devise means whereby they may laugh to scorn the
vengeance of Jehovah, should He again resort to
such a means of executing His wrath against sin.

A grand council is called ; and Nimrod, who has
already grown from a mighty hunter of beasts to be
a king of men, takes the lead in its decisions. In
their proud self-sufficiency, and in that consciousness
of power which is inspired by great masses of men
combining with unity of purpose, they think that
nothing can be restrained from them which they
imagine to do. “ Go to,” is their language, for they
encourage themselves in the evil matter, — “ Go to,
let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may

THE BUILDERS .

21

reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole
earth.”

And lo ! a place is found which seems expressly
formed for the carrying out of their godless design.
An immense tract of level ground, the plain of
Shinar, expands on each side of the Euphrates,
which, though two hundred and fifty miles from its

THE EUPHRATES.

mouth, is here a noble river, broad, deep, and rapid.
The soil is composed of clay fit for the making of
bricks ; and there are in the vicinity, fountains, which
throw up large quantities of asphaltum, or mineral
pitch, which, being heated, shall serve them as a strong
and durable cement.

But why, if it be their object to form a tower of

22

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

such an elevation as shall put them out of danger
of any future deluge, do they not rather select the
summit of a mountain than a level plain ? Doubtless
because there the means of building such a
structure would be difficult to procure, while here
they are found in abundance ; not to mention the
eligibility of the situation, on the banks of a mighty
river, for a city which is intended to be the metropolis
of mankind.

In high hope and eager confidence of success, the
work begins. The earth dug out to form the founda¬
tion is laid in heaps, fashioned into square bricks,
and baked in a furnace. The bitumen, melted by
heat, is poured over the structure at every thirtieth
course of bricks, which, running down into the inter¬
stices, cements the whole by cooling into one solid
mass. The city and the tower proceed simultane¬
ously ; and as there are many artificers, both are
rapidly rising. What vastness and grandeur of
design are apparent in the work ! One who saw
both, long afterwards, describes the city as a square,
each side of which measured one hundred and twenty
Stadia, or fifteen miles ; and the tower as having for
its basement a cube of solid masonry measuring a
furlong on every side. On this a smaller storey is
erected, and on this another, until eight, successively
diminishing in size, already elevate the proud edifice
to the sky. A staircase, winding round the outside
of the building, leads from storey to storey.

But now it is time for God to interfere. He looks

THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES .

23

down from heaven, and sees, with displeasure, that,
with very few exceptions, all the children of men are
engaged in following the devices of their own evil
hearts. Noah and Shem, with perhaps a small godly
remnant, have protested against the baneful enter¬
prise, but without effect ; and they have retired from
their fellows. The work has been suffered to proceed
until the design of the contrivers has become fully
manifest, and their pride and rage against the Most

ERICKS FROM BABYLON.

High abundantly developed. Yet He deals with
them in undeserved mercy ; He does not pour upon
them the fierceness of His wrath, but contents Himself
with putting an effectual stop to their vain-glorious
design.

Hitherto there had been no deviation from the
primitive tongue spoken by the antediluvians, and
preserved by Noah and his family: “The whole
earth was of one language and one speech.” But
now, by a miraculous interposition, the Almighty

-4

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

God confounds their language, introducing new
tongues and dialects, and obliterating from their
minds all remembrance of that which they had hither¬
to spoken. Utter confusion is the immediate con¬
sequence; an undistinguishable jargon of sounds, in
which no man understands his fellow ; and hence
the work is brought to a sudden period, from the
impossibility of combined operation in the absence
of a common vehicle for the communication of ideas.

Thus easily does God baffle the proudest designs of
men, when they interfere with His purposes : “He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; Jehovah shall
have them in derision.” And thus shall it ever be :
those who set themselves up against the revealed
purposes of God, whether in providence or in grace,
and persist in their mad obduracy, shall not only find
that their schemes are vain and useless, but shall reap
everlasting shame and confusion as their portion.

The desire of these bold builders was to make for
themselves a name. Yet of not a single individual
of the mighty multitude has history preserved the
name; if we except Nimrod, of whom it is emphati¬
cally said, “ The beginning of his kingdom was Babel
[confusion].”

More than four thousand years have elapsed since
the event which we have described took place ; yet
there, in the midst of the desolate plain of Shinar,
stands the mighty pile, a burnt and blackened heap,
an eloquent witness of the power and yet the impo-
tency of man. Kingdoms and cities have risen and

BIRS NIMROUD.

2S

fallen there, leaving scarcely a trace behind ! but
there rolls still, in silent dignity, the broad Euphrates,
and on its banks stands yet the shrunken and shape¬
less, but still gigantic ruin.

The following description of the great heap, called
by the Arabs “Birs Nimroud,” is given by Mr. Rich

BIRS NIMROUD.

in his “ Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon,” and is
interesting as showing the present condition of the
mightiest and most ancient* of human works of art.
“The Birs Nimroud is a mound of an oblong form,
the total circumference of which is 762 yards. At
the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is

# Perhaps with the exception of the Great Pyramid; if,
indeed, the discoveries and inferences of Professor Piazzi Smyth,
concerning this wondrous edifice, are verities.

26 THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

not more than fifty or sixty feet high ; but at the
western side it rises in a conical figure to the eleva¬
tion of 198 feet, and on its summit is a solid pile
of brick thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in
breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, which
is broken and irregular, and rent by a large fissure
extending through a third of its height. It is per¬
forated by small square holes disposed in rhomboids.
The fine burnt bricks of which it is built have inscrip¬
tions on them, and so excellent is the cement, which
appears to be lime-mortar, that it is nearly impossible
to extract one whole. The other parts of the sum¬
mit of this hill are occupied by immense fragments of
brickwork of no determinate figure, tumbled together,
and converted into solid vitrified masses, the layers
of brick being perfectly discernible. These ruins
stand on a prodigious mound, the whole of which is
itself a ruin, channelled by the weather, and strewed
with fragments of black stone, sandstone, and marble.
In the eastern part, layers of unburnt brick, but no
reeds, are to be seen. In the north side may be seen
traces of building exactly similar to the brick pile;
At the foot of the mound a step may be traced
scarcely elevated above the plain, exceeding in extent
by several feet each way, the true or measured base ;
and there is a quadrangular inclosure round the
whole as at the Mujelibe [another immense ruin,
supposed to have been the palace of the kings of
Babylon], but much more perfect, and of greater
dimensions.”

THE MESOPOTAMIA A VALLEY.

27

( xii.

Let us in imagination transport ourselves to a
winding valley in the midst of a wild and precipitous
mountain- region. Some of the loftiest peaks are
covered with snow ; and patches of white, speckling
the mountain side, though the spring is far advanced,
tell us that we are now in a country where the reign
of winter is familiar. A stream of considerable size

A MESOPOTAMIAN VALLEY.

pours through the lower ground, now hemmed in by
precipitous walls of rock, now dashing in a sheet of
foam over a broken ledge, now brawling in its deep
channel beneath, covered with fragments of ice
and half-melted masses of mountain snow, and now
spreading itself over a level tract in a broad and

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

23

shallow pool. We are again on the banks of the
Euphrates, in its upper course, and the uneven coun¬
try around us is the highland of Mesopotamia.

The water of the river is of a chilling coldness, yet
the air, in the sheltered bottoms, is mild and balmy,
and the rays of the sun, reflected from the mountain
sides, pour down with great power upon the verdant
oanks. The oak forests and groves of walnuts that
stud the higher slopes are already in full leaf, and by
the yellow-green hue of their newly-expanded leaves,
refresh the eye of the beholder. The southern de¬
clivities are cultivated : well-fenced fields, verdant
with the springing wheat, are interspersed with vine¬
yards and olive-yards, and with orchards and gardens
in which grow the fig, the mulberry, the pomegranate,
the apple, the pear, the almond, and the apricot.
These are for the most part richly covered with their
sheets of beauteous blossom. The silvery pine, the
tamarisk, and the poplar shoot out of the clefts of
the rocks, and the spreading limbs of a gigantic
plane-tree afford shadow to a cottage with its ad¬
juncts.

The banks of the river and the whole surface of
the valley are like a vast flower-garden. Beds of
poppies, scarlet and white ; bugloss, borage, and
larkspur of the richest azure ; white and blushing
cistuses ; anemones, with white, scarlet, and delicately
pencilled petals ; ranunculuses, campanulas, and a
thousand other flowers with names unknown to us,
display their beauties or diffuse their fragrance on

THE MESOPOTAMIAN VALLEY.

29

every side. But chiefly the bulbous-rooted plants
abound in this region : wild tulips, white, red, and
purple, yellow daffodils and jonquils, gladioluses,
hyacinths of many species, cyclamens with drooping

blushing blossoms, and lilies of every gay hue, scar¬
let, orange, yellow, white, purple, shoot up their
sword-like leaves and expand their lovely corollas
from the mossy turf, enamelling its surface like a
gorgeous carpet.

3°

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

But what is that moving mass slowly emerging
from a dark gorge far up in the hills, and gradually
extending itself in a long winding line on the moun¬
tain-side ? The shouts of men, softened by the dis¬
tance, come distinctly upon the ear, mingled with the
lowing of oxen, the bleating of calves and sheep, and
other confused sounds that are too far off to be re¬
cognised. The tortuous train of living things still
lengthens, and long before the last of the file has
issued from the distant pass, the van has approached
sufficiently near for us to perceive the nature and
character of the procession. Its course is evidently
towards yonder level spot, where the Euphrates,
spreading itself over the ground in a broad but shal¬
low lake, may without much difficulty be forded.

In front, seated on a milk-white ass of great size
and noble bearing, is one who is evidently the lord
of the party. His fine features, though browned by
habitual exposure, have the freshness which marks
the native of an upland country. His erect carriage,
the calm dignity of his countenance, and the com¬
pression of his finely-formed lips, tell of one accus¬
tomed to command ; though at present he seems to
take little part in the active superintendence of the
cavalcade, and the fire of his large dark eyes is tem¬
pered by a meekness that seems habitual to them.
He is clothed in a long white robe, as are many of his
companions; and only the large jewel that blazes
in the front of his richly-coloured turban, distin¬
guishes his dress from theirs. The raven blackness

THE MIGRATION.

3i

of his hair begins to yield to the assaults of years, yet
the venerable man before us can scarcely yet be con¬
sidered as beyond the prime of life.

By his side, mounted like himself on a white ass,
is a man apparently of the same rank in life, but
considerably younger. His features are cast in the
same mould, but are less pleasing in their expression ;
and his unquiet eye lacks the meekness of his more
aged companion’s. They converse together with an
unreserved freedom, and there is in their deportment
toward each other an affectionate cordiality, which
indicates that they are bound by the tie of friendship,
if not of kindred.

The procession is evidently that of a wealthy
pastoral emir, migrating with his numerous household
and retainers, and with his flocks and herds, from one
country to another. The long, curved, ungainly
necks of hundreds of camels rise above the general
level, and their hunched backs are loaded with tents,
poles, the larger articles of furniture, and various
packages of baggage, so as often to project far on
each side. On the very summit of some of these,
seated on the immense piles of lighter luggage, at an
elevation which makes us tremble for the security
of their position, we see women, old men, and even
children, who gaze about with an indifference or a
curiosity which shows us that the apparent danger of
their position is not at all occupying their thoughts.
These are the slaves and inferior domestics of the
household.

32

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

The baggage camels follow one another in single
file, each being led by a halter fastened to the har¬
ness of the one that precedes it ; the foremost of the
number is guided by an experienced servant, who
either leads it by the halter, or rides upon its hunch.
Around are many saddled and bridled dromedaries,
camels of a lighter and more elegant form, differing
not in species, but only in breed, from their more
clumsy and ungainly fellows, just as a riding-horse
differs from a cart-horse. These bear the officers of
the establishment, — the stewards, the chief herdsmen
and shepherds, and the superintendents of the various
classes of menials which belong to so extensive a
household, together with their wives and elder chil¬
dren. They are not strung together like the drudging
baggage-camels, but each rider governs his own
beast.

Asses are prominent in the cavalcade. Not the
poor, ragged, spirit-broken drudges of modern times,
with which we in the West are familiar, but sleek,
well-formed, high-mettled animals, little inferior to
horses in size, figure, or speed. Most of these are
led ; though a few are saddled, and bear some of
the most confidential of the domestic servants,
immediately behind the emir and his young com¬
panion. The she-asses are accompanied by their
prancing foals.

Herds of lowing oxen and kine, some with long
pendent horns, and others with short horns and a
prominent hump on the shoulder; flocks of sheep

THE MIGRATION.

33

of a beautiful breed, with tall twisted horns, and
goats with long hanging ears, bring up the rear,
making the rocks around vocal with the echoes of
their pertinacious cries. These are specially valu¬
able not only for their flesh, but also for their milk,
which, with the butter and cheese produced from
it, constitutes an important part of the food of the
household.

ORIENTAL CATTLE.

The whole motley line is under the guidance and
supervision of the young and middle-aged servants.
Vigorous and active youths, with garments tucked
up, and girded loins, run hither and thither, accom¬
panied by their useful, but somewhat despised
assistants, the “dogs of the flock.” They find full
employment in repressing those animals that are
too exuberant, driving-in those that wander from

D

34

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

the line of march, urging-on the lagging, encouraging
by voice and caresses such as are becoming weary,
taking care of those that are hurt, and guarding
against the thousand mishaps and accidents that are
constantly liable to occur in such a journey. They
carry a rod or staff in their hands, but those whose
special business it is to mind the flocks, substitute
for this the well-known shepherd’s crook. In general,
however, the voice is sufficient to guide the flock, for
the sheep know the shepherd’s voice. Many of the
men are seen carrying the young and weakly lambs
in their arms, or in the folds of their loose garments ;
and much care is exercised towards those which from
age or pregnancy, or any other cause, are incapable

of great fatigue. Hence the progress of the caravan

*

is slow, and often interrupted ; and its strength is
occasionally recruited by a lengthened rest, where
good pasturage is met with.

The interesting scene before us is a signal exhi¬
bition of Faith, “ the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.” The venerable man
at the head of the troop, is Abram, the Hebrew, and
his companion is Lot, his brother’s son. This goodly
array of flocks and herds is their worldly substance,
and the men, women, and children, are their families
and dependents. They are turning their backs on
their native country at the command of God; and
they go forth, not knowing whither they go, but con¬
tent to be guided by the goodness and wisdom of
their Almighty Friend,

THE CALL OF ABEAM.

35

A few years ago these persons, who now walk
by faith as strangers and pilgrims, were dwelling in
consideration and comfort, in Ur of the Chaldees, a
region lying behind yonder mountain-range, between
the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Idolatry
universally prevailed there, though little more than
three centuries have passed away since the judgment
of God against sin had brought in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly. So strong is the tendency of
man’s heart to depart from the true God !

To prevent the entire prevalence of idolatry over
the whole earth, and to establish a permanent witness
for Himself, the All-wise God determines to deal in
a different way from that in which He had already
dealt with man. He therefore ^elects one man to be
the progenitor of an elect nation whom He will sepa¬
rate to Himself, to perpetuate His worship, to be the
recipient of His revealed will, and especially to be the
channel through which, according to the flesh, shall
be born at the appointed time, the promised Seed
of the woman, God over all, blessed for evermore.

For this purpose the Divine sovereignty selected
Abram, the son of Terah, and called him out from
his kindred, and his father’s house, to an acquaintance
with Himself as the Living God. Not that this was
owing to any fitness or worthiness on the part of
Abram ; he was doubtless by practice an idolater
like his fellows, till the distinguishing grace of God
found him. The favour of God is the origin of, and
can never spring from, any goodness in man ; and

36

J HE RIVER EUPHRATES.

Abram would never have sought the Lord, if the
Lord had not first sought him. But a divine and
quickening power accompanied the call ; like his illus¬
trious descendant ages afterwards, he was obedient
to the heavenly vision ; and thus became the Father
of the faithful, and the Friend of God.

The God of glory who appeared to Abram in
Mesopotamia, and separated him from his natural
relationships, did not reveal to him whither he was
to go. The terms of the summons were these :
“ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will
show thee.” What a trial must this have been to
faith ! For a man of substance to pack up all his
goods, muster his dependents, take his cattle with

A

him, and depart for a foreign land, without being able
to inform his wondering neighbours of even so much
as the name, the position, or the distance of the
region to which he is going ! All he could tell them
was, that a Being, whom they indeed knew not nor
recognised, but in whose wisdom, skill, power, faith¬
fulness, and love he had implicit confidence, had com¬
manded the journey, and had promised to be his
guide and protector.

And is not this conduct imitated by every one
who has set out for the celestial Canaan ? Originally
dead in sins, and ignorant of God, he has been made
to hear a gracious call to come out and be separated
from that which is of the present world. The power
of the Holy Ghost, quickening him into new life, has

THE CALL OF ABRAM.

37

accompanied the call, and enabled him to obey it.
Henceforth his back is upon the world, and the eye
of his faith is upon the goodly inheritance by-and-by
to be revealed. Where it is he knows not ; none that
have ever been there before have returned to describe
it to him ; he cannot tell how near it is, or how
distant, nor when he shall arrive at it ; but he goes
forward, looking to the shepherd-care of his Lord
and Saviour, who he is sure will guide him aright,
will not let him want by the way, and will bring him
safely, and by the best road, to his heavenly rest.

The call of Abram had occurred several years
before the period of the scene which we have de¬
scribed, and he had at once set out upon his journey.
His aged father, Terah, and his brother Nahor,
had accompanied him, perhaps persuaded, like the
youthful Lot, by the testimony of their relative, to
acknowledge and obey the true God. Certain it is
that when, long afterwards, the sacred historian leads
the reader back to Mesopotamia, the name of Jeho¬
vah is recognised among Terah’s descendants, and
the God of Abram is called also the God of Nahor,
and the God of their father. Often, when the sove¬
reign grace of God has singled out an individual from
a godless family, it is that the favoured one may be
a channel of blessing to the rest ; and the conversion
of a whole household has frequently resulted from
that of a single member of it. Yet neither Terah
nor Nahor ever crossed the Euphrates : they re¬
mained “ on the other side of the flood ” all their

38 THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

days ; the increasing infirmities of the former, and
perhaps the supineness and love of ease of the latter,
prevailed to put an early period to the pilgrim walk
that they had undertaken. For fifteen years the
migration of Abram and Lot was thus delayed, du¬
ring which time the whole family resided at Char-
ran. But now the aged Terah has gone the way of
all flesh ; Nahor is unwilling to remove again ; and
Abram has received a second intimation from the
Lord Jehovah, that country and kindred are to be
finally forsaken.

Henceforth the patriarch has done with cities and
with houses ; a stranger and a pilgrim dwelling in
tents, is to be henceforth his character. And even
when he comes to the Land of Promise, he is still to
walk by faith through it, in the same character. For
it is to be at present to him but the Land of Pro¬
mise, not of Possession. The Canaanite is in it, and
must not just yet be dispossessed ; and until then,
the friend of God, though assured that it is his inherit¬
ance, has no more than a tent and a pasture in it.
He will look onward “ for the city which hath the
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”*

All this is beautifully illustrative of the walk of a
Christian. When he first turned his back upon the
world in which he was born, and in whose pleasures

* The definite article, though omitted in our English Version,
is in the original before each noun, and makes the allusion to
the New Jerusalem of Rev. xxi. much more distinct and definite.

THE MISSION OF EL/EZER.

3)

and pursuits he was for a while engrossed, he did
not immediately get into the Canaan of rest. Many
delays intervene, and often through many years he
has to sustain the stranger and pilgrim character,
passing through the world, but not of it. He knows
that by-and-by “ the meek shall inherit the earth,
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace ; ” he is assured that a time is coming when
over this wretched and sin-stricken world, where now
Satan rules, the peaceful and happy reign of Jesus
shall be extended, whose right it is ; and he has been
promised that he shall bear a part in the glory of his
reigning Lord. But meanwhile, “ the Canaanite is in
the land ; ” — this world is in the possession of those
with whom he can have no fellowship, because they
reject his Master. He “ abides in tents he has no
home, no permanent resting-place here, but looks
forward, like his great prototype, the faithful Abram,
to the city of the all-glorious foundations, that Holy
City, the New Jerusalem.

(Sciusb xxiv

Let us suppose the lapse of threescore years, and
again take our stand at this same ford of Euphrates.
A train of camels slowly approaches along the wind¬
ing path that leads from the Syrian desert, the very
track along which Abram had gone before, but in the
opposite direction. The beasts are attired in sump-

40

THE RIVER EUPHRATES .

tuous housings, and bear rich ornaments on their
necks and on their head-gear: some of them carry
the peculiarly formed saddle which is used by ladies
of rank and station ; but no female is in the troop.
A venerable man is mounted on the foremost camel,
and the rest of the company are evidently attendants.
They cross the ford ; the old man looks round with
that expression of mingled curiosity and gratification
with which we recognise objects and scenes once
familiar, but half-forgotten ; but the train pursues its
way, winds up the opposite slope, and is presently
lost to view in the rocky gorge that leads the traveller
to the Upper Mesopotamia.

Three days afterwards, the quiet of the secluded
valley is again broken by the tinkling of the camels’
bells, and the same train is seen returning. No
difference is perceptible in the company, except that
now the most richly caparisoned dromedary carries a
young and beautiful lady, and several other females
accompany and follow her. The venerable conductor
rides by her side, and entertains her with conversa¬
tion, which to judge from her smiles, and the colour
that comes and goes upon her blushing cheek, is
both interesting and agreeable. They quickly pass ;
we trace their diminishing forms for a while ; until at
length the summit of yonder hill conceals them from
our sight, and enables them to catch a view of the
desert across which they have to travel on their way
to Canaan.

The history of this expedition is touching and in-

THE MISSION OF ELIEZER.

structive. Abraham has been blessed with a son,
the Child of Promise, who has now attained mature
age. The patriarch, now striken in years, looks 011
his beloved son, the heir of his possessions, and the
heir of his piety too, the son to whose line the pro¬
mised blessing is expressly appropriated, and desires
to see him wedded to a suitable wife. But where
shall he find a help, meet for a man of God ? Not
among the filthy inhabitants of the land in which he
dwells : not among the daughters of the idolatrous
Canaanites, the licentious worshippers of Baal-peor.
From these can never be expected any help or com¬
fort to a servant of Jehovah, nor the bringing up
of a “ godly seed.” The surrounding nations are little
better, all being plunged into the grossest vice and
the most debasing idolatry.

But intelligence has recently been brought to the
anxious patriarch from his native country, Mesopota¬
mia. He learns that the family of his brother Nahor
are flourishing at Charran, and, what is still better,
that they are leading, in virtuous simplicity, a pasto¬
ral life, and that they have preserved, in some degree
of purity, the knowledge and the worship of J ehovah.
Here then he determines to seek a bride for his
beloved son.

He calls his long-tried, faithful steward, the aged
Eliezer, born and bred up in his family, who had
originally accompanied him in his migrations, and
whose feelings, affections, and interests are identified
with his own. To him the careful parent reveals his

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

purpose, and to him he confides its execution. The
custom of the country and of the age prescribes such
a proceeding. Marriage is a subject of negotiation, not
between the bride and the bridegroom themselves,
whose inclinations it is not considered essential pre¬
viously to consult, but between the parents or families
of the interested parties. Proposals are made fre¬
quently through the medium of confidential servants,
who have authority to conclude the negotiation.
Another thing contrary to Western notions of delicacy,
but immemorially the custom in the East, is the pur¬
chase of the bride from her family, at a stipulated
price, varying of course according to her personal
qualifications and rank in life.

We have said that the faithfulness and devoted
attachment of Eliezer have been long tried : the
entire government of his master’s house is in his
hand ; but, on an occasion so important as the pre¬
sent, Abraham cannot be satisfied without the solem¬
nity of an oath. The cautious domestic, however,
desires to know what will be his duty, on the suppo¬
sition that he shall not be able to find a female of
his master’s kindred who will be willing to come with
him. Abraham frees him from his obligation in such
a case, but nevertheless assures him that he needs
not fear; for that Jehovah, who took him from his
father’s house, and had given him great and precious
promises, will surely send His angel with his messen¬
ger and prosper his way. Plow beautiful is this con¬
fidence in God ! Both of these men are experiment-

THE MISSION OF ELIEZER.

43

ally acquainted with the love and faithfulness of
Jehovah ; but the faith of Abraham is stronger than
the faith of Eliezer !

The oath is given, and the trusty servant departs
with a train of attendants suitable for the high mis¬
sion, and with jewels of gold and silver, and valuable
raiment, as presents for the intended bride and her
relatives. The journey is long, but the trained dro¬
medaries swiftly cross the Syrian desert, and arrive
at the frontier of Mesopotamia, where we have found
the procession. We will follow the venerable steward
on until he reaches the city of his destination, Char-
ran, where still reside the descendants of Nahor. It
is evening tide ; but, before he enters the town, he
tarries a while by the well, which, as usual, is situated
outside the gate. It is the time when the women
of the city come out to draw water; a duty which,
though burdensome, is invariably assigned to females,
and is the less disliked because it affords them almost
the only opportunity they possess of meeting to¬
gether for cheerful intercourse. None of them are
yet arrived ; and Eliezer determines to spent the few
minutes that may intervene, in prayer. Accordingly,
he makes his tired camels to kneel down, their usual
mode of taking rest ; while he, reverently standing,
wrestles with God for a token of blessing. His
solemn appeal is to Jehovah, the God of his master
Abraham ; and it is for his master’s sake that he
pleads for a prosperous issue ; he disclaims his own
judgment in so important a matter, but seeks to find

44

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

the damsel whom God has appointed for his young-
master ; and finally he ventures to ask for a sign
whereby he may with certainty know the Divine
decision. “ Behold,” he says, “ I stand here by the
well of water ; and the daughters of the men of the
city come out to draw water : and let it come to pass,
that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy
pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink ; and she shall
say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also : let
the same be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy
servant Isaac ; and thereby shall I know that Thou
hast showed kindness unto my master.”

Is not the example of Eliezer worthy of imitation
by every godly man engaged in any undertaking
involving important consequences ? We are taught,
whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do
it all to the glory of God. Therefore we should seek
earnestly to know the mind of God, even in the
things that concern the present life ; since there is
nothing in which a child of God may lawfully engage,
on which he may not ask his heavenly Father’s direc¬
tion and blessing. And he should expect to have it
too; asking in faith, nothing wavering. Let him watch
the leadings and indications of God’s providence ; and
the promise is clear and explicit, that wisdom shall
be given to him who thus asks it. The written Word,
which Eliezer had not, is now a Christian’s rule of
conduct; and, either by precept or principle, it will
meet every general case. To be looking for manifest
signs at every turn would be now to walk by sight

THE MISSION OF ELIEZER .

45

instead of by faith ; yet he who habitually carries his
undertakings and designs, his difficulties and uncer¬
tainties to God, will not lack special instances of
interposition and direction, which, however trivial
they might seem if reported to others, will to himself
prove occasions of adoring wonder and praise.

According as the good man prayed, so it comes to
pass. Even before he has done speaking, a lovely

WOMEN AT WELL.

virgin comes forth bearing her pitcher on her shoulder ,
a little circumstance indicative of her high station, as
the daughter of a lordly house; the women of inferior
rank habitually bearing the pitcher upon the head.
Her exceeding beauty and grace are equalled only
by her simplicity and modest affability. The servant
runs to meet her, hoping that one so fair may indeed

46

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

prove the destined bride ; he prefers his request, and
receives the ready answer that his faith had prescribed.
He gratefully slakes his thirst at her pitcher; and
then, in silent admiration not only of the lovely maiden
but also of the goodness of the Hearer of prayer,
looks on while she with sweet alacrity runs again and
again down the steep steps of the well, and fills the
trough with water, until the thirsty beasts are satis¬
fied. Surely Eliezer showed his wisdom in the qua¬
lities which he desired to secure in a wife for his
master’s son, and which his description implied !
Simplicity, industry, humility, kindness, affability,
hospitality, readiness in obliging, and cheerfulness in
service, — how valuable are these qualifications ; and
how far superior to mere beauty of face or form, or
what, according to the fashion of this present world,
are considered feminine accomplishments !

The whole business is now soon decided. The
maiden, on being asked her parentage, declares her¬
self to be Rebekah, the granddaughter of Nahor, and
invites the stranger to her father’s house. He imme¬
diately invests her with some of the precious jewels,
— a nose-ring and bracelets of gold, which he had
brought for the purpose ; and declares his own rela¬
tion to Abraham. The negotiation with the family
involves a revelation of Abraham’s greatness and
wealth, and that Isaac is his sole heir, as also of all
the wondrous interpositions by which Jehovah had
marked out Rebekah as the destined bride. The
family consent to the marriage ; the maiden herself

RE BEK A II.

47

is willing to go ; and without any delay, — for the ser¬
vant is anxious to fulfil his mission, — she sets out
with him on his return, trusts herself to his protec¬
tion and guidance across the dreary desert, cheered
doubtless by many a detail of the greatness and
paternal kindness of Abraham, and of the gentleness
and love of Isaac, as they travel together.

In this interesting transaction we have not only a
picture of the pastoral life of antiquity, drawn with
inimitable simplicity and beauty by the pen of in¬
spiration, and valuable moral and spiritual instruction
given in a lively and attractive manner, — but also a
precious type of the greatest mystery of grace, the
preparation of the Church for Christ, and her presen¬
tation to Him. The Father loveth the Son, even
that only-begotten and well-beloved Son whom He
hath once given up, with His own free and perfect
consent, as a sacrifice. He “ hath given all things
into His hand,” so that the Son can say, “All things
that the Father hath are mine.” But, to consummate
the joy, the Father determines to “ make a marriage
for His Son;” and, having chosen a bride out of a dis¬
tant land, He sends forth the Holy Ghost to persuade

her to “ forget her own people and her father’s house.”

%

He, in obedience to the Father’s will, finds her out,
tells her of all the glory of the Father’s house, which
is also the glory of Jesus, and thus makes her willing
to forsake all, and to travel through the wilderness with
Him for her guide and comforter. Then Fie covers
her with a spotless robe of righteousness, and adorns

TIIL RIVER EUPHRATES.

4^

her with gifts and graces, the pledge-jewels of Jesus’
love, and of her betrothal to Him ; and thus He con¬
ducts her home, cheering her as she goes along, with
thoughts of Him to whom she is going ; “taking of
the things that are His and showing them to her,”
and “ showing her things to come,” even the glory
which she shall share, when, presented at length as a
chaste virgin to Christ, the marriage day shall come,
and she shall be manifested as one with Him, in ever¬
lasting union, to the praise of His glorious grace.

Daniel ii.

The most renowned city of antiquity was Babylon.
We have already glanced at its early foundation by
Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, and the confusion of
which it was the scene. We will now look at it as it
was in its maturity, “ the golden city,” “ the lady of
kingdoms,” “the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.”

It was situated in a vast plain watered by two great
rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, the former of
which ran through its centre, dividing it into two
portions. Its form was that of a square of 480 stadia,
or 60 miles in circumference, each side being 15 miles
in length. A wall encompassed it 350 feet in height
and 87 in thickness. An idea may be formed of this
wall, by comparing it with the dome of St. Paul’s,
which is about equal in height, and by saying that
its breadth was considerably more than half as much

BABYLON.

49

again as that of London Bridge. A moat surrounded
the whole, deep and wide, and always filled with clear
water from the Euphrates. We must not suppose
that the whole of the immense space within the walls
was occupied, as it would be in a modern European
city, with streets and squares ; extensive fields were
embraced in this area, which were intended to supply
the inhabitants with corn in the event of a siege. A
hundred massive gates of brass, at regular distances,
gave ingress and egress to the thousands that were
constantly pouring in and out of the city ; each of
these gates was the extremity of a street, which tra¬
versed the city in a straight line. There were thus
fifty streets, intersecting each other at right angles,
besides lanes and alleys innumerable ; the houses were
generally three or four stories in height. Transverse
avenues led down to the river, pierced through a
wall or breastwork of brick, and closed by smaller
brazen gates. The Euphrates, which was nearly a
quarter of a mile wide, was crossed by a bridge of
stone.

In the centre of one of the divisions of this vast
city, stood that mighty monument of early audacity,
the Tower of Babel. It seems never to have been
carried beyond the height which the first builders
attained ; but the topmost turret, the eighth in suc¬
cession, was used as a chapel, and devoted to Bel or
Belus, the national idol. No statue was in this apart¬
ment, which contained only a magnificent couch
and a table of solid gold ; but in other chambers of

E

5o

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

the buildings there were colossal images, altars, and
thrones, of the same precious metal.

The centre of the other division, separated from the
former by the river, was occupied by the royal palace.
It was a structure of prodigious magnificence, one
particular of which it may suffice to mention. The
queen of Nebuchadnezzar was a native of Media, a
mountainous country and well wooded, and in these
respects the very opposite of Babylonia. To please
her and gratify her taste for rural scenery, this prince
formed hanging gardens, terrace above terrace, until
they equalled the height of the walls of the city.
These he planted and laid out in the most costly
manner, with flowers, shrubs, and trees, brought from
distant parts of his dominions. The most gigantic
forest-trees flourished in these paradises ; for they
were built on hollow piers of brickwork, sixty feet
square, which were filled with earth. Thus support
to the stupendous structure was afforded, and at the
same time sufficient space was allowed for the roots of
the most spreading trees.

A few years ago an interesting discovery was made
by our countryman, Mr. Rich, while exploring the
ruins of ancient Babylon. In the Mujelibe, a vast
shapeless heap much like the Birs Nimroud, supposed
to have been this royal palace, he excavated one of
these supporting shafts. It was a “ hollow pier, sixty
feet square, lined with fine brick, laid in bitumen,
and filled up with earth.'”

The fertility of the surrounding country was al«

THE PALACE.

5i

most without a parallel. Rich by nature, the pro¬
ductiveness of the soil was greatly increased by
irrigation, the region being crossed by numerous
canals that connected the waters of the Tigris with
those of the Euphrates ; and these were again in¬
tersected by a multitude of smaller channels, whence
the water was distributed partly by manual labour
and partly by hydraulic engines. Thus the three
requisites of fertility, a rich soil, abundant moisture,
and a hot climate, combined to render Babylonia the
most fruitful region of the whole East. Corn was its
chief staple, of which a two-hundred fold increase
was the common expectation ; and in favourable
seasons it occasionally reached three hundred, the
grain, besides, being of prodigious size ; an astonish¬
ing return, which the historian is almost afraid to
record lest he should be suspected of exaggeration.

And now let us in imagination turn to the centre
of all this glory, where Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest
of earth’s monarchs, sits in the marble halls of his
royal palace. A magnificent apartment extends
before us, of lofty height and immense length, along
each side of which runs a series of columns of white
marble. The broad avenues separated by this colon¬
nade are ceiled with cedar, painted in a rich pattern
with blue and vermilion ; but the still broader central
area is open to the sky, the clear cloudless azure of
the serene heavens forming its majestic roof. The
walls are panelled with enormous slabs of alabaster,
series above series, the lower compartments sculp-

52

THE RIVER EUPHRATES .

turcd with eagle-headed figures representing the ob¬
jects of idolatrous worship, or the monarch as the
high priest engaged with his subordinate priests in
various acts of religious homage. The upper panels

EAGLE-HEADED IDOL.

are painted in the most vivid colours, representing ir.
colossal proportions the exploits, real or imaginary,
of the monarch himself. In one place he is seen in
his war-chariot leading-on his warriors to battle ; in

THE COURT.

53

another he is slaying with his own hand the adverse
chieftain ; then he is depicted driving his conquered
foes before him, and transfixing them with his ar¬
rows ; or besieging a fortified city ; or fording a
broad and rapid river ; or returning in triumphal
pomp to his palace with the trophies of conquest.
Or the exciting scenes of the battle-field are ex¬
changed for the sports of hunting ; the royal hunter,
like his illustrious ancestor, the founder of his
kingdom, pursues in his chariot the wild bull and
shoots him to the heart ; or on foot seeks the maned
lion in his lair, and, engaging him in single combat,
slays him with his short sword.

To the upper parts of the marble pillars are
attached rings of massive silver, through which pass
cords of purple silk intertwined with silver thread ;
on these hang curtains richly embroidered with
figures and scenes analogous to those on the walls,
but wrought in purple on white silk ; they are
gathered into graceful folds by loops of silken cord,
revealing the luxuriously cushioned divans that range
along the walls. The pavement is of porphyry and
alabaster set in various fantastic forms and labyrin¬
thine patterns, reflecting from its polished surface the
glittering columns, the painted figures of the walls,
and the placid blue sky above all.

On each side of the portal of this noble hall,
stands, like a guardian demon, a form of grand and
awful aspect. The stature is thrice that of man, and
the proportions are conformable to it. It is one of

54

THE RIVER EUPHRATES .

those compound embodiments by which the human
mind has sought to exhibit to sense the abstract
attributes of the Divinity. The head and visage are
those of man, full of intelligence and grandeur ; the
body and limbs are those of a lion, the representative
of strength and ferocity ; and from the back rise the
wings of an eagle, expanding their ample plumes,
the symbol of clear-sighted omniscience, of omni¬
presence, and of wide dominion.*

At the upper extremity of the room stand in like
manner two other cherubic figures, and between them,
on an elevated dais, is placed the royal throne. It is
constructed of ivory richly carved and inlaid with
gold ; crouching lions form the arms, and the feet
terminate in lions’ claws. A footstool of similar ma¬
terials stands before it, and above it is suspended
the winged globe, another symbol of deity.

On the throne, the centre and object of a homage
scarcely less than adoration, sits the monarch. He
is in the prime of vigorous life, a man of tall and
martial figure, whose noble features bear the impress

* In the above description we have not scrupled to make
use of the recent interesting discoveries of the ancient Ninevite
marbles. In the customs of two nations so nearly related in
time, in situation, in origin, and in language, as Assyria and
Babylon, we may be permitted, in the absence of any contrary
evidence, to suppose a close similarity. The more so, as the
remains of a much more distant region, Egypt, exhibit many
points of remarkable resemblance. The compound forms, in
particular, a bestial body with wings and a human countenance,
are found in the monuments of Nineveh, Thebes, and Persepolis.

THE COURT.

55

of power, and tell of one born to be a king of kings.
His commanding height is increased by his conical
turban, from which long tassels depend behind. He
is clad in a robe of white linen richly embroidered
with pictures of his own exploits, and girded with a
knotted girdle of twined silk, from which the chased
haft of a dagger projects, blazing with precious stones.
Golden figures of the sun, moon, and stars are hung
as a necklace around his neck, and armlets of the
same metal, with rams’ heads for clasps, encircle his
muscular arms and wrists, which are otherwise naked.
His right hand grasps with energy a ponderous mace
of bronze, fashioned at the end into a globe.

Eunuchs richly attired stand around the king : one
holds over his royal master a parasol of silk ; another
fans him continually with a tuft of ostrich plumes ;
and others carry his arms, his bow and quivers, his
javelins, his sword and spear, and his shield.

Priests too are here in groups around the throne :
they also are clad in embroidered robes, and wear
caps or turbans, each adorned with a silver horn ;
they all bear implements of worship, cups, cones of
the pine-tree, baskets, and other mysterious emblems,
and some are furnished with ample spreading wings
attached to their shoulders. Princes and satraps
clothed in scarlet, and bearing golden chains of
office, mingle with the priests ; and, behind them,
at respectful distance, are the military chiefs and
chosen captains, glittering in coats of scale-armour,
with close-fitting helmets of the same falling down

THE RIVER EUPHRATES .

over the shoulders and neck, each of them girt with
his sword upon his thigh, and his spear in his hand.

Profound silence reigns throughout the hall, and
every countenance is turned upon the monarch in
fear and uncertainty. At the foot of the throne are
six white-bearded men, clad in long white robes, all
of them with their foreheads on the ground in the
most abject humiliation. In the midst of them stands
a youth, tall and comely, indeed, but scarcely arrived
at man’s estate, whose fair and ruddy face shows as
yet no traces of a beard. In the splendour of that
court he stands erect and unabashed, not with an im¬
pudent gaze, but with a noble gravity of demeanour
that commands involuntary respect. His features are
not cast in the same mould as those of the company
around, and when he speaks it is with the accent of a
stranger ; yet he is clothed with a white robe in all
respects similar to those of the aged men whose faces
are on the ground.

Chagrin and anger are strongly depicted in the
countenance of the monarch ; for he has been per¬
plexed by a dream, the solemn effect of which
remains on his mind, though the particulars resist
all his efforts to recall them. In his perplexity he
demands the aid of his magicians, whose claims to
supernatural knowledge he commands them to prove
by the reproduction of his vision. But they are
helpless, and the vehement rage of the king has just
been vented in threats of degradation and instant
death. These are the men who, in the most pitiable

THE GREAT EM AGE.

57

prostration of body and mind, seek to mollify the
vehemence of the royal indignation.

In this crisis, the captain of the guard has just
brought-in Daniel, a youthful Jewish captive, in
whom is the Spirit of the Holy God ; who modestly
but confidently professes his ability to make known
to the king both the dream and the interpretation.
Yet not to himself does he arrogate the glory, nor
does he pretend to any superior wisdom of his own,
but points to the Living God as the only revealer of
secrets, who thus makes known to Nebuchadnezzar
what shall be in the latter days.

The subject of the forgotten vision had been a
great and splendid image. Its head was of fine gold,
its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of
brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part
of clay. Presently a stone cut out of a mountain
without hands, smote the image upon its feet, and
the whole splendid figure instantly crumbled to dust,
and was carried away by the wind of heaven ; while
the stone that smote it became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth.

This mysterious vision is now explained by the
youthful prophet. It was a revelation of the five
great empires, which commencing with the times
then present should reach onward to the end of the
world.

The Babylonian monarchy was represented by the
head of this image ; which, on account of its surpass¬
ing grandeur, wealth, and magnificence, was repre-

58

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

sented as made of gold. After a little while this
should be overthrown, and succeeded by another
kingdom, that of the Medes and Persians, here
symbolised by the breast and arms of silver ; which
should be inferior to the former in all that dazzles
and attracts the attention of this world. But the
Persian monarchy was destined to yield to the
Macedonian, represented by the belly and thighs (or
sides) of brass ; a metal peculiarly suitable to pre¬
figure the Grecians, inasmuch as it was the material
of which their armour was made, (“ the brass-coated
Greeks”); and their dominion, while lacking in wealth
and splendour, was obtained and supported by the
extraordinary military power of Alexander. At
length this also should succumb to the iron monarchy
of Rome, which, despising wealth, magnificence, and
luxury, should establish its wide dominion by a stern,
unrelenting, ferocious valour, grinding the nations
without pity or mercy. The government, so long
vested in two equal consuls and at length in two
emperors, might be well expressed by the legs of the
image, and the ten toes might prefigure the ten
Gothic kingdoms into which the whole empire should
at length be broken up. Some of these kingdoms
are powerful, retaining the old iron character of
martial Rome ; others are weak and degenerate, fit
only to be compared to miry clay.

Here then is an epitome of the world’s history
from the epoch of King Nebuchadnezzar. It reaches
down to us ; for the ten monarchies of the Roman

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

59

world, which have existed now for twelve centuries,
have not yet passed away. We stand then upon the
very extremity of the last division of the great
image ; not only upon the toes, but, so to speak, upon
the very tips of the toes. What a solemn thing it is
to look into God's infallible almanack of prophetic
history, and to see our own place there ! For we
cannot but perceive that, according to the vision, the
dominion of these ten kingdoms is not to run on
indefinitely, but to come to a sudden, violent, and
total extinction.

The fifth kingdom, represented by the mighty
stone, was to differ in important respects from the
preceding four. They were earthly in their origin
and character, this was to be heavenly ; they were
characterized by qualities that the natural mind
appreciates, — splendour, riches, magnificence, military
skill, and brutal force ; this, like a small stone from
the face of a mountain, seems worthless and mean,
yet it shall fill the whole earth : they were each
destined to pass away, and yield to a superior ; this
shall never be removed, but shall stand for ever.
The stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, despised and
cast out by men, but elect and precious in the sight
of God, and destined to “grind to powder” (Matt,
xxi. 44) whomsoever it shall fall upon. The world
is pluming itself on its advancing liberty, its dis¬
coveries, its science, its intellect, its power ; and is
flattering itself with the hope of ages of prosperity
to come ; “to-morrow shall be as this day, and much

Co

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

more abundant.” But what says the great dial of
prophecy ? The circle of its hours is well-nigh
completed, and its silent finger is pointing to a
period that cannot be far off, when “ the iron, the
clay, the brass, the silver and the gold,” all that
is considered great and valuable by the world, shall
be “ broken to pieces, and become like the chaff of
the summer threshing floors,” by Him whose name
it loves not to hear, and whose authority it rejects
and scorns.

Yet most blessed is it to the Christian, the “ scribe
instructed unto the kingdom of heaven,” to know
that the reign of his Lord and Saviour is fast
approaching. With the world’s glory he has, or
ought to have, no fellowship, as well knowing who is
the “prince” and “god of this world”; nor can he
regret that its termination is nigh, seeing that it has
ever been in opposition to the glory of Jesus. Mean¬
while, his duty is now quiet subjection to authorities
and powers for the Lord’s sake ; not resisting evil,
nor seeking to set right by force that which he sees
wrong ; contented to suffer with Christ, knowing that
he shall also reign with Him.

“Babylon, with its eagle-wings of pride, has ap¬
peared and fallen. Persia, with its two-fold dynasty,
has succeeded in its turn. The mighty invasion
of Xerxes has been fulfilled, and become the theme
of poets and orators, a proverb of history, for more
than two thousand years. The empire of Macedon,
and the triumphs of Alexander, have appeared on

7 HE CAPTIVES.

61

tlie shifting scene of history, and vanished away.
Rome, the fourth and mightiest empire, strong as
iron, has risen to power, and, after stamping its name
deep on the world’s calendar, has been broken
as here announced, and lived on, though rent and
divided, surrounded with the monuments of its de¬
parting glory. And thus, in the steady sweep of
Providence, we are brought to the verge of that
predicted kingdom which shall not be given to
another people, but wherein the dominion shall be
given to the saints of the Most Pligh, and they shall
reign for ever and ever. If such glorious hopes of
the triumph of Divine goodness in this lower world
dazzle and confound us by their brightness when
they are set before us in general and abstract
promises, here they are blended-in with the whole
range of history ; and all the events recorded in
profane historians, and by the orators and poets of
Greece and Rome, become so many pledges to us of
that everlasting kingdom which God has promised
to them that love Him. Our hopes may thus rove
freely through all the magnificent range of coming
ages of blessedness, and yet, all the time, retain a
firm anchor-hold upon every main event of recorded
history for two thousand years.”*

* Birks’ Elem. of Prophecy, p. 429.

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

62

IJsitlm cxxxvii. Jtrtmialj li.

BENEATH the willows that droop their long pendent
branches into the murmuring river, as if weeping in
sympathy with those that seek their sombre shade,
sit a group of mourners. They are strangers in a
strange land, the captive daughters of Judah, who
have sought a brief respite from the insulting scorn
of their cruel oppressors, demanding mirth from their
broken hearts. How can they sing Jehovah's song
in a strange land ? or how shall they tune their
harps to the praise of that Name which the haughty
heathen only demand to hear that they may treat
it with derision ? They have hanged their harps
upon the willows, where the mournful breeze sighing
through the branches sweeps over the strings, and
awakens low and plaintive chords, in unison with
their sorrowful thoughts.

They sit in silence, for their hearts are too heavy
for converse : their heads are covered with their loner
enveloping veils, or they bury their faces in their
hands, while the tears flow fast from their eyes.
They remember Zion ; the happy days when they
dwelt in her palaces, clothed in scarlet, with many
delights ; when the noise of the pipe, and the tabret,
and the viol was in their feasts, and their light hearts
thought not of the approach of evil. They re¬
member the glorious temple, the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth : its priestly ministrations,
its holy service ; whither they habitually went up to

THE CAPTIVES.

63

join in the solemn worship, and to swell the pealing
chorus of praise that ascended to Jehovah from
assembled multitudes keeping holy-day. But the
spoiler has been let loose upon Zion ; her palaces and
her strongholds lie level with the ground ; and the
adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her
pleasant things : a fire hath been kindled in Zion,
and hath devoured even its foundations. The house
of the Lord is utterly desolate, it is overthrown and
burned with fire; Jehovah hath abhorred His sanc¬
tuary, and given it into the hand of the heathen ; He
hath despised, in the indignation of His anger, the
king and the priest. The sons and daughters of
Jerusalem, the thousands of Judah, are violently
carried away captive ; and the city sits solitary that
was full of people. No daily lamb smokes on the
brazen altar ; no songs ascend now from the courts
of the Lord’s house ; silence is within those black¬
ened walls, for they who were wont with joy to
minister there have sprinkled with their blood its
hallowed stones, or are sitting in the dust in sack¬
cloth and ashes, in this alien land. The proud
idolater has triumphed in the heritage of Jehovah,
and blasphemously ascribed his success to his sense¬
less idols.

Ah ! these are sad recollections for the poor pining
captives ; but there are thoughts that will obtrude
themselves, that are far, far more bitter. Why is
Jehovah thus dishonoured, His sanctuary polluted,
His worship profaned, His city destroyed, His people

64

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

carried into captivity ? Hath His promise failed ?
Hath He forgotten His faithfulness ? or was He not
able to maintain His own cause against the proud
ones of the earth ? It is for Israel’s sin, that the Lord
is wroth with His inheritance. His people have
apostatized from Him, and turned to idols. “My
people,” saith Jehovah, “have committed two evils:
they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
can hold no water.” Yet had He borne long with
them ; He had solemnly admonished them, had sent
unto them His prophets, with invitations to return to
Him, with gracious offers of free forgiveness and full
reconciliation, and with awful threatenings of His
wrath if they persisted in disobedience. He had
abundantly shown that judgment is His strange work,
and that He delighteth in mercy. But they despised
His long-suffering, poured contempt on His messages,
stoned His prophets, and laughed to scorn His
threatened wrath, till at length it arose, and there
was no remedy. And now the rebellious people of
God are in their enemies’ land, left to mourn over
their terrible sin and its consequences, if so be they
will turn in their distress to Him from whom they
have deeply revolted.

Meanwhile, Jehovah will take care of His own
honour : brief shall be the scornful boasting of the
heathen whom He hath used as the rod wherewith to
smite His people ; yet a little while, and Babylon,
the queen of kingdoms, that saith, “ I shall be a lady

SE RAJAH’S MISSION.

65

for ever,” shall become a perpetual desolation. The
dreadful doom is already pronounced : Jehovah will
soon avenge Himself on the senseless idols ; Bel shall
bow down, Nebo shall stoop, and on the backs of
weary beasts shall go into captivity. Babylon, the
proud, the mighty city, whose walls tower up to
heaven, shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for
dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without
inhabitant.

Yonder comes one of the princes of the royal line
of Judah; as he slowly walks along the rushy brink
of the river, he often turns to gaze upon the lofty
walls and loftier towers, the temples and palaces and
brazen gates of the queenly city, and then takes a
parchment roll from the bosom of his robe, and reads
awhile therein. He approaches the willow-shade
where the mourning captives sit, and addresses them
in language of sympathy and consolation. He speaks
of the covenant love of Him whose hand is heavy
upon them ; of His willingness to receive the penitent
mourner ; of His promise to hear the prayer of His
people when in their enemies’ land, and to turn their
captivity ; and gives them something to hope for, in
the assurance that God hath recently limited the
bondage of His people to seventy years. Then he
speaks of the magnificent city before them, — how
he has been round about it, to survey its strength,
grandeur, luxury, pride, idolatry, cruelty, and sen¬
suality ; and tells them that he is the messenger of
the Divine doom to guilty Babylon. And now he

F

66

7 HE RIVER EUPHRATES.

takes from his bosom the roll of prophetic woe, which,
has been commited to him by the venerable Jeremiah,
and reads its awful burden in their hearing. Yet a
little while, and this glorious city shall be utterly
thrown down, and become a burnt mountain. It shall
be overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, and be
utterly desolate and forsaken. A great nation shall
be raised up against her from the north, who shall
rush upon her as a chafed lion driven from his thicket
by the swelling of Jordan; a cruel nation, who will
show no mercy ; who will break her idols in pieces,
slay her valiant men, and dash upon the stones her
children. Her mighty river, her boast and pride, the
source of her prosperity, shall be the instrument of
her overthrow ; for it shall be dried up before the
advancing host, and its channel shall be their high¬
road into the city. The brazen gates shall open their
ponderous valves to the conqueror, and he shall enter
into the streets before the inhabitants are aware.
One post shall run to meet another, to tell the King
of Babylon that his city is taken at each end ; that
the passages are stopped, that the reeds are burned
with fire, and that the men of war are affrighted.
Anguish shall take hold of the monarch, and he and
all his host shall utterly perish. Jehovah hath decreed
wrath against Babylon, till it be wholly desolate ;
every one that goeth by shall be astonished at her
plagues. “ It shall never be inhabited, from genera¬
tion to generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch
tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their

BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST.

67

fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie
there ; and their houses shall be full of doleful crea¬
tures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall
dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall
cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their
pleasant palaces.” She shall be cast up as heaps ;
she shall be destroyed utterly ; nothing of her shall
be left.

These awful predictions, with many details appa¬
rently little likely to be fulfilled upon the flourishing
metropolis of the world, the Divine messenger reads
aloud ; and, having finished, he binds a ponderous
stone to the roll, and heaves it far into the bosom of
the Euphrates. The surging waters close over it,
and, as it sinks, the prophet lifts up his right hand to
heaven, saying : “ Thus shall that great city Babylon
sink, to rise no more !”

ganitl v.

Years passed on, and the words which Seraiah had
uttered were remembered — if remembered at all — by
the Babylonians, only as the ravings of an angry
enthusiast. The captives, too, had waited for their
accomplishment, till they were weary of expecting,
and most of them had now forgotten them. But not
one jot or one tittle of God’s word, whether of pro¬
mise or threatening, can ever fail ; and there were a
few aged men in Babylon who still treasured up the
words of solemn import, and expected, with an

63 THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

earnest faith, their entire fulfilment. They remem¬
bered, also, the promised limitation of the captivity
to seventy years, which period had now elasped since
Nebuchadnezzar’s first capture of Jerusalem.

The sound of revelry and mirth is in the royal
palace ; for there, in the magnificent hall where for¬
merly Neuchadnezzar received the message from
heaven, Belshazzar the king has made a feast to a
thousand of his lords. It is night ; but hundreds
of lamps, fed with perfumed oil, and suspended by
chains of gold, illuminate the glittering scene, and
almost put out the radiance of the stars that sparkle
in the purple sky above the heads of the revellers.
Heaps of fragrant wood are burning on tripods of
bronze, and mingle their rich odours with that of the
sweet lotus-lilies that are set in porcelain vases, or hung
in negligent wreaths around, in the greatest profusion.
The charms of music are not wanting ; the tabret and
viol, the pipe and the harp, unite with many voices of
men and women, — now in martial strains extolling
the valour of the king, now sinking to softer melody,
melting the soul to love. For on the embroidered
couches recline many of the beauties of the Babylo¬
nian court, gracing with the charm of loveliness, ii
not of modesty, the festive scene. The incense, the
music, and the wine are doing their work ; the mirth
is boisterous ; the loud blasphemy or obscenity pro¬
vokes the louder laugh, and the king is the merriest
reveller of all. The grim countenances of the demon¬
gods around seem to glare with a fiendish expression,

THE WRITING ON THE WALL.

69

and the shadowy forms of his royal ancestors frown
down in silence from their lofty panels.

A sudden thought strikes the monarch’s mind ;
and, amidst the drunken approbation of his guests,
he commands to be brought the sacred vessels of
gold and silver which had been plundered from the
temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Hitherto they had

been preserved untouched ; for Nebuchadnezzar, who
had taken them away, had abstained from profaning
them. The vessels are brought, and filled with
sparkling wine ; and while the unhallowed lips of the
king, his princes, and his ladies, inhale the draught,
the song of praise goes up from a thousand voices
to the helpless idols of gold and silver and stone.

7o

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

But what has suddenly arrested the monarch’s loud
laugh, and thrown an ashy paleness over his lately
flushed cheek ? See how his frame trembles as he
clutches at the table for support ; how his white lips
quiver, and how his eyes are starting from their
sockets as they stare upon the wall beside him !
The uproar of the board is hushed, and every face is
turned to the spot ; and there, upon the alabaster
wall, in the full glare of the great central lamp, is
seen a cloudy hand. Slowly those ghostly fingers
move along, and trace upon the polished slab, in the
sight of the paralysed throng, mysterious characters ;
every letter distinctly visible, and flashing with corus¬
cations of ghastly light.

The king cries aloud for his astrologers and sooth¬
sayers, offering the highest honours and rewards to
him who shall decipher and interpret the mysterious
writing. But the astrologers and soothsayers can
only gaze in mute dismay, for all their wisdom is
vain and worthless here. The confusion and terror
have reached the apartments of the venerable widow
of Nebuchadnezzar, who, though she would not give
the sanction of her countenance to the indecent re¬
velries of her grandson, approaches, in the hour of his
anguish, to administer counsel and consolation. She
remembers the heavenly wisdom of the Hebrew
Daniel, when in his youth he interpreted the vision
of the king that had baffled all the skill of Babylon ;
and she expresses her confident assurance that he
will be able both to read and to interpret the myste¬
rious writing.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL. 71

And now, by the royal mandate, Daniel appears ;
not as when we first saw him in this hall, in the
bloom of flowery youth, but bearing the burden of
fourscore years. He listens to the king’s demand,
declines the proffered honours, but declares his
ability to read the inscription. But first He faith¬
fully rebukes the pride, ingratitude, idolatry, and
blasphemy, which, refusing to profit by lessons of
mercy, have provoked the righteous vengeance of the
living God. The conscience-stricken monarch trem¬
bles under the word ; he can offer no extenuation of
his crimes thus set in order before him ; but the
joints of his loins are loosed, and his knees smite one
against another as he gazes on the cloudy fingers
slowly writing what he feels to be his own awful
doom.

At length the hand has vanished, but the writing
remains ; and the prophet reads the words, —

“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPIIARSIN.”

And this is the interpretation, —

“MENE, — God hath numbered thy kingdom, and
finished it.

“ Tekel, — Thou art weighed in the balances, and
art found wanting.

“PERES,* — Thy kingdom is divided, and given to
the Medes and Persians.”

*The words literally signify “ Number, number, weight, and
divisions.” Peres and Upharsin are essentially the same

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

Scarcely had the word of doom left the prophet’s
lips, before it was executed. In that night was King
Belshazzar slain.

All through this reign there had been war between
Babylon and the advancing power of the Medes and
Persians. Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, had gradu¬
ally been subduing the surrounding nations and the
provinces of this kingdom, until at length this ancient
and mighty city was the only place that held out
against his victorious arms. Two years had the siege
of Babylon now lasted ; but such was the strength
of the city, so high and massive the walls, so im¬
pregnable the fortifications, so great the number of
warriors, so abundant the supplies of all kinds of
provisions, that no hope seemed to exist that ever
Cyrus would be able to effect an entrance. He
had at first attempted to take it by assault, but in
vain ; and latterly had contented himself with cutting
around it a trench, both wide and deep, hoping to
starve it into surrender. But the city was provisioned
for twenty years, and had besides open land enough
within the walls, both for pasture and tillage, to
supply the inhabitants for an indefinite period. The

word, Peres being the radical word, the prefix u being merely
the copulative “and”; TH and P are the same letter ; the vowels
are dubious, and the affix IN is the Chaldee plural termination.
There is a sort of pun or paronomasia in the last term, the word
Peres signifying Persia , as well as divide j and the plural

form may have expressed, as in an enigma, this double appli¬
cation.

THE SIEGE OF BABYLON.

73

river, moreover, was here so broad, that ships keeping
in the middle of the channel could enter the city both
from above and below ; and thus the besiegers had
the mortification of seeing supplies continually brought
in, without being able to prevent it.

At length stratagem succeeded where force had

CYRUS TAKES BABYLON.

failed. Having learned that a great festival was ap¬
proaching, which the Babylonians were accustomed
to keep by devoting the whole night to revelry,
drunkenness, and all sorts of disorder, Cyrus deter¬
mined to surprise them in the midst of their de¬
baucheries. One of the great works of Nebuchad-

74

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

nezzar had been the construction of an artificial lake
above the city, for the sake of receiving the superfluous
waters of the Euphrates in the annual floods. This
lake was square, fifty-two miles every way, or up¬
wards of two hundred in circumference, and in depth
thirty-five feet ; so that it was capable of holding
an immense volume of water. Into this lake Cyrus
determined to draw off the water of the Euphrates,
and enter the city through the bed of the river. In
the evening of this eventful night he sent up a party
of men to cut the dam that separated the river from
the lake, and then dividing his forces into two parts,
he posted one division at the point where the river
entered the city, and. the other where it issued from
it. Some hours elapsed before the waters were
sufficiently shrunken to be fordable, though the
Persian general had opened also his great trench.
About midnight, however, the soldiers were able to
march in the diminished stream, and entered the city.
In the neglect and disorder of the festival, the brazen
gates that led from the streets to the river had been
carelessly left open, so that the armies met with no
impediment, but marched up into the streets. The
two parties met, according to agreement, at the royal
palace, where they surprised the half-intoxicated
guards, and soon despatched them.

The king, trembling under the judgment just pro¬
nounced upon himself and his kingdom, heard the
noise from within, and commanded some to see what
it meant. But no sooner was the great gate opened,

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

7 5

than the victorious Persians rushed in and took the
palace ; and the wretched monarch and his thousand
lords were all put to the sword.

Thus did Jehovah avenge His own honour; and
thus did He, according to His predictions, in the
most marvellous manner, accomplish His purpose
upon Babylon ; and thus did He effect the deliver¬
ance of His people from captivity, after the lapse, as
predicted, of exactly seventy years.

The glory of Babylon did not altogether depart
when it was taken by Cyrus, though it then began
to decline. The removal of the seat of empire to
Shushan degraded it from the metropolis of the world
to the head of a province ; yet it still continued to
retain its wealth, its grandeur, its temples, its sump¬
tuous palaces, and its impregnable walls. The pride
of strength impelled its inhabitants to revolt from
Darius, the successor of Cyrus, and to raise the
standard of independence. For several years they
had been laying up stores, and when the Persian
monarch brought up his army, they did not attempt
to meet him in the field, but, shutting their hundred
gates, defied his power. The horrible cruelty of
putting the women and children to death, to save
their provisions, leaving only one woman and a maid¬
servant in every house, did not avail them ; for,
by the stratagem of a pretended deserter from the
Persian army, the gates were opened, after a siege of
one year and eight months.

Now the queenly city was further humbled ; for

76

THE RIVER EUPHRATES

the conqueror took away the hundred brazen gates,
and beat down the lofty walls from two hundred
cubits to a fourth part of that height. The spoil of
the city was given up to the Persian army, and three
thousand of the revolters were impaled.

A third time was Babylon taken by Alexander the
Great. It no longer trusted in its fortifications, for
the Persian commander surrendered it into the con¬
queror’s hands without a blow. Its degradation was
sufficiently proved when the inhabitants flocked upon
the walls to see their new king take possession,
unresisted, of their city. Here Alexander died soon
afterwards.

Jehovah had declared that He would make Babylon
“a possession for the bittern, and pools of water,”
and that “ the sea should come up upon her, and she
should be covered with the multitude of the waves
thereof.” The breaking down of the dam, by Cyrus,
fulfilled in a remarkable manner these predictions ;
for when the lake was filled, the water of the river still
continuing to enter at the breach, soon overflowed and
deluged the surrounding country, spreading ruin
and desolation over the whole region to the west of
the Euphrates. From the same cause, the current of
the river that passed through the city was so greatly
diminished, as scarcely to suffice for the smallest
boats, though large vessels used to navigate it.
Alexander, who intended to make Babylon the seat
of his empire, began to rebuild the dam, with a design
to remedy the evil ; but his death put a stop to the

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

77

j

J W WHWPE.B.

environs of ancient eabvlon,

73

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

work, which was never afterwards undertaken. Even
now the western bank of the Euphrates, at this part,
is not discernible, and the river flows unrestrained
over the country, turning it into a vast morass, which
remains covered with water long after the general
subsidence of the stream.

This doomed city was again taken by Demetrius,
the son of Antigonus, who ravaged the whole province.
But its utter desolation was now at hand ; for
Seleucus soon afterwards built the city Seleucia, on
the Tigris, which in a short time grew to vast size
and grandeur. The shallowness of the Euphrates,
and the inundation of the surrounding country, had
made Babylon so inconvenient, that the new city soon
drained it of its remaining inhabitants; a result which
was aided by the political and municipal privileges
conferred by Seleucus upon his own city. Thus in
a short time afterwards Babylon became wholly
deserted and desolate, nothing remaining of her but
the empty houses and walls.

These remains of her ancient grandeur, however,
resisted for many centuries the general ruin ; for the
walls, at least, were still standing in the fourth century
after Christ. They served a singular purpose ; for
the whole area of the ancient city was turned into
a park of wild beasts by the Parthian kings, who
took their sport within the inclosure, the walls being
preserved and repaired as the fence of this royal
domain.

After this we hear no more of Babylon, till the

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

79

twelfth century, when Benjamin of Tudela found
nothing left but “some ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s
Palace,” which men were afraid to approach, “by
reason of the many serpents and scorpions that were
there.” In the sixteenth century, Rauwolf found
some arches and ruins of the bridge which had once
connected the parts of the city, on the opposite banks
of the river, as well as the ruins of the palace, which,
he also says, were full of venomous reptiles. Still
more recently, the place has been often visited, and
its present condition we shall hereafter briefly
describe. Perhaps there is no spot upon the world’s
surface so awfully desolate as the silent plain of
Shinar, strewn with its burnt and vitrified mounds,
where once proud Babylon reared her diademed head
to the skies, the centre whither thronged busy multi¬
tudes — the metropolis ot the glory, wealth, and power
of the world !

The Euphrates, whose history we have been trac¬
ing, is a great and majestic river, rolling its
noble flood of waters through a course of nearly
2000 miles from its sources in the mountains of
Armenia, to its termination at the head of the Persian
Gulf. Two springs divide the honour of its origin ;
the more western known as the Kara-su, rises a little
to the north of Erzeroum ; the other, or eastern
branch, which bears the name of the Murad-chai,
flows from a point near Bayazid, far to the east. The
name of Phrat (Eu-phrat-es), by which this mag¬
nificent river was distinguished in the very earliest

So

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

times, and which it still bears, is said to signify either
fruitfulness or dispersion , the former term descriptive
of the country through which it flows, the latter
commemorative of its early history. The name ap¬
pears to be applied to each of the branches, with the
respective additions of Western and Eastern Phrat.

After flowing through many a wild glen and fertile
valley of the mountainous Armenia, the two streams
unite into one channel at the foot of the mountains,
separated only by a narrow ridge from the source of
the Tigris; and presently the full river precipitates
itself through a cleft in this ridge, and pursues its
way, hemmed in by lofty precipices, and interrupted
by many bristling rocks, forming rapids and cascades.
Its course is now nearly due south ; and thus it forms
the western boundary of the ancient Naharaim or
Mesopotamia. On the east bank of the river is the
modern town of Bir, and not far from it is Urfah,
considered to be the Ur of the Chaldees, the birth¬
place of Abraham.* Not far from Bir, therefore,
we may suppose to be the spot where the patriarch
crossed the stream on his pilgrimage, as already
narrated.

The town of Bir has been visited by Mr. Bucking¬
ham, to whose travels we are indebted for the accom¬
panying representation of its appearance. It contains

>

# Some modern inquirers, however, incline to place Ur much
lower, even at the confluence of the Tigris with the Euphrates ;
then, possibly at the head of the Persian Gulf. Smith, “Anc.
Hist.,” i. 59. But this seems improbable.

ment, if allowed to stand. The stream cannot be
forded here, but large boats are used to ferry
passengers and merchandise ; and the natives often
cross upon an inflated goatskin, which they tightly
clasp with their hands, propelling themselves with the
feet.

TOPOGRAPHY. 81

about 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses, built on the
side of a very steep hill. The Euphrates is here a
strong and rapid river. Its width varies, at different
seasons of the year, from 600 to 200 yards. Rauwolf,
in 1575, considered it a mile broad; but Maundrell
and Buckingham agree in comparing it with the
Thames at London. The water is turbid, of a dull
yellowish colour, and soon deposits an earthy sedi-

BlR.

G

82

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

The Euphrates, now freed from all obstacles, main¬
tains a steady and majestic course through a wide
and verdant valley, and soon takes the south-east
direction, which it afterwards pursues to the sea.
Little of interest detains us on its banks till it enters
the great Plain of Shinar, except the bituminous
fountains of Hit, noticed by Herodotus, which are
situated about seventy miles above. Through a level
and now barren country, but once rich with luxuriant
vegetation and everywhere covered with cultivation,
the ancient river still flows on, till the ruins of old
Babylon rise in uncouth and shapeless mounds upon
the view. The traveller, at first sight, might suppose
them to be natural hills of earth or rock ; so immense
are they, yet so shapeless, and so utterly unlike any
work of human art. On close examination, however,
their true character is discovered. On the east side
of the river are two large mounds, and several smaller
ones, formed by the decomposition of buildings, fur¬
rowed and channelled by the rains of centuries, and
strewn with fragments of brick, bitumen, and pottery.
To the north of these is an extensive heap, called
Mujclib^, or “ the overturned,” about 140 feet in
height, and half a mile in circumference. Traces of
chambers, passages, and cellars are discernible, but
all is a mass of confusion ; “ wild beasts and doleful
creatures cry in the desolate houses, and dragons
are in the pleasant palaces venomous reptiles of
various kinds being very numerous in the ruins.

In another part of the ruins on this side of the

. THE RUINED PALACE. 83

river stands the kasr or palace, a remarkable pile of
brick architecture, so surprisingly fresh, that it was
only on a careful and minute examination that Mr.
Rich could be satisfied of its being a remnant of
ancient Babylon. It consists of several thick walls
strengthened with buttresses, built of fine burnt brick,
still perfectly clean and sharp, imbedded in lime
cement of such tenacity that it is almost impossible
to extract a brick whole. Parts of it are split and
overthrown, as if by an earthquake, and the whole is
enveloped in an enormous mass of rubbish. Near it
is an ancient ’ tree, which the Arabs believe to have
grown in Babylon itself, and to have survived its
desolation. “ It stands on a kind of ridge ; one side
of its trunk, with verdant branches at the top, alone
remains. The branches waving in the wind produce
a melancholy rustling sound. It is an evergreen,
something resembling the lignum vitae, and not com¬
mon in Babylon. A tree of the same kind is said to
grow at Bassorah.”

On the western side of the Euphrates is the Birs
Nimroud, “ the most stupendous and surprising mass
of all the ruins of Babylon.” It is about ten miles to
the south-west of the Mujelibe, and about six west of
the river. But this wondrous remnant of antiquity
we have already described in the words of Mr. Rich.

Travellers who have visited these majestic ruins
speak in striking language of the awful impression
which they convey, as forming an irrefragable proof
of the power and omniscience of God, and of the

84

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

truth of His prophetic word. “ I cannot portray/'
says Captain Mignan, “the overpowering sensation
of reverential awe that possessed my mind while
contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and
devastation on every side.” And on first entering
its ruins, Sir Robert Ker Porter observes, “ I could
not but feel an indescribable awe in thus passing, as
it were, into the gates of fallen Babylon.”

The following vivid picture of the whole scene,
drawn on the spot, is from the pen of the accom¬
plished writer just named: “The whole view was
particularly solemn. The majestic stream of the
Euphrates, wandering in solitude, like a pilgrim
monarch, through the silent ruins of his devastated
kingdom, still appeared a noble river, under all the
disadvantages of its desert-tracked course. Its banks
were hoary with reeds, and the grey osier-willows
were yet there, on which the captives of Israel hung
up their harps, and, while Jerusalem was not, refused
to be comforted. But how has the rest of the scene
changed since then ! At that time, those broken
hills were palaces ; those long undulating mounds,
streets ; this vast solitude, filled with the busy sub¬
jects of the proud daughter of the East. Now, wasted
with misery, her habitations are not to be found ;
and, for herself, the worm is spread over her.”*

Nearly opposite to the awful “ burnt mountain ,”
the Birs Nimroud, stands the modern town of Hillah.

* Travels, ii. 237.

THE S HAT-EL- ARAB .

§5

It is built on both sides of the river, which is here
not more than 430 feet wide (so is “ the flood ”
diminished !), across which communication is main¬
tained by a floating bridge of pontoons. The town
is pleasantly situated amidst gardens and groves of
date-palms ; it is fortified, and contains about 7,000
inhabitants. Much of it, including its wall and
numerous towers, is built of bricks, dug out of the
ruins of Babylon.

HJLLAH.

After passing another town, called Suk-el Shuyukh,
which contains 10,000 inhabitants, the Euphrates
unites its majestic stream with that of its rival in
celebrity, the Tigris, at a place called Korna, whence
the united river forms a tidal channel, about half a

85

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

mile wide, called the Shat-el-Arab, or the river of
Arabia, until about ioo miles farther down it reaches
the Persian Gulf. A little above its debouchure, it
passes the commercial city of Bassorah, containing
about 20,000 inhabitants.

The late expedition under the command of Colonel
Chesney, has greatly increased our knowledge of the
Euphrates and the Tigris. The object was the
establishment of steam communication with India,
through one of these rivers, from the head of the
Mediterranean. The materials and engines of two
large iron steamers were, with immense labour, trans¬
ported across the Syrian desert, to the Euphrates,
near the town of Bir, where they were put together.
They were named after the names of the rivers, the
Euphrates and the Tigris. The latter, unhappily, was
overwhelmed and sunk in a dreadful hurricane, with
the greater part of her brave crew ; the former ex¬
plored the river after which she was named, to its
mouth ; and then ascended the Tigris, to a distance
of 400 miles above its junction with its sister stream.

In a course of 1,850 miles, from a lofty moun¬
tainous region, on the shores of the Black Sea, to the
level plains at the head of the Persian Gulf, there
must be considerable diversity in climate and pro¬
ductions. Near the sources of the river the cold is
severe in winter, and the snow has been known to be
two feet deep, and sufficiently drifted to bear a horse.
Yet the valleys in summer are excessively hot, from
the radiation of the sun’s rays from the mountain-

NATURAL HISTORY.

t7

sides. In the plains, the thermometer frequently
rises in summer to 1150 in the shade. Mr. Rich has
seen it as high as 120° in the day, and no° at night.
The whole plain is subject to violent storms, one of
which overwhelmed the Tigris steamer, as already
mentioned.

The geological character of the mountainous re¬
gions is pretty uniform. Igneous rocks, of the later
formations, predominate, with some of granitic struc¬
ture. They are rich in metallic deposits. Mines of
gold, silver, lead, copper, and iron are found ; and on
the west side of the Kara-su, boulders of native iron
are met with, some of them three feet long, and a foot
and a-half thick. Below the mountains, soft white
chalk, with flints, composes the cliffs and banks of
the Euphrates. The bitumen and naphtha fountains
at Hit have been already noticed. In the great
central plain the soil is pebbly ; to this succeeds a
clayey soil, covered with mould or sand ; farther
down are the Lemlun marshes, consisting of a soft
alluvial mud, with many fresh-water shells. Below
Bassorah, the soil is alternate mud and sand ; and as
we approach the Gulf, it is entirely of marine origin,
and contains sea-shells. In some parts of this
vicinity the surface is covered with salt, which lies
like snow upon the ground, sometimes to the depth
of an inch.

In the elevated plains at the sources of the Kara-
su and the Murad-chai, there are no timber-trees ;
but farther to the south-west, in the recesses, and on

88

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

the declivities of the mountains, there are extensive
forests of oak, groves of pines, firs, walnuts, and
mulberries. Many of the valleys resemble gardens
in the luxuriant beauty of their vegetation. The
vine, fig, almond, and olive, the apple, pear, apricot,
and plum yield abundant fruit ; and wheat is culti¬
vated with success. The plane-tree attains an enormous
size. In spring, the ground is gay with the numerous
liliaceous and other bulbous plants, and with or-
chideae. Wormwood is very abundant on the east
side of the river, as the camomile and camel-thorn
are characteristic of the west. In the plains there
is little wood ; the date-palm is the only important
tree, groves of which are very numerous in the lower
course. Succulent plants are common ; mesembry-
anthemums and asters clothe the great plain of
Shinar ; the broad pools of water are covered with
water-lilies and ranunculuses, and are bordered with
a luxuriant margin of reeds and rushes. Groves of
tamarisks and acacias grow on the banks, and a spe¬
cies of poplar, with willow-like leaves ( ghara/i ), is
abundant ; of this kind may have been the “ willows ”
( garav , H"\P) on which the captives of Israel hanged
their harps, though osiers and other species of the
willow are also numerous.

The zoology of this region has not been very dis¬
tinctly observed. The lion stalks over the plain, and
Sir Robert Ker Porter was startled by the sight of
two or three of these lordly animals standing on the
very summit of the Birs Nimroud. Bears, wolves,

NATURAL HISTORY.

89

foxes, lynxes, and other beasts of temperate regions
inhabit the mountains; and, in the southern plains, the
leopard, the hunting-tiger, or cheeta, the hyaena, and
the jackal pursue their prey. Herds of fallow deer
inhabit some parts of the region, and the desert plains

JERBOA.

are ranged by gazelles and wild asses. The elegant
jerboa, a creature somewhat like a rabbit, but with
the motions of the kangaroo, leaps and burrows in
the level tracts. The disproportion between its fore
and hind limbs is very remarkable. Various breeds
of domestic animals, — the camel, the horse, the ass,

90

THE El PEE EUPHEATES.

the ox, the sheep, and the goat are cultivated. Otters
are found both in the Euphrates and the Tigris.
The bustard scours the lofty table-land at the heads
of these rivers, as did the ostrich in ancient times ;
the latter is not now known in Asia. Pheasants,
partridges, and quails are numerous, as are vultures,
hawks, and owls. Many of the smaller birds familiar
to Europe are common to these regions, as the
thrush, lark, nightingale, and most of the finches ;
some species of kingfishers, of brilliant plumage,
are peculiar to the river. Of the fishes and insects,
we know but little, except that at the mouth of the
Euphrates there is a very curious species of fish
(Lophius), analogous to our own fishing-frog, which is
able to leave the water, and crawl about for many
hours upon the land ; this it is enabled to do by the
length of the bones of its pectoral and ventral fins,
and by the peculiar structure of its gills, which can
long retain the moisture necessary for respiration.
Reptiles of many repulsive forms and venomous
natures are particularly abundant in the heaps of
ruins that strew the plain of Shinar, as has been
already noticed.

Here we bring to a close our account of this
renowned river and the region through which it
flows. We have sketched the picture of its ancient,
and that of its modern condition. Such it was once,
— such it is now ; and we cannot conclude with more
forcible words than those in which a valuable writer
thus sums up the contrast between the scene which

THE CONTRAST.

91

its rolling tide once witnessed, and that which it
witnesses now, —

“ From palaces converted into broken hills ; from
streets to long lines of heaps ; from the throne of
the world to sitting in the dust ; from the hum of
mighty Babylon to the death-like silence that rests
upon the grave to which it is brought down ; from
the great storehouse of the world, where treasures
were gathered from every quarter, and the prison-
house of the captive Jews, where, not loosed to return
homewards, they served in a hard bondage, to Baby¬
lon the spoil of many nations, itself taken from
thence and nothing left ; from a vast metropolis, the
palace of palaces, and the glory of kingdoms, whither
multitudes ever flowed, to a dreaded and shunned
spot, not inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to
generation, where even the Arabian, though the son
of the desert, pitches not his tent, and where the
shepherds make not their folds ; — from the treasures
of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, to the
taking away of brick, and to an uncovered naked¬
ness ; from making the earth to tremble, and shaking
kingdoms, to being cast out of the grave like an
abominable branch ; from the many nations, and
great kings from the coasts of the earth, that have so
often come up against Babylon, to the workmen that
still cast her up as heaps, and add to the number of
pools in her ruins ; from the immense artificial lake,
many miles in circumference, by means of which the
annual rising of the Euphrates was regulated and

92

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

restrained, to these pools of water, a few yards round,
dug by the workmen, and filled by the river ; from
the first and greatest of temples, to a burnt moun¬
tain desolate for ever ; from the golden image, forty
feet in height, which stood on the top of the temple
of Belus, to all the graven images of her gods, that
are broken unto the ground, and mingled with the
dust ; from the splendid and luxurious festivals of
Babylonian monarchs, the noise of the vials, the
pomp of Belshazzar’s feast, and the godless revelry of
a thousand lords, drinking out of the golden vessels
that had been taken from Zion, to the cry of wild
beasts, the creeping of doleful creatures, of which
their desolate houses and pleasant palaces are full,
the nestling of owls in cavities, the dancing of wild
goats on the ruinous mound, as on a rock, and the
dwelling-place of dragons, and of venemous reptiles ;
from arch upon arch, and terrace upon terrace, till
the hanging gardens of Babylon rose like a mountain,
down to the stones of the pit, now disclosed to view ;
from the palaces of princes, who sat on the mount
of the congregation, and thought in the pride of their
heart to exalt themselves above the stars of God, to
heaps cut down to the ground, perforated as the
raiment of those that are slain, and as a carcase
trodden under feet; from the broad walls of Babylon,
in all their height, as Cyrus camped against them
round about, seeking in vain a single point where
congregated nations could scale the walls or force an
opening, to the untraceable spot on which they stood,

FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.

93

where there is nothing left to turn aside, or impede
in their course, the worms that cover it ; and, finally,
from Babylon the great, the wonder of the world, to
fallen Babylon, the astonishment of all who go by- it :
in extremes like these, whatever changes they in¬
volve, and by whatever instrumentality they may
have been wrought out, there is not to this hour,
in this most marvellous history of Babylon, a single
fact that may not most appropriately be ranked
under a prediction, and that does not tally entirely
with its express and precise fulfilment ; while at the
same time they all united show, as may now be seen,
reading the judgments to the very letter, and looking
to the facts as they are, the destruction which has
come from the Almighty upon Babylon.'” *

* Keith’s “Evidence of Prophecy,” 359 (35th Edition).

IT.

THE RIVER H I DDE K El

PHYSICAL HISTORY.

Site of Paradise — Pison — Gihon — Tigris — Topography —
Nineveh — Assyria.

THE MISSION OF JONAH.

The City — the Painted Walls — The Throng at the Gate —
the Woe — Royal Penitence —The Proclamation — The Petulant
Prophet — Evening — Morning — The Fast — The Sheltering
Gourd — The Divine Reproof — Corruption of the Heart — The
Lord’s Mercy.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

Arbaces — Shalmaneser — Sennacherib — Esarhaddon — Na¬
hum’s Prophecy — The Fall of Nineveh — Recent Discoveries —
Ruins — Sculptures— Other Relics — Truth of Prophecy.

THE LOWER RIVER.

Topography — Seleucia — Ctesiphon — A1 Modain — Bagdad.
DANIEL’S VISION.

The Glory of the Lord— Its Effect upon Daniel— The Second
Coming of Christ

(Genesis ii.

The site of the terrestrial Paradise, the garden of
delights, which the beneficence of Jehovah planted
for His creatures' residence, while innocent, has been
defined by the inspired historian, by its connection
with four rivers. Yet, notwithstanding the par¬
ticularity with which three of these are described,
great uncertainty involves the question, where it was
actually placed. This obscurity arises from the
difficulty of finding any two rivers answering to the
Pison and the Gihon, in so close proximity to the
Euphrates and the Hiddekel (or Tigris), as shall
meet the requirements of the sacred text. It may
indeed be that the flood, without destroying the
channels of the Tigris and the Euphrates, has so
altered the surface of the land that the two smaller
rivers no longer exist ; yet the impression of one
who reads the Book of Genesis must certainly be that
the sacred historian intended to identify the scene
by geographical features, which existed at the time
that he wrote. Some where upon the courses of the
Euphrates and Tigris, we may safely assume that the
garden was placed ; but whether near the sources, or
near the termination of these rivers, the opinions of
the learned are conflicting.

There is scarcely any doubt, however, about the

H

93

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

identity of the Hiddekel, and none at all about that
of the Euphrates. The latter is simply mentioned , as
needing no description, being sufficiently familiar
to the Hebrew people ; and the name, Phrat, is the
same by which it has been known in all ages to the
present day. The Hiddekel is described as going
eastward to Assyria {marginal reading) ; and the
name, deprived of the aspirate, is essentially the same
as that by which it is still locally known, Digl, Dijel,
or Diljah ; of which the word Tigris is merely a
Greek modification. It is said to signify a dart, or
swiftness ; and is a characteristic epithet of this rapid
river. Pliny indeed pretends to draw a distinction,
by saying that the name cf Tigris is applied to the
river only where it flows rapidly, and that where its
course is slow it is named Diglito ; but Josephus
affirms that the whole river is called Diglath.

The whole course of the Tigris, from its most
remote source to the point where its waters mingle
with those of the Persian Gulf, extends through a
winding line of 1,250 miles ; as it joins the Euphrates,
however, at Korna, as before intimated, its proper
length is about 100 miles less than this. The upper
parts of the river, and the various mountain streams
which combine to form its arrowy course, are not yet
well investigated ; but the principal of them rises on
the southern side of the mountain range, at the foot
of which, on the opposite side, rolls the Euphrates,
already a majestic river ; and not far from the point
where it pours itself through a narrow gorge in the

TOPOGRAPHY.

99

mountain-chain, which there crosses its line. For 25
miles the Tigris flows to the north-east, maintaining
an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet above the level of
the Mediterranean ; then, turning to the south-east
for about 60 miles, reaches the Turkish town of Diar-
bekr, situated in a fertile plain, cultivated and occu-

THE TIGRIS AT MOSUL.

pied with gardens. It contains about 30,000 inhabi¬
tants, though its prosperity and population have
greatly decayed. It is believed to occupy the site of
the ancient town of Constantia. The river at this
place is about 250 yards wide during the spring
floods ; but is not navigable, except for rafts of
timber. Hence it flows on at a much lower level,

IOO

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

first to the east, and then again to the south-east,
receiving some important tributaries, for about 200
miles, to the point where now stands the town of
Mosul, and where formerly stood the august and
mighty city of Nineveh,

It has been well observed that Nineveh was in
ruins almost before profane history commenced. Its
origin is carried up to a remote antiquity ; for it
seems to have been founded by Nimrod, the “mighty
hunter,” after he had built Babel. If we adopt the
marginal rendering of a passage in the Book of
Genesis, we find that, from some cause or other,
Nimrod, having laid the beginning of his kingdom at
Babel in the land of Shinar, and founded other cities
there, went forth out of that land into Assyria, and
builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
and Resen, a great city, between Nineveh and Calah.

Thus rose simultaneously on the banks of the
Tigris and the Euphrates, in close proximity to each
other, two cities, each of which was destined to attain
surpassing power, extent, magnificence, and grandeur ;
to be in turn the metropolis of a mighty empire ;
to pass through a course of pride, idolatry, luxury,
cruelty and sensuality ; to become a signal oppressor
of God’s sinning people, and to fall under the pre¬
dicted vengeance of Jehovah into utter and awful
ruin.

About twenty-two centuries before Christ, a little
more than a hundred and twenty years after the over¬
whelming deluge, the great Assyrian monarchy was

TOPOGRAPHY.

IOI

thus begun in the plains of Mesopotamia. For many
hundred years we have no further knowledge of its
history, unless Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, or
either of his allies, who made war upon the kings
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and were pursued and
defeated by Abram, may have reigned over it ; or
Chushan-rishathaim, that king of Mesopotamia into
whose hands, in the days of the judges, Jehovah
delivered His people Israel for their disobedience, and
who was at length conquered by Othniel, the valiant
nephew of Caleb.

The empire appears to have been greatly extended,
and its metropolis enlarged and beautified, by Ninus,
and by his successor, the heroic Oucen Semiramis ;
but the eras and the actions of these sovereigns, as
recorded by the Greek writers of an age long subse¬
quent, are involved in obscurity and fable, from
which nothing can extricate them but the original
records themselves, sculptured on Assyrian palace-
walls, and now in process of being recovered and
read, after having been buried for three thousand
years*

* Since the appearance of the first edition of this volume,
light has been gradually breaking on the history of the ancient
Asiatic monarchies ; but much is still fragmentary, much
doubtfuL

102

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

Jfcrmtlj in., iv.

After the notice of its origin in the Book of Genesis,
Nineveh is first brought before us in the Scriptures
in the interesting mission of Jonah the prophet, about
860 R. C. The wickedness of the mighty city had
gone up to God, who gave to His servant the perilous
commission to go thither and announce its destruc¬
tion. The failure of the prophet’s faith, his disobe¬
dience, his endeavour to flee from the presence of
Jehovah, his voyage towards Tarshish, the dreadful
tempest that arose, his being cast into the sea, his
entombment in the belly of the great fish, his miracu¬
lous preservation there, his repentance and confession,
and his deliverance and restoration to dry land, —
these are incidents replete with instruction and
interest, but which we may dismiss with a mere
enumeration.

Jehovah, who is ever gracious, and who chastens
only for the profit of His people, having brought His
erring servant back to the spirit of obedience, renews
His commission : “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great
city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid
thee.” He no longer refuses to take up the cross of
a service so unwelcome to flesh, but at once sets out
on his errand, not knowing but that his faithfulness
may bring upon him the vengeance of the wicked
city ; he goes without demur to “pay his vows”; and
we will follow him thither, and witness the delivery
of the solemn message.

NINEVEH.

103

Clad in the rough garment of coarse camel’s hair,
which the prophets of Israel were wont to wear, pour¬
ing contempt on the pride and luxury around them ;
and supporting himself on his weary journey by an
oaken staff ; with a scrip of parched corn and a few
dates suspended in his leathern girdle, he at length
arrives on the banks of the rushing Hiddekel. For
miles and miles before the long walls and multitude
of towers that environed the vast city had appeared,
stretching in a wide line along the distant horizon,
the confused hum of many sounds, that continually
grew louder and more distinct, the crowds of travel¬
lers, peasants, and slaves, the long lines of waggons
and weary beasts, oxen, camels, and asses bearing
merchandise, the gaily-caparisoned prancing horses,
the cracking of whips, and the rattling of wheels of
the jumping chariots, all jostling one another as they
passed to and fro over the many high-roads that like
a huge network intersect the broad plain, with a
hundred other signs, had given sure token of ap¬
proach to a great metropolis.

Now the lofty battlements rise upon the eye,
stretching away on either hand without interruption,
until they fade into the line where the distant horizon
melts into the hazy sky ; nor do they then cease, but
run on far, far beyond the range of sight. Twenty
miles in length the massive walls extend, and ten in
breadth ; thus being sixty miles in circumference, — -
“an exceeding great city of three days’ journey,” — -
and covering an area of 200 square miles, along the

104

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

cast bank of the river, besides an extensive and
populous suburb on the opposite bank, and the long
ranges of human habitations that stretch away into
the plain from every gate. The wall is an immense
structure, a hundred and fifty feet in height, and fifty
in thickness, — so broad that three chariots can be
driven along it abreast. It is constructed of bricks
dried in the sun ; but for one-third of the height,
these are incased with blocks of polished stone. On
the summit, at regular distances, are built towers,
to the number of 1,500, each 200 feet high ; and
besides these, watch-towers here and there, of a
pyramidal form, rise to a still loftier elevation, com¬
manding a wide horizon.

The Israelitish seer gazes in mute astonishment at
the wondrous scene before him; for the whole surface
of the wall, except the polished plinth of stone, is
covered with gigantic figures, painted in vivid colours
upon the smooth plaster. There are “ men por¬
trayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans
portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon
their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads,
all of them princes to look tod’* There are the
exploits of the ancient Assyrian kings depicted in
life-like vigour ; there the ancient hunter himself
fights with the rampant lion, and buries the steel in
his savage heart. There too he leads his mailed and
helmeted warriors against his foes, or pursues them

# Ezek. xxiii. 14, 15.

THE TA/JVTED WALLS.

105

with clouds of arrows from his sumptuous chariot.
There his armies are gathered before the battle¬
ments of some hostile city, against which they plant
their scaling ladders, while they deal heavy blows
upon the walls, or pick out the massive stones, with
their military engines. There scenes meet the eye,
where the long line of bound and insulted captives
led away, the torture and massacre, prisoners be¬
headed, impaled, or flayed, heaps of heads and ampu¬
tated hands, tell how cruel is the victory.

LION HUNTING.

The admiration of the Hebrew stranger gives place
to sorrow as he gazes upon the vivid pictures ; where
scene after scene only brings into prominence some
of the rampant evils of man’s unregenerate heart, —
pride, luxury, covetousness, violence and cruelty ;
and all paraded as so many excellences, for the glo¬
rification of man. But he sees other things than
these, — objects that no true Israelite can look upon
without horror and indignation : he sees the sense-

io6

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

less idols, the likeness of beast and bird and creeping
thing, and other hideous forms, set on high, receiving
the homage of incense-bearing priests and royal
worshippers. He will look no more : but with stimu¬
lated zeal and freshened courage he girds himself to
his arduous work.

Rut what shall the feeble voice of a poor unknown
stranger do here ? Look at yonder broad gateway,
where the lofty portals expand half-way up the wall,
and where the colossal winged lions of yellow marble
shine in the beams of the morning sun with a golden
glow. See how the living tide of men comes pouring
out, each intent on his own purpose, with no leisure
to think of his neighbour ! The begrimed artisan
hurries along beside the well-dressed merchant, and
jostles the pompous scribe, who gathers his garment
around him as if polluted. The light-hearted maiden,
with her water-pitcher on her head, erect as an
obelisk, trips past the sunken-eyed widow, wasted
with sickness and poverty, who with a wailing babe
at her back creeps out to seek a pittance in the cor¬
ners of the fields. Nobles in scarlet and gold, priests
in their long embroidered robes, ride out to enjoy
the country air. Here a hunting party gallops forth,
armed with bow and spear, followed by eager dogs
well trained to find the panther in his lair, or to
chase the antelope ; their loud and merry laughter
promises no sympathy with a sentence of woe. Here
a proud and steel-clad warrior dashes by in his carved
and inlaid chariot, the scales of his polished mail

THE WOE.

107

flinging sparkles of light upon the surrounding
throng ; the gorgeous caparisons of his high-mettled
steeds, that prance and arch their necks and champ
their bits, attract the admiration of the crowd, whom
he drives to either side, as he cleaves his swift course
through them : — he plays carelessly with his ruby-

hilted dagger, but bestows not a glance on the mes¬
senger of Jehovah.

How shall the voice of the prophet be heard amidst
this tumultuous din ? The rattling of the chariot
wheels over the brick pavement, the neighing of the
horses, the clashing of arms, and the blowing of horns
and trumpets ; the noise of dogs and other domestic

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

10S

animals ; the cries of those who with hoarse lungs
vaunt the excellences of their varied wares ; the
hum of thousands of human voices ; the many
sounds that come from shops and offices, the clang
of the armourer’s forge, the noise of the smith’s
anvil, of the carpenter’s hammer and saw, — unite
into a confused medley of noises, almost deaf¬
ening.

To one who looked only at human probabilities
nothing could be more discouraging than the attempt
to deliver such a message in such a place ; but Jonah
remembers who hath sent him thither, and that his
business is not with consequences, but with the will
of Jehovah. Strengthened, therefore, the prophet
enters into the guilty city and lifts up his voice like •
a trumpet. He commences his solemn message with
these startling words : “Yet forty days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown ! ” A crowd gathers around him,
but none molest him, for a preternatural awe falls
upon them as they listen to his denunciations of their
speedy doom. Through their crowded and glittering
streets he wends his way, continually pouring forth
his words of terror, and denouncing the woe of the
bloody city. He “drops the burden” of Jehovah
upon their aggravated wickedness, bringing forth
their crimes is all their hideous nakedness into the
light, and pronouncing the righteous judgment of
God, and His wrath revealed from heaven against
them. The pride and haughtiness that said, “ I am,
and there is none beside me;” the carelessness that

THE PROCLAMATION.

109

regarded not the solemn retribution to come ; the
multiform idolatry that has robbed Jehovah of
His rightful claim to homage and obedience; the
deceitfulness and lying, the cheating and robbery
that have filled the city, and the tyranny and
oppression, the cruelty and bloodshed that have
ground in pieces the nations, and filled the earth
with mourning without pity or remorse ; the prophet
recounts in unsparing words : while every heart
responds, and none dares deny that the accusations
are true. In vain they listen for some offers of
mercy; nothing but judgment falls on their ears;
for the message which the seer has received to de¬
liver is only a message of woe.

Word is brought to the King of Assyria, as he
reclines at ease in his luxurious banquet hall, that
the days of his proud city are numbered, and that
her doom is at hand. Conviction strikes through his
heart; for conscience, long silenced, now loudly speaks,
and tells him that it is a righteous doom. Traditions
and reports he has from time to time heard of the
power and truth of Jehovah, and of His irresistible
vengeance ; but he has heard too that Israel's God
is merciful ; and though no call to repentance nor
offer of pardon is mingled with the prophetic burden,
yet the respite of forty days seems to imply that the
way is not closed against penitence, and that the
doom is not yet irreversible. Without a moment’s
delay, therefore, he arises from his throne, puts off
his sumptuous garments of state, and covers himself

1 10

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

with sackcloth ; and at the same time sends his
servants into every part of the city to proclaim a
solemn fast, while he retires into the recess of his
chamber, to humble himself in dust and ashes, and
to pray for mercy.

The sun at length declines; and Jonah prepares to
seek the rest of night for his weary feet, which have
borne him all the day through the interminable
streets, though but a small part of the city has been
traversed. But before he emerges from the gate,
still pouring his heart-withering woe, he is met by
the royal heralds, who thus proclaim the decree of
the king and his nobles : “ Let neither man nor beast,
herd nor flock, taste anything : let them not feed,
nor drink water : but let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let
them turn every one from his evil way, and from the
violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God
will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce
anger, that we perish not ? ”

In this is manifested the faith that honours God.
Deep humiliation, confession of guilt, fervent prayer
repentance, and turning away from all known evil,
are appointed ways in which those against whom the
denunciations of God’s word lie may flee from the
wrath to come. But if there was present pardon,
and an averting of denounced judgment for guilty
Nineveh, on their imperfect and probably partial and
transient penitence, how much more may poor re¬
pentant sinners now come and cast themselves upon

JON Airs DISAPPOINTMENT. iii

the mercy of God, since free forgiveness is now
offered, and the blood of Christ has been shed for sin!
And will not the faith and conduct of the Ninevites,
who repented at the preaching of Jonah, unsupported
by any miraculous signs, rise up in the judgment to
condemn the apathy and unbelief of the people of
this country, unto whom the gospel has come, who
have often heard of the love of God in Christ, but
have never been obedient to the message of His
grace ?

But how is the prophet affected by what he hears ?
Does he not hail with joy the success of his preaching,
and does not his gladness find vent in grateful praise
to Jehovah, and kindly encouragement to the mourn¬
ing citizens ? Alas ! no ! he retires from the city
moody and disappointed; and when the Holy Spirit
tells him that the repentance of Nineveh has come
up before Him, and that mercy shall rejoice against
judgment, the servant of God captiously murmurs at
the grace, and insinuates that it is a wrong to him¬
self. He even ventures to request, in the petulance
of his anger, that God will take his life from him,
affirming that he had rather die than live any longer.
Pride rises up in his heart, and suggests, that now his
credit as a prophet will be gone, since his predictions
are not fulfilled ; pharisaic vindictiveness, that would
rather see judgment executed against sin, than
mercy exerted in pardon ; national antipathy, that
had expected to be gratified in the overthrow of a
great Gentile empire, the mightiest in the earth.

1 12

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

Jonah has forgotten how mercifully the Lord has
forgiven him ; how He delivered him “from the belly
of hell/’ whither his rebellion and folly had brought
him. Ah ! would that Christians had less of the
peevish intolerant spirit of Jonah, and more of the
loving, forbearing, forgiving spirit of Jesus !

Evening is gradually drawing her veil over the
broad plain of Assyria, as the still rebellious prophet
reclines his tired frame at the foot of a palm, a mile
or two out of the city. More than one Ninevite has
offered him hospitality, desirous to show respect to
the messenger of Jehovah, and to profit by his in¬
structions how to avert the threatened wrath ; but
the proffered courtesy has been rejected in sullen
anger. He will have no fellowship with the guilty
race, nor will he accept their friendship. The heaven
shall be his canopy, and the earth his pillow. Yet
truly to sleep beneath such a sky, reclined upon such
a carpet, is no great self-denial.

The sun has gone down behind the long wall of
the city, which just hides the horizon from view, but
does not conceal the flush of ruddy light that bathes
the western sky, nor the fantastic piles and little
peaks of cloud, where the orb has disappeared, the
points and sides of which display an edging of light
that glows like molten gold. Streaks of crimson light
radiate from the point of sun-setting, and stretching
over the whole zenith in widening bands, rest upon
the snowy peaks of Ararat, far in the north-east,
flushing them with the hue of the rose. The parch-

EVENING .

113

ing heat has gone down with the sun, and a pleasant
breeze, most delightfully cool, bears the fragrance of
a thousand flowers. These, of every hue, enamelling
the grass in gorgeous abundance, are now, indeed,
beginning to fade from the view in the advancing
shadow, but give out their perfume in more copious
gushes, under the stimulus of the falling dew. The
peasants have unyoked their cattle, and are trudging
to their cottages through the fields ; and lowing kine
and bleating flocks are slowly returning from the
pastures with distended udders. Women are seen
around the huts, crouching beneath the kine to milk
them as they arrive ; others, in laughing groups, are
going to the wells or to the river, bearing pitchers
on their erect heads. Youths bring home baskets of
fruit from the orchards, or huge bundles of grass and
rushes which they have cut by the river’s side, their
feet and legs wet with the heavy dew, and loaded
with the yellow pollen of the blossoming grass.
Parties of the citizens, not yet aware of the proclama¬
tion, are enjoying the cool of the day ; and many a
traveller hurries along towards the city, anxious lest
the gates should be shut before he can arrive. The
youths and maidens are dancing together in many
a happy group, to the music of their own voices, or
of a lyre strung by coarse but not unskilful hands.
Now and then the tinkling of a camel’s bell betokens
a party of wandering Arabs, whose long spears, tipped
with tufts of ostrich-plumes, wave and flutter against
the sky, above their heads. The long howl of the

I

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

1 14

jackal comes from the desert, and is answered by the
dogs prowling beneath the city-walls for the carrion
which daily accumulates there. At length, all the
sights are lost in the purple night, save the stars that
glitter and burn above ; and all sounds have died away,
except the rich notes of the bulbul, that are poured
forth in gushes of melody from the orchards around.
Lovely and soothing is the scene ! but no charms of
nature can calm the human spirit when a prey to evil
passions. Turbulent and peevish anger, discontent
with God, with himself, and with all around, are
raging in Jonah, almost uncontrolled, until at length
he sinks into feverish and unrefreshing slumber. His
gracious Lord, however, “the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever,” guards His failing servant with
watchful love ; for “ He that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep ! ”

Morning breaks, and reveals the bold and broken
ranges of Armenia’s mountains, whose pointed sum¬
mits stand out in dark relief against the vermilion
east, and throw long lines of shadows across the
sky. Up springs the glowing sun, and pours his
scorching rays across the plain, flushing the face
of the awakened prophet, as if the door of a fur¬
nace had been suddenly opened. The songs of thou¬
sands of happy birds ascend up to heaven ; their
tribute of praise to Him who watcheth with tender
care the sparrow’s fall, and heareth the young ravens
which cry unto Him. The flowers, refreshed with
dew, open their delicate blossoms, and the wide

TI1E EAST.

”5

landscape rejoices in the beams of the new-born
day.

The city is still quiet, but it is not the quietness
of repose ; for in this sultry clime the population too
well appreciate the refreshing coolness of early morn¬
ing to be in bed after day has broken ; and long
before the sun had peeped over the mountains the
gates at any other time would have been thrown
open, and swarms of busy people would have been
crowding to and fro. But now scarcely a human form
is visible ; and a silence, deep and solemn, reigns,
where usually the hum of active life is heard, except
that mournful lowings of cattle, heard at intervals
through the night, still come from the teeming city,
where they have been joining their distressed cries
to the prayers of the penitent people, and thus have,
as it were, unconsciously helped to keep the fast and
vigil.

Still sullen and displeased, the Hebrew prophet no
more seeks the city, but prepares himself a rude hut,
or booth, of such materials as he can collect on the
spot. A few sticks set in the ground, and others
placed across them, to afford a frail support for the
brittle stems of dried herbage, or the coarse grass
that he can pull up with his hands, afford a slight
protection from the rays of the sun, which every
moment increases in torrid heat. Here he seats him¬
self, determined to wait and see, notwithstanding
the intimation he has received, that God has accepted
its timely repentance, what will become of the city.

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

1 16

Such moroseness is as ill-judged as it is contrary
to mercy and love : for surely no more certain way
could be devised to prejudice the idolatrous heathen
against the character and worship of the God whom
the prophet represented.

But the same grace which forbears with the guilty
Nineveh, forbears also with the rebellious Jonah.
The Lord will reprove him, but in so gentle and
convincing a manner, as shall instruct and humble,
without crushing his spirit. For this purpose, lie
first miraculously causes to spring up behind the
frail booth a luxuriant “ gourd,” or rather, a plant
known to modern science as the castor-oil tree, of
herbaceous structure, but with the dimensions of a
small tree. Its abundant, broad, and elegantly divided
leaves of a pleasant greenness, greatly refresh the
languid prophet, not only by affording a better
shadow from the burning sun than his poor booth
could afford him, but by the coolness which in hot
climates is always found beneath the foliage of trees,
especially those with large leaves, produced by the
copious evaporation from their extended surfaces.
The plant, springing up in its rich luxuriance, casts
its shadow over Jonah’s head, to his great comfort
and refreshment. Thus he, who is offended and
angry at the preservation of a populous city from
destruction, is made “ exceeding glad ” of the slight
personal relief afforded by a sheltering shrub !

But scarcely is his excessive joy indulged, when
it gives place to equally disproportionate grief. He

THE SHELTERING GOURD.

“7

who spread the grateful shade over His servant’s
head, prepares a worm at the root, so that the tall
and comely plant withers as rapidly as it rose. Its thick
and succulent stem droops and falls, and the luxu¬
riant foliage is all shrivelled and dry ; while at the
same time a vehement east wind, hot and parching,
increases the intense heat of the sun that beats down
in unmitigated fury : the air is like that of an oven,

JONAH'S GOUKD.

and the poor fainting prophet, having lost his friendly
tree, gives himself up to despair, and again wishes
that he may die !

“And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be
angry for the gourd ? And lie said, I do well to be
angry, even unto death. Then said Jehovah, Thou
hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

i iS

not laboured, neither madest it grow ; which came
up in a night, and perished in a night : and should
not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are
more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand ;
and also much cattle ?”

An humbling example is this of the depravity yet
remaining in the heart of a renewed man, and ever
ready to break out into some open sin, if watchful¬
ness and faith be intermitted. Are we astonished
that a messenger of God should repine at his own
success ; should desire the destruction rather than
the salvation of sinners ; should proudly justify his
former disobedience, for which he had been already
severely chastised, and his present anger, even before
God Himself ; and should impatiently pray for death,
when he had been but just delivered from it in
answer to prayer ? Let the saint look into the depths
of hi9 own heart, and he will find his astonishment
at JonalBs inconsistency much diminished. The
remains of inbred corruption are sufficient in every
child of God to betray him into that which will
bring dishonour on the name of his Lord, and dark¬
ness and bitterness into his own soul, but for the
constant exercise of faith in the atoning Blood, and
the untiring care of his heavenly Advocate before the
Throne. Self, the rival of Christ in the heart, is in
one form or other the root of every sin. Self-seek¬
ing, self-pleasing, self-love, self-indulgence, self-glory,
hide Christ from the soul, obscure the spiritual judg-

THE MERCY OF GOD. 119

ment, deaden the conscience, and facilitate the com¬
mission of sins, at which the man of God, when
walking in communion with his heavenly Father,
would have shuddered. Nor is any occasion so small
but that it may be successfully used by Satan as a
vehicle of temptation. Jonah selfishly valued the
refreshment of his <( gourd ” more than the lives of
sixscore thousand innocent babes ; more than the
pardon of half-a-million of sinners ! What need
have we to guard against the power of impetuous
passions, and to watch and pray, with humble self¬
distrust, against the treachery of our corrupt hearts,
lest we mistake the dictates of a spiteful temper for a
zeal for the Lord’s glory! True charity “rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth,” even
when found in an adversary ; and so far from re¬
pining at marks of Divine favour being bestowed on
those who perhaps differ much from ourselves, will
be able to recognise the sovereignty of God, and
give Him thanks for His mercy.

It is well for us that in our constant failure we
have to do with “ a merciful and gracious God, slow
to anger, and of great kindness,” who does not “ deal
with us after our sins, nor reward us according to
our iniquities.” The forbearance and tenderness
manifested in Jehovah’s expostulations with His
fretful servant, show us His compassionate character,
and express a love that cannot wear out. The Lord
deals in various modes with His people to conform
them to Himself, and humble their hearts ; sometimes

120

7 HE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

inflicting fearful chastisement, as when He caused
His servant to be engulphed in the yawning fish ; at
others, condescending to expostulate, and gently to
reprove. But neither the one nor the other is the
result of waywardness or variableness, but of infinite
love and infinite wisdom working under different
circumstances by different means, each, however,
being the very best adapted to promote the desired
end.

(E^clutl xxxi. Itaijum i. — m.

The repentance and reformation of the people of
Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, prolonged
the existence of the great Assyrian empire for about
seventy years. Near the middle of this period, Pul,
the first of its monarchs whose name is recorded in
Scripture, invaded the kingdom of Israel, and made
it tributary. About the year B.C. 746, according to
Greek authority, in the reign of the luxurious and
effeminate Sardanapalus, an insurrection was raised
by Arbaces, the governor of Media ; and the example
of the Medes was followed by the Babylonians,
excited by a Chaldean priest, named Belcsys. The
Persians and other allies soon joined the revoltcrs,
who attacked the capital on all sides. It maintained
a siege for three years ; at the end of which time the
monarch, collecting his precious treasures into a vast
funeral pyre, placed himself on it, surrounded by his
wives and concubines, and set it on fire. All perished
in the flames ; and thus ended the long dynasty of

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

121

the mighty monarchs of Upper Assyria. The em¬
pire was now divided into three kingdoms, Assyria,
Babylon, and Media. Arbaces, commonly supposed
to be the king named in Scripture Tiglath-pileser,
established a new dynasty in the Assyrian metropo¬
lis ; came against the kingdoms of Syria and Israel,
carrying away into captivity some of the people of
both nations ; and, during a reign of nearly twenty
years, proved himself an energetic, powerful, and
successful monarch.

About twenty-five years after this first captivity
of Israel, Hoshea endeavoured, by an alliance with
Egypt, to throw off the Assyrian yoke ; on which
Shalmaneser, the successor of Tiglath-pileser II.,
brought his armies, and invested Samaria, which fell
into his hands after having sustained the tedious
horrors of a siege for three years. The Assyrian
monarch, or perhaps his successor, Sargon, according
to a policy which was frequently adopted in ancient
times, determined to remove the whole population of
the conquered country, and to replace it by colonies
from other parts of his dominions. He accordingly
“ carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them
in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and
in the cities of the MedesT By this we understand
the principal persons, and the bulk of the common
people ; but from Ezra iv. 2, we learn that the work
was not completed until the reign of Esar-haddon.

The campaign of Sennacherib against the kingdom
of Judah; his haughty arrogance and blasphemies

122

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

against Jehovah ; the distress and piety of King
Hezekiah ; and the miraculous destruction of the in¬
vading army, by which a hundred and eighty-five
thousand men became in one night “all dead corpses;”
have made the name of this Assyrian king prominent
in the sacred Scriptures. Humiliated at his defeat,
he returned to Nineveh, where he was slain by two of
his own sons, and another son, Esar-haddon, reigned
in his stead.

In the confusion which followed the loss of the
army and the murder of the monarch, the Medes and
the Babylonians succeeded in recovering their inde¬
pendence ; and the king of the latter sent a congra¬
tulatory embassy to Hezekiah. But Esar-haddon,
having at length subdued his revolted provinces,
found himself sufficiently strong to push his con¬
quests westward. As we have already intimated, he
completed the removal of the Israelitish people to
Assyria ; after which, apparently in the same year, he
sent his generals into the neighbouring territory of
Judah, where his father had been so wofully discom¬
fited. But he who now reigned on the throne of
David was the wicked Manasseh, a degenerate son of
a worthy sire, who had “seduced his people to do
more evil than did the nations whom the Lord de¬
stroyed before the children of Israel who had dealt
with familiar spirits and wizards ; who had caused his
children to pass through the fire to Moloch ; and who
had “shed innocent blood very much, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” No mira-

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

123

culous interposition was wrought for him ; no angel
of death now smote the Assyrian host. Manasseh
was taken “among the thorns,” having attempted
to hide himself in a thicket, and being brought in
fetters to Esar-haddon, was by him carried captive
to Babylon, which, it seems, was the seat of this
monarch’s residence. The captive Jewish king was
here brought to humble himself before God, and to
confess and bewail his enormous sins, and became
one of the most signal examples of pardoning grace
that have ever been recorded. As in the case of Saul
of Tarsus, the Lord seems to have intended to show
forth in Manasseh an example of “ all long-suffering,
for a pattern to them who should thereafter believe
on Him.”

It was principally in the reign of Esar-haddon
that the pious Tobit lived long and prosperously at
Nineveh ; an Israelite, who had been carried away
with his family, from the northern part of Galilee, by
Shalmaneser.

It seems also to have been in the early part of
the same reign, that the magnificent poem, entitled
“ The Burden of Nineveh,” was composed by the
inspired prophet Nahum. On its style and structure
Bishop Lowth makes the following observations :
“ None of the minor prophets seem to equal Nahum
in boldness, ardour, and sublimity. His prophecy,
too, forms a regular and perfect poem ; the exordium
is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic ; the
preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the

124

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

description of its downfall and desolation, are ex¬
pressed in the most vivid colours, and are bold and
luminous in the highest degree.”* He is called the
El-Ivoshite, from the village of El-Kosha in Galilee,
according to Jerome ; but there is a village named
Elkosh, about fifteen miles to the north of the ruins
of Nineveh, where a very general tradition places the
tomb of the prophet. It is a Christian village ; but it
is held in reverence by both Mohammedans and Jews,
who resort thither in great numbers, and keep the
tomb in repair. Mr. Layard, in his most interesting
work on Nineveh, t considers the tradition as not
without weight. If it is entitled to confidence, Nahum
must have delivered his burden, like Jonah, his pre¬
decessor, with the proud city herself before him.

The prophet, in language of terrible vividness,
denounces “ Woe to the bloody city ; he accuses
her of being “all full of lies and robbery;” as being
constantly filled with prey, which, like “an old lion
tearing in pieces his victims for his whelps, and
strangling them for his lionesses, and filling his
holes with prey and his dens with ravin,” — the
tyrannical might of the Assyrian monarchy had
gathered from the spoiled nations. He accuses her
of abominable idolatry, under the similitude of “ a
well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that
sellcth nations through her whoredoms, and families

° Lowth’s Prelect, xxi.

f “ Nineveh and its Remains.” London, 1849.

THE PREDICTED DOOM.

125

through her witchcrafts.” Heavy threatenings from
Jehovah are uttered, who repeatedly declares that He
is “against her;” again and again is it announced
that the fire shall devour her, that her chariots shall
be burned in the smoke ; that the sword shall devour
her “young lions;” that, though she should make
great preparations to stand a siege, drawing waters,
fortifying the strong-holds, and making strong the
brick-kilns,* yet should she be devoured ; that her
crowned captains should flee away like grasshoppers,
and their place be no more known. For Jehovah will
bring against her a terrible enemy, who, for his power
and violence, and unsparing mercilessness, is known
as “ the dasher in pieces,” who shall bring his mighty
men in scarlet, with blood-red shields, as if to denote
their sanguinary purposes ; whose chariots, furnished
with flaming torches, shall rage in her streets, and
jostle one against another in the broad ways; who
shall take the spoil of silver, and the spoil of gold,
and the pleasant and glorious furniture, of which
“there is no end.” In her streets shall be heard “the
noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the
wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jump¬
ing chariots.” Then it is added, as if the tumultuous
scene were really being enacted before the prophet’s
eye ; “ the horseman lifteth up both the bright sword
and the glittering spear : and there is a multitude of

* That is, for the making of bricks, in order to form new
fortifications.

126

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

slain, and a great number of carcases ; and there is
none end of their corpses ; they stumble upon their
corpses.” The noble river, her pride and boast, shall
help her destruction ; for “ the gates of the rivers
shall be opened, and the palaces shall be dissolved.”
Jehovah will make an utter end ; affliction shall not
rise up the second time. No more of her name shall
be sown ; the Lord will cut off the graven image, and
the molten image ; He will make her grave , because
she is vile. He will even cast upon her abominable
filth, and make her vile, and set her as a gazing-stock.

No city in the world seemed less likely to be
subject to such a doom than the great and populous
Nineveh, the metropolis of the mighty Assyrian
empire. Yet before a hundred years had expired, all
was accomplished ; and not a jot nor a tittle of God’s
word against her had failed. The Medes under
Cyaxares, and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar,
again united their forces ; and, after a siege, during
which it is said the sudden rise of t Jus Tigris ovcrthreiv
a part of the walls, they succeeded in taking it ; when,
to gratify the envy of the Medes, it was utterly de¬
stroyed. In Jeremiah’s time it had utterly passed
away ; for that prophet, enumerating the kingdoms of
the earth who were doomed to drink at God’s hand
“ the cup of fury,” makes no mention of Assyria, or
of Nineveh ; and Ezekiel, who prophesied at the
same time, gives a highly poetical description of
“ the Assyrian,” but holds up his awful fall as a
warning to other nations.

THE FALL OF NINE VEIL

127

The destruction of Nineveh was absolute and
sudden ; “ affliction ” did not, as in the case of
Babylon, “ rise up a sccofid timed Lucian, a writer in
the second century of the Christian era, himself a
native of a city on the Euphrates, declares that
Nineveh had utterly pcrishcd} that there was then no
vestige of it remaining, and that none knew where
it had stood. Tradition had, however, indistinctly

CHARIOT OF NINEVEH.

preserved a remembrance of the site ; and immense
heaps of earth, scattered along the banks of the
Tigris, principally on the east side opposite the
modern city of Mosul, were considered as, with some
probability , indicating the place where once had
stood the proud seat of Assyrian greatness.

Within the last few years, discoveries, the most
startling, and of the highest interest, have been

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

128

made ; and these mounds have been found to contain
remains of Assyrian art, of very high antiquity, of
great beauty, often in a perfect state of preservation,
by means of which our knowledge of the history of
this ancient empire is already receiving important
accessions. While we write these pages, reports of
fresh discoveries, as unexpected as interesting, are
almost daily arriving ; the pavement of one of the
city gates has been uncovered, deeply indented with
the ruts of the chariot wheels ; and even the throne
of the Assyrian kings has been found, built of carved
ivory, with lions’ feet, with the remains of a sort of
veil or curtain around it, which appears to have
screened the sacred person of the sovereign from a
too familiar gaze.

The principal mounds which appear to be identified
with ancient Nineveh, are Kouyunjik (including the
so-called tomb of Jonah), on the east bank of the
Tigris, opposite Mosul ; Nimroud, about eighteen
miles lower down the river, near the junction of the
Greater Zab ; Karasulcs, about twelve miles north of
Nimroud, and Khorsabad, nearly the same distance
north of Kouyunjik. These points form the four
corners of a rhomboid, the circumference of which is
sixty miles, the dimensions assigned to the ancient
city. Many mounds are scattered over this area, and
the whole face of the country is strewn with bricks,
pottery, and other fragments of antiquity. Forty
miles below Nimroud, on the west bank of the Tigris,
is another vast shapeless mass of ruins, covered with

TOPOGRAPHY.

129

grass, and called Kalah Sherghat. This is another
Assyrian city, possibly the Calah mentioned in Gene¬
sis x. 11, as having been built by Nimrod. Other
mounds are also scattered about the great plain
through which the Tigris and its tributaries flow.

The first monuments of importance were obtained
at Ivhorsabad, in the year 1844, by M. Botta, the
French consul at Mosul. Excavating in the mound
so called, he uncovered a chamber, surrounded by
slabs of alabaster, on which were sculptured, in relief,
battles, sieges, processions, and other scenes ; with
numerous inscriptions in the arrow-headed character.
It was evident that the palace, of which this was a
part, had been subjected to the action of fire ; for the
slabs were completely calcined, and could scarcely
be preserved sufficiently to allow the scenes and in¬
scriptions to be copied, before they mouldered into
dust.

In the autumn of the following year, our enter¬
prising countryman, Mr. Layard, commenced exca<=
vations at Nimroud, and in a few days discovered
many relics, among which were a pair of gigantic
winged bulls, but in an imperfect condition. Many
bas-reliefs of scenes similar to those already de¬
scribed, were subsequently discovered, many of them
still bearing traces of paint, with which they had
been either entirely or partially adorned. The expo¬
sure of the majestic countenance of a human-headed
lion, and its extrication from the “ grave of filth ” in
which it had lain for five-and-twenty centuries, are

K

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL .

130

described by the discoverer in the most graphic
manner ; as are also the details of many other most
important resuscitations, into which space forbids
our entering. Among the most interesting objects
obtained, besides the numerous sculptured scenes of
military, civil, and religious incidents, were helmets
of iron and copper, many scales which once composed
the iron coats-of-mail of the warriors, vases of great
elegance, of alabaster and clay, and one of glass,
crouching sphinxes, lions of basalt and of copper,
an obelisk of black marble elaborately sculptured,
ivory ornaments and implements of various sorts,
and, recently, vessels of copper, which, when the
outer coat of oxide is scraped off, appear as bright
as if they had just left the shop of the workman.*

In all these discoveries is brought out the unerring
truth of the Word of God. The descriptions given
of Nineveh’s greatness and power, of her riches and
luxury, her idolatry, her cruelty, are illustrated in
the most graphic manner by these silent but un¬
impeachable witnesses. The long oblivion in which
they had lain ; the “ grave ” in which they had been
entombed, and from which they are now plucked
to become “ a gazing stock ; ” the evidences they
exhibit of a sudden overthrow ; the marks of fire

* Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, the
resurrection of buried Nineveh has made great progress ; and,
in particular, by the skilled energy of the late Mr. George Smith,
a vast treasure of written records has been obtained, which are
rapidly being read.

TRUTH OP TROTH EC Y. 131

which most of them display, no less exactly agree
with the letter of inspired prophecy, the doom pro¬
nounced upon the beautiful but guilty city, by the
living God: “And He will stretch out His hand
against the north, and destroy Assyria ; and will make
Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all
the beasts of the nations ; both the cormorant and the
bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; their
voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be
in the thresholds : for He shall uncover the cedar
work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly ;
that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside
me : how is she become a desolation, a place for
beasts to lie down in ! Every one that passeth by
her shall hiss, and wag his hand ! ” *

Below the confluence of the Greater Zab with the
Tigris, the point which may be considered the
southern limit of ancient Nineveh, the river runs
through an immense plain, bounded on the south by
the Hamrin Hills, through which it forces its way,
after having received the waters of the Lesser Zab.
At this point, which is about eighty miles below
Mosul, the Tigris has a breadth of 500 yards. Below
the confluence of this river, a range of hills on the
western bank separates the Tigris from the channel

* Zeph. ii. 13-15.

132

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

of the Thathar, now dry, and extends to the termina¬
tion of a long mound, known as the “ Median wall.”
Here the river issues from the hills into the great
central, or Babylonian plain, where it pursues its
course nearly parallel to the Euphrates, and not far
distant from it. The closest approximation of the
two rivers, before their junction, is at the point where
the city of Bagdad is situated, which is not more
than twelve or fourteen miles from the Euphrates.
The Saklawiyeh* canal, which unites the- two rivers
near this point, is indeed forty-five miles long, but
it pursues a somewhat tortuous course from a point
on the Euphrates considerably higher up than that
where it enters the Tigris. Twenty miles below the
termination of this canal, the Diyalah, a large river,
pours a great body of water into the Tigris from the
north-east ; it is 400 yards broad, and the strong
current is described as rushing as from a sluice. An
ancient canal connects these two rivers near Bagdad,
and several others may still be traced crossing the
plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates ; at once
uniting their waters, and affording facilities for com¬
mercial navigation, as well as a supply of water for
agricultural purposes to these fertile regions. About
350 miles below Bagdad, the Tigris, after a very
winding course, unites with the Euphrates to form
the Shat el Arab, as already described. The plain

* This name may probably be a corruption of Seleucia
(ZeXeviceia), of which we shall presently speak.

SELEUCIA.

133

watered by these rivers contains, except in the dry
season, good pasturage, and is occupied by several
wandering tribes of Bedouins, who pitch their tents
where they please. The physical characteristics of
the Tigris, though varying considerably in the dif¬
ferent parts of its course, agree with those which
mark the correspondent portions of the Euphrates.

These ancient rivers have witnessed the rise and
fall of several generations (if we may be allowed the
expression) of mighty cities. Babylon and Nineveh
pursued their rival courses together through a long
series of ages ; then they were involved in ruin ; but
the former survived her sister city for three hundred
years. Then Seleucus Nicator built a magnificent
city on the west bank of the Tigris, about forty miles
to the north of Babylon, from whose ruins he took
the materials of which it was erected, and the inha¬
bitants with which it was peopled. It was called
Seleucia, after the name of its founder, but is fre¬
quently mentioned in history by the appellation of
New Babylon. Its form was that of an eagle, with
expanded wings, and it contained in Pliny’s time
600,000 inhabitants. It was burned by Trajan, and
again by Lucius Verus ; it was also taken by Severus,
after which it was almost entirely abandoned. Julian
found it completely deserted.

A little below Seleucia, but on the opposite side of
the river, was built another city, named Ctesiphon.
It was the winter residence of the Parthian kings,
who in summer preferred a more northern situation.

134

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

Like its opposite neighbour, it was sacked by the
emperor Severus, in A.D. 198. It also was largely
indebted for its materials to the ruins of Babylon.
Some interesting remains of it exist to this day, of
which the Tauk Kesra is the largest ancient arch of
brickwork known, being a semicircle eighty-five feet
wide, 106 feet high, and 150 feet long.

A new city rose out of the ashes of Ctesiphon,
which for awhile bore the same name, but at length
came to be designated by the appellation of A1
Modain; the metropolis of the Persian kings. It
was taken by assault, with immense spoil, by the
Saracens, in 637 ; and, like its predecessors, sank
under desertion and decay.

From the bricks which had served already to form
four successive capitals, a fifth was destined to arise
in its turn. In the year 763, Bagdad was founded
by the Caliph A1 Mansur, on the western bank,
nearly on the site of the ancient Seleucia ; but a
suburb on the opposite bank was gradually formed,
and advanced to a still greater condition of magnifi¬
cence. It remained the flourishing metropolis of the
Caliphs till 1259, when it was taken and sacked by
the Tartars. A second time, in 1401, it suffered the
same fate from the same foes, when a pyramid of
ninety thousand human heads, erected on its ruins,
displayed the dreadful vengeance of Tamerlane.
Since that time it has suffered many calamities, one
of the most terrible of which occurred about twenty
years ago, when it was nearly depopulated by the

BAGDAD.

135

plague, and by an inundation of the Tigris. Thus, as
if a sentence of ruin were attached to every fragment
of ancient Babylon, Bagdad is swiftly verging to
decay, — the fate of its predecessors.

“This is the work of the Lord God of hosts in
the land of the Chaldeans. Come against her from
the utmost border, open her storehouses : cast her
up as heaps, and destroy her utterly : let nothing of
her be left. ... A sword is upon the Chaldeans,
saith the Lord. ... A sword is upon their
horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the
mingled people that are in the midst of her ; and
they shall become as women : a sword is upon her
treasures ; and they shall be robbed.” *

ganicl x.

It was upon the banks of this river (“ the great river,
which is Hiddekel”), though in what part of its course
we are not informed, that the beloved Daniel was
favoured with a vision of Jehovah in His glory, and
had events of great importance revealed to him,
stretching onwards from his own times to the latter
days, — days even yet not arrived. Three years had
elapsed since Cyrus had proclaimed liberty for the
captive Jews to return from Babylon, but compara¬
tively few had availed themselves of the permission ;

* Jer. 1. 25, 26, 35, 37.

136

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL.

the many had learned to regard the city of their
captivity as their home, indifferent to the desola¬
tion of Jerusalem, and forgetful of the covenant of
Jehovah. The faithful prophet, who must now have
been not far from ninety years of age, had mourned
over the carelessness of his brethren with solemn
fasting and humiliation. For three whole weeks he
had eaten no pleasant bread, nor had tasted flesh nor
wine, nor allowed himself the comforts which his
station and his infirmities usually required. As he
sat on the bank of the river at the end of this time,
perhaps engaged in confession of his people’s sin,
suddenly there appeared to him the glorious form of
One, whom, from the description of His person, we
recognise to have been the Son of God. As when
long afterwards He manifested Himself to thebeloved
disciple, John, the Daniel of the Church, when in
captivity, He was seen clothed in His priestly gar¬
ment of fine linen, to express His office as the High
Priest and Mediator of His people, and His unspotted
righteousness. He was girt with a girdle of gold,
denoting Plis infinite holiness, and His preciousness
in the sight of FI is Father and also of His saints.
His person had the radiant, transparent beauty of a
precious stone, perhaps to intimate His perfect truth ;
His face as lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire,
might show His piercing omniscience, His instant
detection of evil, and His terrible wrath to His
enemies; while His arms and His feet of polished
brass might express His illustrious power engaged to

THE GLORY OF THE LORD .

137

defend His people, and to tread, as in a winepress,
His enemies.

And what was the effect of this glorious vision
upon Daniel ? He was, even by the testimony of
Heaven itself, “a man greatly beloved his character,
as far as it is recorded in the Word, seems peculiarly
upright and spotless ; he was accustomed to commu¬
nion with God ; and from his youth had been familiar
with heavenly visions. Yet no sooner does he see
“the King in His beauty ” than “there remains no
strength in him ; his comeliness is turned in him to
corruption, and he retains no strength.” And so it
has always been : the revelation of the Lord in His
glorious holiness must always humble and break
down the strength of nature. Holy Job found it so.
He had heard of God “by the hearing of the ear;”
but when his eye saw Him, he cried out, “Behold I
am vile : I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes.” Isaiah found it so ; he saw the Lord sitting
upon His throne, high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple ; and the effect was to evoke the cry,
“Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man
of unclean lips!” Ezekiel found it so ; for the vision
of the glory of God, which he saw, threw him upon
his face, as one that had no strength. And John
found it so. He had walked with his Lord in sweet
companionship through the years of His public
ministry, and had been admitted to peculiar famili¬
arity, even “leaning on His bosom he had seen
the glory of Jesus when transfigured upon the Holy

THE RiVER HIDDEKEL.

133

Mount, when “ His face did shine as the sun, and His
raiment was white as the light he had looked upon
Ilis resurrection body, and had seen Him when,
taken up from the earth, He had soared away upon
the cloud into the brightness of the Father’s presence.
If any man could have beheld the unveiled glory
of the risen Son of man, it would surely have been
John; yet when he saw Him, he fell at His feet as
dead.

So that blessed consummation, which every believer
ought to be looking-for with earnest hope, the speedy
return of Jesus for the Church, according to the
closing promise of His word, “Behold! I come
quickly,” if it were to take place in our present
condition of being, so far from filling us with un¬
speakable joy, would only be a ministration of dismay
and terror. These “ vile bodies ” could not bear the
effulgence of His person, “coming in His own glory,
and in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of
His holy angels and hence it is graciously ordained
that at the very instant of His appearing, “in a mo¬
ment, in the twinkling of an eye,” “this corruptible
shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on
immortality our vile body, changed and “fashioned
like unto His glorious body,” and made a fit com¬
panion for the glorified spirit, shall be able to gaze
upon the full radiance of Jesus, and find the chief
element of everlasting joy to consist in that beatific

vision.

III.

THE RIVER CHEBAR.

THE CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL.

The Khabor — The Greater Zab — Koordistan — Lakes — The
Flamingo — Mountains — The Koords — The Chaldeans — The
Yezidis — Halah — Habor — Gozan — Kara — Adiabene— The Siege
of Samaria — Sieges in the Assyrian Sculptures.

THE VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD.

Ezekiel — The Shechinah — The Kingly Glory — The Cherubim
- — The Wheels — The Throne — The Departure of the Glory — The
Rejection of Israel — The Return of the Throne— Universal
Blessing.

i dUJjnnt. v. 26. 2 flhtJjs xvii. 6.

Among the rugged mountains of Chaldea, about a
day’s journey to the north of the spot where stand
the northernmost ruins of ancient Nineveh, are the
sources of the river Khabor. This stream pursues for
the greater part of its length a north-west course,
almost parallel with the line of the Tigris, but in the
very opposite direction, and separated from it by
a range of hills. At length it turns to the south¬
west, and after a course of about seventy miles,
empties itself into the Tigris, a little below the town
of Jezireh.

Through the same mountains, but having its rise
considerably farther to the north, at an elevation of
7,000 feet above the sea, flows the Greater Zab. Its
principal source is nearly midway between the Lakes
of Van and Urumiyah ; and after pursuing a winding
course of more than 200 miles, parts of which are
scarcely known to Europeans, and receiving several
affluents, it pours a deep stream, sixty feet wide,
into the Tigris, close to the southern boundary of
the ancient city, which was built in the angle of the
two rivers.

The mountains of Koordistan, through which flow
the streams just described, are very elevated; and
Mount Ararat, which may be considered as their

M2

THE RIVER CUE GAR.

northern extremity, is the loftiest peak in Western
Asia, its summit being 17,310 feet above the sea.
Ridges branch off from this renowned mountain to
the south and south-west, inclosing the wild and
picturesque Lake Van, and then spread themselves
on either hand, until the whole space between the
plain of Urumiyah and the valley of the Tigris, a
region about 180 miles in width, is occupied by
rugged precipitous mountains, and deep romantic
glens and valleys. Those ridges which surround
Lake Van are very lofty, many of the peaks being
white with perpetual snow. The mountain chain
that runs along the western edge of this region is
of scarcely less altitude ; but between their snowy
barrier and the Lake Urumiyah, there is a plain of
great fertility, comprising an area of 500 square
miles, covered with three hundred villages and
hamlets. Many streams of clear cool wTater from
the adjacent mountains run through the plain, and
irrigate the numerous fields and gardens with which
its bosom is covered ; the former rich with waving
crops or luxuriant verdure, the latter with flowrers and
fruits of many kinds. The landscape is described
as one of the most lovely that can be imagined ; the
effect being heightened by the contrast of such exu¬
berant fertility and beauty with the stern and rugged
grandeur of the mountain-sides, that form the back¬
ground of the picture ; while, in the plain, the willows,
poplars, and sycamores by the water-courses, and the
groves of fruit-trees, — the peach, apple, pear, quince,

LAKES.

143

apricot, plum, and cherry, — together with the luxuriant
vineyards, give to large sections the appearance of a
rich and variegated forest.

Lake Urumiyah, along whose side this lovely and
verdant plain is spread, is about eighty miles in

tt(M l UPEfi

THE FLAMINGO.

length and thirty in width. Lake Van is nearly of
the same size, but is somewhat triangular in form.
The waters of these mountain lakes, though upwards
of 5,000 feet above the sea-level, are very salt. That
of Van is so impregnated with alkali, that the people

144

THE RIVER CUE BAR.

surrounding it employ it for making soap, but the
salt from Urumiyah is sufficiently pure for culinary
purposes. The water of the latter is so salt, that a
man will sink in it no lower than his shoulders, and
no fishes live in it. Lake Van, however, abounds in
fish. Many species of aquatic birds frequent their
shores, among which the beautiful flamingo is con¬
spicuous, often occurring in flocks, which spread
themselves along the shore for miles in length. This
noble bird is marked by the great length of its legs
and of its neck, and still more by its plumage, which
is of the richest and most brilliant scarlet all over,
except the quill feathers of the wings, which are deep
black. As these fine birds are five or six feet high,
when erect, and as they have the habit of ranging
themselves in long lines at the water’s edge, where
they feed, they present, to a spectator at a distance,
the appearance of a regiment of soldiers marshalled
in order of battle, perfect in symmetry, uniformity,
and brilliancy. Such a deceptive sight is often wit¬
nessed on the verdant shores of these elevated lakes.

The whole of the region above described is of the
wildest character. Hoary peaks of many fantastic
forms rear their snow-capped summits toward heaven,
and many precipitous chasms, descending to a terrific
depth, make the traveller tremble as he looks down
them. The only road in many places winds along
the face of an almost perpendicular rock, where a
single false step would hurl the hapless victim to a
dreadful death far below ; and often it diminishes to

MOUNTAINS.

MS

a mere ledge, scarcely wide enough to allow the foot
to be placed on it ; or here and there disappears
entirely, leaving gaps which can be passed only by
leaping from ledge to ledge. The less elevated sum¬
mits are frequently crowned with fortresses almost
impregnable, from the difficulty of access ; and some¬
times these are placed on isolated rocks, with sides
scarcely less abrupt than a wall.

The rocky cliffs are broken by many a yawning
ravine, through each of which a torrent pours its
foaming waters, frequently dividing into a hundred
little streams, breaking into silvery cascades over the
jutting points, and falling in clouds of spray into the
dark glen beneath, along the bottom of which it
struggles and winds, till it at length issues into the
bosom of a wider valley, watered by a wider rivulet.
Many of these streams flow through the mountains,
half concealed by the blushing oleanders that bloom
in rich abundance along their narrow banks. In
these sheltered vales the mulberry, the fig, the olive,
the pomegranate, and the walnut produce their plen¬
teous fruit ; and fields of maize and sesame are
varied by plats of the cotton-shrub. Forests of oaks
grow along the mountain-sides, the galls of which
form no inconsiderable article of commerce. Flocks
of sheep and goats are kept upon the hills, though
the former frequently suffer from the depredations
of the bears, which are numerous and formidable.
Antelopes are sometimes seen in the valleys ; and
the ibex, with its huge knotted horns, congregates in

146

THE RIVER CHER A R.

groups upon the ledges and points of rock, gazing in
conscious security on the approaching stranger ; but
so wary are they, that long before he can come within
range, they have bounded away to the inaccessible
summits of the mountains, rousing the eagle from his
lofty nest as they pass.

Two distinct races of men dwell in these mountain
fastnesses. The first are the Koords, a warlike peo¬
ple, professing, though with some laxity, the religion
of Islam. They are doubtless descended from the
primitive inhabitants of the country, and their name
may be identified with that of the ancient Cordians,
or Carducheans. Nominally their country is divided
between Turkey and Persia, but practically they are
almost independent, and some of the more powerful
tribes are avowedly so. Some of them reside habitu¬
ally in villages, but others lead a roving life, pasturing
their cattle where they please, and residing in tents
of black goat’s hair. Like the Arabs, whom in habits
they somewhat resemble, they live largely by plunder,
robbing and murdering any whom they can overcome.
They frequently engage in predatory excursions, as¬
sembling a numerous party of horsemen, well-mounted
and equipped, and coming down upon a village in
the dead of night. Thus they manage to take a
large booty before the sleeping villagers are ready to
defend themselves. If pursued by a stronger force,
they have only to strike their tents, and flee to their
impregnable strongholds in the mountains.

The other race is commonly known by the name

THE NEST0R1ANS—THE YEZID1S.

147

of Nestorians, but they themselves prefer the appel¬
lation of Chaldeans. They speak a distinct language,
the ancient Syriac, and profess the Christian religion,
which they received at a very early period, perhaps
even in apostolic days. They cultivate fields and
vineyards, but are principally a pastoral people, pos¬
sessing large flocks of sheep and goats, in which their
principal wealth consists. Dwelling in fixed habi¬
tations commonly constructed of stone, and associated
in extensive villages with ancient churches, they yet
perform a partial annual migration. A large number
of the people retire to the higher pastures during the
summer months, where they pitch their tents and
tend their flocks, returning to their villages on the
approach of winter, which in this climate is sufficiently
severe. They manifest much primitive simplicity
of manners, are moral, hospitable, industrious, and
peaceable ; yet they possess the fearless independence
of spirit, and willingness to stand in defence of their
lives, liberty, and property, that are commonly found
in mountaineers.

There is yet another people, who perhaps may be
distinct from either of the above races, the Yezidis,
who, from their fear of and respect for the evil spirit,
are commonly known as Devil-worshippers. These
people, who are not very numerous, speak a dialect
of the Koordish language, but are by some supposed
to be descended from the Manicheans, and to have a
Hebrew origin.

The region whose physical characteristics and in-

THE RIVER CHE BAR.

14S

habitants we have been describing is now called
Koordistan, but it was anciently Assyria Proper.
This term must not be confounded with the Assyrian
empire , which was of far wider limits, embracing in
its broadest dominion many surrounding countries.
It is interesting as being the region into which the
ten tribes of Israel were carried captive by Tiglath-
pileser, Shalmaneser, and Esarhaddon, in whose
reigns the Assyrian monarchy seems to have been
confined to this region ; the kingdoms of Media and
of Babylonia still maintaining, though precariously,
against the increasing power of the former, the in¬
dependence which they had recently achieved.

The first of these monarchs is said to have carried
away the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half¬
tribe of Manasseh (the tribes that dwelt to the east
of the Jordan), “and brought them unto Halah, and
I labor, and I lara, and to the river Gozan, unto this
day.” And the same localities with trifling variation
are assigned to the remainder of the ten tribes, who
were removed by Shalmaneser about nineteen years
afterwards. He “ took Samaria, and carried Israel
away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and
in Ilabor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities
of the Medes.”

These names appear to have been very satisfactorily
identified by Dr. Grant, the American missionary
to the Nestorians. The name of Halah is probably
the same with that of Calah of Genesis x. 1 1, one of
the cities built by Nimrod in Assyria, apparently

HAB OR— GOZAN— HA R A.

149

near Nineveh. Early Syrian commentators say that
Calah was the same as the modern Hatareh, which
is about fourteen miles north of Mosul. It probably
gave name to the district of Chalah, which, according
to ancient geographers, extended from the Tigris to
the Zab, which would thus include part of the region
under consideration.

Habor, there seems to be scarcely a doubt, is the
modern Khabor. There are two rivers of this name,
one falling into the Euphrates, the other into the
Tigris ; they are not very far from each other, but
the latter, from the names with which it is here
associated, is doubtless the one intended.

Gozan is said to signify pasture. The Nestorians
use the term (slightly altered to Zosan, by a change
of letters not at all uncommon) for the highlands on
which they pasture their numerous flocks in summer.
The whole region through which the Khabor and the
Zab flows is of this character ; but, as being the larger
stream, Dr. Grant supposes the latter to be emphati¬
cally “the river of Gozan” intended. The word by
it will be perceived is in italics in our Bibles, which
intimates that there is no word answering to it in
the original, but that it has been supplied by the
translators, to aid, as they supposed, the sense.

The word Hara occurs only in the passage in the
Chronicles, but is not found in the Septuagint or
Syriac renderings (both very ancient versions) of
that text. Professor Robinson supposes it to have
been an explanatory note appended in the margin by

THE RIVER CHEBAR.

*5°

a transcriber, as it signifies “ a mountainous region,”
and is very appropriate ; and that it gradually be¬
came incorporated with the text.

The cities, or villages (Syr. and Vulgi), or mountains
(LXX.), of the Medes are probably those on the
borders of Media, as that country was at this time
independent of Assyria. It embraced, however, a
part of the same mountain region.

The central portion of this elevated country was
known in the time of the Greeks by the name of
Adiabene, probably derived from that of Zab. And
here some of the ten tribes were living in the time
of Josephus; for Agrippa in his famous speech to
the Jews speaks of their fellow tribes dwelling in
Adiabene, and in the power of the Parthians.

Hither then it was, we may safely believe, that
the inhabitants of Samaria, Galilee, and the region
beyond Jordan, the ten tribes of Israel who had
revolted from the house of David, were carried away
captive. They had revolted from Jehovah also, and
had greedily adopted a base idolatry, the worship of
the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. Many
solemn warnings were sent to them ; the burdens
uttered by Amos, Joel, Hosea, and Micah, the preach¬
ing and miracles of Elijah and Elisha, and many
premonitory judgments, — all failed to arrest their
downward career of idolatry and iniquity : at length
the wrath of Jehovah rose against them, and there
was no remedy.

Samaria, the capital city, sustained the force of

SIEGES IN THE ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES. 15 1

the Assyrian army for three years. Whether the
horrors that she underwent were equal to those which
she had suffered on a former occasion, when besieged
by the Syrians under Benhadad, is not recorded.
Jehovah had now given her up, and written Lo-ammi
upon her people ; and her distresses were not worthy
of being related in His word with minute particu¬
larity. The guilty city, however, was at length
taken, and her king with his people “ plucked up out
of the land.” Jehovah was very angry with Israel,
and removed them out of His sight.

AN ASSYRIAN SIEGE.

The monumental marbles of Nineveh, recently
brought to light, give us many graphic representa¬
tions of sieges and assaults of fortified cities by the
Assyrian forces, and thus afford us important in¬
formation as to how they were conducted. One of
these, now in the British Museum, is of particular
interest, as containing illustrations of most of the
devices of attack and defence usually employed, as
well as the carrying away of captives.

152

THE RIVER CHE BAR.

A city is represented, consisting of many towers,
defended by pointed battlements, with a small river
at its base. Against it the Assyrian army is engaged,
led by the king in person, who is seen shooting at
the garrison with an arrow, while his shield-bearer
holds up his buckler in front, and two eunuchs behind
carry his arms and his parasol. Near the king some
warriors are seen, with crow-bars wrenching the
stones out of the wall to open a breach. Scaling-
ladders are set up against the wall, up which the
soldiers climb, holding their shields above their heads,
and seeking, by dislodging the defenders with their
spears, to make good their footing on the battle¬
ments.

In another part of the wall we see the battering-
ram, which has broken down many of the stones.
It is armed by a thick, blunt mass of metal, not
moulded into the form of an animal’s head ; its blows
seem to have been directed diagonally upwards. It
is covered by a moveable house, in which are con¬
cealed the men and machinery by which it is moved ;
the front part rises into a lofty tower, as high as the
battlements of the city ; and here are placed two
warriors, one of whom discharges his arrows at the
garrison, while the other defends him by holding
up a large shield. The ram-house, and part of the
tower, are covered with hurdles or hides. The de¬
fenders strive to destroy the ram by catching it with
chains, and by throwing down fire upon the house ;
but the effect of the latter is obviated by water

SIEGES IN THE ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES.

153

poured out of the tower, and that of the former by
men below, who, having thrown another chain over
the ram, hang upon it with their whole weight. The
bow is the principal weapon of war in use, both by
the besiegers and the defenders : the arrows of the
former are represented as taking fatal effect, and
several of the latter are seen falling headlong from
the walls.

In another part of the scene, the capture and de¬
portation of the inhabitants are intimated. A warrior
is driving off with blows several females, who seem
to bewail their fate by tearing their hair, or by
casting dust on their heads. One of the women is
attended by a child about half-grown, on whose head
she lays her hand. Horned cattle also are driven off
by the side of the captives.

In a scene copied by Mr. Layard, in his valuable
work, “ Nineveh and its Remains,” there is an inter¬
esting illustration of our subject. The Assyrians
are besieging a walled city, consisting of many lofty
towers, situated in a wooded and mountainous coun¬
try, through which runs a river. The besiegers have
planted their scaling-ladders against the walls, and
are mounting to the assault. They are armed with
coats of mail, girt with a girdle, and furnished with
a double belt crossing on the back and breast. They
wear elegant crested helmets, and their legs are
defended by greaves. Each carries a large circular
shield of wicker, probably covered with hides, and a
spear in his hand ; and most of them carry a straight

J54

THE RIVER C I/ERA R.

sword at the side, or a dagger in the girdle. Some
shoot towards the battlements with bows. The walls
of the city are thronged with the defenders, who
are differently accoutred from their assailants. They
wear a close skull-cup, and carry a shield of an ob¬
long-square form. Some of them pour their arrows
on the besiegers, others defend the battlements with
long spears, and many have no other weapons than
large stones, which they fling down with the hand on
their enemies' heads. Their shields and the crevices
of the battlements bristle with the arrows which have
been shot at them ; and some of the garrison, with
arrows sticking in them, are falling wounded from the
walls. In another part of this picture, separated by a
line from the scene of conflict, is represented (as in
the preceding case) the result : the carrying away of
the prisoners into captivity. The men are made to
march two and two, their hands bound together by
manacles round the wrists, some before, and others
behind the back ; while the women walk before, car¬
rying household utensils in their hands, and bags
upon their backs. A mailed warrior follows each
group of captives, holding the hindmost with the rope
with which his hands are bound, or by the hair of his
head ; while he gratifies his cruelty, or else urges
their speed, by blows with a stout staff, or with the
butt end of the spear that he carries in his hand.

In other sculptures, “ eunuchs and scribes are ap¬
pointed to take an inventory of the spoil. They
appear to have stood near the gates, and to have

THE VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD. 155

written down with a pen, probably upon rolls of
leather, the number of prisoners, sheep, and oxen,
and the amount of the booty, which issued from the
city. The women were sometimes taken away in
bullock-carts, and are usually seen in the bas-reliefs
bearing a part of their property with them, either
a vase or a sack, perhaps filled with household stuff.
They were sometimes accompanied by their children,
and are generally represented as tearing their hair,
throwing dust upon their heads, and bewailing their
lot.”*

(S^clucl 1. — xi.

It was to this captive people that Ezekiel the priest
delivered his prophecies, about eighty years after
the last remnant had been removed from Samaria
by Esarhaddon. Nineveh was now no more ; the
devouring fire had raged in her lofty palaces, and
had consumed her pleasant furniture : she was now a
heap of ruins, already partially buried in that “grave”
with which Jehovah had threatened her, and which
was soon entirely to close over her, blotting out her
glory, and almost the place of her existence, from the
memory of man.

And it was by the river of Chebar that the prophet
stood, when he saw the awful but beautiful visions of
the Glory of God, and of the ministering Cherubim ;
when the desolating judgments about to come upon

* Layard’s Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 375.

THE RIVER CHE BAR.

156

rebellious Jerusalem were revealed to him ; and when
he received the bitter roll of the book, written within
and without with “lamentations, and mourning, and
woe.”

It had been the peculiar g»lor y of Israel, that, from
their very first existence as a nation, and their sepa¬
ration from the idolatrous Gentiles round about,
Jehovah had dwelt among them in visible manifest¬
ation. In the pillar of the cloud by day, and of fire
by night, He had defended, sheltered, directed, and
illuminated them, and terrified and afflicted their
enemies. On the summit of Sinai, in terrible majesty,
the “ fiery law ” had been given, from a cloud and
thick darkness, while “ the smoke ascended as the
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked
greatly.” And when the beauteous tabernacle was
made, for a dwelling-place for Jehovah of Hosts,
“ then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation,
and the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
Thenceforward through their journeyings in the wil¬
derness, the cloud by day and the fire by night rested
over the tent in the sight of all Israel ; while the
Shechinah itself, or the luminous presence of God,
was shrouded under the beautiful veil, in the solitude
of the Holy of Holies, where it dwelt above the mercy-
scat, between the Cherubim.

After the entrance of Israel into the promised land,
the Glory of God, that so long had sojourned in a
shifting tent, became stationary, and dwelt among
them ; and though, for a little while, in consequence

THE KINGLY GLORY.

*57

of abounding iniquity, “ He forsook the tabernacle
of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and
delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory
into the enemy’s hand,” it was that He might pour
contempt upon the helpless idols, and get honour to
Himself among the heathen. Ungrateful Israel, it is
true, little esteemed the high privilege of a present
God, and were content with a human king, “ like the
nations : ” thus the ark lay long in neglect, while the
chosen people rejected the government of Jehovah,
and hoped for the prosperity they sought in the rule
of one from among themselves. But even this rejec¬
tion the Lord overruled to fulfil His own purpose of
setting up a royal throne on the holy Hill of Zion,
where, by-and-by, His own King shall rule in right¬
eousness, “ as the light of the morning when the sun
riseth, even a morning without clouds.”

A while longer the Glory of Jehovah “ abode in
curtains,” until the conquering David had thoroughly
subdued the kingdom to himself; and then began
the magnificent and peaceful reign of Solomon “ on
the throne of the Lord,” not only typifying the peace
and righteousness and prosperity of the coming
kingdom, but also, in the erection of the magnificent
Temple, foreshadowing the true “Man of rest,” of
whom it is said, “Even He shall build the temple
of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, and shall
sit and rule upon His throne.” No sooner was the
glorious Temple completed, than “the cloud filled
the house of the Lord : so that the priests could not

158

THE RIVER CHE BAR.

stand to minister because of the cloud ; for the Glory
of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”

The departure of this Glory, through the incorri¬
gible apostasy of Israel, was what was revealed in
vision to Ezekiel. Ten tribes had openly revolted
from the house of David, God’s king, and from the
worship of Jehovah ; and they had at length, as we
have already seen, been uprooted from their land,
and carried into captivity. Judah still remained, but
was fast treading in the steps of Israel : the cup of
Jerusalem’s iniquity was almost full, and the grieved
and insulted Glory was preparing to leave the sanc¬
tuary, — lingering, indeed, and retiring with slow steps,
as loath to leave His city, and give up “ the beloved
of His soul into the hands of her enemies.”

The vision which Ezekiel saw was that of the
Kingly Glory of Jehovah. Israel’s throne was the
place where He had been exercising direct and osten¬
sible dominion upon earth, the nations having been
left, as far as regards apparent interposition, to follow
their own courses uncontrolled. The many-formed
living creatures we consider as representing - the
executive administration of His will and purposes in
heaven, while the lofty and involved wheels denote
the same thing upon earth.

The prophet was among the captives on the banks
of the Chebar, when he perceived a whirlwind coming
out of the north with a great cloud. This denoted
the terrible desolation that was about to fall on Jeru¬
salem from BabyLn. He saw also a fire infolding

THE CHERUBIM.

159

itself, and diffusing a brightness around, out of the
midst of which proceeded four living creatures. Their
characteristic form was that of man ; but each had
four faces ; each also had hands and feet, and four
wings. As man had been made in the image and
after the likeness of God, so the human form of these
symbolic creatures represented the essential attributes
of God as revealed in the Son ; while the wings, feet,
and different faces marked the Divine perfections in
action or manifestation.

The faces were, first, that of a man, expressive of
intelligence and reason ; secondly, that of a lion,
denoting majesty and power ; thirdly, that of an ox,
indicating strength exercised in patient long-suffer¬
ing ; and fourthly, that of an eagle, marking piercing
discernment and rapidity of action.

The feet were the cleft feet of the ox, which are
used to tread out the corn, separating the chaff from
the wheat. They thus express judgment on the
earth, dividing the righteous from the wicked, and
treading down the latter in fury ; while their perfect
holiness in trampling on that which is so defiling, is
signified by their “ sparkling like the colour of bur¬
nished brass.” The hands denote the skilfulness and
precision with which the purposes of the Divine intel¬
ligence are carried out, connecting themselves with
the human face, as the feet with that of the ox, and
the wings with that of the eagle. The latter organs
represent the rapidity of action in heaven, conse¬
quent on the will of God. “ The living creatures

i6o THE RIVER CHEBAR.

ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of
lightning.”

The terrible beauty of these symbolic beings is
thus described : “ Their appearance was like burn¬
ing coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps :
it went up and down among the living creatures ;
and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth
lightning.” These burning lamps of fire doubtless
signify the Spirit of God (Rev. iv. 5), illuminating,
convincing, consuming as He will.

Now, the prophet discerned a new feature in the
mystic scene ; which, from having been in heaven,
seems now to be brought down to earth. A wheel
so vast in its circumference, and so lofty, as to be
dreadful to look upon, was seen beside each of the
Cherubim ; they were full of eyes round about, and
there was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a
wheel.* These wheels were animated by the spirit
of the living creatures, and seem to represent rapid
action on earth , as the wings do in heaven. The

* Some very special and peculiar mystery is supposed by
most persons to lie hid in this phrase, “ A wheel in the middle of
a wheel,” which has become proverbial for any transactions that
are intricately involved. But this appears to arise from a total
misconception of the symbol ; a misconception not of what it
meant, but of what it was. It was surely nothing more complex
than a double ring of vast dimensions, so fixed that one circle
should be at right angles to the other, as sometimes two hoops
are fastened, to carry May-day garlands. Thus the wheels
would revolve toward each of the cardinal points of the compass,
without turning on the vertical axis (see verse 17).

THE THRONE.

161

expression of the will of Jehovah is instantly obeyed
in heaven or in earth : “He doetli according to His
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit¬
ants of the earth.”

The action of the vision was upon the earth, for
“the firmament was over their heads;” but “above
the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the
appearance of a sapphire-stone : and upon the like¬
ness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance
of a man above upon it.” Surely this glorious Person
was none other than the Eternal Word, afterwards to
be made flesh : thus manifesting beforehand His beau¬
teous form, into which every saint is destined finally
to be transformed.

Many subsequent visions of the Glory of God and
of the ministering Cherubs were seen by Ezekiel,
either at different parts of the river Chebar, or in
the contiguous plain ; and there were revealed to
him, in vivid distinctness, the horrible abominations
committed in Jerusalem, and the miseries and over¬
whelming destruction which He that sat on the
throne was about to bring upon it.

In one of these glorious manifestations, the prophet
had been caught by the locks of his head, and carried
by the Spirit of God through the air to Jerusalem,
either in reality (as afterwards happened to Philip),
or in vision ; and there he saw the dreadful apostasy
of the chosen people of God. In a secret chamber,
in the courts of the temple, were seventy ancients of
the house of Israel, burning incense before a host

M

THE RIVER CIIEBAR.

162

of idols, *' creeping things and abominable beasts,”
whose forms, as in the temples of the heathen, were
portrayed upon the wall round about. Then he was
brought to the door of Jehovah’s house, where sat
women weeping for Tammuz, probably a deified man,
the commemoration of whose death was attended
with the most infamous practices. And, finally,
between the very porch and the altar, were five-and-
twenty men worshipping the rising sun, with their
backs towards the sanctuary of Jehovah.

When this had been shown to the wondering
prophet, the visible Glory left the place where it had
hitherto dwelt between the Cherubim, and stood at
the threshold of the house, where the commission to
destroy the guilty city was given to the ministers of
the Divine vengeance. After this, coals of fire were
scattered over the city, to express the conflagration
to which it would be soon subjected; and then the
Glory makes another remove, and stands over the
threshold, as ready to depart. Another lingering
pause, — and the Glory of Jehovah departed from the
threshold to some little distance, and stood over the
Cherubim ; and they, expanding their ample wings,
all lustrous with many eyes, mounted up from earth,
with the wheels beside them, and made another pause
over the portals of the eastern gate of the temple.
But before the visible manifestation of Jehovah’s
gracious presence departs from Jerusalem, He sends
a message of love and comfort to His people, whom
in fatherly chastisement He had for a while rejected,

THE DEPARTURE OF THE GLORY, . 163

promising to be to them “a little sanctuary ” in the
countries whither they should come ; and, finally, to
restore them in reconciliation and forgiveness to the
land of Israel, in which they shall dwell in peace
and righteousness and newness of spirit, — they His
people, and He their God. “Then did the Cherubim
lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them, and
the Glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
And the Glory of Jehovah went up from the midst
of the city, and stood upon the mountain, which is on
the east side of the city,” even the Mount of Olives ;
and this was its last resting-place, for presently the
whole glorious vision went up from the sight of the
prophet into heaven.

Henceforward we find no manifestation of the
kingly Glory of Jehovah on earth. He can no longer
own His apostate people, but gives them up to be
scattered among the nations ; while supreme earthly
dominion is taken away from Jerusalem, where hither¬
to it had been exercised, and given to the Gentiles.
Four monarchies in succession, Babylon, Persia,
Greece, and Rome, henceforth wield the sceptre of
earthly power, until the dominion shall be restored to
the throne of David, and He shall exercise it “whose
right it is/’

For a few centuries an interval of rest and of
partial restoration was granted to Judah, a mitigation
of their bondage ; but the throne of David remained
unoccupied ; and when the rightful heir, Son of David
and Son of God, presented Himself as their King,

164

THE RIVER CHEBAR .

Iiis claims were denied, His person rejected ; and the
crucifixion of God’s chosen King sealed up at once
the iniquity and the tribulation of Israel.

The rejected “King of the Jews” once more as¬
cended from the Mount of Olives, and has found His
place at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
He is seated on His Father’s throne, until the time
shall come for Him to assume His own (Rev. iii. 21),
which will not be until Israel is ready to say, “ Bless¬
ed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah!”
But that time will come !

One more vision of the Glory of God was vouch¬
safed to Ezekiel. After a long course of prophecy, in
which woe after woe is pronounced on Judah and the
nations, bright days of blessing are predicted : Gog,
that last terrible enemy, is slain upon the mountains
of Israel ; the city and the temple are rebuilt in
unprecedented grandeur, and everything is prepared
for the reception of the “ King of righteousness and
King of peace.” And then He returns, after the long
and dreary absence ; and the enraptured seer once
more beholds the winged Cherubim and the radiant
wheels and the sapphire throne, even as he had seen
at first. “ And behold, the Glory of the God of Israel
came from the way of the east ; and His voice was
like a noise of many waters ; and the earth shined
with His glory. . . . And the Glory of Jehovah came
into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect
is towards the east. So the Spirit took me up, and
brought me into the inner court ; and behold, the

THE RETURN OF THE GLORY. 165

Glory of Jehovah filled the house. And I heard Him
speaking unto me out of the house ; and the man
stood by me. And He said unto me, Son of man,
the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of
my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the child¬
ren of Israel for ever So the name of the city, from
that day, shall be Jehovah-Shammah, or, The Lord
there.

O blessed day of righteousness and peace and
joy ! O happy “times of restitution !” when, Satan
having been bound and shut up, and all enemies put
under His feet, Jesus shall reign over a ransomed
world ! The groaning and travailing creation, earth
oppressed with misery and sin, shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God*' All things that of¬
fend, and they which do iniquity, shall be purged out
of His kingdom, and the righteous shall shine forth as
the sun. All who have known and loved Him during
the time of His rejection shall now be gathered to
Him : His dead shall be raised, and His living ones
shall be changed, and both shall put on their incor¬
ruptible bodies of light and glory. The whole Bride
of the Lamb will be then perfected ; and being ar¬
rayed in fine linen, clean and white, — the resplendent
righteousness of Him who died to redeem her, — the

* Literally thus : — “ - shall be delivered from the slavery

of [consequent on] the lapse, into the liberty of [consequent on]
the glory, of the children of God.”

THE RIVER CHER A R.

1 66

marriage of the Lamb shall come. It will be “ the
day of His espousals, and the day of the gladness of
His heart.” Heaven shall rejoice, and ring with
reiterated Hallelujahs, — “ for the Lord God omnipo¬
tent reigneth !” Earth shall echo back the chorus of
joy: “Jehovah reigneth, let the earth rejoice: let
the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Let the sea
roar, and the fulness thereof ; the world, and they
that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands ;
let the hills be joyful together before Jehovah, for
He cometh to judge the earth : with righteousness
shall He judge the world, and the people [peoples]
with equity/’

“ Come then, and, added to Thy many crowns,

Tteceive yet one, the crown of all the earth,

Thou who alone art worthy ! It was Thine
By ancient covenant, ere Nature’s birth ;

And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since,

And overpaid its value with Thy blood.

Thy saints proclaim Thee King ; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipped in the fountain of eternal love.

Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and Thy delay
Gives courage to Thy foes, who, could they see
The dawn of Thy last advent, long desired,

Would creep into the bowels of the hills,

And flee for safety to the falling rocks.

Come then, and, added to Thy many crowns,

Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,

Due to Thy last and most effectual work,

Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world !”

Cozener’s Task , Book vi.

IV.

THE El FEE ULAL

TOPOGRAPHY [

Uncertainty of Identification— The Abzal — Dizful — Khuzis-
an — Climate — Vegetable Productions — Animals — Ruins of
Susa — Ancient Relics — Tomb of Daniel — Lions — The Royal
River.

DANIELS VISION.

The Two-horned Ram — The One-horned Goat — Symbolic
Animals — The Little Horn— Fulfilment of the Prophecy —
Ultimate Result.

II AM AN AND ESTHER.

Ahasuerus’ P>anquet — Haman’s Plot — His Defeat — Prospe¬
rity of the Jews.

Considerable uncertainty has prevailed among
learned men, as to what modern river represents the
ancient Ulai of Daniel, the Eulaeus of the Greek
geographers. Three or four streams have contended
for the identity : the Kerah, or Kerkhah, which falls
into the Shat el Arab ; the Abzal, or Dizful, and the
Karun, which unite into one river, and fall into one
of the mouths by which the Shat el Arab enters the
Persian Gulf ; and finally, the Abi-shapur, which
rises near the Kerkhah, and falls into the Karun.
Of these, however, the first seems to be excluded by
the fact that Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the
Great, sailed from the Persian Gulf to Susa, without
ascending the Shat el Arab. And the claims of the
Karun rest on the supposition that the ruins of an
ancient city on its banks are those of Shushan the
Palace ; though it seems sufficiently proved that they
are only those of a city built by Shapur (Sapor), the
Persian king, in the third century.

Mr. Kinneir considers the Abzal to be the Ulai.
This river rises in the mountains of Irak, and flows
nearly south, through a space of about four-and-a
half degrees of latitude, till, as has been already said,
it enters the Gulf, having been joined at some dis¬
tance above by the Karun. The only place of any
note on this river is the town of Dizful, which is

i "/o

THE RIVER ULAI.

situate on its east bank, in a beautiful and spacious
plain. It contains a population of about 20,000 souls,
and is noted for its elegant bridge of twenty-two
arches, the work of Sapor : the river is here about
300 yards wide. About twenty miles below the town
the Abzal is joined by the Karun, and these rivers
united form the ancient Pasitigris.

The country through which all these rivers flow is
the modern province of Khuzistan, a part of the
kingdom of Persia ; and it formed in ancient days the
kingdom of Susiana, which was governed by Abra-
dates, the friend and ally of Cyrus. On his death
it became incorporated with the dominions of the
Persian monarch.

The northern part of this region is hilly ; the
central portion is an extensive plain, in many places
very fertile ; but towards the south and east this
degenerates into a barren sandy desert, occasionally
intersected by extensive morasses. The banks of the
rivers are the only situations in this part that are
capable of cultivation, where rice and a little wheat
and barley are raised. There are also a few planta¬
tions of date-trees. The higher portions of the pro¬
vince include several extensive valleys, distinguished
for their fertility and picturesque beauty.

The climate is so healthy that the region is the
resort of a great number of invalids from the sur¬
rounding provinces. In summer the heat is great,
and the inhabitants reside in subterranean cellars,
for the sake of the coolness which they possess,

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. 17 1

sleeping by night in the open air on the house-tops.
The winters are mild, and the springs peculiarly de¬
lightful. Near the rivers already named, the soil is

SUGAR CANES AND POfriES.

rich and the crops abundant. The sugar cane is ex¬
tensively cultivated, and grows in great luxuriance ;
the quantity and excellence of the sugar manufac¬
tured here is considered as giving name to the pro-

172

THE RIVER ULAI.

vince, for Khuzistan is said to signify sugar country
Indigo is cultivated around Dizful, and in the neigh¬
bourhood of Shuster a great quantity of opium is pro¬
duced from the large and beautiful oriental poppy.

Among the animals of this region may be men¬
tioned the wild ass, “ used to the wilderness, that
snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure.” This is a
beautiful and active animal, and so swift that it can
be hunted down only by relays of horses and dogs ;
it is of a light mouse brown, with the same black
cross on its shoulders that marks the breed with
which we are familiar. The wild boar inhabits the
thickets, and makes destructive incursions upon the
cultivated grounds ; it is a bold and ferocious crea¬
ture. Jackals and hyenas are very abundant, and
their nocturnal howls as they prowl for their prey
are truly terrifying. These sounds are occasionally
exchanged for the scream of the beautiful but san¬
guinary leopard, or the roar of the still more formi¬
dable lion. Numerous herds of gazelles and other
elegant species of antelopes afford food to these
beasts of prey. Many of the animals, and in parti¬
cular the birds, are the very same as those of
southern Europe ; and even the familiar songsters of
our own native hedges are abundantly found there.
Venomous reptiles are numerous, and many sorts of
lizards, including the singular chameleon ; and various
species of insects are annoying and destructive. The
ravages of the locusts often produce lamentable
consequences.

THE RUINS OF SUSA.

173

About seven miles west of Dizful commence the
ruins of Shus, the ancient Shushan, or Susa, the
royal palace of the Persian kings, and the capital of
the kingdom of Susiana. The word Shus in the
Pehlivi language signifies “ delightful and is in¬
dicative of that pleasantness of situation and of cli¬
mate which made this city the favourite residence of
Cyrus and his successors, in preference to the ancient
and magnificent Babylon. The mouldering heaps
that alone remain of its costly palaces extend over a
space of twelve miles, reaching nearly to the banks
of the Kerkhah, the ancient Choaspes. Over this
immense tract are strewn mounds like those of Ba¬
bylon ; huge hillocks of earth and rubbish, covered
with broken bricks and fragments of coloured tiles.
The largest and most remarkable of the mounds are
about two miles from the Kerkhah. The first,
according to Kinneir, is a mile in circumference, and
100 feet high; the second is rather less in elevation,
but of twice the extent. They are called by the
inhabitants the Palace and the Castle, and resemble
the pyramids of Babylon ; but are not wholly com¬
posed of brick, but of clay and pieces of tile, with
irregular layers of brick and mortar, five or six feet
thick, to serve as a prop to the mass. Large blocks
of marble, covered with sculptures, are often dis¬
covered by the wandering Arabs, when searching
for treasure, which they believe to be hidden in the
ruins.

Sir Henry Rawlinson thus speaks of these remains :

1/4

THE RIVER ULAL

“ The great mound of Susa forms the north-western
extremity of a large irregular platform of mounds,
which appear to have constituted the fort of the city ;
while the great tumulus represents the site of the
inner citadel. By a rough calculation with the sex¬
tant, I found the height of the lower platform to be
between eighty and ninety feet, and that of the great
mound to be 165 feet; the platform, which is square,
I estimated to measure two miles and a-half. The
mound, which I paced, measured 1,100 yards round
the base, and 850 round the summit. The slope is
very steep ; so steep, indeed, as only to admit of
ascent by two pathways.” Sir H. Rawlinson saw
on the mound a slab, with an inscription of thirty-
three lines in the arrow-headed character, and three
Babylonian sepulchral urns, imbedded in the soil ;
and in another place there was exposed to view, a
few feet below the surface, a flooring of brickwork :
while the summit of the mound was thickly strewn
with broken pottery, glazed tiles, and kiln-burnt
bricks.

Sir Robert Ker Porter has given figures of some
curious relics of antiquity found in the palace of
Susa. One of these is interesting as containing,
among other objects, specimens of compound ani¬
mals, reminding us of those symbolic forms seen in
vision when this place was in its glory. The cross,
too, appears on it as a sacred emblem, as we know
it was with the ancient Egyptians, a thousand years
before the Christian era.

THE TOMB OF DANIEL.

175

At the foot of the highest pyramid is a small
building, comparatively modern, inclosing an ancient
tomb, believed to contain the dust of the prophet
Daniel. There is nothing improbable in the tradi¬
tion, for here we know from inspired authority he
was at the latter part of his life. And Josephus
speaks of an edifice built by this venerable man at
Susa, which was remaining in freshness and undi¬
minished beauty at the time he wrote. It was used
as a burying-place for the Persian and Parthian
monarchs ; and he adds that, in respect to the me¬
mory of the founder, the conservation of the edifice
was always committed to a Jew. “The copies of
Josephus that are now extant do indeed place this
building in Ecbatana, in Media; but St. Jerome,
who gives us the same account of it word for word
out of Josephus, and professeth so to do, placeth it
in Susa, in Persia, which makes it plain that the
copy of Josephus which he made use of had it so.
And it is most likely to have been the true reading.”*
From the expression used by the prophet, that he
“ did the king’s business ” at Shushan the palace,
conjoined with what we know of his holding high
and honourable office in the Babylonish state, it is
not improbable that he was governor or viceroy over
the province of Susiana.

The deserted site of the once “ delightful ” city is
now a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, hyenas,

* Prideaux’s Connexion.

176

THE RIVER ULAI .

and other ravenous beasts, that roam unchecked
over its silent and crumbled walls. The prowling
savage of the jungle has his residence in the halls
that once were radiant with light and beauty, and his
hoarse roar echoes on the spot where once the laugh
and song were heard. The traveller to whom we are
indebted for our information concerning this ancient
site was compelled by the dread of these animals to
seek shelter for the night within the walls that en¬
compass the Tomb of Daniel.

About ten miles to the north of the ruins of Susa
rises a stream called the Abi-shapur ; it flows in a
narrow but deep channel past the Tomb of the Pro¬
phet, and past the western foot of the great mound.
This river is navigable from the ruins to its junction
with the Pasitigris, at a considerable distance below
the union of the Abzal and the Karun. The water
is said to be heavy and unwholesome, but that of the
Abzal and that of the Kerkhah are in high estimation.
This circumstance militates against the opinion of
Sir Henry Rawlinson, that the Abi-shapur is the
Ulai, or Eulaeus ; for the water of this latter, as well
as that of the Choaspes (Kerkhah), was so delicious
that the Persian kings would drink of none other.
Milton alludes to this when he speaks of

— “ Susa, by Choaspes’ amber stream,

The drink of none but kings.” *

This, however, is a poetic licence ; for it does not

* Paradise Regained, ii.

THE TWO-HORNED RAM.

177

appear that the water was limited to the royal use,
but that the monarch confined himself to it. Hero¬
dotus tells us that wherever the king of Persia went,
he was attended by a number of wagons, drawn by
mules, to carry the water of these streams, which,
having been first boiled, was deposited in silver
vessels. zElian informs us that Xerxes, during his
invasion of Greece, came to a desert place, and was
exceedingly thirsty ; but his baggage being at a
considerable distance, proclamation was made that
whoever had any of the water of the Eulaeus should
produce it for the use of the king. One man was
found who possessed a small quantity, but it had
been kept so long that it was quite offensive to the
senses. Xerxes, however, drank it, and expressed
his gratitude to the donor, calling him his friend
and preserver.

Qantcl viii.

The Chaldean monarchy, the lion empire of Nebu¬
chadnezzar, was drawing near its end in the person
of the degenerate Belshazzar ; when the “ beloved ”
Daniel, who had already seen in vision the overthrow
of that power by the growing Medes and Persians,
and the ultimate displacement of the latter by the
leopard dominion of Greece, was favoured with an¬
other revelation of the destinies and fortunes of these
two monarchies. The prophet was at the city of
Shushan, which must therefore at this time have

N

i78

THE RIVER ULAI.

been in the possession of the Babylonian power ; and
he stood by the river Ulai. Suddenly he saw in vision,
on the bank of the river, a ram with two horns, both
of them high, but one loftier than the other, though
it had risen last. The ram was seen pushing west¬
ward and northward and southward so vigorously
that no beasts could stand before him ; but he did
according to his own will, and became great. While
the prophet considered this, a lie-goat came rushing
from the west so swiftly that he seemed not to touch
the ground, and this animal had but a single notable
horn on his forehead. In the fury of his power the
goat rushed upon the ram, broke his two horns,
overthrew him, cast him down to the ground, and
stamped upon him, nor could any deliver him. The
lie-goat on this waxed very great ; but in the height
of his strength his notable horn was broken, and was
succeeded by four horns that rose up in its place.
“ And out of one of them came forth a little horn,
which waxed exceeding great toward the south,
and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven ; and
it cast down some of the host and of the stars to
the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he mag¬
nified himself even to the prince of the host, and by
him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place
of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was
given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of
transgression, and it cast down the truth to the
ground, and it practised and prospered.”

SYMBOLIC ANIMALS.

179

To an inquiry propounded by one attendant holy
one of another, as to the duration of this iniquitous
power, the answer was given in the following enigma :
“ Unto two thousand three hundred days : then shall
the sanctuary be cleansed ; ” or, more literally, “ unto
evening-morning, 2,300 : then shall the sanctuary be
justified.”

Such then was the vision which passed before the
wondering senses of Daniel ; but as yet it conveyed
no definite meaning to him. Presently, however,
there stood before him a human form ; and a voice
was heard arising from between the banks of the
Ulai, saying, “ Gabriel, make this man to understand
the vision.” The obedient angel then explained the
meaning of the symbols.

The two-horned ram signified the Medo-Persian
kingdom, which had in a former vision been ex-

COIN OF PERSIA.

pressed by a ravenous bear. In the present instance
the symbols chosen are those which were accepted as
national emblems of the respective kingdoms. That
Persia was of old represented by a ram, there is abun¬
dant evidence. Ammianus Marcellinus states that
the king of Persia wore a ram’s head of gold, set with

i So THE RIVER ULA1.

precious stones, instead of a diadem. The type of a
ram is seen on ancient Persian coins, as represented
on the preceding page. And travellers have observed
that rams’ heads, with horns of unequal height, are
still to be seen sculptured on the pillars of Persepolis.

The Persians, attaining to greater eminence than
the Medes, who yet were the more ancient people,
gave name to the empire, which speedily extended its
dominion westward as far as Greece, northward as far
as the Euxine and Caspian, and southward as far as
Egypt.

As the ram was the acknowledged emblem of
Persia, so was the goat of Macedon. For the first
colony of that country, being directed by the oracle
to take a goat for a guide, followed a flock of these
animals, and built a city where they stopped, which
was called vEgcce, from sEgtis, a goat, and the people
themselves took the title of vEgcadcz. Figures of a
goat with a single horn are found on ancient Mace¬
donian monuments ; and at Persepolis the subjection
of the Macedonians to the Persians, in the reign
of Amyntas, B.c. 547, is represented by a man in
Persian dress holding by the single horn an animal of
this kind. A gem engraved in the Florentine collec¬
tion, and copied on the opposite page, represents the
Persian symbol and the Macedonian united. This
was probably engraved after the conquest of Persia
by Alexander.

The notable horn between the eyes of the goat
is explained to denote the first (or chief) king just

FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHECY. 1S1

named ; who with unexampled rapidity broke the
power of Persia, bearing down all opposition, till it
was utterly destroyed as an independent monarchy.
But in the prime of life, and in the midst of his con¬
quests, Alexander was cut off, and his family in a few
years became extinct ; and at length his great empire
was divided among four of his principal captains,
Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.

Respecting the remainder of this remarkable vision,
the tyrannical “ little horn that arose out of one of
the four, some diversity of judgment exists among
the students of prophecy. Some apply it to Antio-
chus Epiphanes, others to Mohammedanism, others
to the Papacy (indubitably the “ little horn ” of the

previous vision), and yet others to a personal Anti¬
christ still to arise. There is, doubtless, a family
likeness in all the great blasphemers of God, and
persecutors of His people, which renders many of
the expressions in which one is described, more or less
applicable to the others. This is not the place for
discussing controverted interpretations of prophecy ;
but we may modestly state our own judgment, that

lS2

THE RIVER ULAI.

Rome, first Pagan, and then Papal, is primarily
intended. It was first introduced on the stage of
prophecy, and came into contact with God’s people,
by the conquest of Macedon ; and the agreement of
its subsequent course with the prophecy will be seen
by the following parallel scheme :

And out of one of them came
forth a little horn which waxed
exceeding great toward the
south, and toward the east, and
toward the pleasant land.

And it waxed great even to the
host of heaven ; and

it cast down some of the host
and of the stars to the ground,
and stamped upon them.

Yea, he magnified himself even
to the Prince of the host, and
by him the daily sacrifice was
taken away, and the place of
his sanctuary was cast down.

And an host was given him
against the daily sacrifice, by
reason of transgression,

and it cast down the truth to
the ground,

and it practised and prospered.

But he shall be broken with¬
out hand.

From gaining footing in Ma¬
cedon came the Roman power,
whose force, little at first, soon
greatly increased, conquering
Egypt, Asia, and Judea.

It subjugated the Jewish priest¬
hood and government,

persecuted the people of God,
putting to death the apostles
and ministers of the gospel ;

crucified the Lord Jesus,

and finally destroyed the city
and temple.

The reason of the Jews being
given up by God was their
unparalleled wickedness.

After this Rome Pagan and
Papal became the bitter op-
poser of God’s truth, through
many centuries, without any
check to its wickedness.

Yet the Lord shall consume
him with the spirit of His
mouth, and destroy him with
the brightness of His coming.

ULTIMATE RESULT.

183

The duration of the vision was not thoroughly-
explained to the prophet at the time ; but the revela¬
tion of the “ seventy weeks ” of Daniel ix. seems
evidently (see verses 21 — 23) intended to supply this
explanation. By the application of this key, there¬
fore, we gather that 70 weeks, or 490 years of the
2,300, would expire at or near the death of the Lord
Jesus;* and therefore we have reason to hope that the
cleansing (or “ justifying ”) of the sanctuary will not
be long delayed, and that every blasphemous and
tyrannical opponent of the Lord Jesus will soon be
destroyed.

Meanwhile let us be thankful that the great Head
of the Church has not treated us as servants, “ for
the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,” but
as friends ; for He has made us partakers of His
counsels, and revealed to us the grand events, and
many of the details of His mysterious purposes.
Very many things are plain in the prophecies ; others
are fulfilling before our eyes, and will soon be cleared-
up by their accomplishment : and if some few things
yet remain impenetrably dark and inexplicable, it is
not that we may slothfully turn away from the “sure
word of prophecy ” as if it were a sealed book (for on
the study of it a peculiar blessing is pronounced) ;
but that we may learn humility, modesty, faith, and
dependence upon the Holy Ghost who has indited the

* Cr, perhaps, at the giving up of the Holy City to desolation
by the Roman armies (verses 24 and 27), in the year 70.

THE RIVER ULA1.

1S4

Word. The great result of the contest between the
powers of light and darkness, between Christ and
Satan, is revealed clearly and unambiguously : for
a time evil seems to triumph ; but yet a little while
“and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” The Lord
Jesus will take to Himself His great power, and
reign ; and His oppressed and often persecuted saints,
always dear to Him, shall be avenged, and shall be
exalted to share His throne; every form of Antichris¬
tian error and wickedness shall be consumed out of
the earth ; Satan himself shall be bound and shut
up ; Israel shall be restored to earthly supremacy ;
Jerusalem shall be the throne of the Lord ; the
Gentiles shall be converted to Him ; wars shall cease
to the ends of the earth ; and peace and joy shall be
universal. This glorious consummation we confidently
expect on the authority of God Himself; and for this
may we wait with earnest hope, continually praying,
“ Thy kingdom come ! ”

The beautiful city of Shushan was the scene of a
series of most interesting and instructive events,

which form the subject of the inspired book of

Esther. They show how truly Jehovah was a sanctu¬
ary to His people in the countries whither they were
scattered ; how His providence watches, overrules,
and directs human affairs ; and how easily He can

II AM AN AND ESTHER.

i35

thwart the best-laid schemes of wicked men. The
whole history is a comment upon the word of the
wise king : “ Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall.”

The Persian empire seems at this time to have
attained the height of its glory, and the widest
extent of its dominion ; Ahasuerus, who is now con¬
sidered by the best critics to be the same as Xerxes,
“reigned from Ethiopia even unto India, over an
hundred and seven-and-twenty provinces.” His firm
establishment on the throne of this mighty empire he
celebrated by a festivity of extraordinary splendour,
showing to all his princes, nobles, and servants, “ the
riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour of his
excellent majesty.” These rejoicings lasted for a
hundred and eighty days, or exactly half-a-year, and
were wound up by a week of feasting for all the
citizens of Shushan, great and small, “ in the court of
the garden of the king’s palace.” The company
seems to have been entertained in a sort of pavilion
or tent, composed of white, green, and blue hangings,
fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver
rings and pillars of marble ; the couches on which
the guests reclined were of gold and silver ; and the
pavement beneath was formed of red and blue, and
white and black marble, arranged doubtless in those
gorgeous Arabesque patterns which have been lately
discovered in the pavements of Egypt and Assyria.
The tables were furnished with vessels of gold, all of
them diverse in their forms and ornaments, out of

THE RIVER ULAI.

1 86

which the guests drank the choicest wines in an abund¬
ance proportioned to the royal state of the king.

The splendour of this magnificent palace agrees
with what the Greeks have narrated concerning it ;
for they tell us that it was built with white marble,
and that its pillars were covered with gold and
precious stones. The treasures of the kings of Persia
were generally kept there, and Alexander the Great
found in it 50,000 talents of gold, equal to about 274
millions of pounds sterling, besides jewels of inesti¬
mable value, and an immense number of gold and
silver vessels.

It was at this royal feast that the incident occurred
which resulted in the marriage of the king with
Esther, a Jewish maiden of great beauty and virtue ;
through whose advancement her people, who were
still in great numbers in the Persian dominions, were
preserved from entire extirpation. The insolence of
Haman, a worthless favourite of the king — his rage
at the refusal of Mordecai the Jew to pay court to
him — his diabolical plot to destroy the whole Jewish
race — his ridiculous vanity, and his sudden fall, are
recorded with inimitable simplicity in the sacred nar¬
rative ; but the story is too long for us to do more
than refer to it. The vile Amalekite proved the
truth of the Psalmist’s words : “ He made a pit and
digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made ;
his mischief shall return upon his own head ; and his
violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”

The plot which had been laid for the captive Jews

HAMAN AND ESTHER.

1S7

was used by God to advance their comfort and con¬
sideration. The pious Mordecai was exalted to fill
the place which Haman had dishonoured ; the edict
commanding the massacre of the Jews was counter¬
vailed by another, permitting them to defend them¬
selves (for, by the absurd custom of the Medes and
Persians, no law once issued could be absolutely
revoked) ; and, as the favour of the king was plainly
seen in the latter document, and the power of
Mordecai was now great, the Hebrews were almost
everywhere countenanced by the authorities, and
those who did rise against them were overcome and
slain.

Meanwhile, neither the queen nor the king’s chief
minister forgot in prosperity that they were the cove¬
nant people of God ; they neither abused the royal
favour, nor became ashamed of their religion, nor
forgot their connection with their captive brethren ;
but used their greatness for the welfare and peace of
their people, and doubtless for the spread of true
religion. It is not without reason supposed that the
missions of Ezra and Nehemiah to the land of their
fathers, the favourable edicts granted to them by this
monarch for the rebuilding of desolated Jerusalem,
and his kindly permission and encouragement to the
Jews yet remaining in his dominions to return from
their captivity, were mainly owing, under God, first
to the favour which Esther obtained in the king’s
eyes, and afterwards to the good offices of Mordecai.

V.

THE RIVER JORDAN,

THE JORDAN.

Mountain Ranges — The Ghor — Sources — Paneas — Phiala —
Tel-el-Kady — Hasbeyah — Waters of Merom — Lotus Lily — Lake
of Gennesaret — Lower Jordan — Rapids — Windings — Scenery —
Trees and Flowers — Double Valley — Dead Sea — Its Ancient
Condition — Depression — Pillar of Salt — Scene of Desolation —
Apples of Sodom — Geological Character.

THE DIVIDING OF THE WATERS.

The Wilderness Sojourn— The Plains of Moab — The Spies —
The Passage — The Twelve Stones — Death of the Believer.

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD.

Bethabara — Hope deferred — The Baptist — Jesus Baptized —
Mystic Teaching of the Incident — Results — The Scene of the
Baptism — The Pilgrims.

THE FORDS OF THE JORDAN.

The Judges — Ehud and Eglon — Gideon — The Three Hun¬
dred — Faithfulness of Jehovah — Jephthah — Shibboleth.

THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.

Testimony — Apostasy — Elisha’s Request — The Chariot —
The Rapture — The Mantle — The Change of the Quick.

N A AM AN THE SYRIAN.

Happiness not dependent on Circumstances — The Leper —
The Little Maid — The Cleansing — The Fountain for Sin.

THE SWIMMING IRON.

The Sons of the Prophets — The Tamarisk Tree — The Axe-
head — The Tenderness of God.

CHS AREA PHILIPPI.

Peter’s Confession — Interesting Monument.

DAN.

Early Idolatry — The Golden Calf— Fountain of Tel-el-Kady
— Tortoise — Buffalo.

/

%

The rivers which we have hitherto noticed would,
for the most part, connect themselves in the mind
of an Israelite with ideas of hostile military power,
blasphemous enmity against Jehovah, and the cap¬
tivity of His people. We come now to wander by
the banks of those streams that watered the sacred
soil of Israel, diffusing fertility and gladness through¬
out that favoured country, which was described as
“ a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.” *
The most eminent of these, not less for its size than
for the interesting events with which its history is
connected, is the Jordan.

The mountain ridges of Palestine run in lines
nearly parallel with its Mediterranean shore. The
lofty range of Lebanon, overlooking from its snowy
summit the Great Sea on the one hand and the
Syrian desert on the other, gradually merges into
the mountains of Galilee and of Samaria, and the hill
country of Judea. Over against this chain to the
eastward there rises another, parallel with it, and
nearly agreeing with it in the varied elevation of its
different portions. Antilibanus (“ Lebanon toward
the sun-rising ”) is continued in Mount Hermon,
with its lofty peak of ancient renown, whence the

* Deut. viii. 7.

192

THE RIVER JORDAN.

mountains of Bashan gradually sink till they are lost
in the plains that border the Lake of Gennesaret.
Thence beyond the river Jarmuk they again begin to
rise in rugged peaks ; and the hills of Gilead and of
the land of Moab stretch from north to south, until
the rocky belt of Mount Seir rears its frowning
masses of stone in a thousand strange forms, divided
by horrid yawning chasms, in the most dreary deso¬
lation, and forms a fit gateway to the desert of burn¬
ing sand that lies beyond.

Between these mountain ranges lies the Ghor, or
Valley of the Jordan, which, from the sources of that
river to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea,
extends through a length of about one hundred and
seventy miles. Its breadth is irregular : at its head
there are not more than a few miles from the summit
of one ridge to that of the opposite ; and the average
width, to a distance considerably below the Lake of
Gennesaret, may be considered as not above ten
miles ; but, as the hills stretch to the southward, they
still diverge from each other, until they again ap¬
proach, to inclose, as with walls of precipitous rock,
the Dead Sea.

“The Jordan is entitled to take its place as the
chief of Syrian rivers, and perhaps this is distinction
enough for it ; but, beside this, it may be said, that
for a line of nearly three thousand miles along the
coast of Africa and of Syria, no one stream except
the Nile contributes so large a volume of water to the
Mediterranean as the Jordan contributes to the Dead

SOURCE OF THE JORDA A

193

Sea ; and that all Arabia has not one river compar¬
able to it. ... But the dignity of the Jordan
arises from other circumstances than the volume of
its waters or the extent of its course.” *

SOURCE OF THE JORDAN.

The principal source of this river has been from
very ancient times considered to be at Paneas, or
Caesarea Philippi, where it rises in a very romantic
manner. Josephus thus describes it: “At Panium
. . . there is a mountain that is elevated to a

* Dr. Kitto’s Palestine, vol. ii. p. 153

O

194

THE RIVER JORDAN.

vast height : and in its side at the bottom a dark
cavern opens ; within which there is a horrible gulf,
descending abruptly to a great depth. It contains a
mighty quantity of water, which is quite still and
unmoved ; and when any one attempts to sound its
depth, no length of cord is found sufficient to reach
the bottom. Now the fountains of Jordan rise at
the roots of this cavity, and, as some think, this is the
utmost origin of Jordan/’ *

This cave has been described by modern travellers,
and in particular by Burckhardt. Over its mouth
the perpendicular face of the rock has been cut into
niches with pillars for the reception of statues, the
basal part of one being still to be seen. Inscriptions,
now nearly illegible, were cut in the rock near these
recesses. The modern village of Baneas contains
only about 150 houses ; but heaps of stones and frag¬
ments of pillars lie around, covering an extensive
space, on which stood the royal city which bore the
name of the Tetrarch of Trachonitis.

In another passage Josephus connects the water
which flows from this cave with that of a perfectly
circular lake, about fifteen miles distant, called, from
its bowl-like form, Phiala : for, as he asserts, some
chaff having been thrown into the lake by Philip,
emerged from beneath the cave at Paneas ; whence it
was concluded that a subterranean passage existed
between the two.

* Bell. Jud. I. xxi. 3.

SOURCES OF THE JORDAN.

195

Captains Irby and Mangles seem to have disco¬
vered this interesting place. Having entered a rich
little plain at the southern foot of Mount Hermon,
they found a rivulet which, flowing through the plain,
rushes picturesquely through a deep chasm, and joins
the Jordan at Baneas. Ascending a little higher, they
saw a very singular lake, about a mile in circumfe¬
rence, apparently perfectly circular, and surrounded
on all sides by sloping hills richly wooded. A re¬
markable circumstance was, that they could perceive
no supply or discharge of its waters, which appeared
perfectly still, though clear and limpid : a great many
wild fowl were swimming on it. *

Another source of the Jordan is found about three
miles to the west of Baneas, at a place called Tel-el-
Kady, which is believed to be the site of the ancient
Dan or Laish, the northern boundary of the land. It
unites with the other stream five or six miles below
the emergence of the latter from the cave.

Yet a fourth stream, the Hasbeyah, presents a
claim to be considered as the source of this river, and
one which, but for the prescriptive right of the former,
must be acknowledged as the best of all. It rises
more than twenty miles farther to the north-east, on
the northern side of Hermon, around whose base it
pours a considerable stream, being, at the point where
it runs by Paneas, as broad, as deep, and as rapid as
the Jordan itself at Jericho. Whether it unites its

* Irby and Mang. Trav. pp. 286 — 289.

196

THE RIVER JORDAN.

waters with those of the former streams, or falls into
the lake Houle by its own distinct channel, are points
not yet quite ascertained.

The plain through which these rivers flow is most
fertile. Numerous plantations of mulberry-trees adorn
the banks, and the surrounding hills are covered with
groves of oak. The richest pasture covers the whole
plain, except where it is cultivated ; and cattle are
driven by the Arab tribes from considerable distances
to feed on its luxuriance. The labour of the plough,
though employed but to a limited extent, is rewarded
by crops of wheat and other corn of excellent quality
and in rich abundance. Thistles, those sure tokens of
a vigorous soil, grow to so gigantic a size, as to reach
up to the height of a horse’s back, to the annoyance
of his rider ; and that curious plant, the mandrake,
with its purple blossoms and fragrant apple-like fruit,
is abundant in this region.

Nearly in the midst of this beautiful plain, the
waters of the several streams we have noticed dilate
into a lake of considerable extent. It is known in
early Hebrew history as the Waters of Merom ; at the
time of Roman dominion it had received the name
of Samochonites ; but in modern times, at least since
the Crusades, it has borne the Arab appellation of
Bahr-el-Houle.

After the winter rains this lake forms a beautiful
sheet of water, eleven or twelve miles long by about
four broad ; but in summer the northern half becomes
a mere morass, covered with rushes, through which

TIIE WATERS OF ME ROM.

197

several streams wind their silver courses. Among
these grow also abundantly the reeds which are used
in the East for pens, as well as others of stouter make,
which serve for lances and arrows. On the surface

float the broad leaves and beautiful white flowers of
the Lotus-lily ( NympJicea ), the seeds of which, as well
as the large tuberous roots, are frequently roasted in
hot ashes and eaten. The elegant blossoms rise out

The Jordan, issuing from the Waters of Merom,
flows down through a narrow rocky channel with
considerable rapidity, as a noisy torrent. Its course
is almost concealed by the groves of plane-trees and
nebeks that line its banks, and especially by the
luxuriant oleanders that cluster thickly in every part,
flushing the scene through the spring and early

19S THE RIVER JORDAN.

of the water at sunrise, and expand themselves to
the beam, but on the approach of night close their
corollas and retire beneath the surface. They are no
less fragrant than beautiful. Among these flowers
multitudes of aquatic fowl of various species repose
unmolested, and the reedy shores and shallows con¬
ceal thousands of wading-birds.

THE LOTUS-LILY.

THE LAKE OF GENNESARET.

199

summer with the hue of their gorgeous flowers, like a
vast bed of roses. After having brawled through its
stony channel for about ten miles, it enters that wide
and beautiful lake, the name of which will always be
associated with pleasant and holy reminiscences to
the Christian, the Lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of
Tiberias.

This expanse of water is about twelve or fifteen
miles in length, and about half as broad. Its surface
is 328 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and
its depth is about 350 fathoms. Its picturesque
appearance is well described by many travellers ; but
by none more agreeably than by Dr. Clarke, who
viewed it from the most favourable point, the hill
known as the Mount of Beatitudes. ‘‘From this
point,” he observes, “a view was presented, which,
for its grandeur, independently of the interest excited
by the different objects contained in it, has nothing
equal to it in the Holy Land.

“From this situation we perceived that the plain
over which we had been so long riding [from the
west] was itself very elevated. Far beneath appeared
other plains, one lower than the other, in a regular
gradation, reaching eastward, as far as the surface
of the Sea of Tiberias. This immense lake, almost
equal, in the grandeur of its appearance, to that of
Geneva, spreads its waters over all the lower territory.
Its eastern shores exhibit a sublime scene of moun¬
tains towards the north and south, and they seem
to close in at either extremity, both towards Cho-

200

THE RIVER JORDAN.

razin, where the Jordan enters, and the- Anion or
Campus Magnus , through which this river flows into
the Dead Sea. The cultivated plains reaching to its
borders, which we beheld at an amazing depth below
our view, resembled, by the different hues their
various produce presented, the motley pattern of
a vast carpet. To the north appeared many snowy
summits, towering beyond a series of intervening
mountains. We considered them as the summits of
Libanus ; but the Arabs belonging to our caravan
called the principal eminence Jebel-el-Sieh. The
summit was so lofty that the snow entirely covered
the upper part of it, investing all the higher part
with that perfect white and smooth velvet-like
appearance, which snow only exhibits when it is very
deep.” *

Dr. Kitto thus speaks of the minuter features of
this interesting scene, —

“ The feathered tribes seem to make the lake a
favourite resort. Multitudes of song-birds harbour
in the northernmost groves, and their innumerable
happy voices mingle with the rush of waters, where
the river hastens to the lake The margin and sur¬
face of the lake itself presents large flocks of storks,
wild-ducks, and diving-birds ; pelicans are not want¬
ing ; while here and there vultures are assiduously
engaged with their carrion-prey ; or eagles, heavily
flapping their broad wings, rise to their aeries in the

* Clarke’s Travels, part ii.

THE LAKE OF GENNESARET.

201

mountains. But when the heat of the summer sun,
intensely concentrated on the borders of this deep
basin, has absorbed all the moisture which the earth
contained, and utterly dried up the green herbage
which gave a cheerful aspect to the scene, the effect
of the whole, in the entire absence of trees, is very
different ; more dull, heavy, sad, but not less, per¬
haps, in unison with the general tone of feeling with
which the Christian pilgrim is prepared to regard
this memorable lake. Its surface is usually in a state
of dead calm ; and, in the universal stillness, the
gentle splash of its water upon the pebbles of the
shore is distinctly heard, and is, indeed, almost the
only sound that strikes the ear. Not a single boat of
any kind is seen upon the lake ; and, now that the
Arab has removed his tents to the higher country,
the eye may wander round its borders in vain, seek¬
ing for any other signs of habitation than the mean
town of Tabaria, and one or two miserable villages.
The saddened traveller may gaze for hours over the
scene without observing a single human being, or
indeed any living creature, save the large water-fowl,
whose sole presence tends rather to increase than to
diminish the desolation of the view.” *

The current of the Jordan through the midst of the
lake is distinct, and easily observed by the smooth
flowing of its waters, while the rest of the surface is
rippled with the breeze. At the southern extremity it

* Phys. Hist, of Palestine, vol. ii. p. 165.

202

THE RIVER JORDAN.

emerges in a single stream, which in spring is about
forty feet across ; and thence it flows through the
Ghor, or valley to which it gives its own name, until
its course is finally lost in the leaden waters of the
Dead Sea.

Until the late American expedition, our acquaint¬
ance with this sacred river was almost confined to a
few points at which it is fordable. That expedition
descended the river in two metallic boats, and, though
with much labour and often in imminent peril, suc¬
ceeded in reaching the Dead Sea. The stream is full
of rapids and appalling descents, particularly in the
upper part of its course ; no fewer than twenty-seven
of these occurring, of threatening depth and force, be¬
sides a great number of less magnitude. Near the
debouchure of the Jarmuk there is a cascade of eleven
feet in height, below which are two fierce rapids, each
150 yards in length, bristling with black rocks, whose
points rise above the foaming surface. Sunken and
half-submerged rocks are very numerous throughout
great part of the course ; and in some parts there
are a number of small islets. The course of the river
is exceedingly tortuous, forming an unending series
of serpentine curves ; hence, though the Dead Sea
is only about sixty miles distant from the Lake of
Gennesaret, the Jordan traverses, in that distance,
a course of at 1-east two hundred miles. Near the
mouth of the Jabbok, there is a sudden break-down
in the bed of the Jordan, which appears to be con¬
nected with the depression of the bottom of the Dead
Sea.

TREES AND FLOWERS.

203

In many parts the scenery on the river is very pic¬
turesque : sometimes the turbid torrent madly rushes
between perpendicular cliffs; at others it shoots round
the base of a mountain, and then again flows between
low banks, covered with shrubs, and trees, and fra¬
grant flowers. Here and there a brawling rivulet pours
its tiny addition of crystal water into the disco¬
loured current of Jordan, and one or two rivers of
more pretension add their tribute, drained from the
sides of the receding wadies.

The trees that throw their branches over the Jor¬
dan’s margin are not usually of large size ; they are
principally the willow, the fern-like elegant tamarisk,
and the gharrab, or honey-tree, a plant resembling
the olive, which is said to distil from its poplar-like
leaves a sweet fluid, of the taste and consistence of
honey, which may have been the honey in the wood
that “dropped,” of which Jonathan ate after the
slaughter of the Philistines. The oleander is abun¬
dant, as it is upon all the streams of Palestine ; its
pale crimson flowers contrast finely with the white
fringed blossoms of the asphodel.

In some places where the banks slope gradually
up to the higher terraced level, the ground is covered
with a sort of wild oats, thin and worthless, yet pre¬
senting somewhat of beauty in its silvery waves as
the breeze plays over it ; and revealing, as the gusts,
sweeping down the hills, bend it low, a flush of san¬
guine crimson from the anemones that cover the sur¬
face beneath in thick and matted profusion. Patches

204

THE RIVER JORDAN.

of yellow daisy-like flowers, or of wild mustard, look
“like little golden islands in an incarnadined ocean
and several species of thistle, of gigantic size, spread
a purple glow over the sides of the otherwise naked
hills.

The Ghor itself is about six miles wide ; but in the
lower part the retiring of the mountains on each side
gives it a breadth of ten or twelve, inclosing on the
one side the Plains of Moab, and on the other the
Plains of Jericho. The greater part of this level is
little better than a parched and barren desert ; though
the courses of the numerous rivulets which furrow it
on both sides relieve the general sterility with many
patches of verdure. But there is a lower valley, about
three-quarters of a mile wide, through the midst of
which the river flows. The level of this vale is about
forty feet lower than that of the general plain, and
is covered with luxuriant vegetation, reeds and canes
forming in many places an impenetrable brake,
intermingled with tamarisks and willows, and other
trees.

The close and matted vegetation of this lower val¬
ley affords a shelter for wild beasts and other animals,
which lodge here in security from the assaults of man.
But the winter rains and the melting of the mountain
snows in spring fill the bed of Jordan ; and his swoll¬
en waters, overflowing the ordinary banks, inundate
this verdant tract, and drive the lurking tenants into
the open plains above. The rage and ferocity of the
more powerful beasts of prey, that formerly were

THE DEAD SEA.

205

found here, when thus dislodged from their retreat, are
more than once alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah :
“ Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swell¬
ing of Jordan \” *

The bed of the river itself varies, both in depth
and width, in different places ; sometimes being not
more than twenty yards in breadth, at others upwards
of a hundred ; in some places forming a deep and
rapid current, and in others easily fordable. The sea¬
son, as already intimated, greatly affects the volume
of its waters.

For the last few miles the Jordan runs between
banks of sand, and pours a considerable quantity of
water into the Dead Sea. At the embouchure it is
about a hundred yards wide, and is deep and rapid.
Yet, so dense are the saline waters of that awful lake,
that the current of the river seems unable to enter
among them, but ceases to be perceived at once at
the very point of contact.

We shall, then, consider the Jordan as terminating
here, for out of this mysterious sea no stream emerges.
Yet there can be scarcely a doubt that in ancient
times, before the terrible destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah with fire and brimstone out of heaven,
the area now occupied by these baleful waters was a
lovely and fertile plain, through the length of which
the Jordan flowed, well watering it everywhere. The
river must then have had an outlet ; and probably

* Jer. xlix. 19 ; 1. 44.

206

THE RIVER JORDAN.

flowed through the valley called the Wady Arabah,
which extends from the southern extremity of the
Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, or eastern arm of the
Red Sea. That no egress of waters can now take
place in that direction is manifest, not only from the
great depression of the surface of the lake, which is
1,300 feet below that of the Mediterranean, but also
because a wall of rock now extends quite across the
valley, about seven miles from its commencement.
Both the depression of the plain, however, and the
elevation of this ridge, may have been simultaneous
results of the awful convulsion of nature in which the
guilty cities were overwhelmed.

That the whole tract which is now covered by the
Dead Sea has been depressed, the late researches of
the American Exploring Expedition have abundantly
proved. Referring to the words of the sacred narra¬
tive, that when Abraham looked toward all the land
of the plain, the smoke of the country went up as the
smoke of a furnace, Lieutenant Lynch infers that the
entire chasm was a plain smik and overwhelmed by
the wrath of God ; and this inference he considers
as warranted by the extraordinary character of the
soundings obtained. The bottom of the Dead Sea
consists of two submerged plains, an elevated and a
depressed one. The former is the roundish bay
which forms the southern extremity, separated from
the rest of the sea by a promontory which runs
nearly all across ; the bottom in this part is pretty
evenly about twelve or fifteen feet below the surface.

THE PILLAR OF SALT

20 7

To this small bay Professor Robinson would limit
the calamity which befel the guilty plain. The other
area, the great body of the sea, has a nearly uniform
depth of a thousand feet; while, through its centre, in
a line corresponding with the course of the Jordan,
there runs a ravine, cleaving the bottom to the depth
of two hundred feet more.

The inference then is obvious, that once this level
area formed the beauteous and fertile plain of Sodom,
well watered everywhere by the Jordan (and probably
many affluent streams), whose flood was poured along
the ravine or deep bed running through it ; and that
the whole plain, after having had its bituminous crust
devoured by “ fire and brimstone cut of heaven,” was
made to sink down suddenly a thousand feet, not in
fragments, but in a mass, with the river-bed still cut¬
ting it, as an indelible memorial of the truth of the
Word of God. The great and deep gulf thus formed
then constituted a reservoir, into which the Jordan's
waters were gradually poured, until they attained the
level which they now possess.

On the western side of the southern bay or shallow
lake, the American party discovered an object which
at any place would have been considered a curiosity,
but which in that locality, and considering the story
of Lot’s wife, cannot but be regarded with intense
interest. On the side of the very remarkable isolat¬
ed mountain which still bears the name of Usdum
(Sodom), stands a pillar of salt ! But we will give the
description of this in the words of the discoverer.

TIIE RIVER JORDAN.

2oS

“To our astonishment, we saw on the eastern
side of Usdum, one-third the distance from its north
extreme, a lofty round pillar, standing apparently
detached from the general mass, at the head of a
deep, narrow, and abrupt chasm. We immediately
pulled in for the shore, and Dr. Anderson and I went
up and examined it. The beach was a soft slimy
mud encrusted with salt, and, a short distance from
the water, covered with saline fragments and flakes
of bitumen. We found the pillar to be of solid salt,
capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front,
and pyramidal behind. The upper or rounded part
is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval
pedestal, from forty to sixty feet above the level
of the sea. It slightly decreases in size upwards,
crumbles at the top, and is one entire mass of
crystallization. A prop or cross-buttress connects it
with the mountain behind, and the whole is covered
with debris of a light stone-colour. Its peculiar
shape is doubtless attributable to the action of the
winter rains. The Arabs had told us in vague terms
that there was to be found a pillar somewhere upon
the shores of the sea ; but their statements in all
other respects had proved so unsatisfactory that we
could place no reliance upon them.”*

The same writer describes, in a graphic manner,
the awfully interesting vicinity of this pillar of salt : —

“ It was indeed a scene of unmitigated desolation.

* Jordan and the Dead Sea, p. 307.

APPLE OF SODOM.

209

On one side, rugged and worn, was the salt mountain
of Usdum, with its conspicuous pillar, which reminded
us at least of the catastrophe of the plain ; on the
other were the lofty and barren cliffs of Moab, in
one of the caves of which the fugitive Lot found
shelter. To the south was an extensive flat intersected
by sluggish drains, with the high hills of Edom semi¬
girdling the salt plain where the Israelites repeatedly
overthrew their enemies ; and to the north was the
calm and motionless sea, curtained with a purple
mist, while many fathoms deep in the slimy mud
beneath it lay embedded the ruins of the ill-fated
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The glare of light
was blinding to the eye, and the atmosphere difficult
of respiration. No bird fanned with its wing the
attenuated air, through which the sun poured his
scorching rays upon the mysterious element on which
we floated, and which alone, of all the works of its
Maker, contains no living thing within it.”*

Among the most interesting plants of this region
are those which are considered to have furnished
the description given by Josephus and other ancient
writers, of the “Apples of Sodom.” The Jewish
historian, after having mentioned the destruction of
the cities of the plain, and the traces of the burning
vengeance that remained in his day, goes on to speak
of their ashes being perpetuated in fruits, which have
an appearance as if fit to be eaten, but which, on

l*

* Jordan and the Dead Sea, p. 311.

210

THE RIVER JORDAN.

being plucked, dissolve in the hand into smoke and
ashes.*

Several plants indeed have been at different times
supposed to be identical with those thus described ;
but the best claims are presented by the Mad apple
(Solatium melongena ) and the Osher (Asclepias proccrd).
The former is a shrub from three to five feet in
height, bearing round yellowish berries about an
inch and a half in diameter. They are called
Leimun Lut by the Arabs, who have a tradition that
“ the plant formerly bore excellent limes, but for the
wickedness of the people of the plain, it was cursed
by Lot, and doomed to bear the bitter fruit which
it now yields.” It is true they are not always filled
with dust, but only when the fruit is attacked by an
insect (a species of saw fly, Tenthredo ), which turns
the whole interior into dust, leaving the skin only
entire, and of a beautiful colour.

The osher, however, seems better to coincide with
the description of Josephus. Professor Robinson
thus speaks of it: “ One of the first objects which
attracted our notice on arriving at ’Ain J idy (E ngedi)
was a tree with singular fruit . . . the "osher of the
Arabs . . . which is found in abundance in Upper

Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix ; but it
seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of
the Dead Sea. We saw here [at ’Ain Jidy] several
trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or

* Bell. Jud. IV. viii. 4.

APPLE OF SODOM.

ill

eight inches in diameter, and the whole height from
ten to fifteen feet. It has a greyish cork-like bark,
with long oval leaves, . . . and when its leaves and
flowers are broken off, it discharges copiously a milky
fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large
smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three
or four together, and when ripe is of a yellow colour.

It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to
the touch, but on being pressed or struck it explodes
with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the
hand only the shreds of the thin rind, and a few
fibres. It is, indeed, chiefly filled with air, like a
bladder, which gives it the round form, while in the

212

THE RIVER JORDAN.

centre a small slender pod runs through it from the
stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the
rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk
with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk-weed,
(Asclepias Syriaca), though very much smaller. The
Arabs collect the silk, and twist it into matches
for their guns, preferring it to the common match,
because it requires no sulphur to render it combus¬
tible.”

In the account of Josephus, the Professor goes on
to observe, “ There is nothing, after a due allowance
for the marvellous in all popular reports, which does
not apply almost literally to the fruit of the ’ osher
as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with
great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We
attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with
us to Jerusalem, but without success.”*

The geological character of this whole region is
somewhat singular. Dr. Wilson considers the great
crevasse which forms the valley of the Jordan, the
Dead Sea, and the Wady Arabah, to have been pro¬
duced by the upheaving of basalt, which appears in
many places around the Lake of Tiberias, and which
is seen here and there along the line nearly to the
source of the Jordan at Hasbeya. In connection
with this remarkable formation he notices the ex¬
istence of thermal springs, particularly at the bitu¬
minous wells near Hasbeya, along the shores of the

* Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 235,

ENTRANCE INTO THE LAND.

213

Lake of Tiberias, on the banks of the Jarmuk, and
in the Wady Kerka Main ; and also of layers, cakes,
and masses of bitumen and salt, especially along the
shores of the Dead Sea.

Such then are the physical characters of this an¬
cient river ; and we now proceed to glance at some
of those incidents with which it has been associated,
and which have conferred upon it an interest superior
to that which attaches to any other stream (with one
exception) on the face of the globe.*

Jfoslnm ill., iv.

The children of Israel had wandered in the Arabian
desert, “that great and terrible wilderness,” through
the dreary period of forty years ; and now at length
the time was come when they were to go-in to
possess the good land which Jehovah had sworn to
give them. Moses, their devoted leader, was dead ;
Aaron, the high-priest, was dead also ; and of all the
six hundred thousand fighting men that had come
out of Egypt, there now remained not one, except
Caleb and Joshua, the faithful spies who thirty-eight
years before had given a good report of the land
which they had then searched out. The mission of

# Some of the statements, and some of the inferences, in the
preceding chapter, must be re-weighed in the light of more
recent researches ; as those of Messrs, de Saulcy, Van de Velde,
and Tristram.

214

THE RIVER JORDAN.

Moses, the mediator and lawgiver in the wilderness¬
wandering, was accomplished, and he had passed
from the scene ; and the command of the host now
devolved upon Joshua, who, as the typical Captain
of their salvation, was appointed to lead them into
possession of the promised inheritance, to conquest,
and to rest.

The thousands of Israel were encamped in the
plains of Moab. In their front rolled the Jordan,
like a sea ; for the winter rains had fallen, and his
full tide had overflowed his banks, and filled the
whole breadth of the lower valley. Beyond the
foaming tide was spread the fertile plain of Jericho,
covered with its waving fields of corn, now fully
ripe, and inviting the sickle ; and in the midst of
it, full in the sight of the host, embosomed in its
gardens and groves of balsam-trees, and date-palms,
and many other valued plants, rose the lofty walls
of the fair “ city of palm-trees,” the stately Jericho.
The level tract on which the Hebrew camp was
pitched had not at this time its wonted barrenness ;
for the genial spring had covered its sands with
verdure, and adorned it with a thousand flowers.
Behind, girding in the plains of Shittim as with a
rampart, stretched along the horizon the mountains
of Abarim, casting their morning shadows even to
the camp ; and, conspicuous among them, the lofty
Pisgah reared its rugged peak, whence, only a little
while before, the beautiful sight of “ Israel abiding in
their tents ” had evoked blessings instead of curses

PLAINS OF MOAB.

215

from the unwilling mouth of the Mesopotamian
prophet ; and where, still more recently, the venera¬
ble lawgiver had been privileged with a prospect of
the goodly land, and had then died in the arms of
God*

Joshua had sent out two spies to take a survey of
the frontier city, and to report its condition to him.
They had now returned, and had informed him of
their adventures ; of the terror which had struck
deep into the failing hearts of the Canaanites on the
approach of Israel ; of the renown which the late
interpositions of Divine power had procured for the
name of Jehovah ; of the faith of Rahab, the harlot
who had afforded them concealment from the wrath
of the king ; of their solemn covenant to spare her
life in the coming desolation ; and of the scarlet line
to be hung out of the window, the significant seal
and token of that covenant of salvation. These and
other things the spies had reported to their com¬
mander, to the confirmation of his faith, and the
increase of his hope in God.

And now the glorious day was come when, by a
stupendous miracle, Jehovah had determined to show
how able He was to remove every obstacle in the
way of His people, and to subdue every enemy before
their face. By His appointment the host, amounting

* “ So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land
of Moab, according to the Word of the LordP Ueut. xxxiv. 5.
In Hebrew, it is “ at the mouth of the Lord which the Rabbins
render, “ by the kiss of the Lord A

216

7 HE RIVER JORDAN'.

probably to two millions and a-half of persons (about
the same number as had crossed the Red Sea on
foot), had removed to the banks of the river three
days before, and now in marching array awaited the
signal to cross the stream. At any time the passage
of the river by such a multitude, with their women
and children, their flocks and herds, and all their
baggage, would have presented formidable diffi¬
culties ; but now the channel was filled with a deep
and impetuous torrent, which overflowed its banks
and spread widely on each side, probably extending
nearly a mile in width ; while in the very sight of
the scene were the Canaanitish hosts, who might be
expected to pour out from their gates, and extermi¬
nate the invading multitude before they could reach
the shore. Yet these difficulties were nothing to
Almighty power, and only served to heighten the
effect of the stupendous miracle about to be wrought.

By the command of Jehovah, the priests, bearing
the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred symbol of the
Divine presence, marched more than half a mile in
the front of the people, who were forbidden to come
any nearer to it. Thus it was manifest that Jehovah
needed not protection from Israel, but was their
guard and guide, since the unarmed priests feared not
to separate themselves from the host, and to venture
with the Ark into the river in the face of their
enemies. And thus the army, standing aloof, had a
better opportunity of seeing the wondrous results,
and of admiring the mighty power of God exerted

»

PASS A GE OF THE ARK . 217

on their behalf ; for no sooner had the feet of the
priests touched the brim of the overflowing river,
than the swelling waters receded from them ; and not
only the broad lower valley, but even the deep bed
of the stream was presently emptied of water, and
its pebbly bottom became dry. The waters which
had been in the channel speedily ran off, and were
lost in the Dead Sea ; while those which would
naturally have replaced them from above, were
miraculously suspended, and accumulated in a glassy
heap far above the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan.
These places are supposed to have been at least
forty miles above the Dead Sea, and may possibly
have been much more ; so that nearly the whole
channel of the Lower Jordan, from a little below the
Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea, was dry.*

The priests now removed from the brink to the
middle of the river’s bed, where they stood on dry

* Bethshean is described in 1 Kings iv. 12, as “by Zartanah
beneath Jezreel and in chap. vii. 47, of the same book, we read
that Solomon cast the brazen sea and the vessels of the temple,
“ in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and
Zarthan.” If Zaretan was, as can scarcely be doubted, the same
as the Zartanah and Zarthan of these passages, we may infer its
position with considerable accuracy ; for the situation of Jezreel
(Zer’in), of Bethshean (Beisan), and of Succoth (Sukhot), are
ascertained, the former two with certainty, and the latter with
high probability ; and are placed in Professor Robinson’s map
at the following distances from the head of the Dead Sea
Jezreel, 58 ; Bethshean, 53 ; and Succoth, 50 statute miles, mea
sured in a straight line.

2l3

THE RIVER JORDAN

ground during the whole time that the immense
host marched over. In this position, so trying both
to their faith and patience, they remained all day,
the Ark being with them, the symbol of Jehovah’s
presence and the token of His favour, thus standing
between the impending mass of waters and the
people. Thus in calmness and dignity, without
hurry or dismay, but in perfect subjection and order,
the multitude passed over Jordan, and took posses¬
sion of the Land of Canaan. As soon as the passage
of the host was accomplished, Joshua, under the
direction of God, took measures for the perpetuation
of the memory of this grand event. Twelve selected
men, one of each tribe of Israel, were commanded to
return into the midst of the channel, where the Ark
yet stood, and to take thence twelve stones, probably
as large as each man could carry. These, when
brought upon the bank, were set up as a monument
of the miracle in the place where the host lodged ;
while twelve similar stones were taken from the
ground, and built up for a similar purpose in the
midst of the river, where the Ark had stood. Then,
and not till then, when all had been accomplished
that Jehovah had commanded, without haste, the
priests likewise ascended out of the channel, and
carried the Ark of the Covenant into that country
which was henceforth to be no longer the land of
promise, but the land of inheritance. Instantly, as
the soles of their feet left the channel, the waters
began to flow as usual, and soon not only again filled

DEATH OF THE BELIEVER.

219

the bed of the river, but also flowed over all the
banks as they did before.

What a glorious termination of the long pilgrimage
of Israel was this ! and how worthy of the power,
wisdom, and goodness of their Divine Protector !
“The passage of this deep and rapid river, ” remarks
Dr. Hales, “at the most unfavourable season, was
more manifestly miraculous, if possible, than that of
the Red Sea ; because here was no natural agency
whatever employed ; no mighty wind to sweep a
passage, as in the former case ; no reflux of the tide,
on which minute philosophers might fasten to de¬
preciate the miracle. It seems, therefore, to have
been providentially designed to silence cavils respect¬
ing the former ; and it was done at 110011-day, in the
face of the sun, and in the presence, we may be sure,
of the neighbouring inhabitants, and struck terror
into the kings of the Canaanites and Amorites west¬
ward of the river.”

The wandering of the children of Israel through
the dreary desert has always been considered to
be typical of the believer’s pilgrimage through “ the
wilderness of this world.” And the crossing of
Jordan may well represent the closing scene, when
God “ bringeth him to the king of terrors.” But the
terrors of the grisly king himself are disarmed by One
who has gone before through the dark valley, even
Jesus, who has been with His follower throughout
His long wandering, has cared for him, supplied his
need, given him bread from heaven and water out of

220

THE RIVER JORDAN.

the rock, has borne with his waywardness, and
pardoned his multiplied transgressions, and who now
will not forget His gracious promises: “When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.”
“ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Death
may indeed appear terrible in the prospect, and
Satan may rage and threaten, and the Christian
often fears that he shall be overwhelmed and lost in
the dark and turbulent flood ; yet the issue is secured
by covenant love, and not one of the true Israel shall
ever make shipwreck there. The triumph is certain
to the feeblest and youngest, not less than to the
strongest and most experienced ; since it depends
not on their wisdom or strength, but on the presence
of their Almighty Lord. “ For though they have
none of them passed this way heretofore, yet Jesus,
their Brother and Friend, hath gone before, and
crossed the river, when its floods were swelled to a
tremendous height ; and by passing through He
hath divided the floods before them ; and He safely
reached the heavenly shore, when He rose from the
dead as the first fruits of His people, and ascended
into heaven as their forerunner; and He began to be
magnified in the sight of all Israel, when, thus risen
and ascended, He sent down His Holy Spirit, to
give assistance to His apostles and success to His
preached gospel. Now, therefore, they may march
through this dreaded river without danger or terror,
if they are but able to keep the eye of faith fixed

BETHADARA.

221

upon His person, His complete salvation, His word
of promise, and the inheritance which He hath
provided for them on the other side. The Lord will
provide for our passage of this Jordan when the time
comes ; and we shall soon join the innumerable
multitude, that in the Canaan above are singing the
praises of their great Deliverer, who hath both re¬
deemed them from Egyptian bondage, and brought
them safe to the promised land, through His precious
blood, and by His all-conquering arm.”*

HWtljekr in.

It seems to have been at the very same part of the
river (Bethabara, u the house of the passage ”) that,
fifteen centuries later, a great transaction took place,
which mystically represented the same grand and
glorious truth, the annulling of the power of death by
the ever-blessed Surety. This was the scene of the
baptism of the Lord Jesus ; an event of high signifi¬
cance, recorded with much minuteness of detail by
all the four evangelists ; yet one whose import is
altogether unheeded by most students of the Divine
Word. Let us turn aside, and, with unshod feet, gaze
on this great sight.

And first, the scene; the Jordan ; a river absolutely
unique in the whole world ; cleft in the very bowels of
the earth ; being, at its issue from the Lake of Galilee,

* Scott, in loc .

222

THE RIVER JORDAN.

far below the sea-level, and ever plunging lower and
lower, by twenty-seven distinct descents, till it emp¬
ties into the Dead Sea, that horrid yawning chasm
of salt and pitch and desolation, whose surface is
actually 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean, the
awful grave of those cities “set forth for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7).
Throughout the Scripture this wondrous river stands
as the type of penal death ; * and may we not say, of
death issuing in hell ? Its very name is significant,
whether we accept the etymology which reads “the
descender,” the downward-plunger, or that, which
seems the better one, of “the River of Judgment.” f

Secondly, the actors ; both of whom are represen¬
tative personages. John, the minister of an offended
God, representing the majesty of Law ; of law broken,
and therefore demanding the punishment of the
transgressors. Jesus, the Holy One of God, indeed,
but the Surety and Substitute of sinners, “ made sin
for us ” (2 Cor. v. 21).

Thirdly, the action. Baptism shadows death and
burial ; that is, penal death, and the putting of the
executed out of the Judge’s sight. John, for God,
standing in the desert, aloof from Israel (Matt. xi.
18), calls on them to come and submit to baptism at
his hands ; i.e.t to confess that death and judgment

* Gen. xiii. 10 ; Josh, iii., iv ; 2 Kings ii. 8, 14 ; v. ; vi. 1-7 ;
Jer. xii. 5.

t "l&P ( Jor) river, and H (dan) judgment.

: t

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS.

223

are their due. The nation accepts this position,
doubtless with little intelligence ; but this national
confession and submission to mystic death renders it
possible for grace to come forth. Then Jesus comes ;
and though at first even John loses sight of His
typical status in the deep consciousness of his personal
inferiority, he is at once corrected by a word from
Jesus: “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteous¬
ness:” — “US,” i.e., Me, as the Sin-bearer, by submit¬
ting to the penalty righteously denounced ; Thee, as
the majesty of Law, by righteously inflicting it.

And now the Sinless One, as made sin, is plunged
out of sight beneath the mystic waters ; but, lifted up
out of them straightway, * a figure of resurrection,
and that by Him who had inflicted the doom, three
circumstances of the most transcendent import, result.
Remember, that we have to do with not Jesus only,
but the Christ ; not the personal, individual Holy
One, but the mystic Head, with His many members ; f
what He has just accomplished is for all believers,
it is our death, it is our resurrection. And the three
glorious results are also shared with us. They are
these: 1. an opened heaven (Eph. ii. 6 ; Heb. x. 19);

* This is not said of the people, who were baptized before.
As a matter of fact, of course, they were lifted out ; but the
silence of the Holy Ghost is sometimes as significant as His
expressions. All that the narrative notices, is death ; but no
resurrection till Jesus is raised.

f This distinction gives the force to the Apostle’s argument
in Romans viii. 1 1.

The identical spot on the Jordan’s brink from
which the Lord Jesus descended into the stream, and
where He stood when the Spirit lighted on Him as
a dove, has in all subsequent ages been a matter of
much interest to ascertain. Two places are pointed
out with equal confidence, and equal assumption of
certainty : the one, about four miles from the shore

224 THE RIVER JORDAN.

2. the abiding of the Holy Spirit (John xiv. 16 ;
Eph. i. 13, 14; iv. 30); 3. avowed Sonship to God,
(Rom. viii. 14-17; Gal. iv. 5-7; Heb. ii. 10-13).

Thus, at the very opening of His ministry, in His
very first public act, our adorable Lord presented a
symbolic rehearsal of the great work for which He
came into the world, and its blessed consequences.

SUPPOSED SCENE OF THE BAPTISM.

PLACE OP ISP A EL’S CROSSING.

225

of the Dead Sea ; the other, about three miles higher
up the stream. Both spots are scenes had in great
reverence by the respective parties who advocate
the genuineness of each ; and annual pilgrimages
are made to both. The higher site is advocated by
the Latins, the lower by the Greeks and Armenians.
Both are described as presenting the most beautiful
scenery that this river affords, the banks being
fringed with tamarisks, willows, the beautiful olean¬
ders in abundance, and many other shrubs in rich
luxuriance.

Each party considers its own spot as identical also
with the scene of Israel’s crossing the Jordan to take
possession of the land ; and we have inferred already,
from the mention of Bethabara, that there was a
village or monument whose name commemorated
that passage at the place where He was baptizing.
But we can hardly suppose the scene of the one in¬
cident to be as limited as that of the other. Two
millions and a-half of people, in crossing the dry bed
of the river, would doubtless spread themselves over
a space of considerable extent ; especially as they
had the whole length of the river, at least for forty
miles, turned into dry land for them : so that it may
not be extravagant to suppose that, while the priests
with the Ark may have stood at the upper or Latin
site of the Baptism, the extended front of the host
(none of whom were to approach within three-quarters
of a mile of the Ark), may have reached three miles
lower down, to the locality preferred by the Greeks.

Q

226

THE RIVER JORDAN.

The annual pilgrimage to the latter spot has been
described by Mr. Elliot, who was present in 1837.
About 5,000 persons from all parts of the East were
assembled, of whom 3,000 were pilgrims. Dressed
hi every variety of costume, some mounted on various
beasts of burden, some on foot, horse- and foot-sol¬
diers in gay uniforms, men, women, and children — the
assemblage presents a motley appearance, as curious
as it is picturesque.

The approach of the cavalcade to the river, after
having spent the last night in the neighbourhood of
Jericho, by the stream which is supposed to be the
fountain healed by Elisha, is thus graphically de¬
scribed : — ■

“A little after midnight the pilgrims put them¬
selves in motion, in order to reach by sun-rise the
banks of the sacred river ; but it is no easy matter
to start a caravan of 5,000 persons, and it was three
o’clock, A.M., before the cavalcade was in progress.
A number of torch-bearers preceded, carrying flam¬
beaux, which threw a wild blaze of light over the
plain and the moving host. The Arab cavalry
marched next, their spirited horses curvetting, while
they plunged into the high grass and jungle, to drive
out any lurking Bedouins. The governor, with the
Greek archbishop, followed ; and, lastly, the whole
host of pilgrims, hurrying along with anxious expect¬
ation to wash in a stream which they vainly suppose
to be endowed with a cleansing moral efficacy. In
such a multitude, moving without order, subject to no

THE PILGRIMS.

227

discipline, and wrought up to an unnatural pitch of
excitement by superstitious zeal, it is not surprising
that many accidents occur. Some of the party are
generally left dead, many are wounded, and all are
kept in a feverish state of alarm for their personal
safety. One thing struck us forcibly ; the entire ab¬
sence of sympathy among these professors of piety.
If an aged man, a feeble woman, or helpless child
fell from his seat, no friendly hand was stretched out
to aid, and no fellow pilgrim halted to ascertain the
extent of injury received. The groans and cries of
the sufferer were responded to by a laugh, and the
cavalcade moved on, regardless of their brother, who,
if he met with sympathy and aid, found it at the
hand of some good Samaritan united to him by no
ties of country or of faith.

“The sun rose above the mountains of Moab just
as we reached the Jordan, after a ride of more than
two hours over a tract utterly sterile, deserted even
by the samphire and low shrubs which appear on
other parts of the plain. Instantly a rush was made,
and the pilgrims, young and old, rich and poor, sick
and sound, men, women, and children, plunged into
the stream. Some of the females and children, how¬
ever, evinced a degree of nervousness : and here and
there the father of a family might be seen gently
chiding his spouse, or more roughly handling his
young sons ; now religiously forcing the head of a
little girl under the water, and now struggling with a
well-grown urchin whose fears had got the better of

228

THE RIVET y ORB AN.

his love of pilgrimage. Of the men, some jumped
boldly in, communicating a rotatory motion to the
body as it passed through the air ; a few conside¬
rately occupied themselves in aiding the weaker sex,
rendering to a tottering mother or timid sister the
support of filial or fraternal strength. Others re¬
signed themselves composedly to the priests, who,
standing ... in the river, poured the sacred
water three times on the head of the devotee. All
were clad in winding-sheets, or, to speak more cor¬
rectly, all carried with them, either attached in some
way to the body, or held loosely in the hand, the
piece of cloth with which they wish to be enveloped
after death, which ... is supposed to protect
from the power of the devil both the corpse so
shrouded and the spirit that shall re-animate it.
Some of these promiscuous bathings are occasions
of great indecorum, but in the present instance, we
saw no more than the ghat of every populous town
on the Ganges exhibits daily. When, however, the
scene is contemplated as a religious ceremony, and
when the Turkish governor is observed, with his
Moslem satellites, ridiculing with proud disdain these
vain ablutions, and this violation of female modesty,
the Protestant cannot but lament the errors of those
who like himself profess the faith of Christ, and the
consequent degradation of that sacred name in the
eyes of infidelsP *

* Three Empires, vol. i. p. 76.

THE FORDS.

229

Jfxtbjjes hi., vii., xii.

We find several allusions in Scripture to the Fords
of Jordan. We must not imagine that the existence
of such crossing-places precluded the necessity of the
stupendous miracle which enabled the whole host of
Israel to “ go through the flood on foot ; ” for, at the
most favourable time, the shallow parts of the stream
are but limited in extent ; and, though practicable
for mounted persons, or adults on foot, would have
presented insuperable obstacles to little children, to
the young and sickly of the flocks, in which a large
part of the Hebrew substance consisted, and to the
cumbrous baggage of a migrating people. Besides,
as we have already intimated, it was about the time
of the vernal equinox, when, through the swelling
floods, the river could probably at no point have been
forded.

Several of the fords have been described by mo¬
dern travellers, who have crossed the river at the
respective points which they notice. Some of these
occur in the higher part of the stream, soon after
its emergence from the Lake of Gennesaret. In the
beginning of February, Mr. Buckingham found it
barely fordable about three miles below the lake ;
and there is another ford a mile lower which is
shallower. In this, however, the water near each
bank is deep enough for a horse to swim, but the
middle is quite shoal. These have on one side the

THE RIVER JORDAN.

230

ancient Galilee, just at the foot of Mount Tabor,
and on the other the country of the Gadarenes or
of the Gergesenes, both of them familiar scenes in
the history of our Blessed Lord.

Twenty miles below the lake there are several
fords, not far from each other; and the Jordan is
much crossed in this neighbourhood, as it was of old.

MOUNT TABOR.

The most noted places in the vicinity were Beth-
shan, on the west side, to the wall of which the
Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his sons,
after the fatal battle of Gilboa; and, on the east
side, Jabesh-Gilead, the valiant inhabitants of which
rescued the mutilated corpses from their degrading

THE FORDS.

23'

exposure, and buried them in their own city. A
little below Bei-san (Bethshan), Captain Mangles
found the water in March to reach the belly of a
horse; and, lower still, Burckhardt found it to have
nearly the same depth in the midst of summer.

About twenty miles above the Dead Sea, Captains
Irby and Mangles again forded the river, near the
end of March ; but it was with great difficulty, for
the waters were much swollen. They thus describe
the stream at this point : — “ The plain, from the foot
of the mountains, is about half-way pretty level, but
barren ; thence it becomes rugged, consisting of a
quantity of hills, vales, and deep chasms, in a dry
soil of very white appearance, and of a saltish nature :
this continues to within a quarter of a mile of the
river’s bank, whence the rest is a rich flat plain to
the margin of the river, which is in the bottom of a
deep ravine, beautifully wooded, and so overgrown,
that the stream is not seen till you are close to it.”

At a point four miles lower still, Mr. Buckingham
found the Jordan Easily forded by horses ; but this
was in January, when the water was low. The dif¬
ference between the upper and lower levels of the
valley was very conspicuous. The latter was a mile
wide in some parts, and in others not more than a
furlong, and was bounded by chalky cliffs two hun¬
dred feet in height. The actual banks of the stream
were fourteen or fifteen feet high ; and, as there
were indications that these were sometimes over¬
flowed, we may gain a notion of the great increase of

THE RIVER JORDAN.

232

the stream produced by the spring floods. The water
was found by this traveller to be well-tasted, and,
though rapid, tolerably clear, because flowing over a
pebbly bottom.

A vengeance, severe and terrible, was often taken
by Israel at these places upon the surrounding
nations, whom the Lord from time to time raised up
against them, on account of their apostasy, and who
cruelly tyrannized over them. The Rabbins say that
the best generation of Israel that ever lived was that
which entered into Canaan, and was contemporaneous
with the remaining years of Joshua’s life. But very
soon after the death of that able and pious com¬
mander, the Hebrew people began to forget Jehovah
and the wonders which He had wrought for them,
and to serve the gods of the nations who had been
cast out before them. Then He sold them into the
hands of their enemies, to bring them to repentance ;
but when they cried unto Him, He heard, and raised
up from time to time some mighty man of valour to
be a deliverer and a judge in Israel.

One of the earliest of these captivities, — of which
there were many, but some of which were perhaps
contemporaneous with others, each being only partial
in its extent, — was that under Eglon, the king of
Moab. That prince had formed an alliance with
Ammon and Amalek, and had taken “ the city of
palm-trees/’ where, with no greater a force than ten
thousand Moabites, he had established himself, and
held Israel in subjection for eighteen years. At

EIIUD AND EG LON.

233

length Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, executed
Jehovah’s vengeance upon the tyrant; and, before
the deed was known, the blast of his trumpet in
Mount Ephraim aroused the men of Israel, who gladly
responded to his call. The first object was to secure
the fords of the Jordan; for thus, not only were the
ten thousand Moabites shut up to their vengeance,
and prevented from escape, but the possibility of any
help being afforded them by their countrymen was
precluded. The fords were taken ; not a man was
suffered to pass over; Israel “slew of Moab at that
time ten thousand men ; all lusty, and all men of
valour ; and there escaped not a man. . . . And

the land had rest forty years.”

The region which was possessed by the Moabites
lay chiefly near the head of the Dead Sea, and ex¬
tended only a short distance up the left bank of
the Jordan. The fords therefore which were taken
by Ehud must have been those which connected the
plains of Shittim with the plains of Jericho; and the
very locality, recalling, as it surely would, glorious
memories of the past, while it would nerve the arm
of Israel to exterminate the foe, would doubtless
excite feelings of humble self-abasement for theE
apostasy, and kindle fresh love and confidence to¬
wards Jehovah.

It was at the very same part of the river that the
consummation of that glorious victory was effected,
which was ages afterwards spoken of as “ the day of
Midian.” For Beth-barah, “the house of the pas-

234

THE RIVER JO R DAE

sage/’ is named as one of the points (probably the
southernmost) at which the waters were taken ; but
the vigilance of the Ephraimites doubtless extended
up the stream, guarding all the fords at least as high
as those which we have just described after Irby and
Mangles, and Buckingham. The Midianites were
pitched in the valley of Jezreel ; and, after the panic,
some of them fled northward to Beth-shittah, which
lay at the foot of Mount Tabor.

The repeated apostasies of Israel, untaught by
repeated punishments and deliverances, had provoked
Jehovah to let loose upon their land the pastoral
nomadic tribes that roved beyond Jordan, the Midi¬
anites and Amalekites, and “the children of the
East/’ They came swarming like locusts, spreading
over the entire country, devouring the whole produce
of the fields and pastures, till “ no sustenance was
left for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass/’ and
the unhappy owners of the land were compelled to
hide themselves in mountains, and caves, and strong¬
holds.

At length, in answer to the cry of His people, the
Lord commissioned Gideon, a man of Manasseh, to
deliver them. A small army was gathered of four-
and-twenty thousand men; but Jehovah had de¬
termined to prove that the strength of Israel lay not
in sword or spear ; “ not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah.” The timid were
permitted to go home ; and the depressed state of the
people at this time is strongly shown by the fact,

GIDEON.

that of the little army of 24,000 men, 22,000 were
glad to avail themselves of the permission to retire
when they came in sight of the enemy. The Midian-
itish host might indeed well appal them, for they
“ lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for mul¬
titude, and their camels were without number, as the
sand by the sea-side for multitude.”

But the 2,000 that remained with Gideon are fai
too large a number still : there must be no room for
boasting; Jehovah will have the exclusive honour
of the victory. By a singular test the number is
reduced to 300 men, and by this little band the
innumerable host shall be discomfited. Jehovah
himself appoints the manner of proceeding. In the
middle of the night, the 300 Israelites, divided into
three companies, take up their positions on three
sides of the enemy : each man carries a trumpet, an
earthen pitcher, and a lamp within it. At a given
signal, each sounds a long blast with the trumpet ;
the Midianites start up from sleep affrighted, and
gaze around ; in the same instant, every man breaks
his pitcher, and out gleams the blaze of three hun¬
dred lamps, while on every hand rises the appalling
shout, “ The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon!” The
trumpet-blast, the crash of the pitchers, the sudden
flash of light, and the shouting, all at once acting on
the senses of men half-awakened, and heightened by
the previous silence and gloom, produced a panic : all
the host ran, and cried, and fled.

The news of the discomfiture soon spread ; and

236

THE RIVER JORDAN.

the men of Israel were sufficiently ready to pursue
the flying foe : the Ephraimites took the fords, but
not until two of the kings, with a portion of the army,
had got over. There, however, Gideon and his three
hundred followed; “faint, yet pursuing;” and, not¬
withstanding the churlish lack of patriotism in Penuel
and Succoth, found the Midianitish kings with the
remnant of their mighty host. Though still utterly
disproportioned in numbers, faint with hunger and
weary with pursuit, the three hundred, trusting in
the God of Israel, fell on the fifteen thousand, and
discomfited them, taking prisoners the two chieftains.
Thus, in this wonderful deliverance, there fell of the
enemies of Israel, “ 120,000 men that drew sword.”

The experience which Israel had of the irresistible
power of Jehovah, and the proofs which He was con¬
tinually giving them of His willingness to exert His
omnipotence on their behalf, ought to have kept
them faithful to Himself. But it did not ; “ for their
heart was not right with Him, neither were they
stedfast in His covenant : but He being full of com¬
passion forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them
not : yea, many a time turned He His anger away,
and did not stir up all His wrath.” And in this how
like are we to Israel ! How often do we grieve the
Blessed Spirit, and turn away from Him who has
wrought so great a salvation for us ! We provoke
the Lord to chastise us sorely, and give, by our sins,
a great advantage to our enemies. Yet, He does not
give us up “as a prey to their teeth;” and though

JEPHTHAH.

257

we are feeble, and our spiritual adversaries are
numerous and mighty, they shall be surely over¬
come ; and the weakest believer may take up the
song of faith, “ Thanks be to God which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ k’

A third example of this military practice we
may allude to in the conflict that resulted upon
the triumph of Jephthah the Gileadite. But here
the Ephraimites were the sufferers, not the gainers
by the expedient. The Gileadite chief had returned
from the rout and slaughter of the Ammonites, and
had reaped the bitter fruit of his rash and foolish *
vow. The fiery Ephraimites, as they had already
done in the case of Gideon, haughtily remonstrated
with Jephthah, because the triumph had been
achieved without them, though their aid had been
vainly sought before. Their insulting language
brought on a conflict, in which, notwithstanding
their power and prowess, the men of Ephraim were
worsted. The battle was fought on the east side of
the Jordan, and when the fugitives endeavoured to
escape over the river to their own land, they found
themselves forestalled at the fords, which were al¬
ready in the possession of the victorious Gileadites.

* Perhaps it was “ rash and foolish,” as I have said above, in
consonance with general opinion; but Jephthah’s name is in
that goodly array of worthies, in Heb. xi., who “obtained the
good report” of the Holy Ghost; and he is certainly a type of
that Righteous One, who “swore to His own hurt, and changed
not” (Ps. xv. 4). — Edition 1877.

THE RIVER JORDAN.

233

The test by which the Ephraimite was detected was
very curious. One would have thought that there
could be no sensible difference between the men of
one tribe and those of another ; and that, if an
Ephraimite had chosen to say that he was a Manas-
site, or even a Gileadite, there would have been no
means of convicting him of falsehood. But a slight,
yet perfectly appreciable, difference in the pronuncia¬
tion of a letter was found to be a certain criterion.
The Ephraimites, it seems, could not produce the
sound of (sh), but substituted for it that of V (s) ;
the demand “ Say now Shibboleth” (that is, a stream),
at once determined the question : if his organs could
only say “ Sibboleth,” it was enough; he was con¬
victed out of his own mouth, and slain. Thus forty-
two thousand Ephraimites fell on that occasion, the
great majority of whom may be said to have fallen
victims to their vicious pronunciation. Yet it would
be more true to say that they owed their death to
their overweening pride, envy, ambition, their quarrel¬
some tempers, and their unbridled tongues. How
many of the strifes among brethren, as well as of
the wars among nations, might be traced to similar
causes ! May the Lord lead us less to insist on the
Shibboleths of party, and more to seek after “the
things that make for peace, and things whereby one
may edify another!”

ELIJAHS RAPTURE.

2R)

2 flings ii.

GLORIOUS had been the manifestation of divine
power, when the affrighted waters of Jordan were
driven back before the host of Israel ; but far more
glorious' was that display of it, which terminated the
earthly career of the prophet Elijah. He had been
the faithful witness for God in times of deep dege¬
neracy in Israel, when the open worship of Baal had
supplanted, almost entirely, the acknowledgment
of Jehovah ; and the godly of the seed of Jacob,
an exceedingly small remnant, had been persecuted
and compelled to hide in glens and caves by the
weak and wicked Ahab, stirred up by his still more
infamous wife, Jezebel. As an illustration of the
daring impiety of the times, we are told that, in the
days of Ahab, Kiel the Bethelite ventured, in spite
of the solemn curse denounced by Joshua,* to
rebuild the city Jericho ; and though, according to
the prophecy, his firstborn was cut off when he laid
the foundation, he scorned to swerve from his bold
purpose, until the death of his youngest son, as he
set up the gates, fulfilled the terms of the prediction,
and left him an accursed and a childless man.

* “ And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be
the man before Jehovah, that riseth up and buildeth this city
Jericho : he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and
in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.” — Josh. vi. 26.

240

THE RIVET JORDAN.

Immediately after the record of this solemn inci¬
dent, the Holy Spirit abruptly introduces Elijah the
Tishbite, denouncing the judgment of Jehovah against
His apostate inheritance. Like One of whom he was
an illustrious type, he was the faithful testifier against
evil, and the solitary witness for God ; like that
Blessed One, he proved that godly testimony evokes
the rancour of the world, which rejected Him and
cast Him out. And, like his antitype, he was cheered
and comforted by communion with his Father in
heaven, tended by the willing service of ministering
angels, and, when his suffering course was done, and
his mission accomplished, received up into the celes¬
tial glory.

It is this last wondrous scene that we will now
contemplate, the glorious rapture of the prophet
from the banks of Jordan to heaven. His Lord has
given him an intimation of the manner of his de¬
parture, so far beyond his desires or expectations.
Formerly, in a moment of despondency, he prayed,
“O Lord, take away my life!” but death is to have
no power against him, not even against his cor¬
ruptible body. And now he knows that the moment
draws near ; and he proceeds, in company with his
disciple and successor, Elisha, from Gilgal to Bethel,
from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to Jordan.
These were all scenes that had been associated, in
Israel’s early days, with glorious interpositions of
God. Bethel, “the house of God and the gate of
heaven,” had been the place where the lonely and

ELIJAH'S RAPTURE.

241

benighted Jacob had seen the mystic ladder, reaching
from earth to heaven, with the angels ascending and
descending on it. Jordan had cleft his foaming tide,
and “stood upon an heap,” to allow the host to pass
over. At Gilgal, the reproach of Egypt had been
rolled away,* and Israel first ate the fruits of the
land of Canaan. And Jericho, the strong and forti¬
fied city, had yielded to the conquering host their
first victory in the land, her mighty walls falling pros¬
trate before the trumpet-blasts of Jehovah’s white-
robed priests. But all these hallowed memories
had been well-nigh effaced, and the scenes them¬
selves polluted, by the debasing idolatry that had
spread far and wide. A farewell word of exhortation,
counsel, and comfort, to the few faithful ones that
yet remain, Elijah journeys around to give ; and then,
as one who has done with earth’s associations, whe¬
ther painful or pleasing, he leaves them, in turn, all
behind him, and keeps his eye on his heavenly rest.

It is not from the land of Israel that Elijah must
ascend to heaven, but from the wilderness. “ Israel
had journeyed from Jordan to Jericho; but Elijah
journeyed from Jericho to Jordan. In other words,
as Jordan was that which separated the wilderness
from the land, the prophet crossed it, thus leaving

* The expression “they went down to Bethel” from Gilgal,
militates, however, against this identification ; for Bethel is
1000 feet above the plain of Jericho. Robinson finds ancient
ruins, a few miles north of the site of Bethel, which yet bear the
name of Jiljuleh.

R

242

THE RIVER JORDAN.

Canaan behind him. His chariot met him, not in
the land , but in the wilderness. The land was pol¬
luted, and was speedily to be cleansed of those who
had introduced the pollution ; the glory was soon to
take its departure even from the most favoured spot ;
Ichabod might be written upon it all : wherefore the
prophet leaves it, and passes into the wilderness, thus
pointing out to the spiritual mind, that nothing re¬
mained for heavenly men but the wilderness and the
rest above. Earth was no longer to be the resting-
place or portion of the man of God : it was polluted.
The Jordan had been divided to allow Israel to pass
from the wilderness to Canaan ; it was now to be
divided to allow a heavenly man to pass from Canaan
to the wilderness, where his chariot awaited him,
ready to convey him from earth to heaven.” *

As the rod of Moses, stretched out over the Red
Sea, had been the instrument of its division, so now
the mantle of Elijah, wrapped together, is endowed
with the same wonder-working energy. It smites the
waters of the Jordan, and instantly they are divided
hither and thither, and the sainted associates pass
over on dry ground.

Nothing now intervenes ; the last barrier of earth
is left behind, and the chariot may every moment
be expected. Elisha is encouraged to prefer his last
request, before his honoured master be taken from
him; and he asks “a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit.” This was a large request, but it was the

° Life and Times of Elijah (Bryant, Bath), p. 108.

THE CHARIOT OF FIRE .

243

desire of faith, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
Long ago, he had been called to the prophetic office
by Elijah’s casting his mantle on him as he passed
by ; but then there had been, perhaps, a struggle
with earthly affection in his heart, — “ Let me kiss my
father and my mother!” Now, however, the pro¬
phetic mantle is uppermost in his mind ; he “ covets
earnestly the best gifts.” Nor shall his holy aspira¬
tion be frustrated : a great thing, and difficult, in¬
deed, it is, — “ a double portion of the spirit ” of Eli¬
jah ! nevertheless, provided he is able to witness the
glorious rapture, it shall be done.

And now their converse ends ; for a chariot of fire
and horses of fire are seen rushing down from the
sky with winged speed, attended by hosts of minis¬
tering angels. In a moment, the “ one is taken and
the other left,” and Elijah is carried up by a whirl¬
wind into heaven. Elisha gazes after his beloved
master, as he swiftly travels up the empyrean vault ;
and though he had hitherto calmly contemplated his
own and Israel’s bereavement, the sudden conscious¬
ness of the loss breaks forth in strong grief, and he
exclaims, — “ My father, my father, the chariot of
Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” — for he was now
taken away, whose prayers, and faith, and intercession
had been a better defence for Israel than hosts of
armed warriors.

The mantle is dropped, for it belongs to earth, not
to heaven. It had been, and still is, the symbol of
power ; but it is power in earthly service. Hence-

244

TIIE RIVER JORDAN.

forth, it belongs to Elisha, — the sign and seal of
that double portion of the Spirit which he had so
earnestly coveted.

Thus passed gloriously away into the regions of
light and joy one who, with all his power, had been
“ a man subject to like passions as we are.” And
thus he became an earnest of those saints who shall
be found alive at the coming of the Lord. We are
told that some shall thus remain ; that “ we shall not
all sleep and though it is common to speak of
death as the universal lot, as the only certain event,
this is not according to truth ; for, whether the second
advent of the Lord Jesus be at the very doors, or
whether it be deferred for a while longer, the word
is clear and explicit, that some shall be, like Elijah,
triumphantly rapt away without dying, to meet the
Lord in the air. Not that with mortal corruptible
bodies we can enter into the heavenly glory ; though
we shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed ; — in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the great change
will take place : this corruptible shall put on incor¬
ruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.
Jesus, Himself, shall change our vile body, that it be
fashioned like unto His own glorious body; and so
we shall be entirely like, as well as for ever with, the
Lord. Doubtless it was so with Elijah ; without a
pang, without a struggle, all that was earthly, cor¬
ruptible, and mortal, passed away from his body in
the moment of his transition, just as his well-worn
mantle dropped lightly to the earth.

N A AM. AN,

2 15

O what a triumph of grace and power will then be
manifested ! The goodly company of living ones of
whom the monster Death will be robbed, shall not
ascend alone. Millions upon millions of those upon
whom his insatiable jaws have closed, will at the
same blessed moment be snatched out of his grasp,
and endowed with new resurrection bodies incapable
of dying any more ; and all together, a multitude that
no man can number, arrayed in unearthly light and
dazzling glory, shall ascend up to the mansions of
bliss above, to dwell for ever with Jesus. O reader !
see to it that you have a well-grounded, scriptural
hope of being one in that happy ascending throng !
for it will include all who, whether alive or dead, are
in Christ ; and those who are left behind upon the
earth, whether in the grave, or in the busy scenes of
life, will be reserved for judgment and tribulation.

“ The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin
is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ !”

2 flwjjs V.

IIow little does man’s happiness or wretchedness
depend on the possession or deprivation of those
gifts — wealth, honour, fame, professional success, high
rank, or what not, — which mankind in general so
much covet ! How often there is a cankenvorm at
the root of the fairest plant of worldly prosperity,

246

THE RIVER JORDAN.

blighting all its beauty, and turning its fruit to bitter¬
ness and ashes !

In the service of Benhadad, the king of Syria, there
is one whom all look on with envy as a prosperous
and fortunate man. He is the chief-captain of the
Syrian armies, wielding the highest military power in
the kingdom ; he is eminent for valour, and his name
is the theme of the national songs and praises ; he is
the darling of the people, and in the highest favour at
the court of the king, for he has recently returned
from a threatening war which he has brought to a
conclusion most favourable for Syria, and he has
carried his conquering arms into the territories of
the surrounding nations. He is loved as well as
honoured ; he is surrounded by a family circle who
regard him with personal affection as sincere as it
is agreeable. His very servants feel his welfare and
interests to be theirs ; but — he is a leper ! All his
greatness and honour and power is embittered by the
constant presence of a loathsome, painful, incurable
disease — incurable by any hand less than God’s.

In his household there is a little maid, a slave.
She had been made captive in one of the late Syrian
raids upon the land of Israel, and dragged away
from her peaceful and happy home to bondage in a
foreign land. Hard seems her lot, yet she is happy,
and has pity to spare for her leprous lord.

The secret of the little maid’s happiness is, that
she knows the God of Israel ; and in the largeness of
her heart she utters the ardent wish, that her master

THE LEPER'S CLEANSING.

247

were with Jehovah’s servant, the prophet Elisha, “for
he would recover him of his leprosy.” Probably,
she had never heard of a leper’s actually having been
cured by Elisha, but it is the language of faith,
setting no limits to Jehovah’s power, or to Jehovah’s
mercy. What a sweet testimony in that idolatrous
land !

The remarkable words of the Hebrew maid are
soon reported to Naaman, and with the concurrence
of the king, his master, he undertakes the journey
into Samaria. He comes in the pride of his wealth
and power, with large presents in his hand, ten talents
of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten
changes of raiment, and presents himself in lordly
state at the door of Elisha. Full of his own greatness,
he expects that the prophet will come out and per¬
sonally perform a cure, which he thinks himself so
well able to pay for. How then is he mortified when
a servant is sent out to him with a simple verbal
message to go and wash in Jordan ! And what is
Jordan? “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? May
I not wash in them, and be clean ? ” Thus, in his
pride and wrath, the haughty leper turns away,
refusing to accept a blessing that costs so little, and
that puts so little honour on the receiver !

It was well for Naaman that he had faithful and
prudent servants, who, without in the least degree
trenching upon the respect due from them to him,
were yet able and willing affectionately to remon-

248

TIRE RIVER JORDAN.

strate with him, and to show him the unreasonable¬
ness of his conduct. If some severe penance, some
arduous labour, some long course of self-denial, some
heavy price had been prescribed, would he not gladly
have performed the conditions for the sake of the
result? How much more, then, when the command
was, simply, “Wash, and be clean”?

Convinced of his folly by this prudent appeal, the
Syrian captain turns his horses’ heads towards the
Jordan, and soon he perceives its stream in the
distance gliding through the plain like a thread of
silver, here and there hidden by the overhanging
bushes, and again emerging in its beauty, reflecting
the light of heaven. He alights on the rushy brink,
and according to the word of the prophet, dips him¬
self in its waters. Six times he has immersed his
body, but no change is perceptible ; one plunge more
completes the prescribed number : will it be success¬
ful, or only a mockery ? His heart throbs with
anxiety, as once more his white and scaly flesh is
buried in Jordan’s tide; but oh! how quickly docs
he leap out ! for he feels the tide of health thrill
through his veins in all its delicious novelty ; and
he needs not the cry of joy that escapes from his
delighted attendants to assure him of what he has
already felt, that his flesh has acquired the firmness
and plumpness, and ruddy healthful hue, of the flesh
of a little child. He humbly, and meekly, and grate¬
fully returns to the house of Elisha, and as he stands
before his benefactor, he witnesses a good confession ;

THE FOUNTAIN FOR SIN.

249

“ Behold ! now I know that there is no God in all the
earth but in Israel. . . . Thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other
gods, but unto Jehovah.”

A beautiful illustration is thus presented to us
of the simplicity and the freeness of gospel grace.
Man in his pride and self-sufficiency would often be
willing to “ do some great thing ” for the cure of his
soul’s leprosy ; to have recourse to other ways of
salvation, than that of simply washing in the
“Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.” And
many cannot consent to be saved for nothing, as
mere beggars, who would be willing to carry a price
in their hand. But salvation is of grace ; it is not
to be bought ; not with penitence, nor with tears, nor
with prayers, nor with penances, nor with promises
of reformation, nor with alms, nor with good works
of any kind. It is offered without money, and with¬
out price.

To some the apparent inadequacy of the remedy is
an insuperable objection. They cannot imagine how
the believing on the Lord Jesus Christ can avail to
save their souls ; and they are ready to turn away to
some Abana or Pharpar of their own. But in this
God is honoured, that the channel of salvation cuts
off all boasting from man. It is enough that God,
the Judge, has ordained the remedy, and that He
perceives its perfect suitability to the end required.

But he, who, like Naaman, has been brought to
try the Divine remedy, has proved its perfect efficacy.

250

THE RIVER JORDAN.

He has found that the cleansing fountain of Jesus’
blood has done more than merely purge away his
sins. Naaman was not merely cleansed, nor put into
the condition of another man, but made “ as a little
child,” a new-born life, so to speak, was given him.
And so with the poor sinner brought to the blood
of Christ. He gets more than cleansing, he receives
a new life imparted to him, and that is life in
resurrection, for he is made a partaker of the life of
his risen Lord. A believer is not an old creature
amended, but a new creature in Christ Jesus.

2 flings vi.

The story which we are about to relate is one of
those little incidents which touchingly show forth
the tenderness of the Spirit of God. Nothing with
Omnipotence is great; nothing with Love is little.
The falling of a sparrow does not take place without
God’s ordaining, and the very hairs on the head of
one of His saints are all numbered. The sympathies
of God are ever exercised towards His people, and
there is no occasion of sorrow to them, however
trivial, or even contemptible it may seem in the eyes
of the world, for which He does not care.

Elisha is again brought before us as the exerciser
of Almighty power. Not as Elijah, in stern testi¬
mony against evil, the witness and intercessor against
apostate Israel, but the agent of Omnipotence in
gracious service to man, alleviating the sorrows and

SCHOOLS OF PROPHETS.

251

supplying the need of the evil and the good. Thus
he, too, was a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus, but
in a very different aspect from Elijah.

Through the godly preaching and care of both of
these devoted men, the Lord had already raised up a
number of young persons, who were happy, though
in times when true religion was in very bad savour,
to give up all their prospects and worldly considera¬
tion for the service of Jehovah. They lived together
in harmony and love, constituting what have been
called “schools ” or “colleges” of the sons of the pro¬
phets, several of which seem to have been established
in the towns of Israel. Their poverty in the things
of the present life is touchingly presented to us by
the circumstances of the following incident.

Finding the dwelling where they resided too small
for their increasing numbers, the young men propose
to seek one of larger dimensions, but they have no
means of attaining their desires, except by the labour
of their own hands. They therefore say to Elisha,
their spiritual guide and father, “ Let us go, we pray
thee, to Jordan, and take thence every man a beam,
and let us make us a place there, where we may
dwell.” In our early days we often wondered why
they should go so far as to the banks of the Jordan for
this purpose ; but the researches of modern travellers
have shown a sufficient reason in the great scarcity
of timber-trees in Palestine, except on the summits
and sides of the higher mountains, and the banks of
the permanent rivers. The margins of Jordan, in parti-

?52

THE RIVER JORDAN.

cular, arc fringed with acacia and tamarisk-trees, grow¬
ing up abundantly from amidst the thickets of shrubs
that conceal the river’s brim. Both of these trees af¬
ford timber fit for building purposes ; but the latter was
in all probability chiefly used from its greater abun¬
dance, as well as the superior excellence of its wood.

The Oriental Tamarisk ( Tainarix orientalist is an
elegant and beautiful tree, which grows to the height
of twenty or thirty feet. Its branches shoot upward
at an acute angle with the direction of the trunk, and
hence this tree has somewhat of the graceful slender¬
ness of the Lombardy poplar. Its leaves are smooth
and glossy, and resemble scales set on straight rod¬
like branches ; the wood is hard, and, besides its value
as timber, makes excellent charcoal. It produces
galls, which are scarcely less valuable ui the arts than
those of the oak.

The kind and gracious Elisha is well content to ac¬
company the humble band at their request, to solace
their toil by his godly conversation, or to give them
the benefit of his experience in prudent counsel. They
come to the wooded bank of Jordan, and are quickly
engaged in felling the straightest and tallest trees
for the beams of their new dwelling. Probably their
strength and industry were greater than their skill in
the use of their tools ; for, presently, as one of them
was felling a tree that grew over the very water’s
brink, the head of the axe came off, and fell into the
river. It seems a little circumstance, but it distressed
the young man’s mind, for he knew not how to replace

ALMIGHTY TOWER .

it ; and it was borrowed. Elisha’s sympathies are at
once excited : he does not coldly say, “ It is a trifle,
never mind it.” The tenderness of conscience that
grieved over the loss of another’s property was pleas¬
ing to the Spirit of God, and He immediately impels
the prophet to work a miracle for its recovery. Elisha
cut down a stick, and cast it into the stream at the
place where the iron axe-head had sunk, and imme¬
diately it rose to the surface and swam. And the
young man put out his hand, and took it.

It is not usually that we find the omnipotence of
God exerted miraculously about such things as these.
But perhaps this was permitted, as we have hinted
above, to represent to those immediately concerned,
and to us, in future ages, the condescending grace
wherewith He can meet every need. Of course, the
display of power is as truly seen in the floating of
the iron, as in the walking of Peter on the waves of
the sea. “ Both are equally contrary to nature. Nei¬
ther is there any natural alliance between the cause
and the effect — between the casting in of a stick, and
the swimming of the iron, as there was none after¬
wards between the putting clay on the eyes, and the
restoring of sight ; for it is neither the skill of the
workman, nor the fitness of the instrument, that is
to be considered, but the excellency of the power of
God.” *

* “ Meditations on Elisha ” (Lond., 1848), p. 49. Probably in
each case there is a hidden meaning discernible only by the
“ scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven.” The Holy

254

THE RIVER JORDAN.

Maltbcfa XVI.

q

The sources of the Jordan require a brief notice, as
two of them, at least, are connected with the historical
records of Holy Scripture. The issuing of the large
fountain from the mouth of the dark cavern at Paneas
we have already described. Here Herod the Great
built a temple of white marble, in honour of Augustus ;
and his son, Philip, the tetrarch of Iturea and Tra-
chonitis, built a city around it, in the appellation of
which he united the name of his imperial patron with
his own, calling it Cmsarea Philippi.

It was to the neighbourhood of this city that our
blessed Lord resorted with His disciples, after He had
miraculously fed the multitude the second time. He
probably sought retirement and privacy among the
wild scenery with which this elevated region abounds.
It was here that His inquiries, as to the notions which
His disciples had formed of His person and charac¬
ter, elicited from Simon Peter that noble confession,
revealed to Him, not by flesh and blood, but by His
Father in heaven, — “ Thou art the Christ, the Son of
che living God.” A glorious declaration was this !

Ghost is not limited to the rules of human composition. The
story of the swimming iron suggests the following thoughts. A
house is to be builded of materials gathered out of death and
judgment (Jordan). God for salvation (Elisha) is with the
labourers. The Power becomes subject to death. God raises
Him ; and the house is builded.

INTERESTING MONUMENT

255

and blessed was he that uttered it ! Ignorant of much
important truth he yet was ; many carnal expecta¬
tions, and worldly, selfish desires were in his heart ;
little sympathy had he, as yet, with the purpose for
which his Master had come into the world ; he had
yet to be greatly humbled, and to learn the treachery
and depravity, as yet unsuspected, of his own heart ;
nay, his earthliness was about to evoke, almost the
next instant, a stern rebuke, as the very mouth-piece
of Satan, from Jesus. And yet Peter was a blessed
man ; for he had been divinely taught to recognize
Him whom the Father had sanctified and sent into
the world; and “no man can say that Jesus is the
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

A curious tradition is preserved by Eusebius con¬
necting this city with the woman of faith, who was
cured of her inveterate disease by touching the border
of Jesus’s garment. The words of the early historian
are these: — “But, as we have mentioned this city,
I do not think it right to pass by a narrative that
deserves to be recorded for posterity. They say, that
the woman who had an issue of blood, mentioned by
the evangelists, and who obtained deliverance from
her affliction by our Saviour, was a native of this
place, and that her house is shown in the city, and the
wonderful monuments of our Saviour's benefit to her
are still remaining. At the gates of her house, on an
elevated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on
her bended knee, with her hands stretched out before
her, like one intreating. Opposite to this, there is

THE RIVER JORDAN.

256

another image of a man erect, of the same materials,
decently clad in a mantle, and stretching out his hand
to the woman. Before her feet, and on the same ped¬
estal, there is a certain strange plant growing, which,
rising as high as the hem of the brazen garment, is a
kind of antidote to all kinds of diseases. This figure,
they say, is a statue of Jesus Christ, and it has re¬
mained even until our times, so that we ourselves saw
it whilst tarrying in that city.”* Other ancient writ¬
ers have repeated this story, and some add that the
woman was named Berenice. The monument was
destroyed either by Julian, or, according to others, by
Maximin.

Jfttbges xviii. 1 Jlhtgs xn.

At the fountains of the Jordan, which rise at Tel-el-
Kady, stood one of the ancient seats of Israelitish
idolatry. The city of Laish, or Lasha, was of great
antiquity ; for it is mentioned as one of the border
cities of Canaan long before the time of Abraham.
It belonged to Sidon, but was too far removed from
that powerful maritime city to enjoy the benefit of
protection from it ; hence, when the lawless Danites
sent out a colony to smite it with the edge of the
sword, and to take possession of it for themselves,
they found it an easy prey. The successful invaders
then changed the name of the city from Laish to

* Eccles. Hist., vii. 18.

FOUNTAIN OF TEL-EL-KADY.

257

Dan, “ after the name of Dan, their father.” Thus
this tribe was widely divided in Israel ; for the ori¬
ginal allotment of its portion was in the south-west
part of Palestine, whereas, the new colony was in
the far north ; so that it became proverbial as one of
the extremities of the land, — “ from Dan even unto
Beersheba.”

FRESH-WATER TORTOISE.

The city thus obtained became immediately the
seat of an established idolatry ; for the Danites set
up a graven image as an object of worship, which
remained “ all the time that the house of God was in
Shiloh.” Thus the tribe of Dan, long before spoken
of by the spirit of prophecy as “ a serpent by the
way, an adder in the path,” had the dreadful pre-

S

258 THE RIVER JORDAN.

eminence of first establishing that apostasy from the
true God which at length poisoned and destroyed the
whole people.

This very city was one of the two which, in times
long afterwards, Jeroboam selected as the seats of
his state idolatry ; for “ the king took counsel and
made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is
too much for you to go up to Jerusalem ; behold thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el, and the
other put he in Dan.”

No remains of the ancient city are now visible;
but the fountain still bubbles forth as of old, and
contributes its crystal affluent to the renowned
Jordan. The site is a small elevation with a level
summit in the midst of which is the spring. Dr.
Wilson thus describes it : — “We suddenly came upon
a circular basin, about a hundred yards wide, in the
bottom of which great quantities of water were rising
and boiling up, and a considerable number of fresh¬
water tortoises* were disporting themselves. It
formed by far the most copious spring which we had
yet seen in the country. Two large streams of the
purest water emerge from it, which, after forming a
little island, immediately unite into a rapid river, ten

* The Doctor calls them Tcstudo Grceca ; but he has, no doubt,
mistaken the genus ; for the land tortoises do not affect the
water. The fresh-water tortoises constitute a very different
family, that of the Emydidce , to which, doubtless, belong those
mentioned in his note.

BUFFALO .

259

yards wide, and two feet deep, having a very quick
descent through a luxuriant grove of oleanders,
briers, and wild figs, and poplar, pistacia, and mul¬
berry-trees. The branch of this river was highest
on the eastern side.” *

The inhabitants of the region in which these inter-

BUFFALO.

esting localities are situated use the Indian buffalo,
in association with the common ox, for the purposes
of husbandry. It is an uncouth and unprepossessing
animal, with shaggy hair, laterally-spreading horns,
and a savage expression of countenance. The hot

* Lands of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1847), p. 170.

25o

1I1E RIVER JORDAN.

and pestilent morass is its favourite resort, where it
delights to wallow in the mud and stagnant water,
or to remain for hours, in the heat of the day, almost
entirely submerged, with its black, broad muzzle
alone elevated above the green surface. Its power to
bear moisture and heat makes it valuable in the
neighbourhood of water ; and thus, around Lake
Houle and the Sea of Tiberias it is much cultivated.
Its prodigious strength, also, renders it a serviceable
acquisition, though its treacherous and savage temper
is always dangerous. Dr. Robinson considers this to
be the Reem of the Hebrew Scriptures (trans¬

lated “unicorn” in our version); but there seems
more probability that some species of rhinoceros was
intended. In the monuments both of ancient Egy Pt
and of Nineveh, there is a species of wild-bull or
buffalo frequently represented under circumstances
which seem to imply that the hunting of this savage
animal was an exploit worthy of the prowess of a
king, and fit to be put into competition with the
hunting of the lion himself.

VI.

THE RIVER J ARM UR,

TOPOGRAPHY.

Ashtaroth Karnaim — Beautiful Lake — Mountains of Bashan
and Gilead — Magnificence of the Scenery — Trees of Bashan —
The Kingdom of Og— The Eastern Tribes — The Boundary of
the Land.

THE COUNTRY OF THE GADARENES.

Demoniacal Possession — The Man among the Tombs —
Demons and Swine — A Sinner’s Deliverance — Gadara — Its
A.ncient Sepulchres.

fjumbcts xxxil

IN considering the remaining rivers of Palestine, it
will be convenient to take them in the following
order; those which fall into the Jordan and Dead
Sea on the east, those which have the same termina¬
tion on the west side, and those which empty them¬
selves into the Mediterranean.

On the left bank of the Jordan, the first stream of
any importance which the traveller meets with is the
Jarmuk, or, as it was called by the Greeks, the
Hieromax. Its name does not occur in the Scripture,
though the region through which it flows is often
mentioned both in the Old and in the New Testa¬
ment. One of its sources is at a place called
Mezareib, supposed to be the ancient Ashtaroth
Karnaim, or, “ the two-horned/’ a town of Bashan,
which was assigned to the Levites. The name of
this city indicates its dedication to the Syrian Venus,

“ Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent-horns,”

whose debasing worship was such a snare to Israel,
and even captivated their greatest and wisest
monarch, King Solomon.

The Jarmuk near this place issues from a lake
about a mile in circumference. According to Mr.
Buckingham, there is a small grass-covered islet in

264

THE RIVER JARMUK.

the centre, and a great number of fish swim in its
crystal waters, equal in size and not inferior in
beauty to the elegant gold and silver fishes which
we keep in glass vases. The water is sweet and
transparent, and is never dried up in the most arid
seasons. A copious stream issues from this beauti¬
ful lake, which pursues a westerly direction, with
comparatively few windings, until, after a course of
about forty miles (in a straight line), it empties itself
into the Jordan, not far from the southern extremity
of the Lake of Gennesaret. At its mouth it is forty
yards wide, being nearly as broad and as deep as
the Jordan itself. Mr. Buckingham in February
found difficulty in fording it, a little above its de¬
bouchure.

The lake just mentioned is considered as the
source of the Jarmuk, not because it is the most
remote, but because it is the most permanent.
Many streams appear to combine to form this river,
draining a wide extent of country to the eastward ;
one of these was described to the traveller just named
as having its origin three days' journey from the
Jordan, at a place called Shellal. This word is used
by the Arabs of the Nile, to signify a rapid or a
cataract, but whether it indicated such a feature
here, he could not clearly understand.

The elevated country, through which the Jarmuk
flows, is the ancient mountain-region of Bashan and
Gilead. It was renowned for its fertility, its exten¬
sive pastures, its high-fed and fierce cattle, and its

SCENERY OF BA SHAN. £05

towering forests, the “ oaks of Bashan” being scarcely
less proverbial than the “ cedars of Lebanon.”
Bashan may be considered as lying to the north,

OAKS OF BASHAN.

Gilead to the south, of the Jar.muk. The former is
the great pasture-region, the soil being remarkably
fertile, and the vegetation most rich and luxuriant.

266

HIE RIVER JARMUK.

The latter is more elevated, and more broken into
hill and dale. The northern part is somewhat tame,
the central picturesque, the southern sublime.

As the traveller recedes from the Lake of Tiberias
and from the valley of the Jordan into the heart of
this region, the scenery becomes very magnificent.
Trees, which had before been scarce, begin to occur,
first singly, then in clumps and groves, and at length
in forests. The roads wind in the most picturesque
manner along the sides of the mountains, or round
the fantastic hills, through secluded valleys, and
narrow rocky gorges overhung with precipices, out of
the sides and clefts of which springs at every turn
the Valonidi oak, the characteristic tree of this part
of the country. Many other fine trees, the prickly-
oak, the olive, and the pine, and another species of
Valonidi with broader leaves, are scattered over the
less lofty heights ; and, at greater elevations, the
arbutus and the fir are seen. The enormous crags
that jut out from the summits of the mountains are
almost concealed by the noble fir-trees that thickly
shoot up their dark green heads around them. In
the valley, the oleanders, which everywhere border
the beds of the winter torrents, grow to a great size,
and are uncommonly superb, especially when covered
with their masses of magnificent blossom.

Lord Lindsay thus describes a lovely valley of
Gilead, a little to the south of the Jarmuk: — ‘‘A
beautiful narrow glen ushered us into a broad valley,
richly wooded to the summits of the hills with noble

MAGNIFICENT SCENERY.

267

prickly oaks, a few pine-trees towering above them.
I never should have thought that the shrub which I
had seen covering the hills at Hebron could have
attained such size and beauty ; yet the leaf of the
largest tree is not larger than that of the shrubs. I
saw an occasional degub tree, an arbutus, but the
prevailing trees were oaks, prickly and broad-leafed.
It was forest scenery of the noblest character ; next
to that of old England, with which none I ever saw
can stand comparison.”

A similar testimony is borne by other travellers to
the grandeur and beauty of this region. Mr. Buck¬
ingham gives the following account of the country
between Soof in Gilead, and Om Keiss on the
south bank of the Jarmuk, supposed to be the
ancient Gadara. “ On leaving Soof, we descended
into a fine valley, again rising on a gentle ascent,
the whole being profusely and beautifully wooded
with evergreen oaks below and pines upon the ridge
of the hills above, as well as a variety of the lesser
trees. This forest, for it fully deserved the name,
continued for about four or five miles, when we
opened on a more park-like scenery, the ground
showing here and there a rich green turf, and the
woods becoming less crowded than before. The
soil of the road on which we travelled was clayey,
with a fine yellow gravel on the surface ; and the
track was broad and beaten. As we descended to a
lower level, the pines disappeared ; and on the side of
one of the hills, close to the road on our right, we

2C3

THE RIVER JARMUK.

observed a grotto, carefully hewn down in front,
with an arched door of entrance, and a small court
and cistern before it. On alighting to examine it,
we found it to be an excavated tomb, now containing
three stone sarcophagi of the usual form and size.
Were it not for the actual presence of these, we
should have thought it to have been a cell of resi¬
dence for some solitary living being, rather than a
place of sepulture for the dead, as we knew of no
ancient site in the immediate vicinity of the place,
nor could we find any traces of other tombs near.
Although this solitude had been chosen, and wild
bushes had so overgrown its front as almost to con¬
ceal it from the view, this sepulchre had been violated
as well as all the rest, and its cistern was choked, its
court partly filled up, and its sarcophagi uncovered
and empty. . , . We reached, at length, a beauti¬

ful dell, wooded round on all sides, where we found
a small encampment of Bedouins striking their tent,
and removing from the more open part of the vale
to seek shelter beneath the trees, (on account of the
rain). . . A large fire was kindled, cakes were

baked for us, coffee burnt, pounded, and prepared,
our pipes lighted, and, in short, every office per¬
formed for our comfort and refreshment, by those
hospitable wanderers, without a thought of com¬
pensation. After a stay of half-an-hour, we
departed from hence, continuing, still, through the
most beautifully-wooded scenery on all sides. Mr.
Bankes, who had seen the whole of England, the

TI1E KINGDOM OF OG.

2C9

greater part of Italy and France, and almost every
province of Spain and Portugal, frequently remarked,
that, in all his travels, he had met with nothing equal
to it, excepting only in some parts of the latter
country. . . . It is certain that we were perpetually
exclaiming at every turn, How rich ! how picturesque!
tow magnificent ! how beautiful ! and that we both
conceived the scenery alone to be quite worth all the
hazard and privation of a journey to the eastward of
Jordan.” *

The beautiful and fertile country thus described
was ruled, at the time of Israel’s conquest of Canaan,
by the redoubtable Og, King of Bashan, a remnant
of an ancient gigantic race. His stature is indicated
by his bedstead of iron ; “ nine cubits (about sixteen
feet) was the length thereof, and four cubits (or seven
feet) the breadth of it.” He marched at the head of
his warlike people to repel Israel from the border of
his land ; but notwithstanding his giant strength and
prowess, he was discomfited and slain. Thus his
country fell into the hands of the children of Israel ;
a region which, though not more than about ninety
miles in length by thirty in breadth, contained
“ three-score cities ... all fenced with high walls,
gates, and bars, beside unwalled towns a great
many/’ The enumeration of these cities enables us
to form a somewhat definite idea of the power of the
Canaanitish nations who were dispossessed before

Palestine, ii. 240.

THE RIVER JARMUK.

-7°

Israel, a power which, we believe, has been greatly
underrated. We do not certainly know what the
population of these walled cities was, but we have
some data for concluding that they were not less
numerously inhabited than the average of modern
cities. The city of Ai, which seems to have belonged
to the Jebusites, was viewed, after the destruction of
Jericho, for the purpose of estimating the force need¬
ful to capture it. The spies returned to Joshua, and
said unto him, “ Let not all the people go up, but let
about 2,000 or 3,000 men go up and smite Ai, and
make not all the people to labour thither, for they are
but few!' The slighting way in which this place was
mentioned clearly shows that its strength was much
below the average, yet its population is expressly
declared to have been 12,000. But if we assume this
to have been the average of the fortified towns of
Bashan, and that of the “great many ” umvalled
towns to have been half as numerous, we have the
population of this district alone amounting to up¬
wards of a million.

The land of Bashan became the possession of Gad
and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who, with the tribe
of Reuben, had petitioned for the excellent pasture-
lands on the east of Jordan, “ because they had
cattle.” Moses at first thought that their request
proceeded from a selfish desire to evade the toils and
dangers of the coming war of conquest, and ad¬
ministered a stern reproof. But they disclaimed any
such intention, and expressed their readiness to go

THE TRANS-JORDANIC TRIBES. 271

over armed before the children of Israel, leaving their
families and cattle behind them, pledging themselves
not to return until the whole inheritance of the land
was divided. Their petition was granted on these
conditions, which they faithfully performed.

It has been remarked that the strong desire of
Moses, “ I pray thee, let me go over, and see the
good land that is beyond Jordan,” contrasted with
the unwillingness of the two and a-half tribes, “ Bring
us not over Jordan,” and that they did not see in
Canaan a type of the heavenly rest which he, by
faith, could see and appreciate. “ In their too great
haste for a settlement, they petitioned for, and
obtained it ; but it was a situation very distant
from the sanctuary, and it much interrupted their
intercourse with their brethen ; it was very much
exposed to their enemies, and uneasy to themselves ;
and they seem to have been dispossessed sooner
than the other Israelites.” * For it was here that
Jehovah “began to cut Israel short;” and they
were exposed to the tyrannical cruelty of Hazael,
the usurper, King of Syria, during all the days of
Jehoahaz ; and at length they were carried captive
into Assyria by Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, perhaps
forty years before the same fate befel their brethren
on the other side of Jordan.

The Promised Land, properly so called, as Mi-
chaelis has observed, was bounded eastward by the

* Scott.

272

THE RIVER JARMUK.

Jordan ; and Moses laid no claim to the land east
of that river, although, in the end, the aggressions
of Sihon, King of the Amorites, and of Og, King of
Bashan, occasioned some of this territory to be ac¬
quired by right of conquest ; when it was given to
Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, as
being well suited to their peculiarly pastoral mode of
life. Yet, although the Jordan was the proper boun¬
dary of the Promised Land, we elsewhere find it
promised that the eastward boundary should be the
Euphrates. In this, however, there is no real contra¬
diction. The boundary of the Holy Land, which the
Hebrews were to divide after expelling the inhabit¬
ants, and which constituted, in a manner, the citadel
of the state, was one thing ; the boundary beyond
which they were not to extend their conquests east¬
ward, or, in other words, that of its outworks, was
another. The Jordan made the former; the Eu¬
phrates the latter. The intervening space between
these rivers was not necessarily to be occupied ex¬
clusively by Israelites, but to serve as pasturage for
their cattle, the greater part of it being fit for no
other purpose.

!$nrh v.

Embosomed in the steep and craggy mountains
that rise above the deep-flowing Jarmuk, not more
than half-a-dozen miles from its junction with the
Jordan, and still nearer the south-east shore of the

DEMONIACAL POSSESSION.

273

Sea of Tiberias, lay the city of Gadara, the capital of
the “ country of the Gadarenes.” Here, in the early
part of His gracious ministry, the Lord Jesus gave
a signal proof of His power to bind and to destroy
Satan, and exhibited Himself as the Seed of the
woman, bruising the serpent’s head. Almost imme¬
diately after He had uttered His memorable dis¬
course on the Mount, He sailed with His disciples
across the Lake of Gennesaret. During the passage
He majestically rebuked the raging winds and waves,
and calmed them with His mighty word. He landed
in the country of the Gergesenes, as they are called
by Matthew (probably the same as the Girgashites
of the Old Testament), or of the Gadarenes, as Mark
and Luke designate them. As He walked up into
the country, there met him one of those miserable
beings whom the evil spirit was permitted to torment
and to inhabit. Demoniacal possession was terribly
common at this time among degenerate Israel, and
perhaps nothing, except the actual rejection of the
Son of God, shows how deeply the nation had fallen
from its high estate, than this fact. In the early
days of Israel, Jehovah Himself had personally dwelt
among them in manifested power and sensible glory ;
in their last days Satan dwelt among them in mani¬
fested power and malignity, and with a personal
presence.

Some have indeed maintained, with Sadducean
scepticism, that these possessions were only instances
of mental aberration or madness, and that the Blessed

T

274

THE RIVER JARMUK.

Lord, who is “the Truth,” and His apostles, writing
under the plenary inspiration of Him who is “ the
Spirit of Truth/’ merely pandered to popular super¬
stition in stating these cases to be what they were
not ! Various attributes of distinct personality, as
speech, fear, deprecation, intreaty, individuality, num¬
ber, and change of place, are ascribed to the indwell¬
ing demons : they recognised Him as the Holy One
of God, who was driving them out, but whom man
knew only by Divine revelation ; they rendered Him
an involuntary homage, and in shuddering horror
alluded to the torment which at an appointed time
they knew they should receive from Him. The Lord
Himself calls them evil and unclean spirits, Beelze¬
bub, and Satan.

The miserable Gadarene who now met the Lord
was a notable example of Satanic energy. He
habitually had his dwelling among the tombs, where
his supernatural power and ferocity rendered him a
terror to the neighbourhood. He wore no clothes,
but lived in brute-like exposure to the elements. No
fetters could bind him ; for chains and bands were
broken asunder by his superhuman strength ; and no
man could tame him. “ And always, night and day,
he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying,
and cutting himself with stones.”

But the period of his emancipation was arrived ;
for the Lord of angels as well as men appeared, to
deliver him from his terrible enemies. The number
of malignant spirits that occupied as a tabernacle the

DEMONS AND S IVINE. 275

body of this wretched man was great indeed, since,
to express it, they compare themselves to a legion, a
division of the Roman army, which at that time con¬
sisted of more than 6,000 men ! What an idea does
this give us of the immense number of the “ princi¬
palities, and powers, and spiritual beings of wicked¬
ness,”* that are marshalled and arrayed under the
power of Satan ! Against these the believer is called
to wrestle ; but he needs not fear them, for Jesus is
the Captain of his salvation, and in Him the saint
shall surely conquer.

Being commanded by a word which they could not
resist nor evade, to come out of the man, the spirits
mysteriously requested permission to enter the bodies
of swine, which, in a numerous herd, were feeding at
a considerable distance on the steep hills that over¬
looked the lake. The Lord for wise purposes gave
them leave ; and presently the whole two thousand
swine rushed madly down the declivity, and perished
in the waters.

Thus, the God of Israel coming down to view His
own goodly land, found it occupied by demons and
swine, — unclean spirits and unclean beasts ! And
His people were so alienated in their minds from
Him, as to prefer the presence of their demons and

* The evil spirits are not in the heavenlies ; but our wrestling
against them is “ in (i.e., on, or in the matter of) the super-
heavenlies,” to which believers are even now raised in Christ,
our Head. Eph. vi. 12. (See Gr. and cf. i. 3, 20 ; ii. 6 : iii. 10.)

2/5

TIIE RIVET JARMUH.

their swine to Him who would have delivered them
from both. “ The whole city came out to meet

m

Jesus ; and when they saw Him, they besought Him
that He would depart out of their coasts ! ”

But one, at least, has formed a different estimate.
It is the poor creature who had been so long the
object and instrument of Satan’s malice and power.
He is now calmly sitting at the feet of his heavenly
Deliverer, clothed and in his right mind ; and finding
it a sweet privilege to hear the words of grace and
truth that fall from his lips, he prays that he may
be permitted to continue with Him. And though this
request is denied, it is only because the Lord calls
him to a still higher place than that of personal
enjoyment, however holy ; he is sent forth to his
neighbours to be a witness to them of the power and
goodness and grace of his Lord.

Most, if not all, of the miracles of mercy wrought
by the Lord Jesus, are considered as typical of the
still more important deliverance which He came to
achieve from spiritual maladies. He went about,
healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; but
none of the maladies wherewith Satan is permitted
to afflict the bodies of men are comparable to that
dominion which he has over every soul by nature,
through sin. Like the demoniac, who had his dwell¬
ing among the tombs, the sinner dwells in the dole¬
ful regions of corruption and death ; like him, he is
unclothed, destitute of righteousness, and therefore
exposed to the wrath of God ; the prey of fierce lusts

A SINNER'S DELIVERANCE.

277

and passions, he breaks through the restraints of the
Divine law, whose fetters cannot effectually bind him,
because he is “ weak through the flesh.” Like the
wretch who was always “ crying and cutting himself,”
the sinner is his own enemy ; he continually craves
after happiness, but all his efforts only add sore to
sore ; “he heaps up wrath against the day of wrath,
and drags out an existence ever more and more
miserable.

Such an one is found by Jesus ; the strong one
armed is driven out by a stronger than he. The
happy man is a new creature ; lie has forsaken the
place of death for a part with Him who is essential
Life ; he is clothed with a righteousness, perfect and
without spot before God ; he is now made gentle,
and subject, not by the fetters of law, but by the
sweet bands of grace; he sits at the feet of Jesus,
finding his highest joy in communion with Him ; and
he is content to go forth at the heavenly bidding,
furnished out of the heavenly treasury, to testify, in
the very territories of Satan, to the power and grace
and love, the ability and willingness to save, that
characterize his Lord, of which he is himself a living
witness.

The ancient city of Gadara survives in the modern
Arab village Om-Keiss. The hill on which it stands
is covered with the remains of columns and edifices ;
and what is still more interesting, the sides of the
mountains are perforated with caves anciently used
as sepulchres. These tombs are now occupied as

2/8

THE RIVER JARMUK.

dwellings, not only by individuals, but by whole
families. One of these, when Mr. Buckingham visited
the place, was used as a carpenters shop, in which its
occupant was engaged in constructing a rude plough ;
while an ancient sarcophagus, that remained within
the tomb in perfect preservation, was used by the
family as a provision chest.

Captains Irby and Mangles have more particularly
described the same interesting features of the place.
“ Before sunset we arrived at Om-Keiss. We were
very kindly received by the sheikh of the natives
who inhabit the ancient sepulchres. . . . The

walls of the ancient Gadara are still easily dis¬
cernible : within them you find the pavement of the
city very perfect ; the traces of the chariot-wheels are
still marked in the stones. We found the remains
of a row of columns which lined the main street on
either side ; two theatres in tolerable preservation are
within the walls, and without them to the northward
is the necropolis ; the sepulchres, which are all under
ground, are hewn out of the live rock, and the doors,
which are very massive, are cut out of immense blocks
of stone : some of these are now standing and
actually working on their hinges, and used by the
natives ; of course the hinge is nothing but a part
of the stone left projecting at each end, and let in
to a socket cut in the rock ; the faces of the doors
were cut in the shape of panels.”*

* Travels, p. 297.

VII.

THE RIVER J ABBOT!

TOPOGRAPHY.

Gilead — Bozrah — Picturesque Ravine— Aspect of the River —
The Wild Boar — Forests of Gilead — Jacob at the Ford — The
Prayer — The Wrestling — Tne Blessing.

RABBAH AMMON.

Bedstead of Og— Joab’s Conquest — Philadelphia — Present
Desolation.

(Scncsts XXXII.

As the Jarmuk drains the waters of Bashan, so the
Jabbok may be considered as carrying to the Jordan
those which pour down from the mountains of Gilead.
For though these regions are not accurately defined
in Scripture, we know that each of the terms desig¬
nates a considerable territory, which was bounded
(somewhat vaguely) by the land of Moab on the
south ; and that Bashan was the more northern.
There is also a sufficiently marked difference in the
physical character of the two regions, Gilead being
the more mountainous. Though it pursues a course
of sixty miles in length, the Jabbok is but an in¬
considerable stream in comparison with the Jarmuk.
It is believed to have its rise in the Hauran, not far
from the source of the Jarmuk ; whence it flows west¬
ward to Bozrah, the renowned capital of ancient
Edom, the subject of such awful denunciations in
prophecy.* “ Bozrah is now, for the most part, a
heap of ruins, a most dreary spectacle ; here and
there the direction of a street or alley is discernible,
but that is all. The modern inhabitants, a mere
handful, are almost lost in the maze of ruins.” Ac-

* That is, supposing that the Bostra of the Greeks and
Homans was the same as the Bozrah of Scripture.

2S2

THE RIVER JAB BOX.

cording to the oath of Jehovah, Bozrah has become
“ a desolation and reproach , a waste and a curse ! ”
From this ancient city, the Jabbok, or Zerka, as it
is now called, bends to the south for about fifteen
miles, after which it again turns to the westward,
and passes the Kal-at-Zerka, or Castle of Zerka, one
of the stations of the Syrian pilgrims’ caravan. Up
to this point its course has been across a wide arid
plain, sometimes dipping underground, and rising
again to the surface ; and its waters are frequently
dried up by the summers sun. But here it enters a
wilder scene, for its picturesque course is cleft through
the mountains of Gilead, which rise in lofty precipices
on either side. About midway between this point
and its junction with the Jordan, it is described by
Mr. Buckingham, who crossed it here, as running
between tall and abrupt cliffs, five hundred feet high,
which look as if cleft by some convulsion of nature
to give it passage. It is, in fact, a deep ravine in
a plain, the breadth from cliff to cliff being not more
than a hundred yards, and the dark sides of the
hollow chasm are, in general, destitute of verdure.
The traveller descended into this ravine by winding
paths, since it was everywhere too steep to go directly
down ; and found at the bottom of it a small river
which flowed from the eastward, appearing here to
have just made a sharp bend from the northward,
and from this point to go nearly west, to discharge
itself into the Jordan. The banks of this stream
were so thickly wooded with oleander and plane-

PICTURESQUE RAPUVE.

2o3

trees, wild olives and wild almonds in blossom, pink
and white cyclamen flowers and others, the names
of which were unknown to him, with tall and waving
reeds at least fifteen feet in height, that he could not
perceive the waters through them from above ; though
the presence of these luxuriant borders marked the
winding of its course, and the murmur of its flow was
echoed through its deep channel, so as to be heard
distinctly from afar. The river here was not more
than ten yards wide, but it was deeper than the
Jordan, and nearly as rapid, so that it was forded
with difficulty. It waters were clear, and agreeable
to the taste.*

At a point lower down, where it approaches the
Jordan, Burckhardt found it “a small river/’ in the
beginning of July; it is, however, a ^permanent
stream from its entrance among the hills, owing to
the numerous torrents that run down their precipi¬
tous sides into it. Here its banks are covered with
the prickly Solanum fur io sum, which attains a con¬
siderable size.

Captain Lynch, of the late American Expedition,
has described the appearance of the Jabbok, as it
issues from its rocky gorge. As they passed down
the Jordan in their boats, the travellers noticed the
lofty hills on the left, “ immense masses of siliceous
conglomerate, with occasional limestone,” extending
as far as the eye could reach. High up in the faces

Buckingham's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 109.

THE RIVER JAB B OK.

284

of these hills were seen immense caverns and exca¬
vations, but whether natural or artificial could not
be determined. The mouths of the caves appeared
blackened as if by smoke ; which suggested the
thought that they might be the haunts of robbers.
The Jabbok was found to be a small stream, trickling
down a deep and wide torrent bed. The water was
sweet, but the stones upon the bare exposed bank,
and the leaves of the ghurrah trees that were there
in abundance, were coated with salt ; a deposition of
the atmosphere, doubtless brought by the wind from
the Dead Sea, which is about twenty miles distant
A second bed, at that time (April 17) dry, indicated
that, in the floods, the stream enters the Jordan by
two mouths.*

Just below the Jabbok, the party saw a wild boar
crossing the river. These fierce and voracious animals
are very common in the Ghor and the valleys that
open into it. They issue from the woods at night,
and commit great havoc in the fields and vineyards,
trampling and tearing down even more than they
devour : “ The boar out of the wood doth waste it.”
Burckhardt was informed that the Arabs of the Ghor
are unable to cultivate the common barley, on account
of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on
it ; they are therefore obliged to grow a less esteemed
sort, which the hogs are too dainty to touch. Irby
and Mangles once saw a valley grubbed up in all

* The Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 253.

FORESTS OF GILEAD.

directions in furrows by the wild boars ; so that the
soil had all the appearance of having been literally
ploughed up. The boars grow to a very large size,
are of a dingy yellowish grey, or blackish hue, and of
a most unprepossessing appearance. They are bold
and desperate, and their tusks make them formidable
adversaries.

BOAR IN A VINEYARD.

The character of the land of Gilead, through whose
ravines and chasms the Jabbok darkling flows, is
similar to that already described as marking the
hills of Bashan. The traveller who climbs the heights
from the sultry vale of the Jordan, or from the arid
plains of the Hauran, hails with pleasure the refresh-

286

THE RIVER JAB B OK.

ing coolness of the mountain breeze ; he reclines
under the grateful shade of the oak and wild pis¬
tachio, which form thick groves and forests imper¬
vious to the sun ; while the sylvan scenery every¬
where reminds him of that of Europe. The charm
of this pleasant region is increased by the ceaseless
songs and other voices of birds, sounds which are
little heard in the parched and treeless plains.
Travellers speak with delight of “ the cooing of the
wood-pigeons, the calling of partridges — magnificent
birds, as large as pheasants, — the incessant hum of
insects, and the hiss of grasshoppers [probably tree-
hoppers, cicada, are meant], singing in the trees as
happy as kings.” The prospect from the elevated
peaks is of the most sublime extent, reaching from
the snowy summits of Lebanon and Hermon on the
north, to the hills of Judah and the mountains of
Edom on the south ; looking over the Lake of Tibe¬
rias and the Dead Sea, and the whole breadth of
Palestine in front, the vast horizon bounded by the
Mediterranean, like a band of polished steel girding
half the landscape.

On the bank of this river, and, as well as can be
judged, near the middle of that portion -of its course
which lies through the mountains of Gilead, occurred
a memorable incident in the history of the patriarch
Jacob. Many years before, the indignation of his
brother Esau at his having procured, by a successful
falsehood, his father’s blessing, had compelled Jacob
to flee into Padan-aram, where still dwelt the de-

JACOB'S DISTRESS.

287

scendants of Nahor. There he had resided for
twenty years ; and now with his two wives and a
large family of children and servants, and much
wealth in cattle, he is on his way back to the land of
Canaan. But, as he approaches the country of Seir,
the territory of Esau, fear of his brother’s resentment
overwhelms him ; and in much anxiety of mind he
takes the most prudent precautions to mollify him.
He first of all sends a respectful message, announcing
his return, in which he delicately mentions the wealth
that he has acquired ; that Esau may not suppose
that he is still a needy adventurer, ready to put-in
his claim for the possession of that birthright which
he had so unworthily obtained. By the expressions
carefully selected, “ my lord, — my lord Esau, — thy
servant Jacob, — that I may find grace in thy sight,”
— he would also express his readiness to waive for
the present and in his own person the dominion over
his brother, which had been part of the stolen bless¬
ing. Probably, also, he had learned that the value
of that blessing and of that birthright was rather
spiritual than temporal ; and its range rather national
than personal.

The news which Jacob’s messenger brought back,
— that Esau was coming to meet him with four
hundred men, — was well calculated to appal him ; for
we cannot doubt that the first intention of the bold
hunter was to avenge the wrong which the men¬
tion of his brother’s name had vividly recalled to his
memory. Jacob's resource is in prayer. He does

233

THE RIVER JAB B OK.

not neglect prudential means, it is true ; but, setting
apart a princely present of two hundred she-goats
and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty
rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine
and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals, — he
divides them into three droves, separating them
rather widely to produce a greater effect, and sends
them by the hands of prudent servants, with a most
submissive and respectful message, to appease his
angry brother. But his last and best resource is in
prayer ; having brought his whole company over the
Jabbok, he returns across the ford to pass the night
in fervent pleading with God.

Solemn indeed is the scene ! Midnight has thrown
her sable wing over the lone valley, into which the
stars can shed but few and feeble rays, almost en¬
tirely shut out as they are by the tall cliffs that tower
up on each side. Silence is all around, broken only
by the earnest supplications and intercessions, the
groans, and cries, and stifled sobs, that burst from
the anxious Jacob. His pleadings are most instruc¬
tive, for he takes hold of God’s own covenant and
promises, presenting nothing of his own but un¬
worthiness; but again and again reminding Jehovah
of His gracious assurances of blessing, and making
use of past mercies as a plea for future ones : “ And
Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God
of my father Isaac, Jehovah which saidst unto me,
Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I
will deal well with thee : I am not worthy of the

THE BLESSING.

2S9

least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which
Thou hast showed unto Thy servant : for with my
staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am be¬
come two bands. Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the
hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau : for I
fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the
mother with the children. And Thou saidst, I will
surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.”

The night is far spent, and Jacob has as yet
received no sensible token that he is accepted ; but
his Father hath seen in secret. At length there ap¬
pears One in human form, and engages in wrestling
with him, but prevails not against him, — a symbolic
action, to express the need and success of impor¬
tunate prayer. There is no sort of contention that so
brings out strength, activity, watchfulness, patience,
and perseverance as wrestling ; and therefore it has
always been felt to be peculiarly suitable to represent
strong faith in fervent prayer. We know, and doubt¬
less Jacob knew, who the Mighty Stranger was, who
thus put to the test his persevering importunity, but
suffered Himself to be overcome. He is called a
Man ; but He is also called God, and that by Jacob
himself ; and the inspired Hosea calls him at once
God, the Angel, and Jehovah of Hosts. Doubtless it
was God the ever-blessed Son, who on many occa¬
sions had thus early assumed the human form, which
afterwards He was to take into permanent union
with Himself.

U

290

THE RIVER J ABB OK.

Yes, Jacob well knew his Almighty Opponent ; for
he exclaimed, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou
bless me.” And though the sinews of his fleshly
strength were withered in the conflict, that was his
real gain ; for the breaking down of all the vigour of
the flesh is that which always brings in the resources
of Christ ; and the believer, really athirst for the
highest good, can say, “ Most gladly will I glory in
my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. When I am weak, then am I strong.”

“ And He blessed him there.” And He gave him
a new name , for as a Prince he had had power with
God and with men, and had prevailed. Henceforth
Jacob goes on his way rejoicing: the sorrows of the
night are gone with its shadows ; and though, as he
once more crosses the ford, he halts upon his thigh
in a deeper sense of weakness than before, the glad
rays of the sun that burst upon him over the
eastern mountain, irradiating the whole vale of
Penuel, are a fit emblem of the heavenly light and
comfort that are filling his heart. He can sing as
he goes, —

“ Contented, now, upon my thigh
I halt till life’s short journey end:

All helplessness, all weakness, I
On Thee alone for strength depend.

Nor have I power from Thee to move :

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.”

i

RABBAH-AMMON.

291

2 Samuel xii. (SjelucI xxv.

One of the tributaries of the Jabbok is the Moiet
Amman, a little stream coming from the south, and
pursuing its course partly underground. Near its
head once stood the renowned metropolis of the
Ammonites, Rabbah- Ammon. Here the iron bed¬
stead which bespoke the strength and size of the
gigantic king of Bashan was preserved as a memorial
after his death. The city appears to have consisted
of two parts, one of which, containing the royal resi¬
dence, was built in the bed of the stream, which thus
encompassed it. When David’s general, Joab, be¬
sieged it, he succeeded, after a tedious blockade, in
taking this “city of waters”; on which he sent for the
king, that he might have the honour, in his own
person, of taking that part which was properly the
city. Thus this noble metropolis, with the country
of which it was the capital, fell into David’s hands,
together with immense spoil, among which the royal
crown of the kings of Ammon is mentioned, the
weight (or value ?) of which, with its precious stones,
was a talent of gold, — ,£5,500 °f our money, accord¬
ing to the present value of the precious metals.

The city was rebuilt by Ptolemy Philadelphus with
much magnificence, and received from him the name
of Philadelphia. But Jehovah had predicted its ruin ;
by the prophet Ezekiel He had pronounced that
Rabbah of the Ammonites should be a desolate

292

THE RIVER JAB BOR.

heap ; that He would make her a stable for camels,
and a couching-place for flocks. Travellers tell us
how literally this is fulfilled. Burckhardt actually
found a party of Arabs stabling their camels in the
ruins of Rabbah. Mr. Buckingham, speaking of a
building among the ruins, and constructed out of the
remains of yet older buildings, says, “ On entering
it we came to an open square court, with arched
recesses on each side. . . . These were originally

open passages, and had arched doorways facing each
other ; but the first of these was found wholly closed
up, and the last was partially filled up, leaving only
a narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance of
one man, and of the goats , which the Arab keepers
drive in here occasionally for shelter during the
night.” This traveller lay down among flocks of
sheep and goats , close beside the ruins of Ammon ;
and particularly remarks that, during the night, he
was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the
bleating of flocks.* At every step in this once popu¬
lous region there are the vestiges of ancient cities,
the ruins of magnificent temples, public edifices, and
Greek churches ; but all are desolate .

* Buckingham’s Arab Tribes, p. 72.

VIII.

THE RIVER ARNON.

THE WADY MO JET.
Picturesque Ravine — Wild Beast —Gazelle.

THE BORDER OF MOAB.

Defeat of Sihon— Aroer — The City in the River — Interesting
Egyptian Record.

THE DOOM OF MOAB.

The Prophecy — The present Fulfilment — Wanderers in Misery.

This is one of the streams whose waters help to fill
the deep and dreadful gulf that forms the Dead Sea.
It rises in the mountains to the east of that lake,
and is formed by the confluence of three minor
streams. It was pre-eminently the river of Moab,
and at length constituted the frontier of that country,
dividing it from the territory of the tribe of Reuben ;
it is now known to the Arabs by the name of the
Mojeb, a word which bears no small resemblance to
Moab.

We have fewer modern notices of this river than
of most others, as it has been rarely visited by tra¬
vellers. In many respects, however, it appears to
resemble the Jabbok, especially in flowing through a
narrow precipitous gorge of wild sublimity. Burck-
hardt crossed it in July, about twenty miles from its
mouth, and thus describes its appearance: “The view
which the Modjeb presents is very striking. From
the bottom, where the river runs through a narrow
strip of verdant level, about forty yards across, the
steep and barren banks rise to a great height, covered
with immense blocks of stone which have rolled
down from the upper strata ; so that when viewed
from above, the valley looks like a deep chasm
formed by some tremendous convulsion of the earth,
into which there seems no possibility of descending

296

THE RIVER ARNON.

to the bottom. The distance from the edge of one
precipice to that of the opposite one is about two
miles in a straight line. We descended the northern
bank of the Wady by a foot-path which winds among
the broken masses of rock, dismounting on account
of the steepness of the road. There are three fords
across the Modjeb, of which we took that the most
frequented. I had never felt such suffocating heat
as I experienced in this valley, from the concentrated
rays of the sun and their reflection from the rocks.
We were thirty-five minutes in reaching the bottom.
The river, which flows in a rocky bed, was almost
dried up ; but its bed bears evident marks of its im¬
petuosity during the rainy season ; the shattered
fragments of large pieces of rock which had been
broken from the banks nearest the river, and carried
along by the torrent, being deposited at a consider¬
able height above the present channel of the stream.
A few defle and willow-trees grow on its banks.” *
The steep and narrow valley here described be¬
comes more steep and narrow as it approaches the
Dead Sea ; and in the latter part of its course forms
a gorge about a hundred feet wide, the sides of which
have almost the regularity of perpendicular walls.
The American expedition, viewing its mouth from
the sea, went on shore to examine it, and spent a
night in the dark and lonely recess. The river has
formed a delta of soil around the entrance, through

* Burckhardt’s Travels, p. 372.

THE • WADY MOJEB,

297

which it flows to the sea. Within the chasm it is
about eighty-four feet broad, so that it occupies almost
the whole width, leaving only a narrow bank ; it is,
however, fordable, being only four feet deep at the

THE RIVER ARNON.

utmost, in the beginning of May. The walls of the
ravine are formed of red, brown, and yellow sand¬
stone ; those on the south side being mingled red
and yellow, but those on the north a soft rich red ;

29S

THE RIVER ARMOR.

they are worn by the winter rains into the most fan¬
tastic forms, not unlike Egyptian architecture, as will
be seen by the engraving, which, by the courtesy
of its liberal publisher, we are permitted to copy
from the narrative of the expedition, entitled, “ The
Jordan and the Dead Sea.” Captain Lynch found
it difficult to believe that some were not the work
of art. He walked and waded some distance up the
gorge, and found it uniform in width, gradually bend¬
ing to the south-east, so as to limit the view at any
time to 150 or 200 yards. Though the sides appear
perpendicular, there must be some passage or track
down the cliffs, for the travellers observed the foot¬
steps of camels, and marks of an Arab encampment.
A gun which they fired reverberated finely against
the sides, like repeated and long-continued peals of
loud thunder, startling the birds from their nestling
places. They observed the tracks of many wild beasts,
and among them those of a large feline animal which
Captain Lynch calls the tiger, but which was pro¬
bably the leopard, as the tiger is not found in Western
Asia. They saw also the footsteps of many gazelles,
and the body of a dead one.*

This beautiful animal (Antilope Avabica) is highly
characteristic of Palestine, where it is found in almost
all parts of the country, but chiefly in wild, barren,
and rocky wastes. Its colour is a yellowish brown,
its form is graceful, its motions elegant and sprightly,

* Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 368.

THE GAZELLE,

300

THE RIVER ARNON.

and its large languishing dark eye, so soft and swim¬
ming, is the very symbol of beauty. It is the “ Roe ”
of the Scriptures, which so often affords images of
activity and grace. Excessively wild and timid, the
gazelles associate in large herds, in which one acts
the part of a sentinel to warn his fellows of approach¬
ing danger ; when they dart away, bounding over the
rocks, and leaping from crag to crag with the fleet¬
ness of the wind. When taken young, they readily
become familiar, and their beauty and playfulness
render them favourites with the Oriental ladies.
Thus Moore, with his usual truth to nature, makes
Lalla Rookh say, —

“ I never nursed a dear gazelle

To glad me with its soft black eye,

But when it came to know me well,

And love me, — it was sure to die.”

|) timbers xxi.

It was at the Arnon that Israel began to possess their
land. For though the country east of the Jordan
had not been originally promised to them, yet, as the
kings of this region chose to assault the (to them un¬
offending) strangers, the conquest of their lands was
the result. The people were forbidden to make war
upon Moab, but as the Amorites had some time be¬
fore dispossessed the Moabites of that portion of their
territory which lay north of the Arnon, this region

BORDER OF MOAB.

301

was not now included in the prohibition. The Amo-
rites met Israel at Jahaz, a few miles north of the
Arnon. It was the first time that the latter had
seen war, those who had formerly engaged Amalek
having now all passed away ; yet, strong in the
strength of Jehovah, they discomfited their adver¬
saries, and slew Sihon the Amoritish king, and pos¬
sessed his country extending from the Arnon to the
Jabbok.

Hence this first conquest became a sort of type of
the whole, and was commemorated in a poetical com¬
position, called “The Book of the Wars of Jehovah,”
the subject of which was “ What He did in the Red
Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon.”

It was to a city in the border of Arnon that Balak
came to meet Balaam, when he had induced the
Syrian prophet to visit him for the purpose of cursing
Israel. But their gracious Lord turned the curse into
a blessing.

Possibly, this city was Aroer, which was situated
on the north side of the river. Burckhardt found its
ruins on the edge of the precipice that overlooks the
Arnon, and the ancient name is still preserved, with
scarcely any modification, Araayr. But, like Rabbah,
this city consisted of two parts, one on the bank, the
other in the bed, of the stream : for we find repeated
mention of “the city that is in the midst of the river,”*
in conjunction with “Aroer that is on the bank of the

* Josh. xiii. 9, 16. (See also 2 Sam. xxiv. 5.)

3C2

THE RIVER ARNON .

river Arnon.” It is an extremely interesting fact,
that in the great paintings of the Egyptian wars,
which have been recently brought to light, there is
an event recorded which seems to apply to this city.
It is the representation of the war which took place
in the fifth year of Raineses Mei-amoun, between the
Egyptians and the Shetha, a people whom Mr.Osburn
has in a very convincing manner identified with the
Moabites, called “ children of Sheth ” by Balaam in
Numbers xxiv. 17. The period of the scene seems
to have been the year 1473 B.c. of our common Bibli¬
cal chronology, or about eighteen years after Israel
had crossed the Red Sea.

The Shetha, in this great picture, are represented
as laying siege to a fortress garrisoned by a people
in alliance with the Egyptians, to whom the latter
had applied for succour. The besieging army is seen
investing the city, which is strongly fortified. A
body of infantry drawn up in three close phalanxes
of 8,000 men each, before the walls of the besieged
city, turn to receive the attack of the Egyptian king
who has marched to raise the siege. This he effects,
and takes the camp of the besiegers.

In this action, which, from the elaborate manner
in which it is depicted, and from its repetition, was
evidently considered as of importance, the city is
represented as standing on an island in the midst of
a 7'iver, and connected with the shore by bridges.
We need not say how exactly this agrees with the
position of the Moabitish city Aroer ; and the event

DESOLATION OF MOAB .

3°j

recorded may have been an attempt made by Moab
to recover this their own city, which, as we learn
from Scripture, the Amorites had, at about this period,
taken from them. Their failure also well agrees with
the fact, that at the time of the arrival of the children
of Israel, the city Aroer still continued in the posses¬
sion of the Amorites.

Jfmntmlj xlvih. Jfsmlj xvi., xvn.

The pride and arrogance of Moab in later times
provoked the anger of Jehovah, who by His prophets
denounced its desolation : “ Moab shall be destroyed
from being a people, because he hath magnified
himself against Jehovah. The cities of Aroer are for¬
saken ; they shall be for flocks which shall lie down,
and none shall make them afraid. Moab shall be
a perpetual desolation.” “The days come, that I
will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him
to wander, and shall empty his vessels.” “ O ye
that dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the
rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in
the sides of the hole’s mouth.” “As a wandering
bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab
shall be at the fords of Arnon.”

How minutely this has been fulfilled Oriental
travellers have abundantly shown. The wandering
Bedouins roam over the waste that was once thickly
covered with cities ; and, plundering the fruits of

3°4

TI1E RIVER ARNON.

industry, whenever they are produced, compel the
miserable inhabitants to wander elsewhere in search
of a subsistence which the fruitful soil would yield
them in abundance. Volney remarks that the
wretched peasants live in perpetual dread of losing
their harvests, which they have no sooner gathered
in, than they hasten to secure them in private places,
and retire among the rocks which border on the
Dead Sea.* And, at the other extremity of the land
of Moab, Seetzen found many families living in
caverns, whom he designates in scriptural language,
“the inhabitants of the rocks.” f Near the ruined
Heshbon, there are many artificial caves in a long
range of perpendicular cliffs, in some of which are
chambers and small sleeping-rooms. Burckhardt
thus describes the miserable descendants of Moab,
whom he found in the Wady Wale, one of the
tributaries of the Arnon. “ They wander about in
misery, have very few horses, and are not able to
feed any flocks of sheep or goats . . . Their tents

are very wretched ; both men and women go almost
naked, the former being only covered round the
waist, and the women [the daughters of Moab at the
fords of Arnon] wearing nothing but a loose shirt
hanging in rags about them ! ” J

* Yolney’s Trav. vol. ii. p. 344. t Seetzen’s Trav. p. 26.

J Burckhardt, p. 370.

THE BROOK CHERITH.

ELIJAH'S RETIREMENT.

Brook near Bcthshan — Wady Kelt — Jericho — Caverns — The
Brook — Drought — The Judgment of Apostasy — Obedience —
The Ravens — A Trial of Faith — An Encouragement ot Faith-
Solitude with God.

THE FAITHLESS SPIES.

3°9

faithfulness of Jehovah, Israel were brought to the
Brook Zered, just thirty-eight years after the time
when the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh-
barnea ; and it was found that all the generation of
the men of war were wasted out from among the
host, as Jehovah had sworn unto them.

The Lord is true to His threatenings as well as to
His promises ; unbelief as effectually shuts us up to
the former, as it shuts us out from the latter. Blessed
tidings of a prepared rest have been proclaimed to
us also, but those alone who believe “ do enter into
rest.” “ Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief.” For “this is the work of God, that we
believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

/

gnttmimrmij n. 13, 14

The identity of this stream has not been fully es¬
tablished. Some have supposed it to be the modern
Es Saideh, a tributary of the Arnon, on the south
side. Others have found it in the Beni Hamed, an
inconsiderable torrent, not more than six or seven
miles long, which, rising near the ruins of the ancient
Rabbah Moab, falls into the Dead Sea near the
bottom of its eastern bay. But it has been lately,
with more probability, assigned to the Wady Ahsa,
the largest stream that flows into the shallow area
at the southern extremity of the sea. The course
of this river is about thirty-five miles, from its rise
near Kulat el Ahsy to its mouth just opposite the
dreary salt-mountain of Usdum. An extensive plain,
very slightly rising inland, covered with verdure, all
unwonted in this vicinity, but terminating seaward
in a broad bank of soft mud, is intersected by the
stream at the termination of its course, which for
the most part lies through the dark frowning rocks
of Edom, the ancient Mount Seir. Rugged as these
mountains are, however, they have not the terrible
barrenness of those to the west of the Arabah ;
though they are more lofty. Their sides are studded
with clumps of trees ; and the valleys are full of

3°S

THE CROOK ZERED.

shrubs and flowers, with a good deal of land under
cultivation.

The Brook Zercd is mentioned only in connection
with the termination of the desert-journey of the
children of Israel. It appears to have formed the
boundary between the fertile and populous land of
Moab, and the Desert of Arabia.

After the people who had been brought out of
Egypt had sojourned in the wilderness about two
years, and had received the law of God with all its
elaborate ordinances and ceremonial, they came to
the southern border of the land, whence spies were
sent to search the country. The evil report, which
the faithless timidity of most of them gave, acting
on the unbelief of the host, caused a mutiny (osten¬
sibly against Moses, but really against Jehovah),
that shut out the whole of that generation from ever
entering into the Land of Promise. Jehovah sware
in His wrath, that they should not enter into His
rest ; commanding the host to turn again into the
wilderness, and announcing His irrevocable decree,
that not one of that whole number, from twenty
years old and upward, should see the good land
which they had thus despised, except Joshua and
Caleb, the faithful spies. Forty days had been occu¬
pied in searching the land ; and, therefore, forty
years, each day answering to a year, shall the people
wander in the dreary desert, until the whole of that
unbelieving generation be taken away by death.

At length the period passed away ; and, by the

IX.

THE BROOK ZERED.

THE BOUNDARY OF THE DESERT.

Doubtful Identity — Es Saideh— Beni Hamed — Wady Ahsa —
Mount Seir — The Faithless Spies — The Forty Years’ Wander-

A TRIAL OF FAITH.

3i9

the people, augment the calamities about to befal
them. The brook Cherith is the place which Jeho¬
vah has appointed for His servant, and thither in
the spirit of obedience he has gone. Perhaps it is
needful for Elijah himself that he should withdraw
into private communion with God, after having taken
such a position before Israel, lest he should exalt
himself, and forget his own nothingness.

But how is the prophet to subsist in such a place,
far from the haunts of men, especially when famine
is everywhere around ? For this his Lord provides.
He assures His servant that his wants shall be sup¬
plied, though in a way strange to man’s expectation.
“/ have commanded the ravens to feed thee there!”
Elijah hears ; and with this precious promise of God
he at once betakes himself to the lonely valley, the
sombre glens of which are from this time forth to be
his solitary but not cheerless abode.

And here we have seen him ; content alike to
stand forth as the single champion for God in the
face of an apostate nation, and to be laid aside in
silence and solitude. Elijah knows that the path of
obedience is to the creature the only path of happi¬
ness. “This is true in the case of all, but specially
so as regards those who stand in the capacity of
ministers of the Lord. Such must walk in obedience*
if they would be used in ministry. . . . The word
of the Lord, and the attentive ear of a servant, are all
we need to carry us safely and happily onward.”

Yet it is a trial of faith : nothing but strong faith

320 THE BROOK CIIER1T1L

can support the prophet under such circumstances.
The flesh, of course, would rebel ; would murmur
at the apparent uselessness of spending life there ;
at the waste of time ; at the solitude ; at the lack
of earthly resources ; at the probabilities of famine.
The brook Cherith still flows, it is true, but how
soon may this be dried up ! The ravens daily supply
the bread and flesh ; but what if the ravens should
fail ? To this the man of God has but one shield
to present : it is faith in the promise : “ I have
commanded,” saith the Lord ; and therefore Elijah’s
eye is not upon the ravens, nor upon the brook, but
upon his faithful Lord.

But the lonely residence in the remote ravine of
Cherith, if it was a trial , was also a great encourage¬
ment of Elijah’s faith. To see, day after day, and
month after month, the crystal waters of the moun¬
tain stream freshly flowing, when he knew that other
streams had long ago been dried up ; to look on the
green turf of that verdant valley, and inhale the
fragrance of its sweet flowers, when, through the
whole land besides, the dusty ground was gaping
for lack of moisture, and fruit and flowers were not ;
to see morning by morning the ravens come flapping
their sable wings down the narrow valley, and then,
having deposited their burden of bread and flesh,
depart, to return again in the evening ; surely all
this must have called forth continual praises, and
greatly strengthened his trust in God.

What lessons of the power, love, and faithfulness

7 HE JUDGMENT OF APOSTASY. 317

heavens above have been as brass, and the earth
as iron. The sun, day after day, pours down his
burning rays, without the shadow of a cloud to miti¬
gate the heat ; the winter-rains that used to fill the
brooks have entirely failed, and the vivifying element,
at a time when every valley and dell used to be over¬
flowing with water, is found only in a few permanent
rivers, which are themselves so diminished as to arouse
the fear that they soon will fail and dry up also.

The land that used to be covered with green
pastures and fields of corn is almost like the barren
desert ; the fig-trees and the olives have cast their
half-formed abortive fruits ; the vines are withered
on the terraces ; many of the cattle have already
died, and the few that remain fill the torrid air with
their mournful bleatings and lowings for that which
they cannot obtain. Famine is already stalking
through the land, and the inhabitants are almost
dependent for water on the wells, whence they have
to fetch it from long distances, at great expense and
labour.

Why is it that God’s chosen people in this their
own goodly land are suffering hunger and thirst ?
Because they have turned aside from Jehovah. They
have forsaken His covenant, thrown down His altars,
and slain His prophets with the sword ; true worship
is almost ceased out of the land ; they have followed
Baalim, and are mad upon their idols. Elijah saw
all this, and his spirit was stirred within him ; he
looked round in vain for righteousness and truth ;

THE BROOK CIIER mi.

318

the faithful were minishecl from among the children
of men ; he saw the fearful alienation, the terrible
apostasy, and wept over it : he did more, “ he prayed
earnestly.” He saw that nothing but strong measures
would avail ; and therefore from his home in the
mountains of Gilead he prayed earnestly for severe
chastisement upon Israel, that Jehovah’s rod might
bring them back to Himself. And then he girded
himself for testimony ; and, in guilty Samaria, in
the presence of the apostate Ahab, the faithful
Tishbite denounced the solemn yet merciful judg¬
ment that his prayers had drawn down upon the
sinful nation, the people laden with iniquity : “ As
Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I
stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years,
but according to my word.”

But did Elijah take any pleasure in witnessing
the sufferings of his people * Surely no. But as a
skilful physician administers many a sharp pain in
order to overcome a deep-seated disease, so the
servant of God knew that no temporal calamities
were worthy to be named, in comparison with the
forfeiture of God’s favour. It was to “turn the
hearts of the children to the fathers,” to bring Israel
back to God in weeping, and mourning, and godly
repentance, that he asked for judgment, lest Jehovah
“should come and smite the earth with a curse.”

Having delivered his message, the prophet was
commanded to hide himself from the malice of the
unrepenting king, and, by withdrawing himself from

THE WAD Y ICEL T.

3*5

and gloomy gorge in the mountains, and winds
brawling along its rocky bed through the plain, till
it enters the Jordan. About two miles below its
emergence from the mountains, it passes a castle
and modern village, which bear the name of Riha or
Eriha, a degenerate representative, both in name
and character, of the ancient Jericho. “One single
solitary palm now timidly rears its head, where once
stood the renowned city of palm-trees.” North of
the stream, a lofty mountain lifts its bold precipi¬
tous front, naked and rugged, with a chapel on the
very summit. Tradition reports that this was the
“ exceeding high mountain ” which witnessed the
temptation of our blessed Lord ; that from hence
the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world
and the glory of them, in a moment of time.

The mountains from which this brook issues are
mostly precipitous in their character. They are
chiefly composed of indurated chalk, often present¬
ing large beds and slopes in a loose form, and
absolutely barren. The strata frequently protrude
in various broken and fantastic masses ; while the
faces of the ravines are everywhere pierced with
natural and artificial caves. The whole region, so
wild and almost inaccessible, is well calculated to af¬
ford a secure retirement to one desirous of avoiding
a persecuting enemy. Perhaps here were concealed
Jehovah’s prophets, hidden by the faithful Obadiah
from Jezebel’s fury, and fed with bread and water,
and here, perhaps, the sighs and tears of many others

316

THE BROOK CHER I TII.

of the Lord’s hidden ones may have ascended to
heaven ; men of whom the world was not worthy ;
who yet were driven out as vagabonds to wander in
deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of
the earth.*

Far up in the heart of this ravine, shut in by the
grey and mossy cliffs that almost meet overhead, sits
a venerable man clothed in the coarsest attire, — a
garment of black camel’s hair, bound with a leathern
girdle. At his feet the brook runs in its stony bed,
making perpetual music as it frets and foams among
the rocky masses that lie in its channel. Stern and
frowning as are the huge precipices, rent with many
a fissure and yawning cave, the bottom of the gorge
is not unpleasant ; for a narrow belt of verdure runs
up on each side of the crystal brook, and now and
then expands into little grassy slopes, shadowed with
bushes. At the back of one of these miniature lawns
is the mouth of a cavern, so well concealed from view
by a protection of the rock, and by the luxuriant
creeping plants that hang in verdant festoons over it,
as to afford a secure retreat. Here, seated on a block
of smooth stone, is the witness for Jehovah against
Israel, — the prophet Elijah.

The refreshing coolness and verdure of this spot
afford a remarkable contrast to the condition of the
country around. For many months there has been
neither rain nor dew in the land of Israel ; the

* Heb. xi. 38.

i pings xvii.

MODERN researches in Biblical Geography have suc¬
ceeded in identifying many localities of high interest,
that until lately were doubtful, or altogether un¬
known. Yet much still remains to be done ; and
perhaps not a few places of note in history may be
lost, beyond the possibility of recovery. The inter¬
esting scene of Elijah's retirement from the fury of
Aliab, the wicked king of Samaria, is one of those
which we cannot at present determinately appro¬
priate. Local traditions had placed it at a brook
on the east side of Jordan, flowing into that river
at a point a few miles below the ford at Bethshan.
Dr. Kitto, in his notes in the Pictorial Bible, observes
that if Elijah had been apprehensive of Ahab’s per¬
secution, he would probably not have been satisfied
without interposing the Jordan between himself and
his pursuers. The phrase “before Jordan,” which is
used to designate the locality of the Brook Cherith,
he considers as favouring this belief ; the term “ be¬
fore,” usually signifying " eastward of.” “ The dis¬
trict is finely broken into hill and vale ; and being
well wooded, and caverns being formed in the sides
of some of the hills, it furnished as secure a retreat
to the fugitive prophet as could be well selected,

THE BROOK CHERITH.

3i4

unless he had retired to the mountains or deserts
on the outskirts of the kingdom.”*

But in a later publication this learned commentator
favours the identification of the Brook Cherith with
the Wady Kelt, in the vicinity of Jericho, suggested
by Professor Robinson ; and the evidence, we think,
preponderates for this appropriation. Josephus ex¬
pressly says that the prophet retired to the southern
parts of the country; and local tradition has gene¬
rally (though not uniformly) placed the scene to the
west of the Jordan. Nor would the situation be less
secured from Ahab’s fury than the country beyond
the river ; for this locality was situate in the kingdom
of Judah, and consequently out of the jurisdiction
of the Samaritan monarch. The word rendered “ be¬
fore,” sometimes signifies “ towards,” which would
agree as well with this supposition as the former ;
and, finally, the resemblance of the modern to the
ancient name is no slight point in the evidence. *j*

The stream called the Kelt receives contributions
from a great number of winter-torrents that wind
among the hills to the west of the plain of Jericho.
It is itself but a torrent, dry in summer ; but in
winter it pours a large body of water out of a deep

# Piet. Bib. in loco.

t “ The Arabic form Kelt , and the Hebrew Cherith are, in¬
deed, not exactly the same ; though the change from Resh to
Lam, and that of Kaph into Koph are sometimes found. See
Gesenius’s Heb. Lex.” {Note to Dr. Robitisoii’s Bibl. Res., vol. ii.
p. 289.)

SOLITUDE WITH GOD.

32i

of Jehovah must Elijah have learned in his peaceful
retirement! For more than a year he sojourned at
the brook Cherith, sustained thus every day by what
we may, almost without a figure, call bread from
Heaven ! “ And who would be without those sweet
and holy lessons learned in secret ? Who would lack
the training of a Father’s hand ? Who would not
long to be led away from beneath the eye of man,
and above the influence of things earthly and natural,
into the pure light of the Divine presence, where self
and all around are viewed and estimated according
to the judgment of the sanctuary? In a word, who
would not desire to be alone with God, — alone, not as
a merely sentimental expression, but really, practi¬
cally, and experimentally alone : — alone, like Moses
at the mount of God ; alone, like Aaron in the
holiest of all ; alone, like our prophet at the brook
Cherith ; alone, like John in the island of Patmos ;
alone, like Jesus on the Mount? It is to have self
and the world set aside ; to have the spirit impressed
with thoughts of God and His perfections and
excellences ; to allow all His goodness to pass before
us ; to see Him as the great Actor for us, and in
us; to get above flesh and its reasonings, earth and
its ways, Satan and his accusations ; and, above all,
to feel that we have been introduced into this holy
solitude, simply and exclusively through the precious
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ These are some of
the results of being alone with God.”*

* Life and Times of Elijah, p. 27. (Bath, 1850.)

XI.

THE BROOK KEDRON.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The Valley of Jehoshaphat — Jewish Tombs — Gloomy Ravine
— -Convent of Mar Saba — Flowers — The Cony.

THE CHASTISEMENT OF DA VI D.

His Grievous Fall — The Rebellion of Absalom — Ahithophcl —
The Weeping King — Sin in Believers.

THE BURNING OF IDOLS.

Israel’s Apostasy — Godly Kings of Judah — Asa — Josiah’s
Reformation.

GETHSEMANE.

The Agony and Bloody Sweat — The Suretyship of Jesus—
Resurrection — Present State of the Garden.

We come now to speak of that stream which few
Christians will scruple to designate as the most inter¬
esting in the world. The Jordan is a far more
imposing river; and its history, like that of many
other of the Sacred Streams of which these pages
treat, is a history of miracle; while no direct miracu¬
lous interposition marks the Kedron. Yet, associated
as it is with Jerusalem and Gethsemane, with the
sorrows of David, and with the agony of Jesus, a halo
of radiance encircles the Kedron, that belongs to
none other, even of the rivers of Palestine.

Jerusalem is half enclosed by this stream, which,
rising about half-a-mile from its north-west corner,
winds round the north and east sides of the city,
receiving the brook Gihon at the south-east corner,
after which it passes off by a precipitous ravine to
the Dead Sea. In general it is but the dry bed of
a winter-torrent, which is not always filled even
during the rainy season. Dr. Robinson’s remarks
would imply that the presence of water in the ravine
is rare; and he considers, that, even in ancient times,
it was no more abundant than at present. Mr. Rae
Wilson, however, found it in a different condition.
When he visited it there appeared to be a regular
stream of water in the channel, the ground having
been saturated by the autumnal rains; and he states

325 THE BROOK KEDRON.

that it often rushes with great impetuosity. Indeed,
the very existence of a bridge over it appears to be
a sufficient indication that at particular seasons this
brook is with difficulty, if at all, fordable.

The ravine, through the bottom of which the Ke-
dron flows, is at its commencement merely a slight
depression between the hill Scopus and the city ;
which gradually deepens until it becomes a gloomy
valley, on one side of which rises the Mount of
Olives, and on the other the steep cliffs of Moriah,
with its summit crowned by the wall of Jerusalem.
This ravine is now commonly known as the Valley
of Jehoshaphat ; but the application of this name to
it seems to be comparatively modern.

The sides of this glen are crowded with innume¬
rable tombs ; for this has been from time imme¬
morial the Jewish burying-place. To lay his bones
with those of his fathers in the Valley of Jehosha¬
phat is the dearest ambition of the exiled son of
Abraham, for which he is often content to travel
from the ends of the earth, and to spend the re¬
mainder of his sorrowful days at Jerusalem in poverty
and contempt. For in this valley he believes that
Jehovah will by-and-by sit in judgment upon the
nations, in that great controversy, the issue of which
will be that “Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jeru¬
salem from generation to generation.”

The lower course of the Kedron lies through a
gloomy gorge of singularly wild character, which
has not often been traced by travellers. Dr. Wilson

MAR SABA

327

says, it is deep, romantic, and desolate throughout.
About midway it divides into two branches, leaving
a sort of chalky island between them ; but these
again meet at about a mile distant.

On the very brink of this “ fearful and wonderful

THE KEDRON.

ravine,” not very far from midway between Jerusalem
and the Dead Sea, stands the Convent of Mar Saba,
said to have been built about the beginning of the
fifth century. It consists of “ a congeries of erections
on different levels, of various forms, and of unequal

TIIE BROOK RED ROM.

altitude, the highest being a watch-tower, and a
tower of defence against the Arabs.” It contains an
establishment of Greek monks, who afford hospitality
both to travellers and to the native inhabitants who
seek it. The sides of the rugged precipices which
form the chasm, running down to an immense depth,
are perforated with innumerable caverns, where once
thousands of ascetics resided ; a sort of troglodyte
city. A tradition, probably much exaggerated, is
preserved in the convent, that 80,000 of these hermits
were massacred by the Saracens !

The remainder of this “ horrible ravine '* seems
to preserve the same character. Captain Lynch
entered it from the shores of the Dead Sea, and
traversed it upwards to Jerusalem. It is called in its
lower course the Valley of Fire ; it is shut in, on each
side, by high barren cliffs of chalky limestone, which,
while they exclude the air, throw their reverberated
heat upon the traveller. The torrent-bed is inter¬
rupted by boulders, and covered with fragments of
stone. “ The sight, from the bottom of the ravine,
is one well calculated to inspire awe. The chasm is
here [in the vicinity of the convent] about 600 feet
wide and 400 deep, — a broad deep gorge, or fissure,
between lofty mountains, the steep and barren sides
of which are furrowed by the winter- rains. The
numerous excavations present a most singular
appearance.” *

* The Dead Sea and the Jordan, p. 387

the valley of fire.

329

Even in this yawning gulf some traces of loveli¬
ness are seen. A few fig-trees fringe the bed of the
torrent ; and gardens, with pomegranate-trees, and a
single palm, surround the convent. The lower parts
of the ravine presented a few flowers to the last-

THE POMEGRANATE.

mentioned travellers ; the scarlet anemone and the
purple-blossomed thistle being the principal ones.
They mention also the white henbane, the dyer’s
weed, the dwarf mallow, commonly called “ cresses/’
and the caper plant, believed to be “ the hyssop that

330 7 HE BROOK KEDRON.

springeth out of the wall,” the unexpanded flower-
buds of which, preserved in vinegar, are used as a
condiment with meat.

The locality is remarkable for an interesting animal,
the Cony of Scripture, that “ feeble folk,” that “ make
their houses in the rocksT It is the Wabar of the
Arabs, the Hyrax Syriacus of naturalists, which
has been only recently discovered in Palestine ; but
has now been seen by Dr. Wilson and by Captain
Lynch, and by both in this vicinity. The former
thus describes his discovery : “ When we were ex¬
ploring the rocks in the neighbourhood of the con¬
vent, I was delighted to point attention to a family
or two of the Wabar , engaged in their gambols on
the heights above us. Mr. Smith and I watched
them narrowly, and were much amused with the
liveliness of their motions, and the quickness of their
retreat within the clefts of the rocks when they ap¬
prehended danger. We were, we believe, the first
European travellers who actually noticed this animal
(now universally admitted to be the SJiaphan , or
cony, of Scripture), within the proper bounds of the
Holy Land ; and we were not a little gratified by
its discovery. . . . We climbed up to see its nest,

which was a hole in the rock comfortably lined with
moss and feathers, answering to the description given
of the cony. The specimen thus obtained, when
stuffed, I have had the opportunity of examining in
England. The preparer of the skin mistook it for a
rabbit, though it is of a stronger build and of a

THE CONY.

331

duskier colour, being of a dark brown. It is entirely
destitute of a tail, and has some bristles at its mouth,
over its head, and down its back, along the course of
which there are traces of light and dark shade. In
its short ears, small, black, and naked feet, and
pointed snout, it resembles the hedgehog.” *

THE CONY.

This little animal is one of great interest to the
scientific naturalist ; since, notwithstanding its exter¬
nal resemblance to the Rodentia , it belongs struc¬
turally to a very different order, the Pachydennata ,

# Lands of the Bible, p. 28. (Edinb. 1847.)

332

THE BROOK HE D RON.

most of the members of which are beasts of a gi¬
gantic size ; as the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippo¬
potamus. Its dental system almost exactly agrees
with that of these vast animals ; and its skeleton
might easily be mistaken for that of a rhinoceros in
miniature. It is named Shaphan in Hebrew ; and
seems now to be known by other names besides that
of Wabar. The term Daman has been used to dis¬
tinguish it, and Captain Lynch applies to it the
uncouth appellation of Bteddvn.

2 Samuel xv.

SCARCELY any of the ancient saints of God have
rendered so valuable services to His Church as David
“ the sweet psalmist of Israel/’ His numerous com¬
positions, inspired by the Holy Ghost, full of fervent
devotion, have in all ages been dear to the children
of God, have stimulated and guided their spiritual
affections, and afforded a vehicle for the expression
of their prayers and praises. Yet, on the other hand,
none have ever inflicted a sorer or more lasting
wound on the cause of God than David did in the
matter of Uriah the Hittite. The horrible sins into
which he fell must have greatly shocked the minds
of the godly, have been a serious stumbling-block to
the well-disposed and inquiring among the uncon¬
verted, and have, even to this day, “ given great
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme,”

THE FALL OF DAVID.

?

OJJ

as if He were not careful about holiness in His elect.
Yet none but the enemies of the Lord can ever make
such a use of this good man’s fall ; for his deep and
bitter penitence, and the train of heavy chastisements
that fell upon him thenceforward, stroke after stroke,
sufficiently prove that Jehovah, though He “ multi¬
plies to pardon,” is yet a jealous God, who cannot
look upon iniquity. The death of Bathsheba’s child,
the defilement of Tamar, the assassination of Amnon,
were severe strokes, wounding him in the tenderest
part, — his paternal affection ; but at length the un¬
natural revolt of Absalom, and the sad end of that
beloved but unworthy son, were more terrible than
all.

The standard of rebellion unfurled at Hebron was
fast gathering around Absalom the thousands of
Israel ; so fickle and ungrateful were those over
whom God's king had ruled in righteousness : at
length Ahithophel, the counsellor and bosom friend
of David, with whom “he had taken sweet counsel,
and walked to the house of God in company,” joined
the insurrection. Then David felt it was time for
him to leave Jerusalem; for so general was the
defection of the people, that he saw no safety except
in flight ; despairing of being able to maintain his
crown, and unwilling to expose the sacred city to the
horrors of a siege or a civil war. Doubtless, also, the
sense of sin was heavy upon his heart ; and, though
he knew that the Lord had graciously pardoned the
guilt of it, as regarded eternal consequences, yet,

334

THE BROOK KEDROJV.

probably, the thought that all this and much more
evil was deserved, made him willing to take the low
place, and humbly yield to the chastisement, rather
than strive for his right.

With a few faithful ones the king leaves the gate
of the city where he had reigned for so many years,
a disconsolate fugitive ; slowly he winds round by
the wall, and descends into the valley of Jehoshaphat,
the mournful place of tombs. He comes to the
Kedron, and how touching is the scene, described
with inimitable simplicity and truth by the Divine
pen ! “ And all the country wept with a loud voice ,

and all the people passed over : the king also himself
passed over the brook Kedron, and all the people
passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. . . .
And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet,
and wept as he went up, and had his head covered,
and he went barefoot : and all the people that was
with him covered every man his head, and they went
up, weeping as they went up”

Oh ! how grievous a thing is sin in a believer ! And
how much sorrow does it generally entail upon him !
even though, for Christ’s sake, it is not imputed to
him for eternal condemnation. God frequently per¬
mits the ungodly to go on in their course of evil till
their cup is full, and He removes them to await the
righteous judgment of the great day ; but, if His own
children will walk after the flesh, He must chastise
them, and make them smart for forsaking Him, even
for their own sake, that they may learn how evil a

HEBREW APOSTASY.

335

thing and bitter it is to walk contrary to Him.
David doubtless learned in the bitter scene at Kedron
to look with more abhorrence on his own vileness ;
and the people would read in his sad chastisement a
solemn lesson, when they saw the anointed of the
Lord thus brought low. Let us never so abuse the
grace of God as to think that we can sin with im¬
punity, or turn the freeness of salvation into a cloak
for licentiousness !

1 Pntgs xv. 2 pings xxm.

The course of the Hebrew nation, after it had
passed its meridian of prosperity and glory under the
reign of Solomon, rapidly declined from allegiance to
Jehovah. The latter days of that great king were
not marked with the brilliancy of his early reign ;
the lustre that had shone around his character be¬
came grievously clouded by apostasy to idols. The
two rival kingdoms into which the nation was soon
divided, fast sank from bad to worse, until the
grossest forms of idolatry were rampant, and abomi¬
nations were committed greater even than those
which defiled the nations round about. But while
Israel, which had willingly severed itself from even a
nominal adherence to the true religion, was permitted
to take its evil course, unredeemed by a single godly
king, Jehovah mercifully vouchsafed to Judah many

336

THE BROOK KEDRON.

pious monarchs who, with different degrees of zeal
and success, laboured to bring the people back to
the paths of obedience to the law of Moses, and to
the worship of the living God.

Among the most eminent of these were Asa,
Hezekiah, and Josiah, in each of whose lengthened
reigns idolatry was vigorously put down. It was
a work of no small time and labour to search out,
collect, and destroy the abominable idols which,
through the reign of an apostate prince, had accu¬
mulated throughout the land ; especially as the
populace, whose hearts were “ mad upon their idols, ”
not generally sharing in the convictions of the pious
king, would doubtless throw every obstacle that they
dared to raise in the way of the search. On these
occasions of national expurgation it appears to
have been the custom to bring the idolatrous sym¬
bols, when collected, to the brook Kedron, and to
burn them there. Thus, when Asa’s grandmother,
Maachah, perhaps presuming on her rank and age,
persisted in keeping an idol in a grove for herself,
Asa degraded her from her queenly rank, and burned
her senseless god by the banks of Kedron. And, in
Josialds noble attempt to avert the judgments threat¬
ened in the law, by a thorough reformation and a
national return to God, he seems to have gone much
further than any of his predecessors. He found not
only the country generally, but Jerusalem, and even
the temple of Jehovah itself, filled with images,
groves, high places, hangings, altars, vessels, and

GODLY KINGS OF JUDAH.

n

.•>3/

various other instruments and symbols of demon¬
worship, all of which he searched out with the utmost
perseverance, and destroyed. The vessels made for
Baal that were in the temple were burned “ in the
fields of Kedron,” and their ashes carried to Beth-el,
one of the seats of the calf-worship, that they might
be mingled with the dust of the altar and high-place
there, and defiled with the burned bones of men.
Some of the detestable objects seem to have been
formed of stone or marble; these were calcined at
the Kedron, and then, having been reduced to
powder, were cast on the graves of those who had
worshipped them, which lay numerous in the valley
around. The altars were beaten down, and the dust
and fragments were cast into the brook ; and pro¬
bably the idolatrous symbols made of metal were
reduced to powder by a similar process to that by
which Moses had destroyed Aaron’s golden calf, and
the powder strewn on the brook, to be rolled down
by the turbid torrent into the Dead Sea, — fit recep¬
tacle for the defiled and defiling objects.

But Josialds efforts, laudable as they were, and ac¬
ceptable in the sight of God, being made in a sincere
zeal for His glory, availed not to turn away the wrath
that was denounced upon the nation. The reforma¬
tion, as regarded the bulk of the people, was compul¬
sory and hypocritical ; they still worshipped Baal and
Moloch and Ashtaroth in their hearts, and waited
only the death of their pious and energetic king to
relapse again into open apostasy, which immediately

z

33S

THE BROOK K ED RON.

brought down upon them the haughty Babylonian
monarch, who carried them away into captivity.

xxvi. ($flbn xvm.

But Kedron had yet to witness a scene of deeper
interest and vaster moment ; an incident to which
neither heaven nor earth, neither time nor eternity,
had ever seen a parallel. Across its torrent-bed the
weary feet of Jesus passed, pressed by such sorrow as
David never knew ; and on its shaded banks lay the
Brightness of the Father’s glory, prostrate on the
earth, as “ a worm and no man,” while the unutter¬
able agony of His soul wrung from His body “great
drops of blood falling to the ground.”

All was peace and loveliness around ; Gethsemane’s
turf was redolent with the fragrance of spring ; the
paschal moon, in full-orbed brightness, shone sweetly
through the glistering leaves of the hoary olive-trees ;
the night-breeze broke not the slumbers of the three
disciples, who slept all unconscious of their blessed
Master’s agony : but He was battling with the in¬
visible powers of darkness, and winning, in strife, and
groans, and blood, the victory for His redeemed
Church. But there was more than bodily anguish,
more than mental sorrow, more than the power of
Satan, in that cup of bitterness which the Holy One
of God was now called to drink. It was the fearful
burden of imputed sin, and the dreadful wrath of God

SURETYSHIP OF JESUS.

339

which was its righteous desert. For the ever-blessed
Jesus, Jehovah manifested in flesh, sustained the
character of our Surety ; in man’s nature He was now
bearing man’s sin ; our iniquity was laid upon Him ;
it was exacted, and He was made answerable.* Thus
He, who was the Holy, Harmless, Undefiled, Separate
from sinners, in whom the Father had declared that
He was well pleased, was treated as a sinner. He
stood of His own voluntary will in the sinner’s stead ;
and thus it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, and to
put Him to grief, that we, the guilty, might go free.
Jehovah’s sword awoke and smote Jehovah’s Fellow,
that out of His wounds and death we might get life ;
even His own life in resurrection. God had determined
to spare poor hell-deserving sinners, and therefore
He spared not His own Son !

Our all-perfect, spotless Surety declined not the
work which He had undertaken ; bitter as was the
cup of woe, He drank it to the very dregs. It is our
joy to know that the mighty work was completed ;
that what He began in Gethsemane He finished at
Calvary, to the entire satisfaction of eternal justice.
He hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, a
full assurance of which blessed fact God hath given
in that He hath raised Him from the dead. The
presence of Jesus, in resurrection life, at the right
hand of God, gives peace to the guilty conscience,
because it tells that the guilt which was laid upon the

* Isa. liii. 7, Bishop Lowth’s Translation.

24°

THE BROOK KEDRON.

Surety is upon Him no more ; He has left it behind
Him, — buried for ever in His grave.

Dear reader ! have you ever by faith seen your
part in this astonishing transaction ? Can you look
on Jesus as bearing your load of guilt in the garden
and on the cross ? And can you look up with joy to
the heavenly glory, and behold Him there as your
risen living Head ? If not, may it be your privilege
to find Him, even the Crucified, in these simple
pages !

It may be interesting to trace the present state of
the garden where the Lord Jesus sustained His agony.
Every traveller to Jerusalem visits it, of course, and
every writer describes it. We abridge the note of
Dr. Robinson on the hallowed spot: “ Passing down
the steep hill from the gate of St. Stephen into the
valley of the Kedron, and crossing the bridge over
the dry water-course, . . . near the bridge, on
the right, is the place fixed on by early tradition as
the site of the Garden of Gethsemane. It is a plot of
ground nearly square, inclosed by an ordinary stone
wall. . . . Within this inclosure are eight very

old olive-trees,* with stones thrown together around

* Chateaubriand’s argument respecting the age of the olive-
trees in Gethsemane is ingenious. He infers that they must be
at least as old as the fall of the Eastern Empire, because the
Turks, at the conquest, laid a tax of one medine on every olive-

PRESENT STATE OF GETHSEMANE.

34i

their trunks. There is nothing peculiar in this plot
to mark it as Gethsemane ; for adjacent to it are
other similar inclosures, and many olive-trees equally
old. . . .

“ Giving myself up to the impressions of the mo¬
ment, I sat down here for a time alone, beneath one
of the aged trees. All was silent and solitary
around ; only a herd of goats were feeding not far
off, and a few flocks of sheep grazing on the side
of the mountain. High above towered the dead
walls of the city, through which there penetrated
no sound of human life. It was almost like the
stillness and loneliness of the desert.”* *

tree then growing, while every olive-tree raised since that time
is taxed at half its produce. Now, he states that the eight olive-
trees of Gethsemane are charged only the one medine each.

* Bibl. Res. vol. i. p- 345.

XII.

THE POOL OF SILOAM.

THE BLIND RESTORED TO SIGHT.

A Pool and a Brook — The Subterranean Channel — The
Exploring Travellers.

Joint ix.

Though at first sight the reader might suppose
that this “ Pool ” could not with propriety be num¬
bered among “Rivers,” the objection would vanish
when he learned that the waters so designated
run off in a little brook from the Pool to the Kedron,
and that, before they accumulate in the reservoir,
they have already run a course of one-third of a
mile. Thus it is not without reason that our great
poet sings of —

“ Siloa’s brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God.”

In the Old Testament we find it alluded to in its
twofold character ; for Nehemiah mentions “ the Pool
of Siloah, by the king’s garden,” and Isaiah speaks
of “the waters of Shiloah that go softly.”

It was to this pool that the Lord Jesus sent the
man born blind, in order that by washing in its
waters he might receive his sight, — a miracle that
evoked the malice of the Pharisees, and elicited
from the poor uneducated man so bold and un¬
answerable a testimony to the Divine mission of
his Benefactor. But his testimony only brought
down upon himself the ban of those false shepherds
who cast him out, and thus threw him into fuller

34^

THE POOL OF ST LOAM.

fellowship with his already rejected Lord, the true
Shepherd of the sheep. He had gone before , leading
His own sheep out ; and this was one of the poor
blind ones who had received light and healing from
the Good Shepherd, and found his truest joy in
following Him.

The Pool of Siloam is a deep reservoir, situated
at the mouth of the Tyropceon Valley, into which
the water flows from a basin a few feet above it.
The superfluous water runs off along the base of
Ophel, through a narrow rocky channel, to the
terraced gardens in the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
where it is expended by being led into a multitude
of artificial channels for the purpose of irrigation ;
else its natural course would lead it into the bed of
the Kedron. About 1,100 feet above the pool is a
fountain, called the Fountain of the Virgin, which
tradition has long represented as the source of
Siloam. Professor Robinson and Mr. Smith had
the satisfaction of proving the correctness of this
belief ; for they actually groped their way through
the subterranean passage which connects these re¬
servoirs, entering at one and emerging at the other,
a distance of 1,750 feet, owing to the tortuous
direction of the course. In some parts they could
proceed only by crawling on their hands and knees,
or by lying at full length and dragging themselves
along on their elbows. One cannot sufficiently ad¬
mire the courage which enabled them to perform
such a feat. The passage has been artificially hewn

THE POOL OF S/LOAM.

347

through the solid rock ; and it was probably made
in order to convey the water into the city at a time
when one of the extremities was included within the
wall.

The water in the fountain has an unaccountable
irregularity in the flow, sometimes rising a foot or
more in five minutes, and then soon returning to
its former level. The water is sweetish, and has a
peculiar taste, which, however, does not impair its
agreeableness or wholesomeness.

POOL OF SILOAM.

XIII.

THE RIVER KISH ON.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The Plain of Esdraelon — Its Fertility — Mount Tabor — View
from its Summit — Endor and Nain — The Transfiguration — The
Excellency of Carmel — Scriptural Allusions — The Kishon —
The Bay of Acre — Tyrian Purple.

DEBORAH AND BARAK.

The Canaanites — Cruel Bondage — Prophetic Ministry —
Zebulun and Naphtali — Sisera and his Host — The Rout — The
Swollen River — The Death of Sisera — Jael’s Justification —
Faithfulness to God.

THE PROPHETS OF BAAL.

Elijah’s Emergence — The Assembly at Carmel — The Chal¬
lenge — Baal’s Inanity — The Altar of God — The Evening Sacri¬
fice — The Fire from Heaven — The Execution of the Seducers
— Rain — An Appeal.

The mountains of Galilee are separated from the
hills of Samaria by a great plain, celebrated in all
ages for its size, its fertility, and its historical as¬
sociations. In ancient times it was called the Plain
of Megiddo, and sometimes the Valley of Jezreel,
though this term appears to have been strictly appli¬
cable only to its eastern outlet. The Greeks called
it the “ great ” or “ mighty plain and in later times
it has been designated the Plain of Esdraelon, which
is only another form of Jezreel. It is about thirty
miles long, from east to west, and eighteen wide
from north to south. It is girded round by moun¬
tains : on the north are the mountains of Galilee ;
on the north-east and east are Tabor, the Little
Hermon, and the mountains of Gilboa ; on the south
are the rising slopes and hills of Samaria ; while on
the west, stretching far away towards the north, lies
the long elevated ridge of Carmel, terminating at
length in a bold promontory whose foot is bathed
in the Mediterranean.

The exuberant fertility of this great plain has been
renowned in all ages. The soil is very deep and rich,
its basis being a dark basalt impregnated with iron,
forming a black earth very similar to that of the
cotton districts of India ; this runs to the depth of
three feet, and rests on a substratum of gravel and

352

THE RIVER KISHON .

limestone. It is not perfectly level, but forms a
series of gentle undulations. If it were well culti¬
vated, it is supposed that it could supply the whole
of Galilee with corn, if that province were as popu¬
lous as it was of old. As it is, it affords corn, wine,
and oil, and abundance of pasture. Some travellers
speak of it as an immense surface of corn, the waves
of which, under the breeze, resemble the agitation of
the sea. Others call it a vast meadow covered with
the richest pastures. Doubtless both arable and
pasture land is found, and travellers speak of the
parts which they have themselves passed through.

Two of the mountains that overlook this noble
plain require particular notice, — they are Tabor and
Carmel. The former is a very marked and promi¬
nent object, standing up singly from the plain ; but
its appearance varies in different aspects. From the
north it has the form of a segment of a sphere, ap¬
pearing beautifully wooded on the summit ; from the
west it is a cone with the top cut off ; and looks
much loftier and steeper, with the south side desti¬
tute of trees. The approach to it from the north is
through a wide and shallow wady, regularly wooded
with fine oaks, more like the entrance to a noble¬
man’s domain than a wilderness. The sides and
summit of the mountain are also wooded with
various trees, among which the oak and the wild
pistachio are most numerous. Its height is about
1,000 feet ; the top, which forms a little plain, en¬
circled by an ancient wall, has been cultivated, but

VIEW FROM MOUNT TABOR.

353

now it is become a table of rich grass and wild
flowers, which send forth a most delightful fragrance.
During the forepart of the day, thick clouds com¬
monly rest upon it, concealing the verdant crown
from the plain.

Mr. Bonar, who with his honoured companions
climbed the mountain, thus describes the interesting
scene that presented itself from the summit : —

“ The sun had just disappeared ; but we had still
light enough to see the chief points of the magnificent
landscape. We climbed up upon the ruins of the old
fortifications on the south-east corner, which appeared
to be the highest point of the summit, and looked
around. To the north and north-east we saw the
plain over which we had travelled, the height of
Huttin, and the deep basin of the mountains inclos¬
ing the Sea of Galilee. Other travellers have seen
a part of the lake ; this we did not observe, but the
hills of Bashan, steep and frowning, appeared quite at
hand. To the west and south-west lay the largest
part of the great plain of Esdraelon, bounded by the
long ridge of Carmel, and watered by the full-flowing
Kishon, making its way through it toward the Medi¬
terranean. To the south and immediately in front
of us, was the graceful range of Little Hermon, and
behind it the summit of Mount Gilboa. Between us
and Hermon lay stretched that arm of the plain of
Esdraelon which encircles Tabor, beautifully variega¬
ted with immense fields of thistles and wild flowers,
giving the whole plain the appearance of a carpeted

A A

354

THE RIVER K1SH0N.

floor. How great must have been its beauty, when
its wide open surface was adorned with thriving
villages planted amidst fields of waving grain and
gardens of blossoming fruit-trees, and closed in by
the fertile hills that gird its horizon ! At the foot of
Hermon, Mr. Caiman pointed out to us Endor , where
Saul went to consult the woman who had a familiar
spirit, on the last night of his unhappy career ; and a
little way to the west of it the village of Naiti, still
marking the spot where Jesus raised the widow’s son
to life.

“It was easy now to understand why Tabor had
been so often made a place of rendezvous from the
days of Barak and downward ; the hill being so
commodious a place of defence, with a copious supply
of water on the very summit, even when the enemy
spread themselves on the plain below. From our
tent-door we saw across the plain the villages of
Endor and Nain, at the foot of Little Hermon.
Endor lies under the brow of the hill, and Saul would
have an easy road from it to the fountain of Jezreel
at the foot of Gilboa where his army was encamped.
Nain is further west, and appears to lie still closer
under Hermon. We observed cultivated fields and
verdure around it ; and it was here that Mr. Calhoun,
our American friend whom we met at Alexandria,
found many tombs cut out of the rock, one of which
may have been the intended sepulchre of the young
man whom Jesus met, as they carried him out dead,
and restored to the weeping widow. Jesus must have

MOUNT CARMEL.

355

known this spot well, for He would often pass it on
His way to the Lake of Galilee. No place in all this
land furnishes more remarkable illustrations of the
sovereignty of God than do these two villages. At
Endor you see a king, in the anguish of despair con¬
sulting with a diviner, and warned by the dead that
the Lord had departed from him and become his
enemy. But on the same plain, a few miles from
Endor, a thousand years after, you see at Nain, ‘ God
over all,’ coming in our nature, and wiping away the
tears of a poor widow.” *

At the opposite extremity of the plain, Carmel
rears his lofty head, looking over the blue expanse
of the Mediterranean towards the setting sun. It is
the bold termination of a straight mountainous ridge,
about eight or ten miles long, and in its loftiest part
nearly 1,500 feet high. “Carmel is no place,” ob¬
serves Mr. Carne, “ for crags or precipices or rocks of
the wild goats ; it is the most beautiful mountain
in Palestine, in many parts covered with trees and
flowers. Though neglected, the sides are very fertile,
and capable of producing the fruits of the earth in
great profusion. The fruits, though gathered from
wild stocks, are sufficiently excellent to show what
they would be if well cultured. On the summit a
vast number of kine, sheep, goats, antelopes, hares,
rabbits, partridges, and other kinds of animals feed,

* Narrative of a Mission to the Jews, pp. 300, 302. (Edinb.

1843-)

356

THE RIVER KISIION.

all excellent in their kind, because they find abun¬
dant nourishment. The air is always cool and re¬
freshing, however sultry the plains may be.

Through the magnificent plain of Esdraelon flows
the Kishon, the most important river of Palestine to
the west of the Jordan. It has its remotest source on
the south-west side of Mount Tabor, whence it flows
in a winding course, with a general westerly direction
to about the middle of the plain. It here receives

THE KISHON.

a considerable branch, coming from the south and
east, and then pursues a north-west course till it dis¬
charges itself into the Mediterranean, at the very foot
of Carmel. Some eight or ten miles before its dis¬
charge, it is joined by a large stream from the north
and east ; and from the sides of Carmel a number of
torrents pour down into it, in the rainy season, a great
volume of water. Hence, at such time it overflows
its banks, and acquires a great impetuosity, carrying

THE CA NA A HITES.

357

everything before it. The higher parts of the river
appear to be dried up in summer ; but in its lower
course the Kishon is a permanent stream, even in
the driest seasons, pouring into the sea a body of
water about thirty yards wide, and of too great a
depth to be forded. It is at present called the Mu-
kutta.

Jfatygcs IV.

DURING the fourscore years of rest that the south¬
ern tribes of Israel enjoyed after their deliverance
from Eglon, the king of Moab, the northern portions
of the land were grievously oppressed by the remnant
of the Canaanites. Through unbelief and sloth, Israel
had neglected to complete the extermination of the
wicked nations whom Jehovah had solemnly devoted
to utter destruction ; and had allowed them to re¬
main, supposing that they could never recover any
power to molest them, though God had expressly
warned them that these idolatrous tribes would prove
“ snares and traps unto them, scourges in their sides,
and thorns in their eyes.” And they quickly proved,
by miserable experience, the folly of their negligence.
Under the administration of a vigorous king, the
northern Canaanites had gradually but rapidly con¬
centrated their power, until they were able to reduce
into bondage the whole of Galilee, and to hold in awe
the middle portion of the land, and the region beyond
Jordan. The name of the Canaanitish monarch was

358

THE RIVER K1SH0N.

Jabin, and the metropolis of his kingdom was Hazor,
near the lake of Merom, where, a hundred years
before, Joshua had gained a glorious victory over
another king Jabin, probably the ancestor of him who
now reigned. A mighty army was the engine of his
oppressive power, commanded by Sisera, an able and
renowned warrior, whose force is significantly inti¬
mated by the fact that he had nine hundred of those
“chariots of iron” which had struck such terror into
the Israelites. Twenty years he mightily oppressed
the children of Israel, who were subjected not only to
the exactions of the government, but to the tyran¬
nies and wanton cruelties of extortionate subordi¬
nates and the brutal soldiery. This we learn from
Deborah’s triumphal song, in which she feelingly
alludes to the terror that had prevailed. The high¬
ways were unoccupied because of the robberies and
violence that were practised there with impunity.
The villages and unfortified towns were deserted,
neither life nor property being secure. Those who
were necessitated to journey from one city to another
were in the utmost jeopardy, and were fain to steal
along the lanes and by-ways. To venture outside
the gates was perilous ; even the maidens who
resorted to the wells for the daily supply of water
were made a mark for the arrows of the cruel archers.
To these insults no effectual resistance could be
offered, for the people had all been compelled to
deliver up their arms, and scarcely a single shield or
spear could be found among forty thousand, where

Deborah and Barak. 3$9

a little while before every able-bodied man had been
a warrior.

Meanwhile, Israel stupidly sought to idols who
could not save, and “ chose new gods ” equally power¬
less, — forgetful of God that made them, and lightly
esteeming the Rock of their salvation. “ How
should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thou¬
sand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and
the Lord had shut them up? ” At length, however,
they cried unto Jehovah, always ready to forgive, and
He raised up for them a deliverer, such an one as
they little expected, in the person of a woman.

Under a palm-tree in the south of Mount Ephraim,
dwelt, in a lowly habitation, Deborah the prophetess.
She “judged Israel for the law of God at the
priests’ mouth had long ceased to have any weight,
and the priests themselves seem to have become as
degenerate as the people. An irregular ministry was
then raised up of judges and prophets, and Jehovah
was pleased to put honour upon instruments which
the law had not at all recognised. At the Divine
command she sent for Barak, a man of Naphtali, and
commissioned him to gather ten thousand men out
of his own tribe, and of his brethren of Zebulun, and
to march to the banks of the Kishon ; engaging, in
the name of Jehovah, that Sisera and the mighty
Canaanitish host should be delivered into his hand.

Accompanied by the prophetess herself, without
whom he refused to undertake the perilous enterprise,
Barak returned to his city, Kedesh, and blew his

360

THE RIVER KISHON.

trumpet. Ten thousand men quickly responded to
the call, though inadequately armed, and unused to
resistance. “ Zebulon and Naphtali were a people
that jeopardied their lives unto the death in the high
places of the held,” and thus became the instruments
of national deliverance, and were honoured by ap¬
proving mention in the inspired words of the Holy
Spirit of God. With the eye of an able general,
Barak discerned the strong position which Mount
Tabor afforded his little band, and quickly entrenched
himself in its fastnesses, where the iron chariots of
Canaan would be unavailing. But the battle that
day was to be Jehovah's; and He saveth not with
sword and spear, nor by skilful generalship, nor by
the strength of military position, nor by the multitude
of an host. The victory was to be obtained in the
plain, where the immense host would have full room
for their evolutions, and where the terrible iron cha¬
riots would have their utmost advantage, that thus
the honour might redound wholly to Jehovah. So,
in spiritual things, “ we have the treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of
God, and not of us.”

The redoubtable Sisera hears with mingled anger
and contempt of the revolt, and draws his mighty
army to the plain of Jezreel, not doubting that the
feeble band will be surrounded and cut to pieces
without the least difficulty, and that a fresh occasion
will be given for enriching the oppressors with the
spoil of the vanquished. The myriads of the Canaan-

S/SERA AND HIS HOST.

361

itish hosts almost cover the plain ; the measured
tramp of the prancing cavalry resounds like distant
thunder ; and the wheels of the mailed chariots cut
the enamelled turf in a thousand lines.

Deborah looks upon the swarming hosts, glittering
in all the pomp and pride of martial array ; and, as
she gazes on the idolatrous ensigns waving in the
breeze, she pronounces their doom in the name of
the Lord God of hosts. “Up!” she exclaims to
Barak, “ for this is the day in which Jehovah hath
delivered Sisera into thine hand : Is not Jehovah
gone forth before thee?” At once, without waiting
for the assault, the faithful band pours down from
the wooded heights of Tabor, and rushes upon the
Canaanitish army. Panic-struck, the innumerable
host wavers, yields, and flees in dismay ; “ the stars
in their courses fight against Sisera,” for a violent
tempest of rain and hail, beating full upon his army,
increases the confusion. The soldiers, wild with
terror, bury their swords in each other’s hearts ; rider¬
less horses are plunging madly over the plain, and
the iron chariots are dashed the one against the
other. The rout is complete. Thousands on thousands
who have escaped the sword of Barak are fleeing
across the plain, pushing with terrified energy to
cross the Kishon. But, alas for them ! the tempest
of rain and hail that smote the army has swollen the
river; and its banks are full to the brim with a hoarse
and turbid torrent swiftly rushing to the sea. They
have no time to deliberate : behind them are pressing

362

TllE kiVEk kiShOE.

Barak’s ten thousand, flushed with victory. No
quarter is given ; the avenging steel falls without
mercy, and fast mows down the terror-stricken
throng. They plunge by thousands into the stream ;
but the boiling waters sweep them away in many a
furious eddy, and few of that mighty host succeed in
reaching the opposite shore.

The renowned Sisera himself relinquished the dan¬
gerous conspicuousness of his ornamented chariot,
and fled away on *oot. But he escaped the sword of
Barak only to tall ignominiously by a woman’s hand.
The encampment of Heber, the Kenite, a descendant
of the father-in-law of Moses, who had cast in his lot
with the people of God, lay in his course ; and here
the fainting general hoped to obtain refreshment and
security. Heber seems not to have been at home ;
but his wife Jael, apparently in perfect sincerity,
proffered him the sanctuary of her own private tent.
He gladly availed himself of the welcome hospitality,
and, overcome with fatigue and chagrin, was soon
fast asleep. Then, actuated by a Divine impulse,
obedience to which overcame all feminine fear and
reluctance, and all the claims of hospitality, the pious
Jael smote the enemy of God and of His people with
one of the sharp iron tent-pins, and thus slew him.

To attempt to justify the action of Jael by “the
jsages of ancient warfare, of rude times, and of fe¬
rocious manners,” is most futile. There can be no
doubt that, in that age and country, the act, if judged
by common rules, would have been as abhorred as

JAEL AND SI SEE A.

363

such an act would be now. But Jael’s defence, nay,
her glory, rests on very different principles. She was
doubtless actuated by the Spirit of God, resistance to
Whom would have been grievous sin. It is unjust to
impute to her an interested desire to win the favour
of tne victors ; and surely it is dishonouring to the
Holy Ghost to call that, as some have done, a
“treacherous and cruel murder,” for which He has
handed down her name, enshrined in His sacred
Word, as “Blessed above women/’

So, in the dreadful apostasy of the golden calf in
the wilderness, when faithfulness to God required the
execution of a severe justice, “ every man upon his
son, and every man upon his brother,” the sons of
Levi at once sacrificed all private affection, and in¬
flicted the punishment. Thus that tribe “ said unto
his father and to his mother, I have not seen him ;
neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew
his own children,” and obtained an eminent approval
and blessing from the Spirit of God. And the Chris¬
tian is often called to choose between obedience to
God, and the gratification of natural affection or the
conventional usages of the world ; and, if he prefer
walking with God to “ knowing any man after the
flesh/’ he will often be condemned and vilified here.
But it is a small thing to be judged of man’s judg¬
ment : the approbation of Him who knows the secrets
of the heart will more than make amends. Yet it is
a matter of thankfulness that our testimony against
evil, and our witness for God, are not, in the present

364

THE RIVER KISHON.

dispensation, of the same bloody nature as they often
were in former times. Our zeal should be manifested
against the sins, and not against the persons of sin¬
ners : “ Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the
Lord.”

or. ♦

i Juntas xvm.

The banks of the rolling Kishon witnessed, ages
afterwards, another example of holy but bloody ser¬
vice to God. It was the slaughter of Baal’s prophets
by Elijah.

Three years and a-half the servant of God had
now lived in retirement, while the horrors of drought
and famine were fulfilling the Divine purposes of
chastisement upon Israel. The brook Cherith, that
for a long time had refreshed the lonely ravine, had
at length dried up ; but God’s care for His faithful
servant had not failed. He had provided sustenance
in the house of a poor widow of Zidon, whose scanty
pittance was miraculously increased to support her¬
self and her honoured guest. " A handful of meal
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse,” were all that
she possessed ; but for more than two years these
continued to afford food to that household, until the
Lord sent rain upon the earth.”

But at length Jehovah intimated to His servant
that He was about to remove the terrible infliction
which He had so long imposed on His sinning people
Neither Ahab nor his subjects seem to have been

ELIJAH'S EMERGENCE.

365

at all softened by the chastisement ; they smarted
and groaned under its severity, but cried not unto
the Lord. Baal’s prophets were still as numerous
as ever ; and, though all their sacrifices and incanta¬
tions could not avail to procure one drop of rain, the
besotted people did not withdraw their allegiance
from the mute and helpless idol. But, for the honour
of His holy name, Jehovah determined to make a
public trial of strength between Himself and Baal,
that by a palpable manifestation of His power, in sig¬
nal contrast with the inanity of the idol, they might
be persuaded to see the folly of their apostasy.

Elijah leaves his retirement to show himself to
Ahab, as cheerfully obedient to the command of
God, as when, at the same word, he secluded himself
from public notice. In the calm and holy elevation
of communion with God, he confronts the wicked
king, and boldly charges upon him the guilt of the
nation’s sins. The monarch trembles under the
prophet’s frown, and dares not refuse the challenge
which Jehovah throws down to the herd of Baal’s
prophets. All Israel must be gathered to Carmel, to
witness the great drama to be enacted on its sloping
side ; for thither too must be dragged the unwilling
servants of Baal, well knowing how hopeless is their
cause, yet unable to evade or decline so fair a proposal.

The assembly is gathered : the thousands of Israel
are thronging the plain, gazing with eager upturned
faces toward the green sides of Carmel, that rise
before them like an immense amphitheatre. There,

THE RIVER KISIION.

366

on the slope, stand with anxious countenances four
hundred and fifty men in priestly robes, the prophets
of Baal ; and, at a little distance, alone, but serene
and confident, stands Elijah in his hairy mantle.
The Lord knows seven thousand secret faithful ones
in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal ; but
not one had boldness to stand out as His witness ;
and not one is found willing to take his place by
Elijah’s side in this day of decision.

He comes forward and addresses the multitude ;
and every sound is hushed as his solemn words fall
upon their ears. He demands that they should make
their election : “If Jehovah be God, follow Him ; but
if Baal, then follow him ! ” and then he thus enun¬
ciates the terms of the challenge : “ I, even I only,
remain a prophet of Jehovah ; but Baal’s prophets
are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore
give us two bullocks ; and let them choose one for
themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood,
and put no fire under : and I will dress the other
bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under.
And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will
call on the name of Jehovah, and the God that
answereth by fire, let Him be God.” The justice of
the proposition is instantly acknowledged, and the
shout that at once ascends from the throng below,
“ It is well spoken,” convinces the reluctant devotees
of Baal that they have no alternative but to accept
the challenge, or at once to confess the impotency
and worthlessness of their idol.

ELIJAH'S CHALLENGE.

3^7

All day long the false prophets have been calling
on their god with incessant vociferation. Maddened
by the irony of Elijah, they have been leaping
around and upon their altar, crying with frantic
vehemence, “ O Baal ! hear us ! ” Their bodies are
covered with their own blood, from self-inflicted
wounds, in the vain hope to propitiate their demon
with suffering. But all in vain : there is no voice,
nor any to answer, nor any that regard their cries.
And now the sun approaches his bed in the western
sea, which lies stretched out like a mirror of bur¬
nished brass to receive him ; when Elijah thinks it
time to act his part. He calls the people to approach,
that they may more distinctly witness what he is
about to do. Then he takes twelve stones, and with
them builds an altar to Jehovah; thus recognising
the unity of God’s chosen people, the twelve tribes
of Israel, notwithstanding the divisions and schisms
that apostasy had made. Elijah has communion
with the mind of God, and can still, in faith, regard
all Israel as but one, overlooking the sinful breaches
of unity, and having regard to the eternal purposes
of grace which have decreed that, by-and-by, “ one
king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be
no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms any more at all.” * So now, the
scribe instructed unto the things of the kingdom of
heaven, cannot but regard the schisms and divisions

p Ezek, xxxvii. 22,

3C8

THE RIVER K IS HON.

of the Church of God as ‘‘carnal”; remembering1
the dying prayer of Him who gave His life for her,
“ that they all may be ONE.”

The people look on with wonder while the prophet
digs a deep trench round about the altar which he
has made ; but they quickly discern the reason for
it. For when the bullock is slain and laid on the
wood, he commands the whole to be deluged with
water, that no suspicion of concealed fire may be
entertained. Vessels are quickly carried down to the
Kishon’s brink, filled, and emptied on the sacrifice,
until not only the whole is saturated, but the trench
itself is filled to the brim.

The sun is near its setting : it is the moment when,
in the magnificent temple at Jerusalem, the priests
are offering the evening sacrifice ; and Elijah, whose
act of worship is in full communion with theirs, draws
near, and offers a solemn appeal to the God of Israel.
In a moment the fire descends from heaven, con¬
sumes the sacrifice, the wood, even the very dust
and the stones, and licks up the water that filled the
trench. The whole of the mighty multitude fall
prostrate on their faces, and, with self-abasement
for their besotted infidelity, renounce their apostasy.
“Jehovah, He is the God! Jehovah, He is the
God ! ”

Evil must now be judged and put away, that the
national reformation may be effectual. The wicked
prophets of Baal, the teachers of apostasy, the sedu¬
cers to idolatry, may not be permitted to escape ;

THE DOOM OF THE ID OLA TORS. 369

the law had pronounced their doom to be death ,
and Elijah shrinks not from executing the sentence.
The now penitent people are ready, in obedience
to his command, to take them ; neither Ahab nor
Jezebel dares to move a finger in their behalf ; they
are dragged from their untouched sacrifice to the
brink of Kishon, and put to death ; and their bodies
are hurled down on its rushing tide, to find a living
grave in the maws of sea-monsters.

There now remains no hindrance to the outpouring
of the Divine blessing. Idolatry has been publicly
renounced, Baal put to an open shame, and the ring¬
leaders in iniquity have received condign punishment.
The curse of drought is now taken away, and, before
Ahab can reach Jezreel, the heavens are black with
clouds and wind, and heavy rain refreshes once more
the parched and barren earth.

With how much truth and force might the appeal
of Elijah be presented to thousands in this land !
“How long halt ye between two opinions? If the
Lord be God, follow Him ; but if Baal, then follow
him ! ” How many there are who acknowledge the
claims of God upon their souls’ attention, whose
hearts are yet set upon the world ! But, “ if the Lord
be God, follow Him !” He will not be content with
a divided homage : “ My son ! give me thine heart ! ”
is His language. If Jesus be the only Saviour, come
to Him, cleave to Him, accept Him for time and for
eternity, and abjure all dependence upon any other.
“Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

B B

XIV.

THE BROOK OF EL AIL

DAVID AND GOLIATH.

Wady es Sumt — The Acacia — The Terebinth — The Phi¬
listines — The Gigantic Champion — Faith — The Sling and
Stone — The Death of the Giant — Jesus and Satan — The
Spiritual Conflict.

i Samuel xvn.

The valleys, or wadies, of the hilly parts of Palestine
frequently receive in their courses other tributary
wadies ; each of which is perhaps formed by the con¬
fluence of several smaller ones. And as each is the
bed of a torrent during the rainy season, the rivulets
uniting, continually augment the size and volume of
the stream, in proportion to the number of tributary
wadies that have united. One of the vales thus
opening into the Wady Surar, the ancient Valley
of Sorek, is the Wady es Sumt, or the valley of the
Acacia-tree, which is itself formed by the junction
of three others, viz., Wady el Musurr, from the east,
Wady es Sur, a large valley from the south, and a
small one unnamed, from the north. The name of
the valley so formed is derived from the prevalence
of the thorny tree that produces the gum-arabic
{Acacia Arabica), a great number of which grow in
the western part. This is a moderately sized tree,
with peculiarly elegant leaves, composed of many
pairs of shining leaflets. The bases of the branches
are armed with strong sharp thorns that grow in
pairs. The flowers are like little golden balls, hanging
gracefully among the leaves in threes, and giving
forth a fragrant perfume. Like other trees that pro¬
duce tasteless gums, the bark is highly austere and

374

THE BROOK OF ELAH.

astringent to the taste. The gum-arabic is procured
by wounding the bark, or by natural exudation ; the
sap flows out and hardens in transparent lumps,
very similar to that of our cherry-tree. It is eaten
throughout the East, especially by those who traverse
the deserts, as it contains much nutriment in very
small bulk. The timber of this tree is supposed to
have been the “ Shittim-wood,” which was so largely
used in the construction of the tabernacle and its
furniture.

The bottom of the valley is a fine fertile plain,
with moderate hills on each side ; it is covered with
fields of grain, except where the acacia-groves are
found ; and the hill-sides are clothed with thriving
olive plantations, in which the trees are planted in
regular rows like an orchard. This valuable tree is
extensively cultivated in this part of the country, to
which the numerous groves impart quite a wooded
appearance.

The road from Askelon to Jerusalem anciently
passed through the head of this wady ; but it is now
scarcely ever trodden by European feet. Professor
Robinson visited it, and mentions the primitive sim¬
plicity and hospitality that remain among the inhabit¬
ants, not yet spoiled by intercourse with foreigners.

This eminent biblical geographer considers the
Wady es Sumt to be the ancient valley of Elah, in
which David slew the giant Goliath. The word Elah
signifies the terebinth-tree, the butin of the modern
Arabs ; and this appellation was probably given to

THE PHILISTINES.

375

it from some remarkable tree of this species, as its
present name expresses the abundance of trees of
another kind. It is interesting to remark, that the
largest terebinth seen by Professor Robinson, in all
Palestine, was an immense tree, still standing in the
Wady es Sur, a little above the point where it opens
into the Wady es Sumt. Through the bottom runs
in winter “the brook,” out of which the shepherd
youth chose the five smooth stones for his weapons ;
just such pebbles as might now be picked up from
its bed, rolled by the action of the torrent. About
the middle of May the American travellers found it
dry.

In the early history of Israel as a nation, their
most indomitable, persevering, and successful enemies
were the Philistines. The reign of Saul was almost
a continual conflict with these foes, in which they
appear generally to have maintained the upper hand.
At his accession, the southern portion of the land
was commanded by their garrisons, and after a reign
of forty years, he met his death on the field of battle
in the moment of their victory.

But Israel too had some brilliant successes, won
not so much by valour or numbers, as by the living
faith, which laid hold on Jehovah as the rightful King
of the nation, and brought-in His almighty power to
the conflict. Whenever this can be done victory is
sure, no matter how many, how subtle, or how strong
the adversaries who oppose us.

On one occasion the hostile armies were encamped

376

THE BROOK OF ELAH.

on the two opposite hills that overlooked the little
valley of Elah. Frequent skirmishes had occurred,
but neither party seemed inclined to venture on a
decisive engagement. According to a custom not
uncommon in ancient warfare, when victory often
depended on the personal strength and prowess of
the combatants, a champion had presented himself
from the Philistine army, offering to decide the battle
by single combat with any opponent that the Israel-
itish army might afford. This challenger was of the
ancient race of the Rephaim, and was of gigantic size
and strength, being, according to the most moderate
computation, upwards of ten feet high, while the
weight of his coat of mail (5,000 shekels of brass, or
about 156 lbs.) proved his strength to be proportion¬
ate to his bulk. Besides this, he wore a helmet of
brass, probably of that curious and not inelegant
form with which we see Philistine warriors depicted
in the ancient Egyptian paintings, representing a
circlet of feathers with the points slightly curved out¬
wards. He wore also a gorget of brass between his
shoulders, and greaves of the same metal upon his
legs. His spear-staff was “ like a weavers beam,”
and the iron head of his spear weighed nearly twenty
pounds. With such endowments of nature and art, it
is no wonder that the uncircumcised idolator should
consider himself invincible, and defy the armies of
Israel, who were however, in truth, “the armies of the
living God,” though he saw in them only “servants
to Saul.”

DAVID AND GOLIATH.

377

Faith, and that courage which arises from a recog¬
nition of God’s protecting power, were at a low ebb
in Israel ; and hence, for forty days, the challenge of
this haughty blasphemer filled the whole host with
dismay, none venturing to meet him in the field.
But, at length, the son of Jesse, though but a strip¬
ling of smooth and ruddy countenance, being on a
casual visit to the army, felt his spirit stirred and his
sense of Israel’s shame aroused as he listened to the
reproaches of the proud Philistine. “Who,” he asked,
“ is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy
the armies of the living God ?”

Strong in that his might, the faithful youth put his
life in his hand, and boldly ventured forth to meet the
arrogant challenger. Saul would have arrayed him
in his own armour, but David’s trust was not in this,
and he rejected it. He would show the whole as¬
sembled hosts that “Jehovah saveth not with sword
and spear, for the battle is Jehovah’s and therefore
he goes down into the vale unarmed, except with a
shepherd’s staff and a sling. Five smooth stones he
chooses out of the gurgling brook that trickles through
the bottom, which he puts into a little bag ; and this
is all the armour, offensive or defensive, that he takes.

The giant stalks on in all the pride of strength, and
looks about for his foe. He cannot believe that the
fair boy he sees before him can seriously intend to
engage in the combat ; and with a laugh of contempt
at an opponent armed with a staff, he curses David
by his gods. The answer of the youthful hero is

37§

THE BROOK OF ELAH.

replete with humility, faith, zeal for God’s glory, and
for the honour of Israel. He declares his undoubtinsr
assurance that he shall be successful, glories in his
own mean appearance, that the honour may be
entirely the Lord's, and predicts that the result of
the combat will be the spread of Jehovah's fame in
the earth.

The combatants approach ; the haughty giant seizes
his weapons from his attendant, and strides forward
David runs to meet him, and when he has come near
he takes one of his smooth stones from his bag, and
slings it with so true an aim, and with such for e,
that the missile, striking the Gittite’s broad forehead,
penetrates bone and brain ; and his huge form falls
prostrate on the earth.

Thus the feeblest believer in Jesus may fearlessly
meet in conflict the principalities and powers and
spiritual wickednesses that are opposed to him, and
that gigantic one who is prince of them all. Proudly
indeed he wages the war, threatening is his demean¬
our, bold his assaults, and terrible his weapons ; but
a babe in Christ needs not fear him, trusting not in
carnal weapons, but in the strength of the Lord of
hosts, against whom the blasphemous assaults of the
adversary are truly pointed. Jesus has conquered
him on his own ground ; He went down into the
domains of death, that He might destroy him that
had the power of death ; He beheld Satan as light¬
ning fall from heaven, and He has given to all His
redeemed people to trample under foot “ all the power

JESUS AND SATAN

379

of the enemy/’ May we then ever meet him, assured
that with such apparently inadequate arms as a word
out of the book of God, a mere stone from a shep¬
herd’s scrip, we shall be able, in the power of the Holy
Spirit, to overcome him, and lay him low.

XV.

THE BROOK ESHCOL.

THE ISRAELITISH SPIES.

Uncertain Locality — Valley near Hebron — Sorek — The
Search — Jericho — Lake of Gennesaret — Lebanon — Galilee —
Samaria — Fruitfulness of Judah — Vines— Magnitude of Grapes
and Clusters — The Specimen— Modern Testimony — Culture of
the Vine.

Ijumtrers xvn.

Considerable uncertainty rests upon the situation
of the fertile valley from which the spies took their
enormous cluster of grapes. Very general tradition,
both Jewish and early Christian, has placed it in the
vicinity of Hebron. The name of one of Abram’s
. Amoritish friends was Eshcol, who lived at the
Terebinth of Mamre, at Hebron ; and it has been
concluded that the beautiful vale received its name
from him. But the Word of God expressly states
that the place was called the Brook Eshcol (which
signifies a cluster of grapes), because of the cluster
which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

The valley to which we allude stretches away
towards the north-west from Hebron, and the high¬
road from that city to Jerusalem passes through it.
The pathway is paved with large uneven stones, like
the roads in the Swiss mountains ; it is bounded by
vineyards of the greatest luxuriance, and in a high
state of cultivation, well guarded by good stone
fences : the soil is rich and abundant. These vine¬
yards produce the best grapes in the whole country.
Nor is the fruitfulness of this valley confined to the
“choice” and “noble ’’vine; pomegranates and figs,
as well as apricots and quinces, grow there in abun¬
dance ; and the terraced slopes on either side are

3*4

THE BROOK ESHCOL.

crowned with groves of the graceful and glistening
olive.

Others have supposed the Brook Eshcol to have
been a tributary of the Screk ; or else that Sorek
was the distinguishing name of the valley, and
Eshcol that of the brook that flowed through it.
This opinion derives considerable weight from the
circumstance that the word Sorek signifies the
choicest kind of vine ; and that this region enjoyed
a celebrity for the excellence of its wine ; for the
“ wine of Sorek ” of the Scriptures was probably
the same as that of which the classic writers make
honourable mention by the name of “ the wine of
Askelon.”

The interesting story connected with the valley, is
the following. After nearly twelve months’ residence
in the vicinity of Sinai, where they received the law,
the children of Israel spent about five months in
journeying from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, the
southern border of Palestine. Here twelve men were
selected to spy out the land, that they might bring
a report of its character and condition. The office of
a spy was, in ancient times, not considered dishonour¬
able, and, being one attended with danger, and re¬
quiring courage, skill, watchfulness, prudence, and
self-denial, was often undertaken by officers of rank.
The Hebrew spies were all of them princes, one from
each tribe, who, having received from Moses instruc¬
tions on the points to which their attention should
mainly be directed, entered on their search.

BEAUTY OF THE LAND.

385

The season was the latter part of summer, for the
“ time of the first ripe grapes,” at which the spies
set out on their journey, answers to the month of
August. They traversed the whole length of the
land, probably first stretching away to the Jordan,
and proceeding northward near the course of that
river. Here they would see the rich and fertile plain
of Jericho, with its groves of beauteous palm-trees,
and its fragrant balsams. They would see the
charming expanse of the lake of Gennesaret, sleep¬
ing in mirror-like brightness among the mountains.
They would climb the rugged sides of Hermon and
Lebanon ; would gaze with curiosity, not unmixed
with awe, on the snow that capped their lofty sum¬
mits ; and would admire the forests of mighty cedars
that fringed their sides, and filled their valleys, — a
sight whose grandeur the scarcity of timber in Egypt
and the Desert, and even in the south of Palestine,
would enable them to appreciate.

Returning, they would enjoy the striking and ever-
changing scenery of the mountainous Galilee, with
its mulberry groves and forests of oaks ; and would
cross the mighty plain of Jezreel, a sea of waving
corn. The wheat and the barley indeed would have
been mostly gathered in, but the tall maize, and the
dourra, and the bearded millet, still awaited the
sickle ; and, in the neighbourhood of the lakes and
low-lying rivers, plantations of rice were beginning to
cover large tracts with a refreshing verdure. Tabor,
like a huge cone of vegetation, would rise before them,

3S6

THE BROOK ESHCOL.

and the glorious Carmel with its crown of flowers.
The grassy undulations of what, long afterwards, was
the country of Samaria, the pastures of Sharon, and
the plains of the coast, with the numberless little rills
that everywhere then watered that “ land of brooks,”
would be carefully noticed by men, whose “occupa¬
tion was that of shepherds.” But when they came
again to the hill-country of the south, they would
surely linger awhile there to explore its fruitful
riches. The fruits which attained unrivalled excel¬
lence in Palestine were now just come to maturity,
and this was the region where they grew in the most
rich luxuriance. Orchards of apples and pears were
laden with their russet fruit, the juicy hardness of
which would be an agreeable novelty to men ac¬
quainted with none but tropical productions. Differ¬
ent kinds of plums, peaches, nectarines, and apricots,
hung clustering in glowing beauty and fragrance.
The scarlet blossoms of the pomegranates had given
place to the ruddy-brown fruit ; and wide-spreading
sycamores were hung with bunches of the luscious
figs. The groves of olives, sheeting the slopes of
the hills, were filled by the laughing peasants,
beating the trees and collecting the valuable produce ;
and the spies would doubtless admire the changing
play of light from the slender leaves, as the agitation
continually brought to view the varied surfaces, the
dark green of their upper sides contrasting with the
silvery grey of the lower. But the extraordinary
abundance of the vines, the number and magnitude of

GRAPES OF PALESTINE.

3S7

the ponderous clusters, the size and flavour of the
grapes, excited their admiring wonder above all ; and
they determined to carry back to their brethren a
specimen cluster, that they might see with their own
eyes the goodness of the land. By the Brook of
Eshcol they cut down a single cluster of great size ;
and, in order that the transportation might be effected
without injury to the mellow fruit, as well as on
account of its great weight, they bore it suspended
from a staff, between two men ; and brought it in
safety, together with other fruits, to their expecting
brethren.

Into the other circumstances that attended their
return, — the unbelieving fear which, in the hearts of
most of their number, had so magnified the power of
the Canaanites as to counteract the effect of the ex¬
cellence of the land, and its sad results in murmuring
and rebellion, — we have not space to enter. But we
will adduce a few testimonies to show that the exu¬
berant fruitfulness that then marked the “ glory of
all lands,” has not yet wholly departed, though the
clime and the soil are withering under the righteous
frown of Jehovah.

Dandini, an Italian traveller, observes that the
grapes of Lebanon are as large as prunes ; and
Doubdan writes that, in travelling near Bethlehem,
he found a most delightful valley, full of aromatic
herbs and roses, and planted with vines of the
choicest kind. It was not the time of the vintage,
but the inhabitants assured him that they occasion-

3S8 the brook eshcol.

ally found clusters weighing ten or twelve pounds.
This valley must have been near, if not identical
with that commonly considered to be the ancient
Eshcol. Reland was assured by a merchant who
had resided many years in the same neighbourhood,
that he had seen bunches weighing ten pounds. Nau
affirms that he had seen near Hebron grapes as large
as a man’s thumb ; and, as to the clusters, some he

GRAPES OF PALESTINE.

had seen in Syria weighed ten or twelve pounds ; and
he had heard in the Archipelago of some weighing
thirty or forty pounds. Neitzschutz declares that he
could with truth say, that in the mountains of Israel
he had seen and partaken of bunches that were half
an ell long, the grapes of which were two joints of a

CULTURE OF THE VINE.

3^9

finger in length. The accompanying engraving from
Laborde, gives the exact size of some seen by him.

Sir Moses Montefiore obtained near Hebron a
bunch of grapes about a yard in length.

Even in England we have had evidence of the
same kind. A bunch of Syrian grapes was grown
at Welbeck which weighed nineteen pounds. It was
sent as a present from the Duke of Portland to the
Marquis of Rockingham ; and was carried to its des¬
tination, a distance of twenty miles, on a staff \ by four
labourers , two bearing it in rotation. This cluster was
nineteen inches and a-half in diameter ; four feet six
inches in circumference ; and nearly twenty-three
inches in length.

The mode of cultivating the vine varies much in
different countries. With us it is “suffered to expand
itself to any size, and nailed in regular lines to the
wall, or to the frame of a green-house ; thus a single
tree will produce several hundred-weight of grapes.
On the banks of the Rhine the growth is limited to
three feet in height, and each tree is supported in an
upright position. In France it is formed into arches
and ornamental alcoves. In Sardinia it assumes the
aspect of a parasitical plant, luxuriating among the
branches of the largest forest-trees, and clasping with
its tendrils the extreme twigs. In Asia Minor its
wild festoons hang their green and purple pendants
from rural bowers of trellis-work. On the heights of
Lebanon it lies in a state of humiliation, covering the
ground like the cucumber ; and subsequently we saw

390

THE BROOK ESHCOL.

it, in the valley of Eshcol, in a position different from
all that have been named. There three vines are
planted close together, and cut off at the height of
five feet in the apex of a cone formed by their stems ;
where, being tied, each is supported by two others,
and thus enabled to sustain the prodigious clusters
for which that region has always been famous ; clus¬
ters so large, that, to carry one, the spies of Moses
were compelled to place it on a stick borne by two
men. Each mode is doubtless the best that could be
adopted in the quarter where it prevails, considering
the nature of the soil and climate, the value of the
land, and the object of the cultivation.” *

* Elliot’s Travels.

XVI.

THE BROOK BESOR.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The Riverof Egypt — The Desert — The Wild Ass — Cultivation
— Paths — Trees — Gaza — Wady Sheriah.

DAVID’S CHASTISEMENT.

God’s Anointed King — The Outcast — The Trial of Faith and
Patience — Grace — Temptation — Failure — Guile and Falsehood
— A Dilemma — Philistine Jealousy — The Sack of Ziklag —
Refuge in God— Return to Ordinances — Urim and Thummim
— The Ephod — Our High Priest — The Oracle — The Pursuit —
The Dying Egyptian — The Rioting Banditti — The Recovery
of all — Abundant Spoil — Grace abounding — Participation of
Blessing.

GERAR.

The Philistines — Their Origin and Character — High Civiliza¬
tion — Affinity with the Egyptians — Freedom from Idolatry —
Abraham’s Unbelief and Prevarication — Veils — Jehovah’s Faith¬
fulness — Isaac’s Failure — The Valley of Gerar — Wells conferring
property in Land — Names of Wells — Selfishness and Concession.

i Samuel xxx.

As the traveller pursues his weary way from Egypt
to Palestine, he crosses the broad channel of a river,
bounded still by its well-marked banks, but destitute
of water. When the rivers of Judah flowed with
water, this was the southern boundary of the coun¬
try, dividing it from the land of Ham, and hence it
is often alluded to as “ the River of Egypt.” On one
side is a parched desert of sand, spotted here and
there with little verdant patches, where a few bushes
of palm-trees grow, and flowers show their smiling
faces to the scorching rays of the sun that pour down
as if from a glowing furnace ; but, in general, dreary,
waste, and bare, with nothing to relieve the eye,
almost blinded by the glare of the white sand, but
occasional heaps of stones, that tell of ruin and desola¬
tion. Here and there the flat sands are covered with
an incrustation of fine salt, the very symbol of barren¬
ness. The wild ass, whose “ house ” God has “ made
the wilderness, and the barren land (Heb. the salt
places) his dwellings,” here ranges, far from the
haunts of men, “ searching after every green thing.”

On the eastern side of this ancient channel, once
a considerable river, since it is not less than six hun¬
dred feet in breadth, the country changes. Low sand¬
hills, running in ranges parallel to the shore of the

394

THE BROOK BESOR.

Mediterranean, which is close at hand, for a while
stmggle for supremacy with the increasing verdure of
grassy slopes and eminences, and with advancing cul¬
tivation. Fields of wheat and barley bow in yellow
waves to the pleasant breeze ; and these are interspersed
with green patches of lentiles, or of the tall and vigorous
tobacco-plant, with its large leaves and delicate pink
blossoms, — a favourite crop with the present Moham¬
medan occupants. Flocks of sheep and goats are
seen scattered over the undulating hills, feeding on
the long grass which nearly conceals them, and
browsing on the aromatic shrubs ; with now and then
a herd of asses, and more rarely, of horned cattle.
In some places the soil is being turned up by the
rude and light plough, drawn by oxen; and the fields,
not divided by hedges or walls, have their boundaries
marked only by bunches of broom hung up on stakes
at intervals. Over the undulating plains the high¬
road is formed of many paths running side by side
but continually merging the one into the other ; for
it is made by the feet of the animals that travel it,
which follow each other ; and not, as with us, by a
general levelling of the whole width of the road. In
the spring, the turf intersected by these many paths
is gaily enamelled with flowers, “ among which our
garden-pink assumes the place of daisies.” Many
ancient sycamores, with twisted roots and gnarled
and knotty trunks, spread out their broad flat heads
of foliage towards the rising sun, like huge umbrellas,
inviting the weary traveller to pitch his tent beneath

THE El PEE OF EGYPT.

395

their refreshing shadow ; or, at least, to snatch a few
minutes’ relief from the fierce unclouded glare of the
sun. The ever-green and almost ever-living tere¬
binth is now and then seen, with its empurpled foliage,
flowers, and fruit ; but trees are now scarce, for the
curse of barrenness is fallen upon the land of Israel.
The wide expanse of the Mediterranean, “ the Great
Sea,” lies sleeping along the horizon on the left, be¬
neath the descending sun ; and, to the right, far in¬
land, the prospect is bounded by mountains rising
into uneven peaks, the hill-country of Judah.

Fifty miles of journeying through such a country
as this brings the traveller to Gaza, an ancient city of
the Philistines, situated on a little hill, and surrounded
by gardens fenced with impenetrable hedges of prickly-
pear, and embosomed in orchards and groves of apri¬
cots, mulberries, figs, and sycamores. But a few miles
before he reaches this remnant of antiquity, he has
had to cross the dry beds of two or three other
torrents, the principal of which is called by the Arabs
Wady Sheriah. It is about thirty yards wide, inclosed
between high steep banks, through which, in winter,
the accumulated rains pour a muddy torrent to the
sea ; but these, early in spring, dwindle to insulated
stagnant pools, and soon dry away. Yet its deeply
ploughed course remains indelible, and can be dis¬
tinctly traced from the neighbouring eminences, wind¬
ing far away inland towards its source in the distant
hills of Judah. This is supposed to be the brook
Besor, the scene of incidents fraught with interest and

THE BROOK BESOR.

396

instruction in the memorable history of “ the sweet
Psalmist of Israel.”

David had been anointed, by Divine command,
king over Israel ; he was God’s chosen king ; but
another king was actually on the throne, — man’s
chosen, — the son of Kish. It was not God’s purpose
at once to confer upon the man of His choice the
actual administration of the kingdom; He had secured
it to him by promise, and now left him for many
years to live by faith in the unchangeableness of
Jehovah, while the rebellious king was suffered to
take his own downward course to sin and ruin. Like
the true Anointed and Beloved One, the Christ of
God, of whom David was a type, he remained, in the
mysterious purposes of God, long excluded from the
throne, which was his by right, by him who was a
type and representation of the “prince of this world;”
while one after another, whose hearts God had touched,
went down to him, owning him in his humiliation and
rejection, and joining their fortunes with his, in faith
upon the security of the Divine promises, and in hope
of sharing the honour and joy of the kingdom at the
appointed time of exaltation.

Long time the son of Jesse maintained his confi¬
dence unshaken in Jehovah ; hunted to and fro “ like
a partridge in the mountains,” watched and waylaid,
driven from one fastness and stronghold to another,
pursued by his cruel and implacable persecutor with a
most persevering thirst for his life, he yet strengthened
himself upon the Lord his God, and still looked for-

THE OUTCAST.

397

ward to brighter days to come. It was a time of sore
trial, a severe discipline in which he was learning in
God’s school how to rule His people Israel ; but it
was a time of profit to his soul ; many of the sweetest
psalms were penned during these “ flittings ” and hair¬
breadth escapes, and they breathe the deepest com¬
munion with God, such as the saints in all ages have
panted to enjoy. Yet, while there is thus revealed to
us the habitual sense of God’s love and care which
David enjoyed, they continually show also the bit¬
terness of the trial which he was enduring ; cut off
from the ordinances of the sanctuary, and shut out
from the congregation ; subject to calumnies and
reproaches, and liable to hear even the faithfulness
of Jehovah impugned ; he often mourns in pathetic
terms his sorrowful lot, and comforts himself onlv
with the remembrance of the unfailing love and
sympathy of his God. “ Thou tellest my wanderings ;
thou puttest my tears into Thy bottle ; are they not
in Thy book ? ”

A beautiful example of meekness, and of that grace
which returns good for evil, and blessing for cursing,
is afforded by David while thus hunted for life.
Twice was Saul completely in his power ; and he
might, without the least danger to himself, have
ended in a moment his perils and his sufferings, by
cutting off his bitter foe, who alone stood between
him and his rightful throne. But it was no part of
David's duty to avenge his own cause, or to compass
the death of even a wicked king ; he was content to

393

THE BROOK BESOR.

wait until God’s time was come, though he knew not
how many more years of painful trial might thus be
allotted him. Thus the Lord Jesus, “when He was
reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He
threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that
judgeth righteously ; ” and thus too He is well content
to wait for the assumption of His kingdom, till the
Father’s time is come, “ expecting, till His enemies be
made His footstool.”

But we in vain look to the type for the perfection
of the Antitype. The faith and patience and suffer¬
ing grace of Jesus never failed, but those of the son of
Jesse gave way under the trial. In an hour of tempta¬
tion he forgot the promises of the Living God, and
gave utterance to the desponding thought, “ I shall
now perish one day by the hand of Saul ! ” Instead
of rebutting the suggestion as from the father of lies,
and staying himself upon the tried faithfulness of
Jehovah, he parleyed with the tempter, and the
“ thought of foolishness ” soon brought forth its fruits
of actual sin. He had an infallible counsellor with
him who would have given him wise and unerring
advice if he had asked it; for the high-priest Abiathar
was there, with whom was deposited the Oracle of
Jehovah, the mysterious Urim and Thummim. But
David forgot to inquire of God ; and, taking counsel
only of his unbelieving fears and worldly prudence,
he resolved to seek protection among the enemies of
his country and his God, and to cast himself upon the
king of the Philistines.

UNBELIEF.

399

The Gittite monarch received him kindly, and
assigned to his distinguished guest the little city of
Ziklag, situate not far from the brook Besor, a town
which had formerly belonged to the tribe of Simeon,
but had been captured by the Philistines in some of
the frequent wars, and now came into the possession
of Judah by this royal gift to David. Here it would
seem at first as if a great change for the better had
occurred in the circumstances of the Hebrew band;
for they were now delivered from the pressing danger,
and provided with a fortified town in which they
might dwell in security. But sin always leads to
sorrow ; and, though the child of God is delivered
through grace from the punishment due to sin here¬
after, yet God is a jealous God, and will not suffer His
saints to abuse His grace, nor to continue to walk con¬
trary to Him, without exercising towards them His
fatherly discipline. Thus David found it.

One sin naturally leads to another. The son of
Jesse must now ingratiate himself with Achish, whose
interests are diametrically opposed to those of Israel ;
hence a course of deceitfulness, if not of lying, is be¬
gun, in which the “ man after God's own heart ” be¬
comes an object of our sorrow and pity. He makes
an inroad upon the nations that lie to the south of the
lanq — the Amalekites and allied tribes — and puts to
the sword without distinction all who fall into his
hands. In this we will not say he was wrong, for
Israel had been solemnly and expressly commanded
to “ blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under

400

THE BROOK BESOR.

heaven”; and Saul’s failure to execute this commis¬
sion which had been entrusted to him, had been
the occasion of Jehovah’s rejecting his kingship, and
choosing the son of Jesse. But surely the guile which
represented the expedition as having been against his
own people, was not only dishonouring to God, to
whom lying lips are an abomination, but dishonour¬
ing to himself also, as putting him into the position
of a renegade, a traitor, and an enemy to the chosen
people of Jehovah.

Well; the ready falsehood extricated this Israelite,
in whom there ought to have been no guile, from
that difficulty ; but soon a more formidable one
presents itself, for Achish is summoning his armies
to a grand assault upon Israel, and counts with con¬
fidence upon the assistance of David and his band,
who have so vaunted their exploits against what
might be reasonably considered the common enemy.
Here is a dilemma ! If he promise the expected aid,
and then fail of performance, or go over to the ranks
of Israel, what treachery and ingratitude will mark
his conduct ! If he be found in the ranks of the
Philistines, making common cause with them against
his brethren, helping to bring the people of Jehovah
under the yoke of the idolators, what a position is
this for God's anointed king ! Oh ! what difficulties
and dangers do they plunge themselves into, who
endeavour to get rid of trial by turning aside into
the apparently smooth and flowery paths of sin ! In
such circumstances, afar from God, the erring saint

THE SACK OF ZIICLAG.

401

would only become more and more deeply involved
in difficulty and sin, if the Lord’s own gracious hand,
ever stretched forth in watchful love, did not often
cut the knot, and lead him back again into upright¬
ness by a way which he had not anticipated.

The natural jealousy of the Philistine lords becomes
the channel of help to the distressed David ; and the
distrusted stranger is sent back to his own town.
But his heart is not yet humbled ; the plausible false¬
hood is still maintained ; and, though glad in his
inmost soul of the relief, he affects great indignation
at not being permitted to “go to fight against the
enemies of his lord the king.” Ah ! his safety was
dearly bought, at the price of his sincerity ; and far
more happy, as well as more worthy of our admira¬
tion, was the noble-minded fugitive in the caves and
rocks of the wild goats, than the insincere sycophant
in the court of Gath.

Jehovah had extricated His erring servant from the
distressing dilemma in which he had placed himself,
not suffering a public disgrace to come upon him,
either before Israel or the Philistines. But he must
be rebuked and humbled, that he may recover him¬
self out of the snare into which he is fallen ; and for
this, as continuance in sin has hardened his heart and
blunted his conscience, a severe stroke is necessary.
He comes with his six hundred men to Ziklag,
expecting to enjoy the comforts and amenities of
home ; each man is anticipating the welcome words

and affectionate caresses of his wife and children,

D D

402

THE BROOK BESOR.

and perhaps hoping to spend a little season in rest
and relaxation from the fatigues of martial enterprise.
They approach the familiar spot after a three days’
tedious march beneath the torrid sun ; but an unusual
and unnatural silence and solitude prevail. Where
are the flocks and herds that ought to be grazing on
these hill-sides ? Where are the shepherds whose
viols were wont to be heard beneath the shade of
these sycamores ? Why do the ploughs lie idly in
these half-ploughed fields, forsaken of man and beast?
No barking of household dogs is heard, no busy hum
of many voices, no merry laugh of childhood comes
over the hill from the town ; all is still as death.
They press on with palpitating hearts ; the foremost
are on the summit of yonder intervening eminence,
when suddenly they stop, recoil with terror, and send
up to Heaven a cry, a wail of anguish. The town
is beneath them, but it is a heap of ruins ; the red
embers are yet lying in the half-fallen houses, and
thin columns of smoke ascend from many a smoulder¬
ing roof. Not a sign of life is there; nor can their
search discover any living soul to tell the dismal tale.
Some comfort, however, is found in the fact that no
traces of blood are seen, no ghastly corpses, no half-
consumed bodies, not even a blackened bone can
be found ; but all — wives, sons, daughters, servants,
flocks, herds — all are gone into captivity.

This was a stunning stroke indeed ! For a time
the voice of bitter lamentation ascended : “ David

and the people that were with him lifted up their

DAVID'S DILEMMA.

403

voice and wept, until they had no more power to
weep.” Then sorrow began to yield to thoughts of
revenge ; and, as the unknown enemy was beyond
their reach, they angrily began to vent their rage
on their commander, to whose imprudence they not
unreasonably attributed their irreparable loss ; and
dark hints were already muttered of stoning him
But the lesson had been learned : David recognised
the hand of his offended God, and bowed with sub¬
mission to the stroke. He “encouraged himself in
Jehovah his God ! ”

It is the precious privilege of the child of God that
he can find in his Father’s bosom a refuge from
trouble, not only when the trouble comes upon him
in the path of duty, but when it is the result of his
own failure. It is comparatively easy to a saint to
“ encourage himself in the Lord his God/'’ when
tribulation, persecution, the loss of comforts, of goods,
of liberty, and even of life, are brought on by his
faithfulness to his Lord. He naturally then looks up
for Divine consolation : but it is equally his privilege,
though much more difficult to be exercised, to flee
away from the consequences of his own transgression,
and take refuge in God’s love. Yes ! to take refuge
even from the chastisements of his Father’s hand, in
the sympathy of his Father’s heart ! But only he
can do this, who, like David, notwithstanding the
darkening cloud, knows well by sweet experience,
that “ God is love.”

The immediate fruit of this severe, but wholesome

4°4

THE BROOK BESOR.

discipline was manifested in David by his return to
the ordinances of God which he had sinfully neglected.
If he had inquired of Jehovah, when he proposed to
go down to Achish, he would certainly have been
preserved from the entangling and defiling paths into
which he had been lately led ; and he would have
been spared the painful bereavement which had just
befallen him. Now, however, he will no more trust
his own wisdom, but seek his divine Counsellor.

From that dreadful slaughter of the priests at Nob,
when Saul “ slew in one day fourscore and five persons
that did wear a linen ephod,” Abiathar, the son of
the high-priest, had escaped ; and he now exercised
the functions of that sacred office. One of those
functions was to deliver a solemn oracle from Jehovah
to any inquiring worshipper. It was called “ the
judgment of Urim and Thummim,” terms supposed
to imply illumination and perfection ; and it could
be delivered only by the high-priest, when arrayed
in his holy garments of glory and beauty. That
portion of the priestly dress which was more im¬
mediately connected with the oracular judgment, was
the ephod of gold. It seems to have been a short
coat or apron, without sleeves, formed of the most
costly materials ; a sort of rich brocade, made of
linen and golden thread interwoven, and gorgeously
embroidered with blue, and purple, and scarlet. On
the straps, or shoulder-pieces, by which it was sus¬
pended, were fixed two large onyx-stones, on each of
which were graven the names of six of the tribes of

URIM AND THUMRIIM.

405

Israel. A magnificent breastplate was worn in
front, called, from its use, the breastplate of judg¬
ment. It was a doubled piece of the same rich
cloth as the ephod, about nine inches square, fastened
with rings and chains of gold to that garment. In
it were set twelve precious stones, in four rows, all of
them different, and each graven with the name of
one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
Thus the high-priest, whenever he went into the
Holiest of all, where Jehovah dwelt in visible glory,
bore on his shoulder and on his heart the names of
the people whose advocate and intercessor he was ;
and thus he beautifully typified Jesus, our Great
High Priest, who ever presents His saints before God
in radiant glory, like stones most precious; bearing
them upon His shoulder, the place of sustaining
power, and upon His heart, the place of tender love.

Whether the Urim and the Thummin were any¬
thing superadded to the breastplate, or were the
precious stones themselves, is not certainly known.
The probability is that they were identical. Nor is
it determined how the oracular response was deli¬
vered ; whether, as the rabbinical tradition asserts, by
a supernatural light streaming forth from some of
the component letters of the engraven names, which
were then read as the answer ; or, what is more
likely, by an audible voice from God Himself.

David then called for Abiathar, who invested him¬
self with the ephod, and presented himself before
the Lord. He asked if he should pursue the troop ;

406

THE BROOK BESOR.

and received the consolatory and explicit assurance
that he should surely overtake them, and without
fail recover all. The response encouraged his faith
and hope, and invigorated his wearied and depressed
followers, who immediately set out in pursuit. The
marauders might easily be guessed to be none other
than the Amalekites, who had thus revenged the late
slaughter of their people ; and the track of the re¬
treating expedition might be inferred, with somewhat
of certainty, to have been in a southward direction,
across the brook Besor.

No time was to be lost ; and, in hot haste, though
already fatigued with a three days’ march, the six
hundred men press onward to the brook. The waters
were at that time, probably, high ; and, from the
impetuosity of the current, difficult and dangerous
to ford, especially to men whose tired limbs were
scarcely able to support them on solid ground. Two
hundred men sank down on the grassy bank, de¬
claring with despondency that they were too faint
to proceed, and utterly incompetent to the task of
fording the swollen torrent. To be deprived of one-
third of his small force was, doubtless, a fresh trial
of David’s faith ; but promptitude in pursuit was of
more consequence than numbers ; and the diminished
band resolved to go on, trusting in the assurance of
Jehovah, and to leave their disabled companions to
abide their return at the Besor.

Scarcely had they crossed the brook, when they
fell in with a wretched man, lying on the ground, at

THE DYING EGYPTIAN.

407

the point of death. He had dragged himself to a
low bush, whose scanty shadow scarcely defended
him from the burning sun. His countenance and
dress told him to be an Egyptian, whom, the day
before, the Hebrew troop might perhaps have left to
perish ; but affliction had now softened their hearts,
and they ministered to this suffering stranger the
relief of which he evidently stood in need. The re¬
storative power of food and drink was soon apparent ;
his spirit and strength revived ; and he was able to
inform them that he had been the slave of an Ama-
lekite, and had actually been engaged in the sack of
Ziklag. Happening to fall sick on the retreat, his
cruel master had left him on the road to die ; and
during the three days that had since elapsed, he had
neither eaten food nor drunk water. The mercy
shown to this perishing stranger was not without
reward ; for it was the means ordained by God for
the recovery of that which had been taken away. He
agreed, on the promise of protection, to bring down
the Hebrews to the Amalekite band, with whose
place of intended repose he was well acquainted.

How far the marauders had retreated we are not
informed ; probably, counting on the whole available
force of Israel being now engaged in the great conflict
with the Philistines, at a distance, they were in no
hurry to get home, but were taking their ease on
these grassy plains. They were soon discovered,
spread abroad upon the ground, eating and drinking,
and making merry, rioting on the abundant spoil

408

THE BROOK BESOR.

which they had taken, not only from Ziklag, but
from other parts of the country of the Philistines,
and from the south of Judah, and other contiguous
districts. The expedition seems to have been not
exclusively one of revenge upon David, but to have
been intended for general plunder, taking advantage
of the absence of the men able to bear arms, now
gathered to the scene of war. God, in His gracious
providence, had so ordered that none of the captives
were injured ; David’s two wives and the families of
his followers were preserved, for cupidity had pre¬
vailed over revenge. In this we see the tenderness
of God’s fatherly chastisement ; He never inflicts one
stroke upon His erring children more than sufficient
to effect the purpose which He designs for them.
The captivity of those dear to David had rebuked
and humbled him, which was the object designed by
Jehovah ; their violent death or irreparable dishonour
might have crushed him.

The unarmed and riotous band of Amalekites were
incapable of resistance : the swords of the avenging
Israelites fell unsparingly ; the darkness of the night
(for it was in the fading twilight that the angry band
burst in upon their revelry) helped to increase the
panic, as well as to conceal the numbers of the
assailants ; many were slain upon the spot, and only
the swiftness of their dromedaries saved four hundred
young men from the fierce pursuit, which lasted
through the whole of that night, and until the even¬
ing of the next day.

THE RECOVERY.

409

Great was the joy, and many and cordial were the
congratulations, and fervent, surely, the thanksgivings,
of the victorious band, when the battle and the pur¬
suit were done, as each man found his beloved wife,
his sons, and his daughters, unhurt by the spoilers ;
and when, according to the oracle of Jehovah, nothing
of all their property was lacking. But they gained
far more than had been taken away ; for all the
booty that the marauders had plundered from the
neighbouring countries fell into their hands.

Thus does the Christian often prove the freeness of
the grace of God. We may not sin that grace may
abound : God forbid ! but a believer, who has un¬
warily fallen into the snares of the adversary, often
proves, after having been truly humbled, and re¬
stored to communion with the Lord, that he has
gained by the transaction what he might never have
otherwise attained. In one aspect, it is true, he can
never regain his former position ; he can never be
exactly the same man that he was before ; the dis¬
honour done to the name of Christ, and the injury
inflicted on the Church, remains, and can never be
effaced. But, in another aspect, it is made a true and
real blessing to him ; he has learned much, and that
in the way in which it is most effectually learned, —
by experience. He has seen more of the craft and
subtlety, the power and the malice, of Satan; and
more of the weakness and treachery and innate cor¬
ruption of his own heart. And this, though an hum¬
bling, is a profitable lesson ; for, the more self is abased*

4io

THE BROOK BESOR.

and the more Christ is honoured, the better for time
and for eternity. He feels, more deeply than before,
the evil and bitterness of sin ; and more than ever
he values the precious Blood of Sprinkling, which
cleanses from all its defilement, as well as from all
its guilt. His intercourse with God in Christ will be
henceforth more humble, more grateful, more holy ;
he will walk more circumspectly, and more prayer¬
fully. Nor will the advantage be limited to his own
soul ; he is qualified, by the exercises through which
he has passed, to minister more effectually to his
brethren. He will now know how to warn the care¬
less, how to sympathise with the tempted, how to
yearn over poor backsliders, and how to comfort the
trembling penitents, and cheer them to the race
again. Peter would be better able to strengthen his
brethren, and to feed the sheep and lambs of Jesus’
fold, after his painful fall and happy restoration, than
before ; and who can tell how much of the peculiar
fatherly tenderness that marks his epistles, — his rich¬
ness of consolation in the fiery trial through which
the Church was passing, — his earnest admonitions to
vigilance against the wiles of the arch adversary, —
may have been, under grace, owing to his having
been in the furnace himself, and having proved the
prowess of the foe ?

Laden with spoil, David and his troop return to
the brook Besor, where they are joyfully saluted by
their now recruited comrades. To the unkind and
selfish suggestion of some in the band, whose hard

GRACE ABOUNDING.

411

hearts neither adversity nor prosperity had availed
to soften, — that those who had been unable to go to
the battle should not partake of the spoil, — David
administers a temperate but decisive rebuke. He
ascribes the success wholly to Jehovah; and estab¬
lishes it as an ordinance in Israel, that all who bear
part in any expedition shall share equally in the
spoil, whether they actually engage in the conflict, or
abide with the baggage. Sad would it be for us if
only He who fought the fight and won the victory
enjoyed the spoil ; but He joyfully makes His people,
even the meanest and weakest, full partakers of all
the gain and glory that result from His conflict. Let
us imitate His example, and gladly share with our
brethren whatever fruits of grace have been commu¬
nicated to us.

(SmCStS XX. — XXVI.

This Brook is memorable also for scenes and inci¬
dents far earlier than the time of David ; for the
region through which its waters flowed was the an¬
cient Gerar, where, in turn, both Abraham and Isaac
sojourned ; and the city of the same name, over
which Abimelech reigned, was in all probability on
its banks. The higher parts of the stream drained
the waters of the hills, the sloping sides of which
formed the valley of Gerar, whither Isaac, for peace’
sake resorted, when the jealousy of the Philistines

4T2

THE BROOK BESOR.

constrained him to leave their more immediate
vicinity.

From several casual allusions in the Holy Scrip¬
tures, we gather that the Philistines, who for so long
a period maintained possession of the south-west
portion of Canaan, and gave the name of Palestine to
the whole of that country, were an Egyptian colony.
At the time of their migration, which was probably
not long before the period of Abraham’s sojourn in
Gerar, they seem to have included two tribes — the
Palishtim, and the Caphtorim, each of which names
at length came to be used indiscriminately to desig¬
nate this people ; though the former was, by far, the
more common. From the manner in which the tri¬
umphal ode of the children of Israel alludes to them,
after the crossing of the Red Sea, as well as from the
reason assigned by God why He would not lead them
by the shortest and most obvious route to Canaan,
we infer that the Philistines had early acquired a re¬
nown for that martial prowess which they afterwards
so well maintained in the long contests for supre¬
macy with the people of Israel. The latter made no
attempts at maritime commerce or power until the
reign of the magnificent Solomon ; at which time the
power of the Philistine nation had been effectually
broken by the successful career of David. Hence,
the Israelites would never come into contact with
them as a naval power ; and we should not have
known that the Philistines were eminent on the sea,
however we might have judged it probable from their

THE PHILISTINES.

413

occupying the seaboard, and from the Mediterranean
being called by their name (“ the Sea of the Philis¬
tines,” Exod. xxiii. 31), if the ancient Egyptian
sculptures and paintings had not revealed the fact.
Those interesting monuments, recently brought to
light, represent naval as well as military battles, in
which the conflicting parties are found, from the
hieroglyphic inscriptions, to be the Egyptians and
the Palishta ; while more commonly these two
kindred nations are seen in close alliance, fighting
against a common enemy.

That portion of the land which we are now dis¬
cussing had been previously occupied by the Avim, —
a people whom some are inclined to regard as a tribe
of the Hivites ; but these had been overcome and
destroyed by the superior energy, force, or skill of
the immigrating Caphtorim. The latter seem to
have been in a more polished condition than the
Canaanitish tribes, which they doubtless owed to
their Egyptian origin. Thus not only is the kingly
government recognised, but hereditary succession
seems to be established ; for Abimelech is the name
of the king who reigned in Gerar in Isaac’s days, as
it had been that of him with whom Abraham so¬
journed nearly a hundred years before. Each of
these monarchs is attended by a “ captain of the
host,” — an officer whose function implies a high state
of military organization. It is remarkable that the
name of this officer was hereditary, no less than that
of his master. Some suppose that both of the

4H

THE BROOK BESOR.

names, Abimelech and Phichol, were official, and not
personal titles (especially as the former signifies “ My
father, the king,”) ; as Pharaoh was the constant title
of the reigning Egyptian monarch. If this was so, if
would no less indicate a cultivated state of society,
and would afford another interesting affinity with
Egyptian usages.

The Philistines appear to have never contracted
friendships or alliances with the nations of Canaan,
“ not even on those occasions when all the inhabi¬
tants of the land might be expected to unite as one
man in resistance to the invading Israelites ; and
when, in fact, powerful confederacies were formed for
that purpose by the native princes. The Philistines
were the most inveterate enemies which the Hebrews
in Canaan ever had ; and yet in their wars we find
them proceeding as a distinct people, with separate
interests of their own, acting by themselves and for
themselves, assisted by none, and never assisting
others.” *

An interesting trait in the character of this people
is their apparent freedom from the idolatry and vice
which had debased the surrounding nations. The first
Abimelech was evidently acquainted with the name
and attributes of Jehovah, to whom he appealed, in
the confidence of a worshipper, for the integrity of
his own heart, and the general righteousness of his
people ; and to this appeal God Himself responded.

* Kitto’s Hist, of Palestine, 85.

ABRAHAM'S FAILURE.

415

His abhorrence of the sin of adultery, and his sense
of the injury done him in laying temptation in his
way, as also his kindness to Abraham, indicate that
true religion yet lingered here ; while the appeal,
“Jehovah, wilt Thou slay also a righteous nation?”
alluding, no doubt, to the late dreadful overthrow of
Sodom, implies a great difference between his own
people and the guilty Canaanites, and proves that he
knew Jehovah to be one who could not but do right.

The intercourse of Isaac with the second Abimelech
shows that this purity of faith and morals had not
yet been corrupted. How long it remained we are
not told ; but when, a few centuries afterwards, we
again find this people on the stage of history, it is as
the besotted worshippers of Dagon, the god with a
fish's form, and as the cruel oppressors of Israel.

It is remarkable that all the narratives connected
with this river present us with signal failures of
eminent saints, and humiliating rebukes of their un¬
belief, exceedingly similar to each other. We have
already seen how the holy David was betrayed into
distrust of Jehovah’s kind and watchful care, and
thence into prevarication and lying ; and we have
seen “ the end of the Lord ” in reproving and re¬
covering him. We have now to tell as sad a story of
the “ father of the faithful,” the “ friend of God.”

Abraham had had repeated promises from God of
a numerous offspring; and latterly these assurances
had been confirmed in solemn covenant, and the
promised seed had been distinctly announced by

416

7 HE BROOK BESOR.

name, and described as to be born of Sarah his wife.
Yet, when he came to sojourn in Gerar, he fell under
the power of a sore temptation, and dishonoured,
by distrusting, Jehovah. Ignorant that there was
any fear of God, or sense of morality among the
Philistines, he dreaded the effect which the extraor¬
dinary beauty of Sarah — aged, indeed, but now re¬
stored to preternatural youthfulness — might produce
upon lawless men ; and supposed that, if it were
known that he was her husband, they would not
scruple to slay him in order to seize her. He there¬
fore besought her to represent herself as his sister, —
a relationship which did exist by the father’s side, but
not by the mother’s. Thus he showed no concern for
the chastity of his wife, which he the more exposed
by his disingenuous artifice, but a slavish dread of
death, which he was willing to avoid at the expense
of his wife’s honour ; though one thought of the
glorious promises which had been made to him would
have effectually silenced his fears. It was probably
the custom then, as now, among the pastoral tent¬
dwelling tribes, for the unmarried women to have
great part of their faces exposed; while the married
women were enveloped in a veil, which left none of
the features visible. The consequence was that the
king of the country sent and took the fair Hebrew
for his harem.

But Jehovah, who permitted this to happen for the
rebuke of His unbelieving servant, did not forget His
own faithfulness. Most precious is that truth : “ If

JEHO VAN'S FAITHFULNESS.

417

we believe not, yet He abideth faithful ; He cannot
deny Himself.” He effectually interposed His power
in such a way as prevented the dishonour of Sarah,
intimating in a night vision to the king the true re¬
lation that subsisted between her and the patriarch,
and the danger which he had unwittingly incurred
by seizing another’s wife. Abimelech obeyed, and
having cautioned his servants, called for Abraham ;
and he who was called “the friend of God,” who
had been honoured to partake the counsels of Je¬
hovah, and who was the heir of the promises, stood
in the humbling position of hearing his sin reproved
by one whom he had supposed destitute of the fear
of God. Thus sometimes, still, the natural conscience
of unrenewed men is found more sensitive to sin than
the sleeping conscience of careless Christians ; but
it is greatly to the shame of the latter. Nor does
the excuse wherewith Abraham attempts to palliate
his evil much mend the matter : his whole conduct in
this transaction is greatly to his disadvantage. It
is recorded, however, for our benefit ; inasmuch as it
shows that even Abraham had not “ whereof to
glory ” in his own works ; that he was not and could
not be justified by these ; but only by faith upon
the righteousness of God in Christ, whose “day”
he saw afar off, and rejoiced to see it.

To Sarah also, who had allowed herself to be
enticed into a share of the sin, the justly offended
monarch administered a reproof, not the less severe
because of the delicate manner in which it was con-

E E

418

THE BROOK BESOR.

veyed. “Behold, I have given to thy ‘brother’ a
thousand pieces of silver, to purchase such a veil as
shall indicate thy relation.”

Yet, though the Lord sometimes allows His people
to stand reproved before the world, He will never¬
theless have it manifested that they sustain a cove¬
nant relation with Himself, and that He puts a
special honour upon them, notwithstanding their
failures. They are His, not because of their right¬
eousness, but because of His own grace ; and hence
their failures in faith or obedience cannot alienate
His love, though they bring down His chastisements.
God would have Abimelech seek Abraham’s prayers;
and it was in immediate answer to His servant’s in¬
tercessions, doubtless very humbling and profitable
to his own soul, that Jehovah removed those inflic¬
tions which the temporary possession of Sarah had
brought upon the house of the Philistine king.

The narrative of Isaac’s failure is so similar in its
details, that, if it had not been recorded by Him who
cannot err, we might have supposed it another ver¬
sion of the same transaction : we therefore need not
further allude to it, but shall follow this patriarch
from the actual dominions of Abimelech to the valley
of Gerar, whither he was driven by the jealousy of the
Philistines, envious of his increasing prosperity.

Though the land of Israel, when under the peculiar
blessing of God, was a land of brooks of water, a
land that drank of the rain of heaven, and must not
be estimated by its present condition, when languish-

THE VALLEY OF GERAR.

419

ing under the threatened curse of drought and bar¬
renness ; yet even then the rains were seasonal ; and
we have pretty clear indication in the records of
Abraham’s and Isaac’s biography, that, at least in
the southern part of the country, there were no
perennial streams. During, and for some time after,
the rains of winter, the valley of Gerar was doubtless
the bed of a copious stream, which, as already
intimated, became known in the lower part of its
course through the undulating plains as the Brook
Besor ; and, if this had continued to flow through the
summer and autumn, abundant water for pastoral
and agricultural purposes would have been supplied,
and the labour of digging wells have been superseded.
But this was not the case ; in both Abraham’s and
Isaac’s sojourns in this region, the digging of wells
forms marked events ; and the contentions of which
they were the occasions show the importance of the
water so obtained. Isaac had recently turned his
attention to agriculture; he had “sowed in that land,
and received in the same year an hundred-fold ” — an
enormous rate of increase, but “Jehovah blessed
him.” It was therefore, in all probability, no less for
the purposes of irrigation that he dug wells in the
valley, than for the supply of his flocks and herds ;
and, as he who bestows the needful labour and
expense upon the formation of a well in an arid
district, to a certain extent creates its fruitfulness,
it is considered still in some parts (as in Persia, for
instance) to confer a proprietorship in the land so

420

THE BROOK BESOR.

fertilized. It was doubtless on this account that the
Philistines took pains to fill up the excavated wells
both of Abraham and of Isaac, or disputed the
possession of them ; as fearing that the wealthy
strangers might establish a claim upon the lands
which they occupied, that might afterwards prove
inconvenient.*

In the dominions of Abimelech there might be
some justice in the rigid exclusiveness of the Philis¬
tines ; and Isaac readily departed at the suggestion
of the king, and pitched his tent in the valley, which
seems to have remained as yet unappropriated.
Having re-opened the old wells which Abraham had
digged, he gave to them the names which had been
originally conferred on them by that patriarch.
The custom of naming wells no doubt arose from
the desire of establishing a right to the water ; and
tradition would preserve the circumstances which
induced the selection of the name (for this was
always significant,) much longer than if no distinctive
appellation had been given. We are not told that
the Philistines interfered with Isaac in these opera¬
tions ; perhaps they felt that the evidence of property
which the revival of the old names gave was too
strong to be openly resisted ; though they had not
scrupled to fill up the wells secretly But on his
digging new ones, matters came to an open rupture.
The servants of Isaac, digging in the valley, came

* Dr. Kitto.

ISAACS WELLS.

421

upon a fine spring, which roused the envy of the
Philistine herd men who were pasturing their flocks
in the neighbourhood, and they disputed the posses¬
sion of the water by force of arms. Another well
was the subject of similar contention ; and Isaac
meekly relinquished both, having first bestowed upon
them the odious names of Esek and Sitnah, signify¬
ing strife and hatred. The Philistines in these trans*
actions appear peculiarly unamiable, selfishly seeking
to derive exclusive advantage from the labours of
another — labours which they had not energy or skill
to perform for themselves. But Isaac exemplifies
the lovely principle of grace} giving up his right for
the sake of peace ; content, although confessedly the
stronger, “ much mightier than they,” to be imposed-
on, rather than resist evil, where only his convenience
or interest was concerned : like his promised Seed,
to whom he looked in anticipating faith, and of whom
he was an illustrious type, he “ restored that which
he took not away.”

XVII

THE RIVER NILE .

TOPOGRAPHY .

Ancient Renown — The White and Blue Rivers — Valley ol
Egypt — Periodical Overflow — Consequent Fertility — Ancient
Monuments — Early Civilization — Abram’s Visit — Moses — The
Plagues of Egypt — Subsequent History.

We now again leave the goodly land of Canaan, to
consider a river, mighty and renowned indeed, but
one whose name would be chiefly associated in the
mind of Israel with memories and traditions of bitter
captivity, — the “iron furnace” of Egyptian bondage.
The Nile is the great river of northern and eastern
Africa, pursuing a course of more than 1,800 miles,
in a direction nearly due north, from the centre of
that great continent to the Mediterranean. The
various sources of this river are yet involved in ob¬
scurity ; but they are believed to rise in lofty moun¬
tains to the north of the equator.* The principal
branches are called the White and the Blue rivers,
which, after passing through Abyssinia, unite in the
region of Sennaar. From this point it receives but
one tributary of any importance, until it falls into the
Mediterranean by several diverging mouths, forming
the Delta of Egypt. The greater part of its course
lies through a narrow valley, rarely exceeding a few
miles in width, hemmed in on both sides by low
ranges of mountains. Some portions of even this
narrow strip are little better than the sandy desert

° Let the text remain as a memorial of our ignorance a
quarter of a century ago. But what magnificent revelations of
Lakes and Rivers in the heart of Africa have been made since !
The course of the Nile can hardly be less than 3,000 miles.

426

THE RIVER NILE.

around ; but other parts, especially the lower course
of the river, forming the land of Egypt, possess an
astonishing fertility, owing to the annual deposition
of a rich alluvial mud, by the overflow of the river
in summer.

After the waters have retired within their banks,
which takes place in November, the agricultural pre¬
parations begin ; and the valley soon assumes the
appearance ol a delightful garden, covered with ver¬
dant crops, enamelled with flowers, and interspersed
with groves of fruit-trees and luxuriant palms. The
harvest is gathered in March and April, after which
the heat becomes intense, and the suffocating kham-
seeny or south wind, sweeping along clouds of fine
sand, and parching up all vegetation, makes the in¬
habitants look forward with eagerness to the rise of
the Nile, the hope of the succeeding year.

All through the valley, on both sides of the river,
lie scattered, in astonishing profusion, the monuments
of ancient Egypt, — grand and imposing palaces, tem¬
ples, sepulchres, and colossal statues, the remnant of
the power and science of those early days when
Abram visited the land of Ham, and Joseph pre¬
served her from destruction.

The name of the Nile does not occur in Scripture
(unless it be the “Sihor” of Jer. ii. 18); but it is
spoken of as " the river ” more than twenty times, and
much of the early history of God's chosen people is
linked with it. To describe all the scenes associated
with it would be to transcribe nearly one-third of the

ANCIENT EGYPT ,

427

books of Genesis and Exodus; but the limits assigned
to this little volume will not permit us to do more
than enumerate some of the most prominent of the
incidents with which it is connected.

THE NILE.

The researches of modern times, and the light
reflected from the ancient monuments, prove that
Egypt was a highly polished kingdom, renowned in
arts and arms, when first visited by Abram. He
stood upon the banks of the broad Nile, as it rolled

428

THE RIVER NILE.

through the majestic city of the Pharaohs ; and his
descendant, Joseph, witnessed beside its waters the
depth of adversity and the height of prosperity. In
the flags and rushes that waved along its margin the
fair infant Moses was exposed in his reedy cradle,
when the daughter of the monarch, approaching to
bathe in its refreshing waters, felt tender compassion
for the babe, and rescued him from the obscene
crocodiles. On its brink stood the prophet, when,
having come to years, and preferring the afflictions of
the people of God to the honours of the Egyptian
court, his wonder-working rod brought plagues upon
the land of Ham. The frogs came swarming from
the river’s depths ; and, worse than all, the river
itself — whose waters were esteemed preferable to all
others, the source of fertility and wealth — became
blood ; and that which had been honoured as a god,
became abominable and loathsome to its admirers !
The great contest between Jehovah and the gods of
Egypt took place upon the banks of the Nile, which
ended in the shameful discomfiture of the latter, and
the triumphant avenging and delivering of the en¬
slaved house of Israel.

Varied were the scenes which, in after ages, were
enacted beside the mighty “ father of waters.” The
ravages of the desolator, Cambyses ; the silken-sailed
progresses of the voluptuous Cleopatra ; the confla¬
gration of the glorious library of the Ptolemies ;
the disastrous expedition of Napoleon ; the bloody
massacre of the Mamlooks ; the rolling Nile has

THE RIVER OF LIFE.

429

successively witnessed : and through all it has seen the
gradual, but sure, degradation of its possessors, from
the very summit of civilization, opulence, and power,
until Egypt has become — what Divine prophecy long
ages ago declared it should be — “ the basest of king¬
doms.”

Thus we have briefly sketched the history of those
Rivers and Streams whose names are embalmed in
the narratives of Holy Writ. Many events of high
moment, many scenes of interest, many examples of
human failure and of Divine grace, we have seen con¬
nected with them; and we have surely learned from
their history some lessons of heavenly wisdom, such
as the Word of God alone can teach. There is one
other Sacred Stream ; — one which the inquisitive
traveller has never looked upon, but whose crystal
waters, seen in vision, once gladdened the anointed
eye of the beloved disciple in Patmos ; and myriads
of happy saints shall, by-and-by, “ walk in white ”
upon its pleasant banks. It is the “ River, the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God ; ”
it is the “pure River of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the
Lamb.” Not on earth does it flow ; sin-ridden and
polluted as they are, the sunniest, fairest lands of
earth would be wholly ungenial to its purity. It
flows through the golden streets of the “City that
hath the foundations,” the New Jerusalem, yet hidden

43°

CONCLUSION.

with God, but shortly to be revealed. The tree of
life, that once grew in the midst of Eden, soon had
to be withdrawn from earth ; but it was to be trans¬
planted by this heavenly River, where it flourishes
abundantly “on either side and those who shall be
hereafter privileged to walk there, shall pluck the
fruit of the tree of life, and drink of that river of
pleasures, and live for ever. Nothing but joy be¬
longs to that blissful scene, and eternity is stamped
upon all.

May it be the favoured lot of every reader of these
pages, as well as of their author, to find an everlasting
home by those “living fountains of waters,” “in the
midst of the Paradise of God !”

INDEX.

Abraham, call of, 37.

Failure of, 416.

Migration of, 30.

Absalom, rebellion of, 333.

Adam and Eve, in innocence, 13.

Fall of, 15.

Ahasuerus, 185.

Angels, evil, 275.

Amalekite band, 408.

Armenia, 14 1.

Arnon, River, 297, 300.

Aroer, 301.

Ashtaroth Karnaim, 263.

Assyria, empire of, 100, 120.

Marbles of, 151.

Baal, prophets of, 367.

Babel, building of, 21.

Babylon, doom of, 65, 72.

Exiles at, 62.

Glory of, 48.

Present state of, 79, 84.
Ruins of, 25.

Bagdad, 134.

Baptism of Jesus, 221.

Barak, 359.

Bashan, 264, 281.

Og, king of, 269.
Belshazzar, feast of, 68.

Besor, Brook, 395.

Bozrah, 281.

Buffalo, 259.

Caesarea- Philippi, 254.

Canaan, cities of, 270.

Carmel, 356, 365.

Cherith, Brook, 313.

Cherubim, vision of, 159.

Christ, second advent of, 138, 165.

Baptism of, 221.
Compassion of God, 119.

Cony, 330.

Cyrus takes Babylon, 73.
Dan, idolatry of, 256.
Daniel, in youth, 57.

age> 1 35-
Tomb of, 175.
Visions of, 177.
David at Besor, 398.

Falls of, 332, 398.
Sorrows of, 333.
Victory of, 377.
Dead Sea, 205.

Deborah, 359.

Demoniac possession, 273.
Diarbekr, 99.

Eden, garden of, 9.

Egypt, 427.

Ehud, vengeance of, 233.
Elah, valley of, 374.
Eliezer, mission of, 39.
Elijah at Carmel, 365.

At the Cherith, 316.
Rapture of, 240.
Ephraim, pride of, 237.

Speech of, 238.
Esarhaddon, 122.

Eshcol, valley of, 383.
Esther, marriage of, 186.
Euphrates, River, 9, 79.

Expedition, 86.
Ezekiel the prophet, 155.
Gadara, 277.

Gazelle, 298.

Gennesaret, Lake, 273.
Gerar, vale of, 41 1.
Gergesenes, 273.
Gethsemane, 338.

Ghor, of Jordan, 204.
Gideon, 234.

432

INDEX.

Gilead, beauty of, 266.

Glory of God, vision of, 15S, 164.
Goliath, 376.

Gourd of J onah, 1 1 6.

Gozan, River, 149.

Grapes of Palestine, 3S7.

Hiddekel, River, 97.

Iron made to swim, 252.

Isaac, grace of, 421.

Israel, apostasy of, 161, 317, 335,

359.

Captivities of, 232, 357.
Deportation of, 121, 148, 150.
Judgments on, 317.

Jabbok, River, 2S1.

Jabin, king of Canaan, 357.

Jacob’s emergency, 287.

Tael, vengeance of, 362.

Vindication of, 363.

Jarmuk, River, 263.

Jephthah, vow of, 237.

Jezreel, plain of, 351.

Jonah, anger of, 1 1 1.

Mission of, 102.

Gourd of, 116.

Jordan, course of, 19S.

Dried up, 216.

Fords of, 229, 233.

Mystic significance of, 223,
Sources of, 193.

Kedron, Brook, 325, 336.

David at, 334.

Jesus at, 338.

Ivhabor, River, 141.

Kings, reforming, 336.

Kishon, River, 356.

Koords, 146,

Laish, 256.

Leprosy, cleansed, 248.

Manasseh, 122.

Mar-Saba, Convent of, 327.

Merom, Lake, 196, 358.
Mesopotamia, 27.

Midian, day of, 233.

Moab, land of, 214.

Present state of, 304.

Pride of, 303.

Vengeance on, 232.
Naaman, 245.

Nahum, prophecy of, 123.
Nebuchadnezzar, 51.

Vision of, 57.

Nestorians, 147.

Nile, river, 425.

Nimrod, 20, 24.

Nineveh, burden of, 123.

Destruction of, 127.
Discoveries at, 54, 101, 1

151-

Jonah’s mission to, 102.
Remains of, 128.
Repentance of, no.

Site of, 100.

Og of Bashan, 269.

Paneas, 193, 254.

Peter’s confession, 254.
Philistines, kings of, 413, 415.

Origin of, 412.

Pilgrims at Jordan, 226.

Rabbah- Ammon, 291.

Rahab of Jericho, 215.

Ram and Goat, vision of, 178.
Ravens feeding Elijah, 319.
Rebekah, 45.

River of Life, 3, 429.

Rivers, associations of, 1.

Of Palestine, 191.
Sacrifice, institution of, iS.
Satan, doom of, 17.

Seleucia, 133.

Sennacherib, 121.

Shibboleth, 238.

Siege, Assyrian, 151.

Egyptian, 302.

Siloam, Pool of, 345.

Sisera, death of, 362.

INDEX.

Sodom, apple of, 209.

Pillar of, 208.

Sea of, 206.

Son of God, vision of, 136.

Rejected by Judah, 164.
Sorek, valley of, 373, 384.
Spies sent by Moses, 3 84.

Susa, remains of, 173.

Susiana, 170.

Tabor, Mount, 352.

View from, 353.

Tigris, River, 97, 131.
Tongues, confusion of, 23.
Tortoises, 258.

Ulai, River, 170,

Urim and Thummim, 404.
Urumiyah, Lake, 143.
Van, Lake, 142.

Vine, culture of, 389.
Wells, value of, 419.
Wheels, in vision, 160.
Wild-boar, 284.

Zab, River, 131, 141.
Zaretan, site of, 217.
Zered, Brook, 307.

Zerka, River, 282.

Ziklag, 399.

Sack of, 402.

TEXTS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ILLUSTRATED, QUOTED, OR ALLUDED TO.

PAGE

PAGE

Gen. ii. 8-25 . . .

•

•

•

9

Jud. v. 24 .

363

ii. 14.

•

•

•

98

vi.-viii .

233

iii. 8-21 . . .

•

15

xi., xii .

236

x. 8-12 . . .

100

,I48

xviii .

256

xi. 1-9 .

19

1 Sam. xvii .

376

xii. 1-5 •

•

27

XXX .

396

xiii. 10 .

•

•

205

2 Sam. xii. 26 .

291

xiv. 1— 1 7

•

•

IOI

xv. 23-30 ....

334

xix. 28 .

•

•

•

206

xxiv. 5 .

3QI

XX .

•

•

•

4i3

1 Kings vii. 47 .

217

xxiv .

•

•

•

39

xii. 29, 30 ...

258

xxvi .

•

418

xv. 13 .

335

xxxii.

•

•

2S8

xvi. 34 .

239

Exod. ii. 3 . . •

428

xvii. 3-7 .

3i3

vii. viii. . •

•

•

428

xvii. 16 .

364

xxviii. 30 .

•

•

•

404

xviii .

364

xxxii. 26 .

•

•

363

2 Kings ii .

239

Num. xiii. 23, 24

v. .

245

xxi. 1 ^ • •

3°°

vi. 1-7 .

249

xxii. 36

3GI

x. 32 .

271

xxiv. 1 7 . .

•

302

xvii. 4 .

121

xxxii. 5

•

•

270

xvii. 6 .

14S

Deut. ii. 13, 14 . .

•

•

•

3°S

xviii. 13-xix. 37 .

121

iii. 1 — 1 3 . .

•

•

•

269

xxiii. 4-6 ....

<7

jj/

iv. 25

•

•

•

271

1 Chron. v. 26 .

148

viii. 7

•

191

2 Chron. xxxiii. 1 1 .

I23

xxxii. 30 .

•

•

359

Neh. iii. 15 .

345

xxxiii. 8, 9 .

•

•

363

Esth. i.-x .

184

xxxiv. 5*

•

•

•

215

Job xxxix. 5-8 .

393

Josh, iii., iv.

•

•

•

213

xl. 4 ; xiii. 6 .

1 37

vi. 26

•

•

•

239

Is. xv. 4*******

237

vii. 3, viii. 25 .

•

•

•

270

xlvi. 4 .

429

xiii. 9-16 . .

•

•

301

lvi. 8 .

397

Jud. iii. 8-10

•

•

IOI

Ixxx. 13 .

284

iii. 12-30 .

•

•

232

xcviii .

166

iv .

•

•

357

cxxxvii . 61, 84

, SS

INDEX.

435

Prov. xxx. 26 . .

PAGE

33°

Matt. xi. 18

PAGE

222

Tsa. vi. 5 . . .

137

xiii. 41-43

165

viii. 6 . . .

345

xvi. 13 .

253

xiii. 19-22 .

9i

xxvi. 36.

338

xiv. 23. . .

70

Mark v. 1— 1 7 .

273

xiv. 11.

84

Luke ix. 26

138

xvi., xvii. 2 .

303

John ix. 7 .

345

Jer. xxv.

127

xiv. 16 .

224

xlviii. . .

303

xviii. 1

338

xlix. 13 . .

281

Rom. viii. 1 1 .

223

xlix. 19 . .

205

viii. 14-17

224

1. 44 ...

205

viii. 21 .

i65

1- 25-37 . .

135

1 Cor. xii. 3

254

li. 42 . . .

76

xv. 52 .

138

li. 59-64 . .

65

2 Cor. v. 21

222

Ezek. i. 28 .

137

Gal. iv. 5-7

224

i.-xi. . .

155

Eph. i. 13, 14.

224

xxv. 5 . .

292

ii. 6 .

223

xliii. 1-9 .

164

iv. 30. .

224

xlviii. 35 .

i65

vi. 12. .

275

Dan. ii. ...

5i

Phil. iii. 21. .

138

v. ...

67

Heb. ii. 10 13.

224

viii. . . .

1 77

x. 19

223

X

1

•— 1

0

•

•

135

xi. 10 .

429

flos. xii. 4, 5 . .

289

xi. 32 .

237

[oel iii. 12-21 . .

326

Jude 7 . .

222

[onahi.-iv. . .

102

Rev. i. 13 . .

136

Nah. i.-iii. . .

123

i. 17 . .

137

Zeph. ii. 13-15 .

131

xix. 7, 8 .

165

Matt. iii. . . .

*

•

•

221

xxii. 1

429

‘}5

4

. .