Page images
PDF
EPUB

Gilboa; then taking the road to She'chem, a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, we encamped near the town for the night, in the vicinity of "Joseph's Tomb" and "Jacob's Well." She'chem, which is now called Nab'lus by the Arabs, from the Roman name Neap'olis, is nestled in a valley slope between Mount Ger'izim on the east and Mount E'bal on the west; it abounds in historic associations, with references to which Prof. Howard occupied much of our time during the two days that we spent there."

13. From She'chem we again directed our course to the valley of the Jordan, and the same day reached the supposed site of Gil'gal. After having in vain searched for the palm-trees that we expected to find there, we were forced to encamp on the barren plain for the night.

14. The next morning Prof. Howard remarked, that, very likely, we had been reposing on the very spot on which the children of Israel encamped when they passed over Jordan. Standing there, we saw Mount Nebo on the cast, one of the peaks of the Pisgah range, "over against Jericho." From this mountain Moses viewed the promised land, which he was forbidden to enter. The plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, lay between us and Mount Nebo; and somewhere, in a valley beneath the shadow of the mountain, was the grave of the great Jewish prophet and law-giver,—but where, "no man knoweth unto this day."

Megiddo plain, and the Armaged'don of Revelation xvi. 16, stretches across the centre of Palestine, in a triangular form, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. It was Israel's great battle-field with invaders. See Judges iv., vii.; 1st Samuel xxix., xxxi.; 2d Kings xxiii. 29.-Napoleon's battle-field below Mount Tabor was near the north-eastern angle of this plain.

a EXERCISE.-Write narrative of events connected with Shechem. -See Gen. xx. 6-7; xxxiii. 18-20; xxxv. 1-4; xlviii. 22;-Josh. xx. 7; xxiv. 1-25, 32;-Judges ix. 2, 3, 6, 21-45;—1st Kings xx. 1-25 ;— John iv. 5;-Acts vii. 16.

b Deut. xxxiv. 6.

15. The Professor recited to us several pieces of poetry about the death and burial of Moses-for he knows all these things, about the Holy Land, by heart. Here are a few of the verses that he has kindly written off for me. The first one speaks of Moses looking down on the promised land, from Mount Pisgah :—

Death and Burial of Moses.

16. From Pisgah's top, his eye the prophet threw
O'er Jordan's wave, where Canaan met his view.
His sunny mantle and his hoary locks

Shone, like the robe of Winter, on the rocks.
Where is that mantle ?-melted in the air.

Where is the prophet?-GOD can tell thee where.

Pierpont.

17. And here is another, which tells where God made the grave of Moses :

When he, who from the scourge of wrong
Aroused the Hebrew tribes to fly,

Saw the fair region, promised long,
And bowed him on the hills to die,
God made his grave, to man unknown,
Where Moab's rocks a vale infold,

And laid the aged seer alone

To slumber while the world grows old.

Bryant.

18. And here are three or four verses more which Prof. Howard wrote off for me. "So many poets," said he, "have written excellent poems upon the death and burial of Moses, that I should like to make more selections for you, if you had room for them in your letter."

19. By Nebo's lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave.
And no man dug that sepulchre,

And no man saw it e'er;

For the angels of God upturned the sod,
And laid the dead man there.

20. That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth.

21. Noiselessly as the daylight

Comes when the night is done,

And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek
Grows into the great sun,—

So, without sound of music,

Or voice of them that wept,
Silently down from the mountain crown
The great procession swept.

22. And had he not high honor?
The hill-side for his pall?

To lie in state while angels wait,
With stars for tapers tall?-

And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes,

Over his bier to wave,—

And God's own hand, in that lonely land,

To lay him in his grave?

Mrs. C. F. Alexander.

23. Leaving the banks of the Jordan early in the morning, we passed over the ground on which the city of Jericho once stood, and found there only a few miserable Arab

huts, and one solitary tower of ancient times. I picked up, and carried away for our museum, a few bits of stone: they may have formed a part of the walls that fell down at the sound of the music of the rams' horns and the shouting of the multitude, when the priests of Levi carried the holy ark around the city. Prof. Howard read to us the Bible account of the taking of this Ca'naan-i-tish stronghold; and then he repeated to us some poetic accounts of the same, from which I have taken the following:

24.

"The sons of Levi round that city bear

The ark of God, their consecrated care;
And, in rude concert, each returning morn,
Blow the long trump, and wind the curling horn.
No blackening thunder smoked along the wall:
No earthquake shook it ;-Music wrought its fall!"
Pierpont.

25. From Jericho our course lay westward, diverging from the Bethany road, over steep hills, and through deep valleys, for a distance of about eighteen miles, when, on reaching the summit of a hill higher than usual, and looking across an intervening valley, our eyes rested upon the holy city, Jerusalem!" but not," said Prof. Howard, "the Jerusalem of old; for her pride and her glory are departed; and for more than three and a half centuries she has worn the chains of her Moslem rulers."

26. Then, as we stopped to gaze upon the city, so quietly slumbering there, her Turkish domes and minarets brilliant with the rays of the setting sun, while deep shadows-fitting emblems of her mourning-filled the valleys, the Professor repeated the following lines:

"And throned on her hills sits Jerusalem yet,

But with dust on her forehead, and chains on her feet;

[blocks in formation]

For the crown of her pride to the mocker hath gone,
And the holy Shekinah" is dark where it shone."

Whittier.

27. From our elevated position, with our glasses we could recognize the Damascus gate, the one nearest us on

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

the northern boundary of the city: within the city walls, toward the farther side, the famous Mosque of Omar, on Mount Moriah, rose prominently into view; and beyond the walls, on the east, the location of the Mount of Olives, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and the site of the Garden of Geth-sem'a-ne, were pointed out to us,-places whose very names impressed us with feelings of awe and veneration.

a Shekinah: That miraculous light which was a symbol of the divine presence.

« EelmineJätka »