aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

PRESENT GOSPELS. 351
that should come. The causes were then in operation. All
prophecy, however, is within the realm of causation.
Poetically speaking, Syria was once a land flowing with
milk and honey. Its undulating valleys rejoiced in waving
fields of corn ; its crystal streams were bordered with palms
and roses ; its mountains were covered with olives, figs, mulberries,
pomegranates, and clustering vines ; and its rocky
cliffs with grazing flocks and herds.
The present population of Palestine, estimated at two
hundred thousand, is scattered over mountains dotted with
mingled masses of rocks and ruins. It seems impossible that
this country, now under the sultan's rule, once sustained
three millions of prosperous people. And yet it is evident
that there have been great natural and desolating convulsions
since the days of Hillel, Philo, Josephus, and Jesus. Agricultural
pursuits were abandoned for war, denuding mountains
of their woody vestures, and hills of their figs, olives,
and grazing herds. Shortly after the crucifixion, the country
was wasted by famine, cursed by civil dissensions ^nd foreign
wars instigated by ambition and a merciless cupidity.
But we are again approaching the city so holy to Jews,
Christians, and Mohammedans, — the seventeen times besieged,
rebuilt, and re-ruined Jerusalem, which to-day is little
more than a gathering of rival bishops, ecclesiastics, monks,
artisans, and traders, selling relics, and supplying the temporal
wants of religious pilgrims, who thither flock to see the
magnificent sepulcher and costly shrines dedicated to an
inspired reformer, — a reformer who, when on earth, was considered
by arrogant Pharisees as a wandering, sabbath-breaking,
blaspheming, false "prophet of Galilee."
Draining the
cup of sorrow, drinking to the dregs the chalice of agony,
he sadly said, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the
air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay
his head."