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 . 1 y. 
 
 
 
 - J 
 
 
 

 
SERMONS 
 
 PEEACHED BEFORE 
 
 HIS EOYAL HIGHNESS THE PEINCE OF WALES, 
 
 DURING 
 
 HIS TOUR IN THE EAST, 
 
 IN THE SPRING OF 1862, 
 WITH NOTICES OF SOME OF THE LOCALITIES VISITED. 
 
 By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. 
 
 BEGIUS PROFESSOR OP ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN TBE UNIVERSITY OP OXFORD J HON- 
 ORARY CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN ) DEPUTY CLERK OP THE 
 CLOSET ; HONORARY CHAPLAIN TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER, 124 GRAND STREET. 
 
 1863. 
 
 [Published by arrangement with the Author.'] 
 
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON. 
 
TO 
 
 his royal highness 
 Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 The Sermons in this volume are now for 
 the first time given to the public, in defer- 
 ence to the gracious expression of Her Maj- 
 esty's wishes. 
 
 It will be seen that their interest depends 
 entirely on the circumstances and the occa- 
 sion of their delivery. A more elaborate 
 style, or more copious illustrations, would 
 have been out of place in the original com- 
 position of such Addresses, and would, if sub- 
 sequently added, have destroyed the only 
 value which they possess. Whatever special 
 allusions they may contain to the scenes of 
 the journey wdll, it is believed, be suf&ciently 
 explained in the Notices added at the con- 
 clusion of the volume. 
 
 These Notices have been written, in com- 
 pliance with a desire, kindly expressed by 
 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
 that some record should be left of a journey 
 
VI PREFACE, 
 
 SO interesting not only to those more imme- 
 diately concerned, but to the public at large. 
 
 Any continuous narrative of the Tour was 
 precluded by the circumstances of the case. 
 The mode of travelling was too rapid to ad- 
 mit of scientific investigations. The scenes 
 visited, being of necessity the most famous 
 and familiar of the sacred and classical local- 
 ities, have been delineated so often, and in 
 such detail, as to render any fresh account 
 superfluous. Of most of them I had myself 
 said all that I could hope to say in a pre- 
 vious work on the history and geography of ** 
 Palestine. 
 
 But there were, notwithstanding, a few 
 scenes which, partly owing to the advantages 
 attendant on His Royal Highness's j)resence, 
 partly from the occasional novelty of the 
 route pursued, appeared to me deserving of 
 a more special commemoration. The No- 
 tices of these localities I have accordingly 
 appended to the Addresses, with which they 
 are connected, if not by way of actual illus- 
 tration, at least by association of time and 
 place. And, although in substance these de- 
 scriptions have been or will be incorporated 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 in other works, yet I venture to hope that 
 my fellow-travellers will not be averse to 
 possess, in the same Memorial of our Eastern 
 Tour, reminiscences both of our Sundays and 
 our week-days — of some of the scenes which 
 we exj)lored and enjoyed together, as well as 
 of the more serious thoughts which their sa- 
 cred recollections suo-orested. 
 
 As the Sermons remain unaltered, so I 
 have left the Dedication to the Prince of 
 Wales in the form in which it was written 
 immediately after our return. 
 
 But now, on the eve of the auspicious 
 event which promises so abundantly to fulfil 
 the hopes then expressed for the welfare of 
 His Eoyal Highness, He will, I trust, gra- 
 ciously accept the offering of this little vol- 
 ume in its new form. It is presented to 
 Him as a pledge of the humble and sincere 
 interest with which a former travelling com- 
 panion joins the prayers of the whole nation 
 for His lasting happiness, on this solemn step 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 in the great journey of life with Her who 
 will henceforward share the responsibilities, 
 grace the pleasures, and lighten the cares of 
 all its various scenes. 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, 
 February 27, 1863. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 — « — 
 SERMONS IN THE EAST. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dedication, xiii 
 
 SERI^IONS PREACHED IN EGYPT. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Abraham in Egypt, On the Nile, 21 
 
 Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there. 
 
 Gen. xii. 3. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Israel in Egypt, At Thebes, 29 
 
 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. — Ps. Ixxx. 8. 
 I am the Lord thy God, which brought tliee out of the land 
 of Egypt. — Ps. Ixxxi. 10. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Joseph in Egypt, On the Nile, 37 
 
 Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. 
 
 Gen. xlii. 3. 
 
 PREACHED IN PALESTINE. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 The Fragments that remain, At Jaffa, 45 
 
 Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 
 
 John vi. 12. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 Christ at Jacob's Well, At Nablus, 53 
 
 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Phil. ii. 5. 
 God is a Spirit : and they that worship Him must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth. — John iv. 24. 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, At Nazareth, 61 
 
 (good FRIDAY.) 
 
 Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the -writ- 
 ing was, " Jesus of Nazareth, the lung of the Jews." 
 
 John xix. 19. 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Christ at the Sea of Tiberias, At Tiberias, 69 
 
 (easter-day.) 
 
 After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disci- 
 ples at the sea of Tiberias ; and on this wise showed he 
 himself — John xxi. 1. 
 
 PREACHED IN SYRIA. 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 S. Paul oy the way to Damascus, At Rasheya, 79 
 
 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus. — Acts ix. 3. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 The Gifts of Nature, At Baalbec, 8 7 
 
 In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, wiiich cometh 
 forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth 
 as a giant to run his course. It goeth forth from the ut- 
 termost part of the heaven, and runneth about unto the 
 end of it again : and there is nothing hid from the heat 
 thereof. — Ps. xix. 5, 6. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 The Last Encampment, At Ehden, 97 
 
 And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses 
 said. Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered ; 
 and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when 
 it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thou- 
 sands of Israel. — Num. x. 35, 36. 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PREACHED ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 S. John at Patmos and at Ephesus, 109 
 
 When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you 
 into all truth. — John xvi. 13. 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 S. Paul in Europe, 119 
 
 Last of all, He was seen of me also . . . that am not meet 
 to be called an apostle. . . . But by the grace of God I 
 am what I am ... I labored more abundantly than 
 they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
 with me. — 1 Cor, xv. 8-10. 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 The Gift of the Spirit, 129 
 
 (WHITSUNDAY.) 
 
 The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father 
 will send in my name. He shall teach you all things. 
 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : 
 not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 
 
 John xiv. 26, 27. 
 
 PREACHED IN WINDSOR CASTLE. 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 The Breadth of God's Commandment, 137 
 
 (trinity SUNDAY.) 
 
 I see that all things come to an end, but Thy commandment 
 is exceeding broad. — Ps. cxix. 96. 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 NOTICES OF SOME OF THE LOCALITIES VISITED 
 DURING THE TOUR OF THE PRINCE OF WALES 
 IN THE EAST. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction, 149 
 
 Egypt — Jerusalem. 
 
 I. The Mosque of Hebron, 157 
 
 The Cave of Machpelah. 
 
 The Visit of the Prince of Wales. 
 
 The Tomb of David at Jerusalem. 
 
 Journey to Hebron. 
 
 Entrance into the Mosque. 
 
 The Neighborhood of Hebron. 
 f 
 
 11. The Samaritan Passover, 199 
 
 The Passover on Mount Gerizim. 
 The Antiquities of Nablus. 
 
 III. Galilee, 215 
 
 Cana. 
 
 Tabor. 
 
 The Lake of Gennesareth. 
 
 Safed. 
 
 Kedesh-Naphtali. 
 
 IV. Hermon and Lebanon, 235 
 
 The Valley of the Litany. 
 
 The Temples of Hermon. 
 
 Baalbec. 
 
 Damascus. 
 
 Beirut. 
 
 The Cedars of Lebanon. 
 
 Arvad. 
 
 V. Patmos, 263 
 
 Its Traditions. 
 
 Its Connection with the Apocalypso. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 You will perhaps remember that, on 
 one of the Sundays of our journey through 
 Palestine, Your Royal Highness was pleased 
 to express a wish that the Sermons which I 
 used to address to our little congregation, 
 should, on our return, be privately printed 
 for their use. 
 
 This request is fulfilled in the accompany- 
 ing volume. It contains the Addresses deliv- 
 ered before Your Royal Highness on every 
 Sunday during our Eastern Tour, with the 
 exception of the three occasions (at Cairo, 
 Jerusalem, and Constantinople) when we fell 
 in with the usual ministrations of the English 
 Church in those places. They are printed 
 almost exactly as they were preached. Their 
 brevity and their abruptness of style is left 
 unaltered. Nor have I attempted to enlarge 
 on the many topics which are too lightly 
 
XIV DEDICATION. 
 
 touched ; or to omit those which I have 
 treated at length elsewhere. These peculiar- 
 ities, w^hich must be excused by the circum- 
 stances of their composition and delivery, 
 may, at least, have the advantage of recall- 
 ing more fully to those who heard them the 
 impressive scenes amidst which they were 
 preached. 
 
 Of those who so heard them, one, whose 
 approval I should have especially valued, has, 
 since these lines were written, been taken 
 from amongst us. This is not the place to 
 speak of the great loss which Your Royal 
 Highness has sustained in the death of your 
 faithful friend and counsellor, General Bruce. 
 But in presenting to you these memorials 
 of a time, with which he must be ever con- 
 nected in the minds of his fellow-travellers, 
 I may be allowed to dwell for a moment 
 on the thoughts suggested by an association 
 so affecting and so endearing to all those 
 concerned. 
 
 In one of the last of our Syrian Sundays, 
 I ventured to express our joint thankfulness * 
 
 * See Sermon IX. 
 
DEDICATION. xv 
 
 for the health and happiness which had been 
 granted to us during our late expedition. I 
 have left this expression unchanged ; because 
 I know that it represented his feeling at the 
 time, and because I feel sure that he would 
 not have wished his untimely end to have 
 cast an undue shade over the remembrance 
 of a journey, in the success of which he had 
 himself taken so deep an interest, planned as 
 it had been by Him, whose loss clouded with 
 so heavy a sorrow the commencement of our 
 Tour. If other griefs overshadowed its con- 
 tinuance, this last visitation, which was to fol- 
 low so mournfully on its close, was as yet 
 veiled in the future. We may still be per- 
 mitted, as we recall many a happy and many 
 a serious hour during those four memorable 
 months, to cherish unbroken the constant 
 image of the noble figure of our beloved 
 and gallant Chief, as he rode at our head, 
 or amongst us, through the hills and valleys 
 of Palestine ; or the easy pleasantry with 
 which he entered into the playful moods of 
 our mid-day halts and evening encampments; 
 or the grave and reverential attention with 
 which he assisted at our Sunday Services; 
 
XVI DEDICATION. 
 
 or the tender consideration with which he 
 cared for every member of our party ; or 
 the example, which he has left to all, of an 
 unfailing and lofty sense of duty, and of en- 
 tire devotion to the charge committed to 
 him. These things we can never forget, 
 whenever we think of the days of that East- 
 ern journey, of which the recollection will 
 endure to the end of our lives. 
 
 For him it has been ordered otherwise. 
 It was the famous desire of another of his 
 name and race, that the heart of Robert 
 Bruce should be laid in the Holy Land. His 
 remains now repose, not unworthily, beside 
 those of that Royal ancestor. He, in his 
 journey to the Holy Land, gave up his heart 
 and life in the service of his Queen and of 
 his country. He has passed, we trust, into 
 that Holier Land, where he shall rest under 
 the shadow of the perfect Reign of Right- 
 eousness and Peace, which on earth he strove 
 with all his might to advance and to secure. 
 If these Discourses — which I now, with a 
 grateful and respectful remembrance of much 
 kindness, dedicate to your Royal Highness — 
 can in any way assist in promoting the good 
 
DEDICATION. xvii 
 
 of One whose future is so dear to all of us, 
 and for whose welfare his dying wish was 
 offered up, they will have accomplished the 
 object of their author, 
 
 Your obliged and faithful Servant, 
 
 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. 
 
 July 3, 1862. 
 
DIRECTIONS TO BmDER. 
 
 Sketch Plan of the Mosque at Hebron . . to face page 157 
 Plan of Mount Gerlzim .... " 199 
 
 Plan of the Cedars of Lebanon ... " 253 
 
SERMONS IN. EGYPT. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 ABRAHAM IN EGYPT. 
 

 a T n V T 
 
 THSOLOGIGK 
 
 SERMON -Kf^ml 
 ABRAHAM IN EGYPT. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE NILE, BETWEEN CAIRO AND THEBES, ON THE 
 FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 9, 1862. 
 
 Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn there. — Gen. xii. 10. 
 
 IT maj have struck some of us, as it struck me, 
 when the First Lesson of last Sunday afternoon was 
 read at Cairo, containing these words, that it was a 
 fitting welcome to our arrival in this country. It is 
 the earliest mention of that connection of Egypt with 
 the Bible which was never afterwards lost. In those 
 few verses, which describe the visit of Abraham, some 
 of the main features of the country appear, as we see 
 them at this day. The great river was flowing then, 
 as it had flowed for ages before, and has flowed for 
 ages smce, scattering verdure and fertility along its 
 banks, so that when Abraham found a famine else- 
 where, he could still be sm-e of finding plenty in 
 Egypt. There was already seated on the Egyptian 
 throne one of the ancient dynasty, called by the name 
 of the Sun, whose brightness and penetrating power 
 we feel so powerfully at this moment, Pharaoh, " the 
 Child or Servant of the Sun." And it is clear from 
 the account that this Pharaoh was not the first of his 
 
22 SERMONS IN EGYPT, [Serm. I. 
 
 race ; that he was one of a long succession that had 
 gone before. The monarchy had ah'eady grown up ; 
 Iiis court and his princes were round him, and his 
 power and his fame were so great as to inspire awe 
 and terror into the heart of the simple Shepherd Chief, 
 who came with his wife from Palestine ; and when that 
 Shepherd Chief goes away, the Egyptian King lavishes 
 upon him, with a profusion of liberality, all the gifts 
 of Egypt, such as we now see them, and such as would 
 be most acceptable to one who was still a traveller and 
 wanderer in the desert : droves of " oxen and " herds 
 of " sheep, and he-asses and she-asses, and camels." 
 
 This is our first introduction to Egypt in the Bible. 
 Let us ask, on this day, what religious lessons it is in- 
 tended to teach us ; what was the relation of Egypt 
 to the Chosen People and the religious history of man- 
 kind? 
 
 It is, in one word, the introduction of the Chosen 
 People to the World — to the world, not in the bad 
 sense in which we often use the word, but in its most 
 general sense, both good and bad. 
 
 1. Egypt was to Abraham — to the Jewish people 
 — to the whole course of the Old Testament, what 
 the world, with all its interests and pursuits and en- 
 joyments, is to us. It was the parent of civilization, 
 of art, of learning, of royal power, of vast armies. 
 The very names which we still use for the paper on 
 which we write, for the sciences of Medicine and 
 Chemistry/, are derived from the natural products and 
 fr^om the old religion of Egypt. We might think, per- 
 haps, that the Bible would take no account of such a 
 country — that it would have seemed too much belong- 
 mg to this earth, and the things of this earth. Not so ; 
 
Serm. I.] ABRAHAM IN EGYPT. 23 
 
 from first to last, this marvellous country, with all its 
 manifold interests, is regarded as the home and the 
 refuD^e of the chosen race. Hither came Abraham, as 
 the extremest goal of his long travels, from Chaldea 
 southwards ; here Joseph ruled, as viceroy ; here Jacob 
 and his descendants settled as in their second home, 
 for several generations ; here Moses became " learned 
 m all the wisdom of the Egyptians." From the cus- 
 toms and laws and arts of the Egyptians, many of 
 the customs, laws, and arts of the Israelites were bor- 
 rowed. Here, in the last days of the Bible history, 
 the Holy Family fomid a refuge. On these scenes, for 
 a moment, even though in unconscious infancy, alone 
 of any Gentile country, the eyes of our Redeemer 
 rested. From the philosophy which flourished at 
 Alexandria came the first philosophy of the Christian 
 Church. This, then, is one main lesson which the 
 Bible teaches us by the stress laid on Egypt. It tells 
 us that we may lawfully use the world and its enjoy- 
 ments, — that the world is acknowledged by true re- 
 ligion, as well as by our own natural instincts, to be a 
 beautiful, a glorious, and, in this respect, a good and 
 useful world. In it our lot is cast. What was per- 
 mitted as an innocent refreshment to Abraham ; what 
 was enjoined as a sacred duty on Moses and Apollos ; 
 what was consecrated by the presence of Christ our 
 Saviour, we too may enjoy and admire and use. 
 Power and learning and civilization and art may all 
 minister now, as they did then, to the advancement of 
 the welfare of man and the glory of God. 
 
 2. But, secondly, the meeting of Abraham and 
 Pharaoh, — the contact of Egypt with the Bible, — 
 remind us forcibly that there is something better and 
 
24 SERMONS IN EGYPT. [Serm. I. 
 
 higher even than the most glorious, or the most luxuri- 
 ous, or the most powerful, or the most interesting, sights 
 and scenes of the world, even at its highest pitch, here 
 or elsewhere. 
 
 Whose name or history is now best remembered ? 
 Is it that of Pharaoh, or of the old Egyptian nation ? 
 No. It is the name of the Shepherd, as he must have 
 seemed, who came to seek his fortunes here, as a 
 stranger and sojourner. Much or little as we, or our 
 friends at home, rich or j^oor, may know or care about 
 Egypt, we all know and care about Abraham. It is 
 his visit, and the visit of his descendants, that gives to 
 Egypt its most universal interest. So it is with the 
 world at large, of which, as I have said, in those old 
 days Egypt was the likeness. Who is it that, when 
 years are gone by, we remember with the purest grati- 
 tude and pleasure ? Not the learned, or the clever, or 
 the rich, or the powerful, that we may have known in 
 our passage through life ; but those who, like Abra- 
 ham, have had the force of character to j)refer the 
 futm-e to the present, — the good of others to their own 
 pleasure. These it is who leave a mark in the world, 
 more really lasting than Pyramid or Temple, because 
 it is a mark that outlasts this life, and will be found in 
 the life to come. He comes into contact with Egypt, 
 with the world ; he uses it ; he enjoys it. It is but 
 one of the halting-places in his life. He falls for a 
 moment under its darker influences ; for a moment he 
 yields to the fear of man, and to the temptation of 
 unworthy deceit. But in the next moment he is him- 
 self again. He is what we see him in the chapter 
 which has just been read, describing the offering of 
 Isaac, — willing to sacrifice whatever is nearest and 
 
Sekm. L] ABRAHAM IN EGYPT. 25 
 
 dearest to the call of God and of duty. Heathen tra- 
 ditions represent him as teaching the Egyi^tians the 
 astronomy that he brought with him from Chaldea ; or 
 as reconciling their theological and political disputes. 
 But this is not that for which he is remembered in the 
 Bible and by mankind at large. It is as the Friend of 
 God, and as the Father of the Faithful. It is not for 
 those points which distinguish him from the rest of 
 mankind, but for those points which we may all have 
 in common with him. 
 
 His character and his name, as compared with that 
 of the mighty country and the mighty people, in the 
 midst of which we thus for an instant find him, exem- 
 plify, in the simplest yet strongest colors, the grand 
 truth that " man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 To be in the world, but not of it ; to use it without 
 abusing it, — this is the duty which we find it so hard 
 to follow ; but it is the very duty which Abraham first, 
 and our blessed Lord afterwards, have set before us. 
 It is what the hermits and monks, who buried them- 
 selves in the caves and tombs of this country, failed 
 to see on the one side ; it is what mere men of the 
 world fail to see on the other side. But it is what we 
 may and ought to follow, if, with God's blessing, we 
 strive to walk in the steps of our first father Abraham, 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 ISEAEL IN EGYPT. 
 
SERMON II. 
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 16, IN THE 
 GKEAT HALL OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK AT THEBES. 
 
 Thou hast brought a vine out of Eg^'pt. — Psalm Ixxx. 8. 
 
 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 
 
 Psalm Ixxxi. 10. 
 
 WHEN I spoke last Sunday about Egypt, and its 
 relation to the Bible, I said tliat there were two 
 sides which it presented : one is, that of contrast to 
 the Chosen People ; and the other is that of likeness 
 and sympathy. These two points appear in the Psalms 
 of the day which we have just heard. Let us briefly 
 touch on both as regards not merely the country, but 
 the worship and the religion, of Egypt. 
 
 I. The points of likeness. 
 
 1. The power of Religion. This it was which gave 
 form and direction to the great works which we see. 
 These buildings are the oldest consecrated places of 
 worship in the world, — older than anything else exist- 
 ing, — older than any Christian Church, — older than 
 the Jewish Temple. From these the leading idea of 
 Solomon's Temple was taken. In them the principles 
 of religious art first appeared, which have never since 
 been lost. 
 
30 SERMONS IN EGYPT, [Serm. II. 
 
 2. The belief in a Future Judgment and a Future 
 Life. This caused the old Egyptians to build their 
 vast tombs, and embalm their bodies, as if to last for- 
 ever. They were the first nation that had the great 
 and elevating thought of thinking more of the future 
 than of the present, — of the unseen world than the 
 seen. 
 
 3. The religious feeling of intense thankfulness for 
 the gifts they enjoyed. Hence the thousands of offer- 
 ings represented on these walls, as if they could not 
 be thankful enough. 
 
 In all these points, we may say, with St. Paul at 
 Athens, " That unknown God whom they thus igno- 
 rantly and imperfectly worshipped. Him the true Re- 
 ligion has declared to us since more clearly ; " and we 
 may well ask ourselves, as we look round on these 
 rude but gigantic steps towards a better knowledge of 
 God, whether, with that better knowledge of Him, 
 we serve Him with anything like the same devotion 
 and success as that which marked the efforts of those 
 first forefathers of the faith and worship which we 
 have been permitted to enjoy. 
 
 II. But the Bible — and especially the account of 
 the time when Israel came out of Egypt — bids us still 
 more to reflect on the change made by the Exodus of 
 the Israelites, for them and for us. 
 
 1. It was their deliverance from Egypt. "Whatever 
 else the Exodus was, it was the first inauguration, the 
 first sapction, of the blessing of freedom and liberty. 
 Every Englishman knows what this is : to be a citizen 
 of a free country, of a free commonwealth, — to have 
 liberty of speech and action and conscience. This is 
 that of which the old world, on which we are now 
 
Serm. II.] 
 
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 31 
 
 treading, had no conception. These enormous huild- 
 ings were raised by the labor of countless slaves. 
 Those countless slaves looked up to the tremendous 
 kings who ruled over them, and in whose presence we 
 now stand, with a feeling of awe and terror of which 
 we can now hardly form any notion. In their day, 
 this awful terror, no doubt, had its use. It was the 
 earliest stage in the education of mankind ; to it we 
 owe these astonishing works, which have guided the 
 thoughts of men ever since. But, if the world were 
 ever to make progress, — if the soul of man were 
 ever to be what God intended it to be, — it must be 
 able to walk by itself, to lean upon itself and upon 
 God, and not upon any human power, however great. 
 This is what was effected for Israel, for Christendom, 
 for the whole human race, when God, by the hand of 
 Moses and Aaron, led His people out of the house of 
 bondage and the dominion of Pharaoh. If, in this and 
 other Eastern countries, the freedom which was then 
 given has never yet been fully enjoyed, yet not the 
 less is it our most precious privilege. May we all have 
 grace to act and think and live worthily of that freedom, 
 — that manly freedom, — that glorious liberty of the 
 children of God, wherewith God and Christ have made 
 Tis free. 
 
 2. It is impossible not to feel more strongly here 
 than anywhere else what was the special need and 
 force of the First Commandment, " Thou shalt have 
 none other gods but me." The Unity of God. In the 
 present day we hardly can imagine how any one should 
 have been tempted to think otherwise. But look at 
 the many shapes and figures of the gods to which the 
 wisest nation of the world at that time bowed down. 
 
32 SERMONS IN EGYPT. [Serm. II. 
 
 It may be that even then a few loftier minds saw 
 behind these many forms and shapes One Presiding 
 Spirit. But it was reserved for Moses to make this 
 high truth the inheritance of all classes alike. That 
 all should know tliat there is One and the same God 
 for alU — One and the same for rich and poor, for dull 
 and clever, for small and great, this is what the ancient 
 Egyptians hardly could have thought possible. In joy, 
 in sorrow, in the hour of death, and in the day of judg- 
 ment, whatever else befalls us, and whatever other be- 
 lief we may have, we 9.II believe, and have endless 
 comfort in the thought, that we are in the hands of 
 One overruling God, who makes all things work to- 
 gether for the best. 
 
 3. Still more strongly is the contrast brought out in 
 what we call the Second, but, according to some old 
 divisions, is part of the First Commandment, — ''Thou 
 shalt not make to thyself any likeness of anything that 
 is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in 
 the water under the earth." We cannot doubt that 
 this, to the Israelites, meant that they were not to 
 make to themselves graven images of the hawk and 
 the ibis that fly through the heavens, or the crocodile 
 and the fish that swim in the Nile, or the serpent that 
 creeps in the caves of the earth, or the lion, the jackal, 
 and the wolf, that prowl on the rocky hills. These 
 were the forms under which, at that time of the world, 
 the human mind loved to represent the Divine nature. 
 Perhaps these were the best figures that could be used 
 in those early ages ; and we may still learn something 
 from seeing how, out of those earthly shapes, they 
 drew lessons of that which is heavenly and divine. 
 Even to us the animal creation, with all its manifold 
 
Serm. II.] ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 33 
 
 instincts and powers, is still, if we rightly reflect, a 
 constant revelation of the Divine mind, of which it is 
 the noble workmanship. But there is a more excel- 
 lent way of thinking of God, which these imperfect 
 and strange representations shut out from us ; and that 
 is, the way which was opened to us, first through Moses, 
 and then through Christ. God is a Spirit ; God is 
 Truth ; God is Justice ; God is Purity ; God is Love. 
 Whenever we fancy that He can pass over or be 
 pleased with anything that is untrue, or unjust, or 
 impure, or unlovely, we fall back into worse than the 
 old Egyptian darkness. In proportion as we value and 
 revere truth and justice and purity and loving-kind- 
 ness, in that proportion we are worthy of the new 
 religion of the new world, to which, by God's grace, 
 we belong. 
 
 4. There is the humanity which ran through the 
 law of Israel, and which so rarely appears in the an- 
 cient Egyptian religion. The first object that an 
 Egyptian saw, when he came to worship, was the 
 figure of the King receiving the command fi'om the 
 gods to slaughter all his captives. The sons of Israel, 
 on the other hand, were, by the very recollection of 
 their own bondage, entreated to be kind to all those 
 in inferior condition to themselves. In the version of 
 the Ten Commandments in the Book of Deuteronomy 
 this is the reason for observing the rest of the Sabbath. 
 " That thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest 
 as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a ser- 
 vant in the land of Egypt.''^ ^ 
 
 No doubt even in the Jewish Law this duty of mercy 
 was very imperfectly recognized. But there were the 
 
 1 Deut. V. 14, 15. 
 
34 SERMONS IN EGYPT. [Seem. II. 
 
 germs of it, of wliicli I have just spoken, — and these 
 were fiilly developed in the Gospel. 
 
 Kindness, consideration to all who come in onr way, 
 however different from us in rank, in station, in charac- 
 ter, in race, in religion, — this is the doctrine that God 
 through Moses, and, still more entirely, God in Christ, 
 has taught the world ; this is the doctrine which even 
 to the great men who left these stupendous monuments 
 was almost unknown. If in vast works like these we 
 are far below them, yet in the little acts of daily love 
 and courtesy and humanity, which are within the 
 reach of all of us, we may, we must be, far above 
 them 
 
 God grant that when, in days far distant and in 
 places leagues away from hence, we meet in other 
 churches than this, and hear again the same Psalms 
 and the same Commandments read, some of these 
 thoughts may recur to us with fresh force from having 
 been reminded of them here, in the grandest building 
 which the old world ever raised to the glory and wor- 
 sliip of God. 
 
SERMON ni. 
 
 JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 
 
SERMON III. 
 JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 23, ON THE 
 NILE, NEAR MEMPHIS. 
 
 Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. — Gen. xlii. 3. 
 
 TTTITH the story of Joseph, which is now read in 
 » » the Lessons, we may take farewell of Egypt. 
 It is the fullest account of ancient Egypt that we have 
 in the Bible, and we can now all of us appreciate it 
 better than ever before. We see there Pharaoh, the 
 greatest of earthly kings, surrounded by the officers 
 of his court, just as we see them sculptured on the 
 monuments. We see the green meadow by the river- 
 side, where it is described that the King stood in his 
 dream, and saw the cattle swim up through its waters, 
 and feed on the bank. We see how the Hebrew slave 
 suddenly rises, as in like cases before our own eyes, to 
 be the governor and viceroy of the whole country. 
 We see him invested with the golden chain or neck- 
 lace, and the royal ring, such as it is still found in the 
 Egyptian tombs. He rides in the royal chariot, such 
 as appears in the processions on the walls of the tem- 
 ples. He is called by an Egyptian name, Zaphnath' 
 Paaneah. He marries the daughter of the High Priest 
 
88 SERMONS IN EGYPT. [Serm. III. 
 
 of the Hawk-headed God at Hehopolis. He is em- 
 balmed with Egyptian skill, and laid out in the usual 
 Egyptian case or coffin. His embalmed body, and that 
 of his father, may still, for all that we know, exist as 
 certainly as those that we have seen preserved un- 
 changed to our own age. There can be no doubt that, 
 as we read the history of Joseph, we are reading the 
 history of one who really lived and died in this coun- 
 try, as surely as any of those whose dead bodies w^e 
 have handled, or whose actions in their lifetime w^e 
 have seen, during the last ten days, represented in 
 tombs or temples. 
 
 But if the story of Joseph has thus acquired for us 
 a new interest in its outward details, may we not learn 
 a^ain its old familiar lessons with fresh interest also ? 
 It is one main characteristic of the Bible, that whilst 
 its letter takes us so very far back from any of the 
 thoughts of our own time and country, its spirit has a 
 value at all times, and in all nations. Let us take two 
 of these lessons. 
 
 I. The story of Joseph is a good example of what 
 is meant by Providence working for the best in the 
 lives of men. We find it very difficult, perhaps, to 
 know when we may fairly call any event " Providen- 
 tial " or not. But no one can have lived to the mid- 
 dle period of human existence, and not seem to see in 
 his own life how curiously one part has fitted into the 
 other, which at the time seemed quite iniintelhgible ; 
 how opportunities have been offered, on the acceptance 
 or rejection of which the happiness or the misery of 
 many years afterwards has depended ; how sins, which 
 we thought long buried, have started again to our re- 
 membrance ; how good actions have brought with them 
 
Serm. III.] JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 89 
 
 a train of blessings, of wliich at the moment we never 
 dreamed. How like to all this is the story of Joseph ! 
 Look at the yomig foreigner, as he comes to a land not 
 his ow^i ; see how he resists the one great temptation 
 of his age and station ; observe how, through means 
 not of his seeking, through good report and evil, 
 through much misunderstanding of others, but by con- 
 stant integrity and just dealing on his own part, he 
 overcomes all the difficulties of his position, and is re- 
 membered long afterwards in his adopted land as the 
 benefactor of his generation, and the deliverer of his 
 country. This is the lesson that is first taught us by 
 the history of Joseph, but is repeated, in a measure, 
 through many lands, and in many generations, down to 
 our very nearest experience. Or look at the brothers ; 
 how easy it seems to them to remove out of their way 
 the one who embittered their lives, and how, when they 
 could have least expected, they are taunted and tor- 
 mented and bewildered by the remembrance of the sin 
 of their youth. God was merciful to them ; God is 
 merciful to us ; but not the less will there come a time, 
 when we shall have our former follies and sins thrown 
 back in our teeth by ourselves or by others : " We are 
 verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the 
 anguish of his soul, when he besoudit us and we would 
 not hear ; therefore is this distress come upon us." 
 " Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the 
 child, and ye would not hear ? therefore, behold, his 
 blood is required." Truly, there is a God that judges 
 the world, and each man in his inmost soul will know 
 it for himself, if not for others. " Divine Justice," it 
 is said in an old proverb, " has leaden feet, but iron 
 hands," — leaden feet that move slowly, but iron hands 
 
40 SERMONS IN EGYPT. [Serm. III. 
 
 that make themselves felt at last, whether to strike or 
 to defend, to pmiish or to reward. 
 
 11. There is another lesson from this story of Joseph ; 
 indeed, from all this part of the Bible. It is, perhaps, 
 of all the stories in the Old Testament, the one which 
 most carries us back to our childhood, both from the 
 interest which we felt in it as children, and from the 
 true picture of family-life which it presents. How 
 like — how A^ery like — to the incidents of every house- 
 hold is the story of the brothers ; of different charac- 
 ters thrown together in the same house, — Judah, 
 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Joseph, Benjamin, the father, 
 and the mother, Jacob and his lost Rachel ! It brings 
 before us the way in which the greatest blessings for 
 this life and the next depend on the keeping up of 
 family-love, pure and fresh, as when the preservation 
 and fitting education of the Chosen People depended 
 on that touching generosity and brotherly affection 
 which no distance of time, no new customs, no long 
 sojourn in a strange land, could extinguish in the heart 
 of Joseph. " Joseph's heart yearned upon his brother." 
 " Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that 
 stood by him, and there stood no man with Joseph 
 when he made himself known unto his brethren. And 
 he wept aloud, and he said, I am Joseph ; doth my 
 father yet live ? " '' And he fell upon his brother 
 Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon 
 his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and 
 wept upon them ; and after that, his brethren talked 
 with him." 
 
 Surely no long famihar use, no antiquity of Egyptian 
 or Oriental manners, can ever blind us to the deep 
 feeling of that pathetic scene, — of that reunion of all 
 
Serm. III.] JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 41 
 
 the scattered members of the family in one undivided 
 embrace ! 
 
 And is not this the very lesson which we all need, 
 and most of all, perhaps, when we are away from our 
 country in a distant land ? Many things must be al- 
 tered as we grow older, and as we change our positions 
 in the world. Many good customs which we retain at 
 home must be altered or suspended when we are 
 abroad. But there are some customs, there are some 
 parts of the human character, which never need be 
 altered, which never ought to be altered, which are 
 best kept up by going back as nearly as possible to the 
 days of our childhood and the thoughts of home. In- 
 nocence, — purity of life, — simplicity and truthfulness 
 of character, — regard to our nearest and dearest rela- 
 tions, — daily prayer to God at morning and at evening, 
 — these are amongst the gifts of which our Saviour 
 spoke when he said, " Except ye become as little chil- 
 dren, ye shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven." 
 "Of such" childlike characters "is the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 Home, — the scenes, the thoughts, the warnings, the 
 pleasures of home, — the bonds of lasting and cordial 
 affection which reach across seas and continents, and 
 keep us in spirit close to those who in bodily presence 
 are far away, — the images of old days and childlike 
 recollections that visit us in dreams and soothe us in sor- 
 row and calm us in joy, — these are amongst God's 
 best blessings to His creatures, these are amongst the 
 best safeguards He has given us to protect us against 
 new difficulties, strange temptations, corrupting customs. 
 They are the blessings which in different ways we all 
 have in common. Every one of us has a home some- 
 
42 SERMONS IN EGYPT, [Serm. III. 
 
 where, or in some degree, father, or mother, or brother, 
 or sister, or wife, or child. Every one has such an one, 
 far away, it may be, but ever present in thought to us, 
 to whom our well-being is inestimably precious ; whose 
 happiness is, or ought to be, inestimably precious to 
 us ; to whom no joy is so great as the joy of knowing 
 that we are doing what is right ; to whom no grief 
 would be so great as the grief of knowing that we had 
 been doing what was wrong. Of this sacred claim 
 upon us, the Bible constantly reminds us. It reminds 
 us of what this claim is even as regards only this 
 world ; but it reminds us also that it is a bond which 
 reaches beyond this world. Those who have passed 
 out of the family circle into the world beyond the 
 grave are, in God's sight, and before our OAvn hearts, 
 still one with us. Whosoever it be that we have so 
 lost (again I repeat each one of those dear and sacred 
 names as they may apply to each of us) — wife, or 
 child, or brother, or sister, or mother, or father — they 
 still call upon us, or rather God calls upon us through 
 them, by what we cherish and honor of them, to re- 
 member that their wishes and their hopes for us are 
 not buried in their graves, but will continue as long as 
 their own immortal souls. Their wishes are now com- 
 mands ; their licrhtest desires now become sacred duties 
 for us who remain. The very mention and thought 
 of their names draws us upward and heavenward. 
 Home is on earth the best likeness of Heaven ; and 
 Heaven is that last and best home, in which, when the 
 journey of life is over, Joseph and his brethren, Jacob 
 and his sons, Rachel and her children, shall meet to 
 part no more. 
 
SERMONS IN PALESTINE. 
 
 SERMON ly. 
 
 THE FEAGIENTS THAT EEIAIN. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT, MARCH 31, ON BOAivr. 
 H. M. S. "OSBORNE," IN THE PORT OF JAFFA, BEFORE LANDING 
 IN PALESTINE. 
 
 Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. — John vi. 12. 
 
 THESE words, from the Gospel of tliis day, meant, 
 in their first sense, that the disciples were to be 
 careful of the opportmiities given them. A miracle had 
 been wrought for their support ; but this was no reason 
 why they should expect a succession of miracles. They 
 were to exercise the common duty of forethought, 
 economy, and prudence, and " gather up the fragments 
 that remain, that nothing be lost." Miracles are not 
 wrought without a purpose. God works by the laws 
 of nature ; we must do so lilvewise. Carefulness, order, 
 discipline, — this is the obvious doctrine contained in 
 Christ's command. But the words admit of many other 
 applications. 
 
 I. They apply to all marked opportunities. Every 
 dispensation of Providence is a kind of miracle wrought 
 for our benefit. We must make the very most of it. 
 It may be the position in life which is given to us. Every 
 position, great or small, may be made almost as great or 
 as httle as we desu-e to make it, according as we make the 
 
46 SERMONS IN PALESTINE, [Seem. IV. 
 
 most of it or the least of it. To do tlie necessary duties 
 of any station, that is easy enough ; but to gather up all 
 its outlying opportunities ; to be ready to lend a helping 
 hand here, to give a kind word there, and a wise coun- 
 sel there ; " to fill," as we say, " our place in life," in- 
 stead of leaving it half empt}^; to be entirely in our work 
 for the time being, this is what makes all the difference 
 between a great man and a commonplace man, — a 
 useful man and a useless man, — a good servant and an^ 
 indifferent servant, — a statesman or teacher, or ruler, 
 who will be long remembered, or one who will be for- 
 gotten as soon as he is dead. Or we may have a signal 
 visitation of joy or of sorrow. It is possible to drive 
 such a blessing or such a calamity out of our thoughts, 
 and cut off all its consequences. But it is possible, also, 
 and it is far better, to " gather up all the fi^agments " 
 that it has left, to see what it has taught us which we 
 knew not before, of our strength, of our weakness ; of 
 God, of our own soul. Or it may be that we have known 
 a noble character, a good example. It has gone from 
 us ; it is absent from us ; we see it no more. Shall we 
 blot out its remembrance ? Shall we think that " out 
 of sight is out of mind ? " or shall we not rather " gather 
 up all the fragments that remain " — all the sayings, all 
 the doings, all the memories, of such a character, that 
 they may still cheer and sustain, and guide and warn us, 
 in our passage through this mortal Life. Or consider 
 our feelmcrs of relio-ion itself. Few and far between, 
 perhaps, may be our prayers and thoughts of serious 
 things ; we may find it most difficult to keep them alive 
 (who does not?). But do not despise what you have. 
 One verse from the Bible may be enough to sustain us 
 m sore temptations ; one prayer from the Prayer-book 
 
Seem. IV.] THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 47 
 
 may stick to us closer than a brother or a friend ; one 
 fixed determination to do what is right may be the ral- 
 lying-point round which our whole better nature may 
 form and strengthen itself. True, " We are not worthy 
 so much as to gather up the crumbs " of our heavenly 
 Father's table ; but " He is the same Lord, whose prop- 
 erty is always to have mercy." He blesses. He owns 
 our humblest efforts. For the sake of savins: that sin- 
 gle spark of good within the soul ; for the sake of kin- 
 dhng that smoking flax, and of raising up that broken 
 reed, He sent His Son to this earth, — to this land on 
 which our lot is cast, — to sacrifice Himself for us, in 
 His life and in His death. 
 
 II. These thoughts are all brought to a head in con- 
 sidering the comitry on which we shall this day enter. 
 It is a land, of which the glory has passed away, — of 
 which the interest belongs almost entirely to the past. 
 But it is a land, notwithstanding, of which the name 
 awakens feelings which no other land on the face of this 
 world awakens, — a land in which all have a common 
 interest, — which is known to the humblest cottager in 
 England, as well as to the loftiest in rank or station. 
 How are we to make use of it properly ? It is by 
 "gathering up the fragments that remain." There are 
 nothing but fragments. We must not expect gran- 
 deur of scenery or splendor of temples ; we may, if we 
 choose, " pass through from Dan to Beersheba," and 
 say, " all is barren ; there is nothing to be seen." But 
 it is by thinking of what has been here, by making the 
 most of the things we do see in order to bring before 
 our minds the things we do not see, that a \asit to the 
 Holy Land becomes a really religious lesson. The he- 
 roes and samts of the Old Testament have been here 
 
48 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. IV. 
 
 before us. To see tlie places where they lived and 
 fought and died is not much, but it is something, towards 
 enabling; us better to understand and feel what it was 
 for which they so fought and lived and died. The hills 
 and the valleys, and the cornfields, and the birds and the 
 sheep, and the shepherds, and the vineyards, are the 
 very same as those to which the Psalmist, and the Pro- 
 phets, and our blessed Lord Himself in His parables, 
 made allusions. The Psalms which describe " those who 
 go down to the sea in ships, and do their business in great 
 waters," ^ the descriptions of the waves of the sea burst- 
 ing over the rocks,^ or having " their bounds set that 
 they should not pass," ^ were suggested by this very har- 
 bor of Joppa, in which we now find ourselves. From 
 the vision of S. Peter in the house of Simon the tanner 
 on the seashore at Joppa,* went forth the gospel to the 
 Gentile world, till it reached our own distant land. We 
 go up to Jerusalem where Christ died and rose again. 
 To see that Holy City, even though the exact spots of 
 His death and resurrection are unknown, is to give a 
 new force to the sound of the name whenever after- 
 wards we hear it in Church or read it in the Bible. 
 
 I do not wish to exagreerate in this matter. It is, 
 thank God, perfectly possible to be just and holy and 
 good, without coming to Palestine. Pilgrimage is not 
 really a Christian duty. Holy places are not really 
 holy in the sight of God, except for the feelings that 
 they produce. The Crusaders were in error, when 
 they thought to save their souls by fighting to regain 
 the Holy Land. It is not the earthly, but the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, which is "the mother of us all," ^ our 
 
 1 Psalm cvii. 23. 2 Psalm xciii. 3, 4. 
 
 8 Jerem. v. 22. * Acts x. 6, 9. 
 
Serm. IV.] THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 49 
 
 mother in the widest and most endearing sense. But 
 not the less are all these things helps to those who will 
 use them rightly. 
 
 When Richard of England first came within view 
 of Jerusalem, he hid his face in his shield, and said, 
 " Ah ! Lord God, if I am not thought worthy to win 
 back the Holy Sepulchre, I am not worthy to see it." 
 That is a fine feeling ; it is a feeling, at the same time, 
 beyond anything at which we strive to aim. We are 
 not pilgrims : we are not crusaders. But we should 
 not be Christians, — we should not be Englishmen, — 
 we should not, I had almost said, be reasonable beings, 
 if, believing what we do about the events that took 
 place here, we could see Jerusalem and the Holy Land 
 as we would see any other town or any other country. 
 Even if it were only for the thought of the interest 
 which thousands in former ages have taken in what we 
 shall see, — if only for the thought that we shall now 
 be seeing what thousands have longed to see and not 
 seen, — if only for the thought of the feeling which 
 our visit to these spots awakens in the hearts of thou- 
 sands far away in our own dear homes in England ; — 
 we cannot but gather up some good feelings, some 
 more than merely passing pleasure, from these sacred 
 scenes ; and can we forbear to add, that there is, be- 
 sides and above all this, the thought that we may po's- 
 sibly be thus brought more nearly into communion 
 with that Divine Friend and Saviour, whose blessed 
 feet, eighteen hundred years ago, walked this land, 
 through whose words and acts in this country every 
 one of us, at some time of his life or other, has been 
 consoled and ijistructed, and hopes at last to be saved ? 
 
 " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing 
 4 
 
60 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. IV. 
 
 be lost;" — throw away nothing of what we see or 
 hear; throw away nothing of the good recollections 
 and calls to a good life that are still left to us by God's 
 merciiul Providence. And, oh, may He gather up, 
 and enable us to gather up, whatever good there is in 
 our hearts aud souls ! Little enough, He well knows, 
 there is. But whatever that little be, — whatever 
 be the pure intention, or pious feeling, or just thought, 
 or better mind, that remains in each of us, — may He 
 enable us to make the very most of it, here and else- 
 where, now and always. 
 
SERMON T. 
 
 CHEIST AT JACOB'S WELL. 
 
SERMON V. 
 CHRIST AT JACOB'S WELL. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER, APRIL 13, IN THE 
 ENCAMPMENT ABOVE NABLUS (SHECHEM). 
 
 Let this mind be in j'^ou, which was also in Christ Jesus. — Philip, ii. 5. 
 God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and 
 in truth. — John iv. 24. 
 
 TTTE have lately seen mucli of the contentions be- 
 » '^ tween the different Christian Churches in this 
 country. We have seen how vehemently each has 
 contended for its own peculiar possessions, and has 
 thought of nothing else in proportion ; how, in conse- 
 quence of this struggle for what is peculiar to each, 
 that which is common to all has fallen into neglect. 
 This is very like what has gone on in Christendom at 
 large : we have each of us contended for what was 
 pecuhar to ourselves, in doctrine, opinions, and cus- 
 toms; we have forgotten that which we have all in 
 common, and which is the most important of all. And 
 what is this ? It is, in one word, what the Epistle of 
 this day brings before us, — " The mind of Christ.^* 
 The Mind, the Character of Christ, that which He was 
 and is, in that Character which is so wonderfully de- 
 scribed to us in the Gospels, — to have this in any 
 degree is what makes a man a Christian ; not to have 
 
54 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. V. 
 
 it, is to make all other Christian institutions and opin- 
 ions almost worse than useless. To enter into the 
 recesses of this Divine Character, more holy than the 
 most revered of earthly shrines ; to impress this Mind 
 upon ourselves ; to carry away some portion of it home 
 for our daily use, more sacred than the most sacred 
 relics, — this ought to be the object of all that we see 
 as we traverse the scenes of His earthly life ; espe- 
 cially, it ought to be my object in what I have to say 
 in these few moments on this Sunday: it is the one 
 main object of that holy ordinance of which, by God's 
 blessing, I trust we may partake on Easter Day. 
 
 To dwell on every part of that Character is, within 
 these short hmits, impossible. Let me take that which 
 is expressed in the words which I have chosen, as you 
 will all see, because they were spoken close to this 
 very place. By the well which, ages ago, the Pa- 
 triarch Jacob ^ had, in excess of prudence, dug for his 
 flocks in the noble corn-fields which he had bought for 
 his favorite son Joseph,^ He, who was passing, as we 
 are, from Judaea^ through Samaria into Galilee, "sat" 
 in the midday, or the evening, as we might sit, " wear- 
 ied " by the well. His followers had gone to buy pro- 
 visions for His meal in the city up the valley ; and He 
 sat there, wearied and thirsty and alone, and saw a 
 woman coming to draw water from the well, and made 
 that simple request so natural to all of us, — '' Give me 
 to drink." It is one of those touches of fellow-feelino; 
 with us which brings Him so near to us, and us to 
 Him, even in bodily presence. It is this moment 
 which is seized in one of the greatest of Christian 
 hymns : — 
 
 1 John iv. 5, 6. 2 Gen. xxxiii. 19. ^ John iv. 3. 
 
Seem. V.] CHRIST BY JACOB'S WELL. 55 
 
 Qucerens me, sedisti lassus ; 
 Kedemisti, crucem passus ; 
 Tantus labor non sit cassus. 
 
 Thou, in search of me, didst sit 
 Wearied with the noonday heat ; 
 Thou, to save my soul, hast borne 
 Cross, and grief, and hate, and scorn ; 
 O, may all that toil aiid pain 
 Not be wholly spent in vain ! 
 
 The woman who came was a Samaritan — a member 
 of that ancient sect which still lingers on this spot. To 
 her, a stranger, — a heretic, as she was in the eyes of 
 a Jew, — He promised the gift of the water which 
 springs up from no earthly well ; the water of life, 
 which rises within the depths of the human soul, and 
 refreshes it with holy thoughts, and good resolutions, 
 and pure feelings, as we pass through this dreary 
 world, bearing each our heavy burden as best we 
 may. 
 
 How like to all that He said and did — how unlike, 
 alas ! to so much that we say and do. The tender 
 compassion to one who was disliked and despised by 
 His o^Ti countrymen, — the boundless toleration of the 
 differences that parted them, — the forbearance towards 
 her hardness and narrowness and incapacity of under- 
 standmg what He said, — the willingness to enter into 
 a character and a life quite different from His own, — the 
 care and anxiety to do and say sometliing for her good. 
 Which of us is there who does not need some portion 
 of that spirit ? — which of us is there who, if he has any 
 portion of that spirit, will not feel rising within himself 
 something of that stream of living water, which shall 
 refresh himself and those around him, and leave a 
 
56 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. V. 
 
 green spot beliind, wherever he treads in the hard 
 dry, barren journey of our mortal hfe. 
 
 The conversation proceeds. How exactly it is in 
 conformity with human nature and with Divine wisdom ! 
 He reads the secrets of her heart. He touches her own 
 especial fault. She starts aside, — she will not have 
 this mentioned. No. This is just what we all refuse 
 to have touched. We fly, as she did to some general 
 topic : " Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." There 
 was the vexed question of doctrine between the Samar- 
 itans and the Jews. They worshipped, as they wor- 
 ship still, on Mount Gerizim. To the Jews, Jeiiisalem 
 was, as it still is, the most holy place. It was out of 
 this question, so natm^ally suggested by the scenery 
 around Him, that there was brought out that great truth, 
 which has changed the face of religion all over the world. 
 He would not give his decision in favor either of Jews 
 or Samaritans, or, if He did, it was but in passing. He 
 would not entangle himself with pecuhar doctrines of 
 either of the contending sects. But He gave them 
 what was best for both of them, and is still the best for 
 us. Gerizim and Zion before His prophetic glance 
 melted into one. As he looked out on the wide fields 
 of waving com which lay before Him, His eye kindled, 
 and His heart swelled (so that " His disciples feared to 
 speak to Him"), and He saw the figure of the new har- 
 vest of the world, — of many sects and of many nations, 
 — that was to be gathered in with the fall of the old re- 
 ligion of times and places, and the new spiritual worship, 
 which was to fulfil and embrace the old. " God is a 
 Spirit." Everywhere, at Jerusalem or Gerizim, in Pa- 
 lestine, in England, in church or in chapel, in house or 
 in tent, He accepts the service of his faitliful worship- 
 
Serji. v.] CHRIST BY JACOB'S WELL. 57 
 
 pers. And what is that worship ? He expresses it in 
 two words, " Spirit " and " Truth:' " Spirit " — We 
 must offer om- ser\ace, be it short or long, small or great, 
 with a feeling of what we are about, — with a sense of 
 the meaning, of the seriousness, of the awfulness of what 
 we are saying. We must pray with energy, with mi- 
 derstanding, with spirit. If we have this feeling, then 
 our words, our postures, our acts will become reveren- 
 tial. If not, we shall be still far away from God, how- 
 ever near to Him we may be by His ordinances, by 
 His Cliurch, by outward appearance. " Truth " — 
 This is the new grace which Christ has consecrated. 
 " Love of truth, sincerity," — that our words in prayer 
 shall express what we really want to have granted, — 
 that our lives shall follow in some degree upon our 
 prayers, — that when we call ourselves servants of God, 
 and of Christ, we shall be thinking; of doino; what is 
 pleasing in His sight, instead of pleasing only our own 
 fancies, or inclinations, or appetites, or ease : this is the 
 true worship which He needs. 
 
 We are met together to-day at the beginning of Pas- 
 sion week. We shall be travelhng almost every day 
 of it. It is for us to make this week, though travelling, 
 not an unfit celebration of that holy season. The com- 
 mon duties of life, innocent and playful mirth, the act 
 of moving to and fro amongst these beautiful and sa- 
 cred scenes, these things, I humbly trust, are not 
 inconsistent with the remembrance of Christ's most 
 blessed life and death, if, at the same time (and oh, may 
 God grant that it be so !) our hearts rise to Him in 
 thankfulness, in devotion, " m spirit and in truth, at 
 all such moments as we have to ourselves, in solitary 
 ride or walk, in quiet morning or evening, — to Him, 
 
58 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. V. 
 
 for whom prophet and warrior and ruler and priest of 
 old times all prepared the way, to whom every inno- 
 cent pleasure, every noble recollection, every lofty 
 wish or thought, is the best offering we can make. 
 
 " Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us," not 
 with the sacrifice and blood of struggling sheep,^ and 
 the wild recitations of an ancient ritual, but with that 
 only Sacrifice which is really pleasing to God, — the 
 Sacrifice of a perfect Life and perfect Death. " There- 
 fore let us keep the feast," not with the unleavened 
 cakes or bitter herbs of the Old Dispensation, but 
 " with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," 
 transparent, open, conscientious sincerity, and serious, 
 honest, courageous truthfulness, as in the sight of God, 
 who sees our inmost thoughts. 
 
 1 The Samaritan Passover had been thus celebrated on the previous 
 day. 
 
SEKMON YL 
 
 JESUS OF NAZAEETH. 
 
 (GOOD FRIDAY.) 
 
SEEMON VI. 
 JESUS OF NAZAEETH. 
 
 PREACHED ON GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 18, IN THE ENCAMPMENT BY 
 THE SPRING OF NAZARETH. 
 
 Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, " Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." — John xix. 19. 
 
 WHAT are the lessons of Good Friday ? especially 
 of Good Friday in Palestine and in this place ? 
 In the words of the text, in the title written on the 
 Cross, the name of Jesus Christ is at that supreme 
 moment of His Last Passion brought together with the 
 recollection of His early years at Nazareth. What are 
 the lessons which they both teach in common ? 
 
 I. Everywhere the event of Good Friday speaks to 
 us of the universal love of God to His creatures. That 
 is why it is so tnily called Good. Friday. It has its 
 good news as much as Christmas Day or Easter Day. 
 It tells us not only that God is Love, but that He 
 bears love to every one on this earth, however far they 
 may seem to be removed from Him. It was for this 
 that He sent His Son into the world, — it was for this 
 that Christ died. It was by His death, more even 
 than by His hfe, that He showed how His sympathy 
 extended far beyond His own nation. His own fiiends, 
 His own family. '' I, if I be lifted up " on the Cross, 
 
62 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VI. 
 
 " will draw all men unto me." It is this which the 
 Collects of this day bring before us. They speak, in 
 fact, of hardly anything else. They tell us how He 
 died that " all estates," not one estate only, but " all 
 estates in His Holy Church," — that '-'- every member 
 of the Church " in its widest sense, not the clergy or 
 the religious only, but every one, in his " several vo- 
 cation and ministry," might " truly and godly serve 
 Him." They pray for God's mercy to visit not Chris- 
 tians merely, but all religions, however separate from 
 ours, — "Jews, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels," — in 
 the hope that they may all at last, here or hereafter, 
 be " one fold under one shepherd," the One Good 
 Shepherd who laid down His life not for the flock of 
 one single fold only, but for the countless sheep scat- 
 tered on the hills, not of the fold of the Jewish people, 
 or of the Christian Church only, but of all mankind. 
 
 This is a truth which comes home to us with pecul- 
 iar force in Palestine. What is it that has made this 
 small country so famous ? What is it that has carried 
 the names of Jerusalem and of Nazareth to the utter- 
 most parts of the earth? It is in one word, "the 
 death of Christ." Had He not died as He did. His 
 religion, — His name, — His country, — the places of 
 His birth and education and life, — would never have 
 broken through all the bonds of time and place as they 
 have. That we are here at all on this day, is a proof 
 of the effect which His death has had even on the 
 outward fortunes of the world. 
 
 This universal love of God in Christ's death is spe- 
 cially impressed upon us in Nazareth. What Christ 
 was in His death. He was in His life. What He was 
 in His life. He was in His death. And if we wish to 
 
SERM.VI.] JESUS OF NAZARETH. 63 
 
 know the spirit which pervades both, we cannot da so 
 better than by seeing what we may call the text of 
 His first sermon at Nazareth. He was in the syna- 
 gogue.^ The roll of the Hebrew Scriptures was hand- 
 ed to Him. He unrolled it. His former friends and 
 acquaintance fixed their eyes upon Him to see what 
 He would say. And what were the words which He 
 chose ? They were these : — " The Spirit of the Lord 
 is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach 
 the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the 
 broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, 
 and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
 them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year 
 of the Lord." What He said on this text is not de- 
 scribed ; we are only told that they " marvelled at the 
 gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth." 
 But what those gracious words were we can well see 
 from the words of the passage itself. '' The Spirit of 
 the Lord was upon Him," first, " to preach the gospel 
 to the poor," the glad tidings of God's love to the poor, 
 the humble classes, the neglected classes, the dangerous 
 classes, the friendless, the oppressed, the unthought-for, 
 the uncared-for. The Spirit of God was upon Him, 
 secondly, "to heal the broken-hearted: " — to heal, as 
 a good physician heals, not with one medicine, but 
 with all the various medicines and remedies which Li- 
 finite Wisdom possesses, all the fractures and diseases 
 and infirmities of our poor human hearts. There is 
 not a weakness, there is not a sorrow, there is not a 
 grievance, for which the love of God, as seen in the 
 life and death of Christ, does not offer some remedy. 
 He has not overlooked us. He is with us. He re- 
 
 1 Luke iv. 18. 
 
64 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VI. 
 
 members us. The Spirit of God was upon Him, thirdly, 
 "to preach deUverance to the captive." Whatever be 
 the evil habit, or the inveterate prejudice, or the mas- 
 ter passion, or the long indulgence, which weighs upon 
 us hke a bondage. He feels for us, and will do His 
 utmost to set us free, — to set at liberty those that are 
 cramped and bruised and confined by the chain of their 
 sins, their weakness, their misfortunes, their condition 
 in life, their difficulties, their responsibilities, their want 
 of responsibilities, their employments, their want of 
 employments. And, fourthly, " The Spirit of God was 
 upon Him," to " give sight to the blind." How few 
 of us there are who know our own failings, who see 
 into our own hearts, who know what is really good for 
 us ! That is the knowledo;e which the thought of 
 Christ's death is likely to give us. That is the truth 
 which, above all other truths, is likely to set us free. 
 "Lord, that I may receive my sight," is the prayer 
 which each of us may offer up for our spiritual state, 
 as the poor man whom He met at Jericho did for his 
 bodily eyesight. 
 
 For every one of these conditions He died. Not for 
 those only who are professedly religious, but for those 
 who are the least so, — to them the message of Good 
 Friday and of Nazareth is especially addressed. Chris- 
 tianity is, one may almost say, the only religion, of 
 which the Teacher addressed Himself, not to the reli- 
 gious, not to the ecclesiastical, not to the learned world, 
 but to the irreligious, or the non-religious, to those who 
 thought little of themselves and were thought little of 
 by others, to the careless, to the thoughtless, to the 
 rough publican, to the wild prodigal, to the heretical 
 Samaritan, to the heathen soldier, to the thankless 
 
Serm. VI.] JESUS OF NAZARETH. 65 
 
 peasants of Nazareth, to the swarmmg populations of 
 GaHlee. He addresses Himself, now, to each of us, 
 however lowly we may be in our own eyes, however 
 little we think that we have a religious call, however 
 encompassed we are with infirmities ; His love is ready 
 to receive, to encourage, to cherish, to save us. 
 
 n. I pass to the other lesson which Good Friday 
 teaches us here. It is that, whatever good is to be 
 done in the world, even though it is God Hhnself who 
 does it, cannot be done without an effort, — a prepara- 
 tion, — a Sacrifice. So it was especially in the death 
 of Christ, — so it was in His whole life. His whole 
 life from the time when He grew up, " as a tender 
 plant " in the seclusion of this valley, to the hour 
 when He died at Jerusalem, was one long effort, — one 
 long struggle against misunderstanding, opposition, 
 scorn, hatred, hardship, pain. He had doubtless His 
 happier and gentler hours, we must not forget them : 
 His friends at Bethany, His apostles who hung upon 
 His lips, His mother who followed Him in thought and 
 mind wherever He went. But here, amongst His own 
 people. He met with angry opposition and jealousy. 
 He had to bear the hardships of toil and labor, like 
 any other Nazarene artisan. He had here, by a 
 silent preparation of thirty years, to make Himself 
 ready for the work which lay before Him. He had 
 to endure the heat and the cold, the burnino; sun and 
 the stormy rain, of these hills and valleys. " The 
 foxes " of the plain of Esdraelon " have holes," " the 
 birds " of the Galilean forests " have their nests," but 
 " He had " often " not where to lay His head." And in 
 Jerusalem, though there were momentary bursts of 
 enthusiasm m His behalf, yet He came so directly 
 
66 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VI. 
 
 across the interests, the fears, the pleasures, and the 
 prejudices of those who there ruled and taught, that 
 at last it cost him his life. By no less a sacrifice could 
 the world be redeemed, bj no less a struggle could 
 His work be finished. 
 
 In that work, in one sense, none but He can take 
 part. " He trod the winepress alone." But in another 
 sense, often urged upon us in the Bible, we must all 
 take part in it, if we would wdsh to do good to our- 
 selves or to others. We cannot improve ourselves, we 
 cannot assist others, we cannot do our duty in the 
 world, except by exertion, except by unpopularity, 
 except with annoyance, except with care and difficulty. 
 We must, each of us, bear our Cross with Him. 
 When we bear it, it is lightened by thinking of Him. 
 When we bear it, each day makes it easier to us. 
 Once the name of " Christian," of '^ Nazarene," was 
 an offence in the eyes of the world ; now, it is a 
 glory. But we cannot have the glory without the 
 labor which it involves. To " hear His words, and to 
 do them," to hear of His death, and to follow in the 
 path of His sufferings, this, and this only, as He him- 
 self has told us, is to build our house, the house of our 
 life, of our faith, of our happiness, upon a rock ; a rock 
 which will 0;row firmer and stronger the more we build 
 upon it, and the more we have to bear. " The rains 
 may descend, and the floods may come, and the winds 
 may blow and may beat upon that house ; " but the 
 house will not fall, '^ for it will have been founded 
 upon the rock." ^ 
 
 1 Matthew vii. 25. A storm like that described in this passage was 
 raging throughout Syiua on the day when this sermon was preached. 
 
SERMON Vn. 
 
 CHEIST AT THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 
 
 (EASTER DAY.) 
 
SERMON VII. 
 CHRIST AT THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 
 
 PREACHEB ON EASTER DAY, APRIL 20, BEFORE THE HOLY COM- 
 MUNION, IN THE ENCAMPMENT BY TIBERIAS. 
 
 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of 
 Tiberias : and on this wise showed he himself. — John xxi. 1. 
 
 SO S. John, in the last chapter of his Gospel, 
 records the last recollections of his Lord's appear- 
 ances after the Resurrection. On this, the only Easter 
 Day that in all probability we shall any of us pass on 
 the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, it seems the best 
 use we can make of the occasion, to draw forth all the 
 truth (and it is of various kinds) that this chapter 
 yields in connection with this, the greatest day of the 
 Christian year, with this, the holiest ordinance of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 1. It was after the Lord had risen again that this 
 appearance took place. " The disciples had returned 
 to 'their own homes,' and engaged in their usual 
 occupations ; Peter and James and John were again, 
 as they had been before in years past, in their two 
 boats on the lake, throwing in nets to catch the fish 
 which swarm in its waters. Four of their friends 
 were with them, — two whose naines are not recorded; 
 
70 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VII. 
 
 the other two, Thomas, known as the Twin Brother, 
 and Nathanael, from the village of Cana of Galilee. 
 They were once more at their common work. The 
 morning had just broken over the dark eastern hills. 
 The sun shone on the lake and on the tops of the west- 
 ern mountains. On the shore of the sea, — we know 
 not the exact spot, but somewhere along the shelving 
 beach, — there stood a Figure, which arrested their 
 attention. They gazed, but knew not who it was. 
 They heard a voice calling to them, '' Children, have 
 ye any food?" They obeyed the advice of the 
 unknown stranger ; and then came the rush of fishes 
 into the net, ivhich at once recalled to the disciple who 
 knew his Master best the like scene on the same waters 
 three years before : " The disciple whom Jesus loved 
 turned to Peter and said, ' It is the Lord.' " 
 
 Let me pause for a moment to call to mind how like 
 this is to what occurs in human life. These appear- 
 ances of Christ after His Resurrection seem to be told 
 to us as intimations of what still continues in our 
 relations towards Him : " He is not here, He is risen." 
 He even then had ceased to be to His disciples as He 
 had been before. He went and came suddenly, hardly 
 known by them at first ; then known by some gesture, 
 some word, some old association. Is it not so with us ? 
 We, like the Apostles, are engaged in our common 
 occupations. We hear a voice from the distance. At 
 first it seems to us only some event or incident of our 
 ordinary life. Suddenly we see, we hear in it the call 
 of Christ, the call of God Himself, calling us to higher 
 thoughts. A familiar recollection of old days sweeps 
 across us, to impress it more firmly upon us ; and even 
 in our engagements, our amusements, our fisheries, we 
 
Serm. VIL] CHRIST at THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 71 
 
 recognize the hand, the voice of our merciftil Saviour, 
 and are able to say, " It is the Lord." 
 
 2. The story goes on. There was a yet closer in- 
 terview, — a yet nearer sense of that Divine Presence 
 to be brouMit home to them. We can imamne still 
 more clearly what follows. Peter, who, like the boat- 
 men of these Eastern countries, had thrown off his 
 clothes, to drag up the heavy net, now girded on his 
 fisher's coat, and, with his usual ardor, sprang into 
 the water before the others, and waded up the sloping 
 side of the shore. The rest, in the little boat attached 
 to their larger vessel, came after him ; and on the shore 
 they found the meal already spread, and their Lord 
 inviting them to come and partake of it. They felt 
 that it was no common meal ; they were struck with 
 awe, — none of them ventured even to say, " Who art 
 thou ? " They gathered round him in reverent silence ; 
 and " Jesus," we are told, " cometh and taketh bread 
 and giveth them, and fish likewise." 
 
 It is impossible, as we read this, not to see the like- 
 ness of that holy ordinance of which we this morning 
 partake. It was not, indeed, in form the same, but in 
 spirit it certainly was ; and so it was understood in the 
 earliest times. Some of the oldest pictures in the Ro- 
 man Catacombs represent the Holy Communion under 
 this very figure, — not the twelve disciples, but these 
 seven, with the thin round loaves as of Arab bread, 
 and the fishes lying beside them as from this sacred 
 lake. It is the fitting likeness of the Holy Communion, 
 because it was a meal of the common elements of sus- 
 tenance, and yet invested with such a solemn and 
 mysterious character, that they who partook of it then 
 felt, as we who partake of it now feel, that there is 
 
72 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VII. 
 
 something in it which brings us nearer than any other 
 ordinance or ceremony of rehgion into the presence of 
 our Divine Saviour, who is no longer on earth, but in 
 Heaven. It recalled to them, as it recalls to us, the 
 days when He ate and drank and lived with them on 
 earth. It drew their thouo-hts, as it oucrht to draw 
 ours, heavenward, to Him who dwells above all our 
 earthly cares and griefs and joys. It drew their 
 thoughts, as it ought to draw ours, to a nearer and clo- 
 ser communion with each other, — with their and our 
 fellow-disciples elsewhere. They must have felt that 
 in that sacred Presence, at least for the time, one only 
 thought was in all their minds alike. We, in like man- 
 ner, feel, as we partake of this blessed remembrance of 
 His Death and Resurrection, that, however various our 
 characters and stations, one thought for the moment 
 binds us all together, and not us only, — the small com- 
 pany who are here assembled, — but all who are near 
 and dear to us far away ; far away in the several homes 
 of our native land ; those, too, who are far away in 
 their Eternal Home, and who share in a yet deeper 
 and fuller communion with Him in whose immediate 
 presence they are. 
 
 3. And this brings me to the close of the narrative. 
 There were, as I have said, seven only out of the 
 twelve disciples. But these seven contained very dif- 
 ferent characters, characters so different from each 
 other, as to represent almost every phase of the human 
 soul and mind that can be brought into communion 
 with God and Christ. There was the ardent, impa- 
 tient, active Peter. There was the devoted, loving 
 John. There was James, the zealous Son of Thunder, 
 the courageous youth who, first of the Apostles, died a 
 
Serm. VIL] CHRIST AT THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 73 
 
 martyr's death. There was Nathanael, the blameless, 
 sincere, and candid Israelite in whom there was to be 
 found no guile. There was Thomas, the doubting, rea- 
 soning, inquiring, philosophic Apostle, who believed, in 
 spite of his doubts and because of his reasonable con- 
 victions. Each of these, as each of us, stood, or sat, 
 or knelt beside their Master, to receive whatever mes- 
 sage He had to give. Of these, two only are specially 
 named, as receiving special warnings or encourage- 
 ments. But in these two we may all find ourselves 
 included. One was Peter. We need not now think 
 of Peter's peculiar character. We need only remem- 
 ber that he was, as we are, compassed with weakness, 
 — that he had thrice from weakness, as we not thrice 
 only, but many times over, denied his Lord, failed in 
 the hour of trial, done what he most hated himself for 
 having done, left undone that which of all things in the 
 world he would most have desired to have done. To 
 him, as to each of us, in that sacred communion by the 
 sea of Tiberias, our Lord approached, calling him by 
 his own peculiar name and address : " Simon., son of 
 Jonas., lovest thou Me ? " Thrice, as if for the three 
 denials, He asked this question, as if to show that for 
 all our failings and misdoings in the past there is but 
 one remedy for the future, and that is, to overcome 
 past evil by future good, to blot out fresh failures by 
 renewed exertions in the love and service of goodness. 
 '•''Lovest thou Me more than these? ''^ Yes, that is the 
 great question, — " Lovest thou me ? " " Hast thou 
 any regard for the commands, for the mind, for the 
 spirit of Christ, more than others, above all earthly 
 desires ? " " Hast thou this in any degree ? " We an- 
 swer, I am sure we should all wish to answer, as he did, 
 
74 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Serm. VII. 
 
 — " Lord, thou knowest that Hove thee.^^ " Thou know- 
 est that I wish to love Thee. Thou knowest that here, 
 on this day and in this sacred orchnance, I pledge 
 myself to be Thy disciple. Thou knowest all things ; 
 Thou knowest our infirmities ; Thou knowest our igno- 
 rance ; Thou knowest that this is our firm intention 
 and resolution." 
 
 So Peter said ; so we say and feel also. And to 
 Peter, and to each of us, the same answer comes back 
 as the last charge of our departing Lord, — as the only 
 test of our sincerity in this profession, '•^Feed my sheep, 
 Feed My lamhsy That is, our love to Christ can only 
 be shown by the care, the tender, active, constant care, 
 for the welfare of others, — of those whom He by His 
 Providence has placed or will place in any degree un- 
 der our charge. To be shepherds of mankind, — this, 
 in its full sense, belongs to the rulers of nations and 
 the pastors of human souls ; but, in a lesser sense, it 
 belongs to every one of us who has any influence over 
 those who are near us. To feed, to guide, to support, 
 to be attentive, considerate, kind, helpful, to these, is 
 indeed the best proof of our love of Christ. And this. 
 He continues to say, we must do, even although it 
 cost us much. " Verily I say unto thee. When thou 
 wast young, when thou wast a fisherman's boy, on the 
 shores of the Galilean lake, ^/^ow girdedst thyself, in thy 
 fisher's coat, and walkedst over these hills and valleys 
 whither thou ivoiddest : hut ivhen thou shalt he old, as 
 years and duties and infirmities increase, thou shalt 
 stretch forth thy hands, even on the cross of martyrdom, 
 and another, the Roman executioner, shall gird thee, 
 with the bonds of imprisonment, and carry thee whitJier 
 thou wouldest tiot, even to the place where thou must 
 
Sebm. VII.] CHRIST AT THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 75 
 
 glorify God by tliy death." Even so, in speaking to 
 us, He bids us look forward far into the future. We 
 shall not be always as we are now. To most of us, 
 our cares, our difficulties, our restraints, our respon- 
 sibilities, perhaps our pains and sorrow^s, will increase. 
 There is but one thing which will turn this bondage 
 mto liberty, and that is the final charge which our 
 Lord gives to Peter, " Follow thou me." " Follow 
 thou Christ, in His tnith. His justice. His purity, His 
 love, through good report and evil, through joy and 
 grief, through youth and age, and thou wilt never 
 repent of having made that good choice, and chosen 
 that better part." 
 
 4. One more word, to guide our thouo-hts in reo-ard 
 to another kind of character, the Beloved Disciple has 
 left from that parting scene at the Sea of Tiberias. 
 Peter tiu-ned, as they walked along the shore, and saw 
 that beloved disciple himself, his own dear friend and 
 companion, following close beliind. He longed to 
 know sometliing more of the future fate, something 
 more of the present duty, of that best and bravest 
 and hohest of all the disciples, in comparison w^ith 
 whom he felt himself to be as notliing. He asked, 
 " Lord, and ivhat shall this man do ? " So we ask con- 
 cerning those whom we feel to be better and wiser 
 than we, concerning those whom we know to be far 
 above our reach, concerning those w^hom God has 
 taken to Himself. Where are they ? What will be, 
 what is, their fate ? What are we, compared with 
 them ? Can we ever attain to them ? The answer of 
 om- Lord to Peter is still the answer to us : '-'• If I ivill 
 that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? folloiv thou 
 Me:' It is as though He said, " Tnist in Me. My 
 
76 SERMONS IN PALESTINE. [Skrm. VII. 
 
 will and God's will is the best for liim and for tliee. 
 Leave to me the disposal even of the best and dearest 
 friends thou hast. Vex not thyself with the difference 
 between thyself and them. One duty, one blessing, 
 one happiness, is still left to thee. Though all else be 
 taken away, though their paths and thine be far re- 
 moved and henceforth asunder, though it seems impos- 
 sible for us to be as they were and as they are, — 
 Follow thou thy Lord and Master." Follow aftei 
 Him, though it may be at an immeasurable distance. 
 Follow Him in His long endurance and His great 
 humility. Follow Him in the good deeds which He 
 wroucrht beside this blessed lake. Follow Him with a 
 bold and cheerful spirit m the happy and glorious vic- 
 tory which He won over sin and over death ; and in 
 the end thou shalt find in Him the true communion and 
 fellowship wliich He only can give, with all who, — far 
 and near, on this side the grave or beyond it, — have 
 cheered and encom-aged and urged our affections, 
 forwards, onwards, upwards, from things on earth to 
 things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of 
 God. 
 
SEEMONS IN SYRIA. 
 
 SERMON Vm. 
 
 S. PAUL ON THE WAY TO DAMASCUS. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 S. PAUL ON THE WAY TO DAMASCUS. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE ENCAMPMENT, ON THE ANTI-LEBANON, ON THE 
 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER, APRIL 27, THE DAY BEFORE 
 REACHING DAMASCUS. 
 
 And as lie journe3''ed, he came near Damascus. — Acts ix. 3. 
 
 OF liow many travellers lias tliis been said, as of 
 US ! How many thouglits have been awakened 
 by the approach to the most ancient of existing 
 cities ! Abraham, as he journeyed from the far 
 East, drew near to Damascus, and there halted on 
 his way to the land which was to be his own and 
 his children's for ages to come ; and, as it would seem, 
 conquered the great city, already the glory of the 
 East, already the prize of the powerful ones of the 
 earth. Elisha, as he journeyed from Samaria, drew 
 near to Damascus, and met on the road the long train 
 of forty camels, with presents of every good thing of 
 Damascus, to propitiate his favor to the King of Syina, 
 who felt the awe which the coming of the man of God 
 spread before him. Ahaz " went up to Damascus " to 
 meet the great King of Assyi'ia, and there saw the 
 altar so curiously wrought by Syrian art as to become 
 the model of the high altar of Jerusalem. JNIahomet, 
 the Prophet of the Mussulman rehgion, according to 
 
80 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Seem. VIII. 
 
 the traditions of his own countrymen, as he jom-neyed 
 from Arabia, drew near to Damascus, and, as he looked 
 down upon the splendid view which we, I tinist, shall 
 see to-morrow, said, with a nobleness of sentiment 
 which we cannot but admire, though in another creed 
 than our own, " Man can have but one Paradise in 
 hfe, — my Paradise is fixed above ; " and turned away 
 without entering that glorious city, lest it should tempt 
 him from his prophetic mission. But of all the travel- 
 lers who, " as they journeyed came near to Damascus," 
 there is none who has such an interest for us as the 
 great Apostle of whom the Second Lesson to-day has 
 spoken to us, and whose path, for the first time in our 
 travels, we thus encounter. 
 
 1. Very briefly to-day let us consider his conversion 
 and his preaching. He was on his way from Jeru- 
 salem. He "came near Damascus," — we know not 
 how near, we know not by which approach. It was 
 noon ; the Syrian sun was bright in the heavens ; he 
 was charged with a mission, which admitted of no 
 delay in his eyes, — that of destroying the Christians 
 in Damascus, with a savage zeal like to that which in 
 our own days has laid waste the same city. In one 
 moment, his career was arrested by the heavenly vision 
 which ended in the great act which we call his " con- 
 version." It is an instance, such as we find still occur- 
 ring but rarely, of a sudden conversion. Yet " a con- 
 version," that is, "a turning round " from bad to good, 
 from good to better, is necessary for us all. We are 
 sometimes inclined to think that om' characters, once 
 formed, can never be changed. This is not true ; at 
 least it is only half true. Our natural dispositions, our 
 natural faculties, these do very rarely change ; but the 
 
Serm. VIIL] PAUL JOURNEYING TO DAMASCUS. 81 
 
 direction that tliey take can be changed ; and the dif- 
 ference between their upward and their downward 
 direction is the difference effected by anything which 
 deserves the name of conversion, whether sudden, as 
 in the case of S. Paul, or gradual, as with most of us. 
 He, in great measure, remained the same as he was 
 before, — he retained his zeal, his power, his energy ; 
 but the turn which was given to these natural qualities, 
 by his conversion on the road to Damascus, gave a 
 turn to his whole life, and, through him, a tmii to the 
 life of the whole world. He approached Damascus, 
 a furious persecutor ; he entered it, a humble penitent ; 
 he left it, a great Apostle. So is it with us. Much 
 about us never will be changed, never need be changed, 
 never can be changed ; but much about us can be 
 changed, ought to be changed, and, with God's good 
 help, will be changed. We are all on the road, not to 
 Damascus only, but to some end or object of our pur- 
 suits. To every one of us, as to S. Paul, that end or 
 object will at last appear in a light totally different 
 from what we now expect ; and on that changed hght 
 may depend our exceeding happiness or our exceeding 
 misery, our great usefulness or our utter uselessness in 
 life. 
 
 2. This was the conversion of the Apostle ; let us 
 see how it was brouo-ht about. It was brouo-ht about, 
 first, by the vision of Christ. How this entered into 
 his soul we know not ; but that it did enter there, is 
 sure from all that he afterwards did and said. And it 
 is this same communion with Christ, with the good- 
 ness, the wisdom, the love of Christ, which still is the 
 most powerful instrument of making every human soul 
 better and wiser and nobler than it was before. It 
 
82 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. VIII. 
 
 was, secondly, by calling to his mind the true knowl- 
 edo-e of what he was doino;. He thouMit that he was 
 doing God service by trampling down a noxious and 
 heretical sect. That voice from heaven told him that 
 in those poor Christians he was trampling down and 
 persecuting the Great Friend and Deliverer of the 
 world. " Saul^ Saul^ why persecutest thou me ? 1 
 am Jesus whom thou persecutest^ Yes, so it is still; 
 often and often we think that we are all right ; that 
 no one can find fault with us ; that those whom we 
 neglect or despise, or set aside, are not worth consider- 
 ing for a moment. And yet all the while, as God sees 
 us, as others see us, we are injuring the very cause we 
 wish to promote ; those of whom we think so little may 
 be the very likenesses and representatives to us of God 
 and Christ Himself In injuring them, in despising them, 
 we may be doing the most wide-spread mischief, we may 
 be defying God, we may be even destroying our own 
 souls. In helping them, in considering them, we are 
 serving Christ Himself " Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done 
 it unto Me." His conversion was, thirdly, by the 
 appeal to the best part of his own heart. " It is hard 
 for thee to kick against the pricks^"* against the goad, 
 ao-ainst the stino-s, of conscience. He had doubtless 
 already had better feelings stirring within him from 
 what he had seen of the death of Stephen and of the 
 good deeds of the early Christians. In this way his 
 conversion, sudden as it seemed at last, had been long 
 prepared. His conscience had been ill at ease with 
 itself; and in this perplexity and doubt, it needed only 
 that one blessed interposition of his merciful Lord, to 
 recall him to a sense of his better self Wide as are 
 
Serm. VIIL] PAUL JOURNEYING TO DAMASCUS. 83 
 
 the differences between us and the Apostle, yet here 
 is a point which we all have in common with him. We 
 each of us have a conscience ; each of us has that 
 within him which can be reached, if only w^e knew 
 how ; each of us has a barrier against sin set up within 
 him, against which we may kick and struggle, but 
 which will, thanks to the mercy of God who has placed 
 it there, long resist our efforts. We have but to think 
 of what in our best moments we condemn ; that is 
 what we have to avoid ; we have but to think of what 
 in our best moments we approve in others ; that is 
 what we have to strive for. The recollection of 
 Stephen's martyrdom was probably the first seed of S. 
 Paul's conversion ; the recollection of any good act, 
 which has called forth our admiration in past times, 
 may be the beginning of our doing the like in times 
 to come, far beyond anything that we now think or 
 dream of 
 
 8. There is one more thought suggested by S. 
 Paul's conversion on his road to Damascus, and that 
 is what resulted from it. This is too great a subject 
 to be spoken of here in all its parts. But one single 
 point is put before us by the lesson ^ of this morning's 
 Service. What he taught in his Epistles concerns the 
 Church at large ; but what he preached to Felix, 
 though it may have concerned especially that unjust 
 and licentious Roman governor, does also in its 
 measure concern each of us as individuals. He 
 "reasoned" with Felix, he argued, he urged, not 
 preaching, not teaching, but talking with him, as one 
 friend eagerly and seriously talks to convince another, 
 on three subjects, on three words, each of which is a 
 
 1 Acts xxiv. 25. 
 
84 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Seem. YIII. 
 
 sermon in itself, Righteousness, Temperance, and Judg- 
 ment to come. HigJiteousness, that is, justice, fairness, 
 impartiality, the duty of dealing calmly and candidly 
 and uprightly with those who are under us, or above 
 us, or equal to us. Temperance, that is, self-control, 
 self-restraint, the duty of gaining the mastery over our 
 passions, over our tempers, over our tongues, over our 
 indolence, over our impatience, over our prejudices. 
 Judgmeyit to come, that is, the certainty that for every- 
 thing which we do in this life we shall, sooner or later, 
 have to give an account, and that we shall be judged 
 accordingly by One who knows all our actions, whether 
 public or private, secret or open. When the Apostle 
 spoke of those three things, " Felix trembled ; " 
 had we heard him speak, we should have trembled 
 also. Felix trembled for the moment, but he put him 
 off to " a more convenient season." If we wish to 
 make our belief in S. Paul's conversion and the im- 
 portance of S. Paul's doctrine anything more than a 
 mere name, we shall try to bear away from the road 
 on which it took place the thought of at least these 
 three things, the duty of justice, the duty of self- 
 restraint, and the certainty of a judgment to come. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 TIE GIFTS OP NATURE. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 THE GIFTS OF NATURE. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE ENCAMPMENT UNDER THE TEMPLE OF BAALBEC, 
 ON MAY 4, THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 
 
 In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which cometh forth as a 
 bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his 
 course. It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the heaven, and run- 
 neth about unto the end of it again: and there is nothing hid from the 
 heat thereof. — Psalm xix. 4-6 
 
 THERE was once a time, in the history of the 
 world, when it was the strongest possible tempta- 
 tion to mankind to worship the great objects of natm^e, 
 but especially those in heaven, and of these especially 
 the Sun. In these countries more particularly, where 
 the Sun is so bright, so powerful, so omnipresent 
 throughout the year, the temptation was stronger than 
 anywhere else. Wherever in the Old Testament we 
 hear of the worship of Baal, it is the worship of the 
 Sun; and of all the temples so dedicated, this is the 
 most splendid ; and the ancient city was called from 
 this worship "Baalbec," or "the City of the Sun." 
 We know from the Bible, we know also from the 
 history of this very Temple, that this worship was 
 corrupted into the most shameful sensuality; so that, 
 to the Israelites first, and to Christians afterwards, it 
 became a duty to put it down altogether. And this 
 
88 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. IX. 
 
 corruption is in itself instructive, as teaching us that 
 the highest love of art and the keenest appreciation of 
 what is beautiful, if left to itself, without some purer 
 and higher principles, may and will degenerate into 
 mere brutal self-indulgence and cruelty. But it is 
 always better, if we can, to see what was the good 
 element which lies at the bottom of any character or 
 institution, — what there was in the thouo;hts that 
 raised these solid foundations and these towering 
 columns, which we also may imitate for ourselves, 
 without falling into those dark errors and sins with 
 which they were once connected. 
 
 For this purpose, we could hardly find a more fitting 
 text than the Psalm read in this morning's Service. 
 
 o 
 
 " In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which 
 Cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and 
 rejoiceth as a giant to run Ms course. It goeth forth 
 from the uttermost part of the heaven, and runneth about 
 unto the end of it again : and there is iiothing hid from 
 the heat thereof y These words, so expressive of the 
 genial life-giving power of the great Light of day, — 
 of the glory of his rising, — of the strength of his rays, 
 — of the regularity of his course, — of the penetrating 
 force of his heat, — spring from a feeling common to 
 the Hebrew Psalmist and to those who raised this 
 heathen Temple. But what are the points wherein 
 they diverge from each other ? — or rather what were 
 the good points in that ancient belief, which the True 
 Religion has adopted for its own, and sifted from the 
 surrounding evil ? This Temple itself is connected 
 with the history and traditions both of the wisest and 
 greatest thoughts of ancient times, and with the basest 
 and most foolish. Its earliest foundations are said to 
 
Sekm. IX.] THE GIFTS OF NATURE. 89 
 
 go back to the days of Solomon, the wisest of men. 
 In its latest times it had for its High Priest the most 
 infamous and effeminate of all the Roman Emperors, 
 — the miserable Heliogabalus. Between the two there 
 was at first sight but httle in common. Little, indeed, 
 there is ; but it is that little which it is so useful to 
 remember. What then, I repeat, are the points in 
 connection with the reverence for the Sun and for 
 the works of nature, which this Psalm brings before 
 us ? 
 
 I. There are two points especially, — one at the 
 beginnino; the other at the end of the Psalm. The 
 first is a deep sense of thankfulness for those gifts of 
 Nature, as the heathens thought them, of God, as we 
 know them to be. " The heavens declare the glory of 
 God ; and the firmament sheiveth his handy-work. Day 
 unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 7iight sheweth 
 hnowledge. There is no speech nor language where their 
 voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the 
 earth, and their words to the end of the tvorhV^ So the 
 Psalmist spoke ; and so we may still feel. Those 
 glorious gifts, which we all enjoy, but never more 
 than when we are travelHng, — the delight of a beau- 
 tiful day, — the lights and shades of sunrise and sun- 
 set, — the warmth and brightness which succeed to 
 rain and storm, — the starlit and the moonlit night, — 
 the sight of mountains and rushing streams, — all these 
 may still be to us, as to the Jewish Psalmist, a source 
 not merely of most innocent pleasure, but of religious 
 thankfulness to their Almighty Giver. In the words 
 I have just read, the Psalmist tells of the voice which 
 speaks in these dumb glories of Creation. That voice 
 is surely one which speaks to us with double force 
 
90 SERMONS IN SYPdA. [Serm. IX. 
 
 now. Now, if ever, we are bound to lift up our hearts 
 in gratitude to the Giver of all good things. For five 
 weeks we have been enjoying His natural gifts of 
 beautiful scenes and glorious weather, and, above all, 
 that inestimable gift of health, of which we think so 
 little till we lose it. One only of our large number 
 has been struck with serious illness, and he has been 
 mercifully restored to us. Let us all join, as we now 
 approach the end of our journey, in a humble and 
 hearty thanksgiving to Him who has thus given us all 
 things freely to enjoy. Those who hved in old time 
 expressed, as we see, their gratitude and reverence for 
 the gifts of nature by this magnificent Temple. Let 
 us express our gratitude and reverence in the offering 
 of pure hearts and good lives to Him who has thus 
 graciously guided us so nearly to the close of our 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 II. And this brino;s me to the second truth which 
 the contemplation of the natural world, — of the sun 
 in his strength, — of the stars as they move in the 
 heavens, — suo-sested to the Psalmist. He could not 
 look at them without thinking of that characteristic of 
 the works of Creation, which modern science has more 
 and more strongly brought out; the order, the regu- 
 larity, the law of their operations. And this Law 
 immediately recalled his mind to the highest example 
 of all law, — the unchangeable moral Law of God. 
 A great modern philosopher has put the two subjects 
 together in the same connection, probably without 
 thinking that he had been anticipated by the Psalmist 
 of old. " There are two things of which it may be 
 said that, the more we think of them, the more they 
 fill the soul with awe and wonder, — the starry hea- 
 
Serm. IX.] THE GIFTS OF NATURE, 91 
 
 vens above and the moral law within." This para- 
 mount elevation of the Moral law is what the Psalmist, 
 according to one of the chief peculiarities of the Divine 
 Inspiration of the Bible, urges through the remainder 
 of the Psalm. He tells us how the Law of God (the 
 revealed law of goodness, the natural law of con- 
 science,) is not only what we are bound to follow as 
 our duty, but is the surest source both of our wisdom 
 and our happiness. Not only does he speak of the 
 law as " perfect, converting the soul," " pure," " clean," 
 "true and righteous," — such, perhaps, we all acknowl- 
 edge it to be, — but it is more than this, "it giveth 
 wisdom unto the simple, it enlightens the eyes." Most 
 true. Many and many a time in life do we see a good 
 and honest conscience supplying a man, young or old, 
 with that common sense, with that discernment, with 
 that calm and impartial judgment, which is often not 
 to be got even from the greatest abilities, or learning, 
 or genius. "The fear of the Lord," — much more 
 the love of God, — " is the beginning " of many other 
 good things ; but it certainly is " the beginning of 
 wisdom." Give us a character on which we can 
 thoroughly depend, which we are sure will not fail 
 us in time of need, which we know to be based on 
 principle and on the fear of God, and it is wonderful 
 how many brilliant and popular and splendid qualities 
 we can safely and gladly dispense with. And not only 
 so, but the Psalmist tells us further that the law of 
 God, the submission to the law of God, is the source 
 of our happiness and cheerfulness. He does not only 
 mean that commonplace saying, that virtue is happi- 
 ness ; but he means that the very consciousness of a 
 Divine Law over us to which we submit ourselves is 
 
92 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. IX. 
 
 the chief cause of cheerfulness and contentment and 
 peace. The statutes of the Lord " rejoice the heart ; " 
 they are " sweeter than honey and the honey comb ^ 
 There are many perplexities, there are many cares, 
 there are many little vexations in life ; what is it 
 which in the midst of these gives us a serene constant 
 cheerfulness and gayety of heart ? It is simply re- 
 membering that we have a fixed law of duty, a fixed 
 law of our condition in life, which we must fulfil ; 
 unchangeable laws which will not endure to be broken, 
 which are our support in time of adversity, no less 
 surely than they are our restraint in time of prosperity. 
 " Moreover hy them^'' he proceeds, as if speaking from 
 the fulness of his own experience, " is thy servant 
 taught^ and in keeping of them there is great reward. 
 Who can tell how oft he offendeth? cleanse thou me 
 from my secret faults.''^ Yes, indeed, this is the prayer 
 for us all ; this is the very use of prayer ; that He who 
 knows us better than we know ourselves will strength- 
 en us against the sins of which we ourselves are igno- 
 rant. " Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; 
 let them not have dominion over me ; " from those head- 
 strong wilful faults that, if indulged, do indeed have 
 dominion over us, such as we cannot shake off. " So 
 shall I be undefiled and innocent from the great offence.''^ 
 This is our reward in keeping from wanton presump- 
 tuous carelessness even in trifles ; that we are less and 
 less likely to fall into those great offences which de- 
 stroy soul and body, individuals and nations, with a 
 destruction which, even in this life, makes us shudder 
 and tremble at the thought or the fear of it. And so 
 he concludes, " Let the words of my mouth and the 
 meditation of my heart he alway acceptable in thy sights 
 
Serm. IX.] THE GIFTS OF NATURE. 93 
 
 Lord., my strength and wy Redeemer.''^ Oh, grant 
 that it may be so with us. I have reminded you, — 
 
 1 would also remind myself, — that this is almost the 
 last Sunday on which I shall have thus to address 
 you in this country and in this manner of life. There 
 are many other things that I would fain say now, 
 many other things that I ought to have said before ; 
 but I have thought it best to confine myself to the 
 reflections which this noble Psalm, read beneath the 
 walls of this noble Temple, has suggested. '^ O, may 
 the words of our mouths," " O, may the meditation of 
 our hearts," on all that we have seen and heard and 
 enjoyed and admired, during these five eventful weeks, 
 be not now only, but always " acceptable in Thy sight, 
 O Lord, our Strength," — the strength of our strength, 
 the help of our weakness, — " O Lord, our Redeemer," 
 — our Redeemer from all danger, from all sin, from all 
 evil, now and hereafter. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 
 
SERMON X. 
 THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE ENCAMPMENT AT EHDEN, BENEATH THE MOUN- 
 TAIN OF THE CEDARS, ON MAY 11, THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER 
 EASTER. 
 
 And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, 
 Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered ; and let them that hate Thee 
 flee before Thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, Lord, imto 
 the many thousands of Israel. — Num. x. 35, 36. 
 
 OUR last Sunday in Syria has arrived, and it has 
 been enhanced to us this morning by the sight of 
 those venerable trees which seemed to the Psalmist 
 and the Prophets of old one of the chief glories and 
 wonders of the creation. Two main ideas were con- 
 veyed to the minds of those who then saw them, 
 which we may still bear away with us. 
 
 One is tliat of their greatness, breadth, solidity, 
 vastness. " The righteous," says the Psalmist,^ " shall 
 flourish like a palm-tree." That is one part of our 
 life ; to be upright, graceful, gentle, like that most 
 beautiful of oriental trees. But there is another 
 quality added, " He shall spread abroad like a cedar 
 in Libanus." That is, his character shall be sturdy, 
 solid, broad ; he shall protect others, as well as him- 
 self; he shall support the branches of the weaker 
 
 1 Psalm xcii. 12. 
 
98 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Seem. X. 
 
 trees around him ; he shall cover a vast surface of the 
 earth with his shadow ; he shall grow and spread and 
 endure ; he and his works shall make the place where 
 he was planted memorable for future times. 
 
 The second feelino; is the value of Reverence. It 
 was reverence for these great trees which caused them 
 to be employed for the sacred service of Solomon's 
 Temple, and which has insured their preservation for 
 so long. It was reverence for Almighty God that 
 caused these trees, and these only, to be brought 
 down from this remote situation to be employed for 
 the Temple of old. Reverence, we may be sure, 
 whether to God or to the great things which God has 
 made in the world, is one of the qualities most needful 
 for every human being, if he means to pass through 
 life in a manner worthy of the place which God has 
 given him in the world. 
 
 But the sight of the Cedars, and our encampment 
 here recall to us that this is the close of a manner of 
 life which in many respects calls to mind that of the 
 ancient Israelites, as we read it in the Lessons of this 
 and of last Sunday, in the Book of Numbers and of 
 Deuteronomy, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
 and thy tabernacles, O Israel " so unlike our common 
 life, so suggestive of thoughts which can hardly come 
 to us again. It brings us back, even with all the 
 luxuries which surround us, to something of the fresh- 
 ness and rudeness and simplicity of primitive life, 
 which it is good for us all to feel at one time or other. 
 It reminds us, though in a figure, of the uncertainty 
 and instability of human existence, so often compared 
 to the pitching and striking of a tent. The spots on 
 which, day after day for the last six weeks, we have 
 
Serm. X.] THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 99 
 
 been encamped have again become a desolate open 
 waste, — " the spirit of the desert stalks in," and their 
 place will be known no more. How like the way in 
 which happy homes rise and sink and vanish, and are 
 lost. Only the great Rock or Tree of Life under 
 which they have been pitched remains on from genera- 
 tion to generation. 
 
 But there is one point in the encampment of the 
 Israelites which is connected not only with our present 
 mode of life, but with our whole life, wherever we 
 may be, and that is, the words in which were expressed 
 what may be called their Morning and Evening 
 Hymn, their Morning and Evening Prayer. The 
 Morning Prayer was, " Let Crod arise., and let His 
 enemies he scattered., and let them that hate Him flee 
 before Him.^'' It is very short, but it contains much ; 
 and it was used to give fresh point to Jewish Psalms 
 in later times, as, for example, the 68th. It is 
 the call upon God to " rise," as it were, with them, 
 to go forth with them through the day, that " all His 
 enemies might be scattered, and flee before Him," as 
 the shades of night are scattered and flee before the 
 rays of the rising sun. And the Evening Prayer is 
 like to it, only shorter still, — " Return^ Lord^ unto 
 the many thousands of Israel.'''' And this, too, is 
 expanded in the 80th Psalm: "Retm-n," come back, 
 our Great Protector, to each several tent as it is 
 pitched again ; through all " the many thousands of 
 Israel," not to Judah only, not to Ephraim only ; but 
 "before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh," before 
 Judah and Simeon, before Zebulon and Naphtali, 
 " stir up Thy strength," and be with them all through 
 this night and forever. 
 
100 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Seem. X. 
 
 So they prayed at each successive start. So we 
 also may well pray at each successive stage of our 
 journey, at the end of one stage and the beginning of 
 another. But there is a yet more general lesson to be 
 learned from these words, over and above any connec- 
 tion with our present journey, applying in the strong- 
 est degree to the whole journey of life ; and I have 
 reserved it, for this reason, to the end of this stage of 
 our travelling, because it really extends so far more 
 widely, though we are here more specially reminded 
 of it. 
 
 May I take tliis occasion of speaking of the impor- 
 tance of this one solemn ordinance of religion, never 
 to be forgotten, wherever we are, — Morning and 
 Evening Prayer? It is the best means of remind- 
 ing ourselves of the presence of God. To place our- 
 selves in His hands before we go forth on our journey, 
 on our pleasure, on our work, — to commit ourselves 
 again to Him before we retire to rest ; this is the best 
 security for keeping up our faith and trust in Him in 
 whom we all profess to believe, whom we all expect to 
 meet after we leave this world. It is also the best 
 security for our leading a good and a happy life. It 
 has been well said twice over by the most powerful 
 delineator of human character (with one exception) 
 ever produced by our country,^ that prayer to the 
 Almighty Searcher of Hearts is the best check to 
 mourners against Providence, or to the inroad of 
 worldly passions, because nothing else brings before us 
 so strongly their inconsistency and unreasonableness. 
 We shall find it twice as difficult to fall into sin, if we 
 
 1 Sir Walter Scott, in the Talisman (chap, xxii.), and in Quentin Dur- 
 ward (chap. xvii.). 
 
Seem. X.] THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 101 
 
 have prayed against it that very morning, or if we thank 
 God for having kept it from us that very evening. It 
 is the best means of gaining strength and refreshment, 
 and courage and self-denial for the day. It is the best 
 means of gaining content and tranquillity and rest for 
 the night ; for it brings us, as nothing else can bring 
 us, into the presence of Him who is the source of all 
 these things, and who gives them freely to those who 
 truly and sincerely ask for them. We may " ask " for 
 them without caring to have them ; but that is not 
 really " asking." We may " seek," but without lifting 
 up our little finger to get what we seek ; but that is 
 not really " seeking." We may " knock," but so feebly 
 and irresolutely that no sound can be heard within or 
 without; that is not really to "knock." But '"-ask" 
 distinctly and with understanding ; " seek " earnestly 
 and deliberately; "knock" eagerly and pertinaciously; 
 and in some way or other, depend upon it, we shall be 
 answered. 
 
 I do not wish to lay undue stress on any one of the 
 springs of our moral strength. Like the sacred river 
 ! of the Holy Land which we have just left, so also the 
 : river of our spiritual life has many sources, many 
 ' springs, unrecognized by man, but recognized by God. 
 All manner of good deeds, good examples, religious 
 forms and institutions, — all these, in their different 
 ways, go to swell the current of our good thoughts. 
 But still to us, as Christians, — to us, I would still 
 more directly say, as Protestant Englishmen, — there 
 are two sources, two springs more especially sacred 
 and important ; and these are the fountains of Morn- 
 ing and of Evening Prayer. We have cast off many 
 rehmous forms to which other nations and other 
 
102 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. X. 
 
 Churches look for spiritual help ; and this makes it the 
 more incumbent upon us to make the most of those 
 which remain to us. We acknowledge the duty, we 
 have learned it from our earliest years ; the very prac- 
 tice carries us back to the best days of our childhood. 
 Once lose the habit, and it may be hard to begin 
 again ; but once get a firm hold of it, and you will feel 
 that to have left it off for a single morning or a single 
 evening, is like dropping one of your daily employ- 
 ments, like striking off one of your supplies of daily 
 strength, like throwing away one of your best oppor- 
 tunities of beino; what we ouo-ht to be and what we 
 wish to be. 
 
 No one can pretend to prescribe what another's pray- 
 ers should be ; that each man must know best for 
 himself. But the general spirit in which they should 
 be offered is well expressed in those two great 
 Prayers of the Israelite encampment of which I have 
 spoken. Whatever may be our particular petitions to 
 God in the morning, we must have this object steadily 
 before us ; that He will rise and go forth with us to 
 our daily duties and enjoyments ; that He may be in 
 our thoughts throughout the day ; and that His en- 
 emies may flee before Him, on every occasion when 
 they lurk for us. God's enemies are our enemies ; 
 and His enemies and ours are those sins which devour 
 our best dispositions, and destroy our best affections, 
 and corrupt our best hopes and thoughts. 
 
 And whatever be our particular petition in the 
 evening, then also we must have no less before us the 
 desire that God will "re^Mrw"to us, — that He will 
 " return " to us, however much we may have offended 
 Him during the day, — that He will forgive us our 
 
Serm. X.] THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 103 
 
 many shortcomings, — that He will " turn again, and 
 make the light of His countenance to shine upon us " 
 in darkness, in danger, in sorrow, in care, — that He 
 will " return," not only to us, but " to the many 
 thousands of Israel," — that His blessing may come, 
 not only on us, but on all those, far or near, who go 
 to rest this night in our distant homes, as well as in 
 the several tents of our near encampment. 
 
 And I cannot forbear to recall parts at least of the 
 Morning and the Evening Hymns which have been 
 left to us by two men, one long ago passed away, the 
 other still livino; ; both lono^ to be remembered as 
 among the chief ornaments of the English Church; 
 both of whose hymns ^ are worthy to be recalled to 
 our thoughts, even on the frontier of the Holy Land, — 
 even mider the shadow of the Cedars of Lebanon. 
 
 Morning Hymn. 
 
 Awake, my soul, and with the sun 
 Thy daily course of duty run ; 
 Shake off dull sloth, and early rise, 
 To pay thy morning sacrifice. 
 
 Redeem thy misspent moments past, 
 And live this day as if thy last ; 
 Thy talent to improve take care ; 
 For the great day thyself prepare. 
 
 1 1 have here joined together the most universally applicable parts of the 
 Morning and Evening Hymns of Bishop Ken, and of Keble's Christian 
 Year. 
 
104 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. X. 
 
 Let all thy converse be sincere, 
 
 Thy conscience as the noon-day clear ; 
 
 For God's all-seeing eye surveys 
 
 Thy secret thoughts, thy works and ways. 
 
 Direct, control, suggest, this day, 
 
 All I design, or do, or say ; 
 
 Guard my first springs of thought and will, 
 
 And with Thyself my spirit fill. 
 
 New mercies, each returning day, 
 
 Hover around us while we pray ; 
 
 New perils past, new sins forgiven. 
 
 New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven. 
 
 If in our daily course our mind 
 Be set to hallow all we find. 
 New treasures still of countless price 
 God will provide for sacrifice. 
 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 Will furnish all we ought to ask ; 
 Room to deny ourselves, — a road 
 To bring us daily nearer God. 
 
 Only, Lord, in Thy dear love 
 Fit us for perfect rest above ; 
 And help us, tliis and every day, 
 To live more nearly as we pray. 
 
Serm. X.] THE LAST ENCAMPMENT. 105 
 
 Evening Hymn, 
 
 Glory to Thee, my God, tliis night, 
 For all the blessings of the lig-ht ; 
 Keep me. Oh, keep me, King of kings, 
 Under Thine own Almighty wings ! 
 
 Forgive me. Lord, for Thy dear Son, 
 The ill that I this day have done ; 
 That, with the world, myself, and Thee, 
 I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. 
 
 Teach me to live, that I may dread 
 The grave as little as my bed ; 
 Teach me to die, that so I may 
 With joy behold the judgment-day. 
 
 Oh, may my soul on Thee repose ; 
 Thou with sweet sleep mine eyelids close ; 
 Sleep that may me more vigorous make 
 To serve my God when I awake. 
 
 Abide with me from mom to eve, 
 For without Thee I cannot live. 
 Abide with me when night is nigh, 
 For without Thee I dare not die. 
 
 The Rulers of our native land, 
 'Twixt Thee and us ordained to stand ; 
 Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright, 
 Let all do all as in Thy sight. 
 
106 SERMONS IN SYRIA. [Serm. X. 
 
 If some poor wandering child of Thine 
 Have spurn'd to-day the Voice Divine ; 
 Now, Lord, the gracious work begin, 
 Let liim no more lie down in sin. 
 
 Come near and bless us when we wake. 
 Ere through the world our way we take ; 
 Till, in the ocean of Thy love, 
 "We lose ourselves in Heaven above. 
 
SEEMONS IN THE MEDITERKANEAN. 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 S. JOHN AT PATMOS AND AT EPHESUS. 
 
SERMON XI. 
 S. JOHN AT PATMOS AND AT EPHESUS. 
 
 PREACHED OS BOARD H. M. S. "OSBORNE," ON MAY 18, THE FOURTH 
 SUNDAY AFTER EASTER, ON THE DAY AFTER VISITING PATMOS 
 AND EPHESUS. 
 
 When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. 
 
 John xvi. 13. 
 
 THESE words of our Saviour, recorded by His be- 
 loved disciple S. John, in the Gospel of this day, 
 tell us that, when He should be withdrawn. His Spirit 
 would still guide His Apostles to teach to the world 
 the truth which the world most needed to know. We, 
 in the course of yesterday, have been on the track of 
 the very Apostle who wrote down these words for his 
 own support and ours. We have seen at Patmos and 
 at Ephesus the last traces of S. John, with whom we 
 parted, as it were, on the shores of his own lake of 
 Tiberias. Let us ask ourselves what are the lessons 
 which he has left to us ? What are the truths, which, 
 without him, we should not have known as clearly as 
 we do now ? It is well from time to time to ask this 
 question about each part of the Bible. Let us now ask 
 it with respect to the writings of S. John. There are 
 three portions of the New Testament which have come 
 down to us with the authority of his great name ; the 
 
110 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XL 
 
 Revelation, written at Patmos, the Gospel and the 
 three Epistles, probably written at Ephesus. Each of 
 these has its own peculiar lesson. Let us take them 
 in order. 
 
 I. The Book of the Revelation. Most of this book 
 is very difficult, and for many of us, unnecessary to 
 read. But there are parts which are most edifying : 
 Chapters i. ii. iii. (the Epistles to the Seven Churches 
 amidst which we are now moving) ; Chapters iv. v. vii 
 xiv. xix. XX. xxl. and xxii. (the judgment of the world, 
 the blessedness of the good, the misery of the wicked). 
 And there is throuo;h the whole of the book this 2;reat 
 truth, that this life and the next life run into each 
 other ; that what we are in tlie life to come depends 
 on what we are in this life. S. John, in the Rev- 
 elation, saw the Eternal World revealed in the 
 events of this world. In the trials of the Christian 
 Churches in these islands, and on these shores, he saw 
 the mercy and severity of God leading them on to 
 better things, if only they would obey the call. In the 
 happiness of those who triumphed over temptation and 
 persecution here, he saw the happiness which awaits 
 all good men beyond the grave. In the judgments 
 which befell or which were likely to befall the wicked 
 Roman Empire under which he was living, he saw the 
 likeness of those judgments which will sooner or later 
 fall upon oppression, injustice, impurity, everywhere. 
 This is the first portion of God's truth which we learn 
 from S. John. Always in this life bear about the 
 remembrance of the next. Every event, public or 
 private, that befalls us may be turned, by our own 
 care or our own neglect, to our salvation or our ruin. 
 For every blessing, for every sorrow, for every re- 
 
Seem. XL] JOHN AT PATMOS AND EPHESUS. Ill 
 
 sponsibility which we have had, God will at last call 
 us to account. The more we can be raised above the 
 petty vexations and pleasures of this world into the 
 Eternal Life to come, the more shall we be prepared 
 to enter into that Eternal Life whenever God shall 
 please to call us hence. 
 
 II. The Gospel of S. John. In many respects this 
 Gospel is the same as the other three. But, in one 
 respect especially, it impresses upon us a truth which 
 in the other Gospels we do not see so clearly. It tells 
 us not only how Christ was the Example of man, the 
 likeness of what we ought to be ; but it also tells us 
 how He was the Likeness of God, the expression to us 
 of what the Mind of God is in its fullest perfection. 
 " In the beffinnino; was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God." ^ No man hath 
 seen God at any time ; but the only begotten Son, 
 which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared 
 Him." " The Word was made flesh and dwelt among 
 us (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only 
 begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." ^ 
 This is what is called the doctrine of the Incarnation 
 and of our Lord's Divinity. But it is no mere doc- 
 trine of theology. It concerns us all. We all wish 
 to learn what God is like, — we all find it difficult to 
 figure to our minds any idea of the invisible, eternal, 
 omnipresent Father. The old heathens tried to make 
 out His likeness in beautiful statues, or to see it in the 
 works of nature. In the Old Testament we get a 
 truer idea of Him, — that there is but One God, per- 
 fectly just and pure. But it is only in the New Testa- 
 ment that we have the fullest revelation of what He 
 
 1 John i. 1, 2 John i. 14, 
 
112 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XL 
 
 is. Read in the Gospels, — read especially in St. 
 John's Gospel, — what Christ was ; fix His character 
 in your minds ; see how He dealt with sin and with 
 sinners ; how he dealt with the religious world, with 
 the irreligious world ; observe His loving-kindness. His 
 wisdom. His firmness, His gentleness : this is the near- 
 est approach that has ever been made to bring down 
 the mind of God within the comprehension and the 
 devotion and the worship of men. If you wish to 
 learn how God regards your happiness and cheerful- 
 ness, read St. John's account of the marriage feast at 
 Cana. If you wish to learn how He looks upon your 
 sorrows, your trials, your bereavements, look at the 
 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of S. John's Gospel, 
 and see how Christ spoke to His sorrowing disciples. 
 If you wish to learn how He regards your sins, look at 
 the union of compassion and disgust with which He 
 speaks to the sinners who come before Him, and with 
 which we ourselves regard those who brought Him to 
 His end. 
 
 This is the main object of S. John's Gospel. It 
 fixes our ideas about God. It tells us that goodness 
 and justice and truth, such as we see in Jesus Christ, 
 are the conceptions we ought to have of God. If we 
 are like Christ, we are like God. If Christ is pleased 
 with us, then God is pleased with us. If we know 
 that Christ could not be pleased with us, then we 
 know that God is not pleased with us. 
 
 III. The Epistles of S. John. — They are three in 
 number, and they contain many precepts and many 
 doctrines. But there is one doctrine and one precept 
 which they contain more than any other, and which, 
 according to tradition, he repeated over and over again 
 
Serm. XL] JOHN AT PATMOS AND EPHESUS. 113 
 
 in the market-place of Epliesus, when he was so old 
 that he could say nothing else, and that is, " Little 
 children, love one another." " This," he said to those 
 who complained of hearing nothing else, — " this is 
 the substance of the Gospel. If you " do this, I have 
 nothing further to teach you." Love one another. 
 What he meant was, that this is the paramount and 
 crowning duty of the Christian believer. He did not 
 say, as many Christians have said since, " Agree with 
 one another in doctrine." He did not say as many 
 Christians have said, " Hate one another and kill one 
 another." He did not say, " Flatter one another, 
 indulge one another." He did not even say, " Teach 
 one another, inform one another." What he did urge 
 was, that difficult, but necessary, grace, " Love one 
 another." That is. Love one another in spite of your 
 differences, in spite of your faults ; do what you can 
 to serve each other, to lighten each other's trials and 
 inconveniences and burdens : above all, if we may 
 turn the precept into its most practical form. Make the 
 best of one another. 
 
 " Make the best of one another," he said to the 
 Churches of his own time, and he would say to the 
 Churches of our time, and to those who, like us, are 
 travelling through many Churches and many nations, 
 — " Make the most of what there is good." It is very 
 easy to do the reverse, and to make the most of what 
 there is evil, absurd, erroneous. By so doing we shall 
 have no difficulty in rendering bitterness more bitter, 
 and estrangements between nations and nations and 
 Christians and Christians more wide, and hatreds and 
 strifes more abundant, and errors more extreme. But 
 we shall not be falfilling the command of Christ, nor 
 
114 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XL 
 
 of His beloved disciple. No doubt, justice and truth 
 require that we should express our abhorrence of folly 
 and error and sin. But still, by making the most of 
 what there is good, that which is bad will be most 
 likely to disappear. Nothing drives out darkness so 
 much as lio;ht ; nothino; overcomes evil so much as 
 good. No weapon of controversy or argument or 
 opposition is so effectual as when our adversary sees 
 that we see and admire what there is in him that is 
 good and just and right and true. 
 
 " Make the best of one another." So also he said 
 to the old and middle-aged and young who crowded 
 round him as he was sinking into his grave under the 
 experience of a hundred eventful years ; and so also 
 he still says to us as individuals, in all the relations of 
 life. Here again we may, if we choose, make the 
 worst of one another. Every one has his weak point ; 
 every one has his faults ; we may make the worst of 
 these; we may fix our attention constantly upon these. 
 It is a very easy task ; and by so doing we shall make 
 the burden of life unendurable, and turn friends into 
 enemies, and provoke strife, hatred, heart-burnings, 
 wherever we go, and cut off from ourselves one of the 
 chief sources of happiness and goodness and useful- 
 ness. But we may also make the best of one another. 
 We may forgive, even as we hope to be forgiven. 
 We may put ourselves in the place of others, and ask 
 what we should wish to be done to us, and thought of 
 us, were we in their place. By fixing our attention on 
 their good qualities, we shall rise to their level as 
 surely as, by fixing our attention on their bad qualities, 
 we shall sink below their level. By loving whatever 
 is lovable in those around us, love will flow back from 
 
Serm. XL] JOHN AT PATH OS AND EPHESUS. 115 
 
 them to us, and life will become a pleasure instead of 
 a pain ; and earth will become like Heaven ; and we, 
 if God so please, shall become not unworthy followers 
 of Him whose name is Love, and of St. John his 
 beloved disciple. 
 
SEEMON XII. 
 
 S. PAUL IN EUEOPE. 
 
SERMON XII. 
 S. PAUL IN EUROPE. 
 
 PREACHED ON BOARD H. M. S. " OSBORNE," JUNE 1, OFF THE COAST OF 
 GREECE ON THE WAY FROM ATHENS TO MALTA. 
 
 Last of all, he was seen of me also , , . . that am not meet to be called an 
 
 Apostle But by the grace of God I am what I am .... I labored 
 
 more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which 
 was with me. — 1 CoR. xv. 8, 9, 10. 
 
 "XTTHEN I last addressed you, we had just trodden 
 ' ' in the footsteps of the Apostle S. John. We 
 have since entered on the sphere of another Apostle, 
 the last whose history we shall be able to trace in this 
 journey, — the Apostle S. Paul. He — unhke most 
 of the Apostles, who clung to their native East — 
 crossed from Asia to Europe ; and for many years of 
 his life, these seas, these islands, these shores were full 
 of his deeds and of his writings. He stood and spoke 
 on the rocky steps of Mars' Hill, at Athens. His 
 Epistles to the Corinthian Church were addressed in 
 fact to the whole of Greece, of which Corinth then, 
 as Athens now, was the capital. He traversed the 
 Mediterranean to and fro ; four times on these waters 
 he suffered shipwreck, — a night and a day on these 
 waves he was in the deep. On our own island of 
 Malta he escaped with his life. Through the preach- 
 
120 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XII. 
 
 ing of his disciples, the Gospel first reached to our 
 shores. He was the Aj^ostle of the Gentiles, but 
 above all, the Apostle of Greece and of Europe. Let 
 us ask, as in the case of S. John, what are the practi- 
 cal lessons we may learn from his life. 
 
 I will select four. 
 
 I. He was, first, the Apostle, as I have said, of the 
 Gentiles, that is, he urged that into the fold of the 
 Jewish Church should be received those heathen 
 nations who before had been kept out of it. It was 
 the widest extension of the True Religion that had 
 ever been made, or that has ever been made. In 
 order to effect it, he had to struggle against the most 
 obstinate prejudice in his own heart and in the hearts 
 of his countrymen that we can possibly imagine. He 
 was thus the great teacher and the great example of 
 what in one word we call Toleration. Toleration of 
 the infirmities, of the errors, of the differences of 
 others, is one of the most difficult of all human virtues. 
 Intolerance is one of the most common and easy of 
 all human vices. But S. Paul has taught us that in 
 order to be religious we need not be intolerant ; he 
 has also taught us in what toleration consists. Read 
 his speech to the Athenians, in the 17th chapter of 
 the Acts, read the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans and the 8th of the 1st to the Corinthians, and 
 you will see that the way in which he contrived to 
 attain this great Christian grace was by trying to be 
 as considerate to the scruples and the weaknesses of 
 others as if they were his own ; by acknowledging 
 the value of a good motive and a good intention, 
 even when the act itself was mistaken ; by recognizing 
 that within the same Christian community wide differ- 
 
Seem. XIL] S. PAUL IN EUROPE. 121 
 
 ences might exist without breaking the bond of 
 Christian fellowship. It is In this respect that the 
 Church of England, to which we belong, Is so singu- 
 larly happy amongst the Churches of the world. It 
 is in this sense the most Protestant and also the most 
 Christian Church In the world, because It Is the most 
 comprehensive, and because In this respect It walks 
 and bids us walk In the footsteps of our Lord's great 
 Apostle, S. Paul. 
 
 II. This Is one lesson of S. Paul's life, both to Jews 
 and Gentiles. Another is his constant protest against 
 the peculiar sins of the heathen world. Because he 
 was indulgent to their weaknesses, he was not there- 
 fore indulgent to their sins. 
 
 There were many deeply-rooted evils against which 
 he lifted up his voice. I will mention one, namely, 
 that gross sensual wickedness which was so common 
 in heathen times, and which still in our times tempts 
 thousands to their ruin. I know — we all know — 
 how difficult It is to speak of this ; and yet the thought 
 that S. Paul has spoken of it as he has, may encourage 
 me to say, and induce you to hear, a few words on 
 what so deeply concerns us all. Perhaps of all the 
 forms of excuse and temptation which this sin assumes, 
 the most common, the most persuasive, is this : that 
 we are but doing as others do ; and that what others 
 do we may do. I will not now ask how far the fact 
 is so. I know not — none of us know — how much 
 better or how much worse than they seem our fellow- 
 men may be. But let every one sincerely ask himself 
 whether the conduct of others really makes better 
 what he knows in itself to be wrono; and wicked and 
 hatefal ? Though thousands on thousands fall away, 
 
122 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Sekm. XII. 
 
 S. Paul's words of strong condemnation, the truth of 
 which we acknowledge in our own consciences, re- 
 mains the same. 
 
 A bad temper is not more excusable, or less offen- 
 sive, because others have bad tempers as well as we. 
 A cruel unfeeling act is not less cruel or unfeeling, 
 because others, under strong temptation, have been 
 cruel and unfeeling. The old heathen maxim, " Let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," was not less 
 base and contemptible because thousands acted upon it. 
 Neither is the impure word or the unclean act less 
 impure, or less selfish, or less loathsome, or less widely 
 mischievous, because it is shared by numbers aromid 
 us. 
 
 And on the other hand, we know not the wide 
 effects for good, stretching far beyond ourselves, from 
 the firm and silent resistance to this great and sore 
 temptation even by any one single person. We cannot 
 measure the strength and peace and hope and joy 
 which is brought to many and many a troubled soul 
 by the thought of any pure and blameless youth, even 
 in the humblest station of life, struggling manfully and 
 successfully against the evil influences which would 
 lead him astray from the path of innocence. Such 
 characters are indeed the salt of the world, which alone 
 save it from sinking into utter recklessness and univer- 
 sal corruption. May God bless them, whoever and 
 wherever they be, for the inestimable blessing which 
 they unconsciously, but most surely, confer on the 
 world in which their lot is cast. 
 
 III. A third lesson of S. Paul's life and doctrine is 
 his deep humility. " By the grace of God I am what 
 I am." '' I am the least of the Apostles, that am not 
 
SERM.XII.] S. PAUL IN EUROPE. 123 
 
 worthy to be called an Apostle." It was not that he 
 did not know how great were his gifts ; but still he 
 had behind and within a deep-seated feeling of his 
 own shortcomings in times past and present,- of his 
 own profound unworthiness before God, of his constant 
 dependence on the help of others, and, above all, on 
 the help of God. This was a feeling which the Gentile 
 world little appreciated, but it is a feeling which lies at 
 the bottom of all true Christian excellence. To be 
 humble ; to be willing to hear of our faults, and to 
 have them corrected ; to know that we have that with- 
 in us which needs to be constantly forgiven ; to feel 
 that we are always needing the help of One greater 
 than ourselves, to lead us right ; not merely to say that 
 we are miserable sinners, like all the rest of the world, 
 but to acknowledge some special miserable sin of which 
 we have been guilty on one special year and day, and 
 in which we feel that we are guilty as others are not 
 guilty; to be on the watch for every opportunity of 
 improvement and growth in goodness and wisdom, — 
 this is indeed the first begmning of a holy and a happy 
 life, the first requisite to be truly followers of S. Paul. 
 
 IV. Fourthly and lastly, there is the Apostle's un- 
 tiring, unconquerable energy. This is what makes 
 him so exactly suited to be the Apostle of Europe, — 
 which makes us feel that when he passed out of the 
 indolence and inactivity of Asia into this Western 
 world of action and industry and progress, he was for 
 the first time, as it were, in his own element. He 
 "labored more ahundaiitly^'' than they all. Backwards 
 and forwards across these seas, — through danger, 
 through hardship, through heat and cold, through 
 misunderstanding and persecution, in tumults and 
 
124 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. xn. 
 
 labors, in solitude and desertion, in spite of sickness 
 and constant weakness, he never flagged; he left no 
 stone unturned to do the work which was set before 
 him. And what was that work ? In the scenes and 
 the recollections of these countries which for some of 
 us have so vast an interest, he had little or none. 
 Great as those recollections are, his own recollections 
 were greater still. His work was to labor in his 
 Master's cause. It was to do good to his fellow- 
 creatures ; it was to render them better and wiser, 
 to bring them more near to God, and make them 
 more like to Christ. My brethren, although we are 
 not Apostles, yet His work is really ours, and His 
 energy ought in some measure to be ours also. To 
 us, as to Him, these visits to the famous and beautiful 
 places of the earth are, after all, but the play and the 
 ornament of life. Whether we now care for these 
 things much or little, they are not on earth our main 
 business. Our main business is in our own professions, 
 our own homes, — our European life, our English life, 
 ■ — our own special vocation, whatever it be, whether 
 on sea or on land ; above all, in that vocation which is 
 common to all of us, — the vocation of Christians, of 
 being good ourselves and doing good to others. These 
 are interests which demand our utmost energy always. 
 These are interests which never fail. This is an en- 
 ergy wliich is required the more imperatively as we 
 approach our homes, as we return to our settled mode 
 of life, as we look backward to all that we there have 
 left undone hitherto, as we look forward to all that 
 there remains to be done in the time to come. We 
 are not indolent Asiatics, but active Englishmen ; we 
 are not Mussulmans, who place their chief duty in 
 
Serm. XII.] S. PAUL IN EUROPE. 125 
 
 passive resignation, but Christians, who know that the 
 chief duty of men is the active service of God and 
 mankind ; we have for our example, not the repose of 
 heathen philosophers, but the untmng devotion and 
 exertion of the Christian Apostle. In his name, and 
 in his Master's name, let us gird ourselves up to be 
 worthy of our high calling, — ^'always abounding'^ in 
 the worJc^^^ whatever it be, the constant, unfailing work 
 which God has given us to do, '■'• knowing that our 
 labor^^ however toilsome, however irksome, however 
 thankless, on earth, shall not be '-'-in vain^^ and is not 
 " in vain " in the sight of Christ om' Lord. 
 
 1 1 Cor. XV. 58. 
 
SERMON Xni. 
 
 THE GIFT OF THE SPIEIT. 
 
 (WHITSUNDAY.) 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 PREACHED ON BOARD H. M. S. '= OSBORNE," ON WHITSUNDAY, JUNE 8, 
 BETWEEN MALTA AND MARSEILLES. 
 
 The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in 
 M}' name, he shall teach you all things. Peace I leave with you, My 
 peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 
 
 John xiv. 26, 27. 
 
 THIS is the great Festival of Whitsunday. It is 
 the Festival of the Holy Spirit. It tells us of the 
 last and parting gift of our Lord to His apostles, to aU 
 generations of mankind forever. What is this gift ? 
 What do we learn from the way in which it is spoken 
 of in the Bible and in the services of this day ? I will 
 confine myself to what the word itself suggests. This 
 is a very useful and easy mode of studying the depths 
 of the wisdom of the Bible. The words, the names 
 which it uses to describe the great truths which it has 
 to teach, are so full of meaning, that we need but 
 draw out that meaning, and we shall find what we 
 want. 
 
 1. The Spirit of Christ. — This is what we have to 
 ask and to imitate ; not the letter, not the mere out- 
 ward likeness, but the spirit^ the intention of His 
 actions, is what He wishes to give us, and what we 
 must earnestly seek for. Though He was poor, 
 
130 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm.XIII. 
 
 whereas we may be rich ; though He went about 
 teaching, whereas we perhaps never teach at all ; 
 though He lived and died in one small country ages 
 ago, whilst we have traversed many countries, and 
 live in times wholly different, yet we still may be like 
 Him ; we still may be in communion with Him, 
 because what we aim at is the mind, the soul, the 
 Spirit which breathed through all His life, and which 
 can be shared in a measure by every one of us. This 
 is the best use of this sense of the word ; but it is 
 useful as a guide of life generally. To this end must 
 we always distinguish between the spirit and the letter, 
 and see how the spirit is always more important than 
 the letter. Many difficulties in the Bible, which 
 perplex us when we look only at the mere letter, 
 vanish away when we look at the general spirit. 
 Many stumbling-blocks which meet us in particular 
 portions of the services of the Church, or in the 
 institutions of our country, are at once surmounted 
 when we think of the spirit of the whole. Many 
 dispensations of Providence, which seem grievous to 
 be borne, become light when, from the mere letter 
 and fact which kill, we can feel through them the 
 gracious Spirit that gives life and strength and healing 
 to what in itself is dark and mournful. And in our 
 own hearts, when we pray for the Spirit of Christ to 
 enlighten us, what we pray for is that He will enlighten 
 and purify not only our outward acts, but the inner- 
 most springs of our inmost mind and conscience and 
 spirit. Through our spirits only can God now speak 
 to us as a Spirit. It is to our spiritual life that we 
 must pay heed, if we wish not to be cut off from Him. 
 2. Again, the Spirit of Christ is that which enlivens. 
 
Serm. XIIL] the gift of THE SPIRIT 131 
 
 strengthens, invigorates. — We speak, and we speak 
 properly, of a " man of spirit," of a " hoy of spirit," 
 of a " high, bold, gallant spirit." This is another 
 sense of the word " Spirit" in the Bible. It signifies 
 "breath" or "wind." "The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof," ..." so 
 is every one that is born of the Spirit." As is the fresh 
 breeze to a ship becalmed at sea, filling her sails, and 
 driving her onwards in spite of herself, so is the Spirit 
 of God and of Christ to the torpid, languid human 
 soul, which will not be roused except by a power 
 greater and higlier than itself. As is the fresh air to 
 a close infected room, so is the keen, invigorating 
 breeze from the throne of God, wliich pours into the 
 narrow chamber of the heart, stuffed with the preju- 
 dices and passions and fancies of our own little circle, 
 of our own little thoughts, whose doors have never 
 been opened to new ideas or bright feelings, whose 
 windows have been closed against all wider and higher 
 views. 
 
 Such was the " Spirit of the Lord " which " came " 
 on the heroes and saints of the old dispensation, — 
 Gideon, Samson, and David, — and filled them with 
 strength for the battle. Such was the " rushing mighty 
 wind," in the Christian Church, which, from the day 
 of Pentecost onwards, swept through the dead dry 
 bones of the ancient world, and roused them to life. 
 Such was the spirit of those old Christian knights, the 
 scene of whose deeds we have lately visited, who made 
 it the business of their lives to defend with a soldier's 
 courage and fidelity the weak, the sufiering, and the 
 oppressed everywhere. Such, above all, was the 
 soldier-like spirit of Him who was the Captain of our 
 
132 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XIII. 
 
 salvation, who fought to the last with unabated, un- 
 shrinking courage His battle, our battle, the battle of 
 the whole world, against sin and folly and death. Oh 
 for one spark of this soldier-like spirit in the weak and 
 wavering moments of our daily course ! Oh for one 
 breath of this divine atmosphere of the Spirit to brace 
 our nerves, and enliven our sluggish, sinking hearts, 
 and chase away the sultry oppression that weighs us 
 down in tlie great struggles of life ! Oh for one blast 
 of that rushing mighty wind, to drive us with irresisti- 
 ble force over wave after wave of this troublesome 
 world, till we come to the haven where we would be ! 
 The Spirit of God and of Christ is life and strength 
 and health and energy ; where these are not, there only 
 in a very feeble degree is the breath of God's Spirit. 
 
 3. The " Spirit of God" in the Bible is often used 
 in another sense, which perhaps we do not enough 
 connect with it, — that sense in which it is used in the 
 Confirmation Service, and in the 11th chapter just 
 read from the Prophet Isaiah, — " the Spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding and knowledge ; " and so in the 
 Collect of this day, we pray that " we may, through 
 the Spirit, have a right judgment in all things ; " and 
 so our Lord speaks of " the Spirit of Truths which 
 shall lead His followers into all truth.''' This is a most 
 important characteristic of the Divine Spirit, which we 
 ought to ask from God, because often wisdom and 
 religion have been parted from each other, and relig- 
 ious zeal and common sense have regarded each other 
 with suspicion. But, in fact, they are most nearly 
 allied. Common sense, discretion, judgment, are high 
 Christian graces. They are God's gifts, to enable us 
 to do the work which is set before us. To be able to 
 
Serm. XIII.J the gift OF THE SPIRIT. 133 
 
 see the truth, and to discern the false from the true, 
 and to wish to know the truth, this is a gift which is 
 needed by the highest philosopher; but it is needed 
 also by the humblest man or youth that has to make 
 his way in life, and to serve his God and his country 
 faithfully and truly. And of all wisdom, of all judgment, 
 the best source is the fear of the Lord. Wickedness is 
 in itself folly, — sheer, miserable folly. Goodness is in 
 itself wisdom, because it gives us a straightforward, 
 independent, fearless judgment, when many abler or 
 more learned men, as the world thinks them, are led 
 astray by interest, or selfishness, or jealousy, or sus- 
 picion. Christ, who is " our righteousness and Sancti- 
 fication and Redemption," is also, as the Apostle tells 
 Tis, and as we see from His own words, wliich he spake 
 as never man spake, " our Wisdom." Let us seek His 
 own Spirit from Him, and that which He had without 
 measure He will, in some measure, if we persevere, 
 freely give to the humblest of His followers. 
 
 4. Finally, let us remember that this great gift of 
 the Spirit of God was Christ's last gift and consolation 
 to His disciples when he parted from them. He said 
 (using the common word for salutation or farewell in 
 his time and country), ^^ Peace I leave with you;" 
 but He added, " My Peace I give unto you ; not as 
 the world giveth, give Junto you.''^ The peace which 
 He gave was not the superficial congratulation and 
 courtesy of worldly life, but the deep, solid peace 
 which can only come from the Holy, the Pure, and 
 the Strong, dwelhng in our spirits, and giving to us 
 His own Holiness and Purity and Strength. 
 
 Oh, my brethren, as we part to-day, many of us not 
 to meet again as heretofore for another Sunday's 
 
134 m THE MEDITERRANEAN. [Serm. XIII. 
 
 worship, may this be our parting farewell and wish one 
 for another, — may we know what it is to have for our 
 Comforter, in our hearts, and in the hearts of our 
 friends not the peace, the friendship, the spirit of the 
 world, but the peace, the friendship, the Spirit which 
 Christ alone can give. There is the hollow peace, 
 the treacherous friendship, the shifting favor, which 
 the world gives, and which the world, as it knows 
 full well, can take away. But there is, on the other 
 hand, the firm peace of our own consciences, which 
 we cannot lose but through our own fault. There is 
 the faithful and steadfast friendship, which can only 
 be broken off by our own folly. There is the all- 
 sufficient, all-protecting grace of Christ, who will con- 
 tinue to help us so long as we help ourselves, and will 
 never leave us nor forsake us, unless we deliberately 
 leave and forsake Him. O may we all of us, as time 
 rolls on, have " the right judgment " to see and to 
 choose the better part, which neither life, nor death, 
 nor things present, nor things to come, can take from 
 us. As difficulties unforeseen close round us, — as 
 temptations multiply, — as wrong constructions are put 
 on our actions, — as friends fall away, or familiar 
 places become vacant, — as losses and bereavements 
 come thick upon us, — may we have the grace to 
 know and to feel the immeasurable difference between 
 the false and miserable spirit of this hard and selfish 
 world, and the loving, discriminating, generous, holy 
 Spirit, of Christ our merciful Saviour, and of His 
 faithful servants ! 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE BREADTH OF GOD'S COIIANDIENT. 
 
 [This Sermon, preached on the day following the return of His Royal 
 Highness to England, I have ventured to print in this place, as form- 
 ing the natural conclusion of the Series.] 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 THE BREADTH OF GOD'S COMMANDMENT. 
 
 PREACHED IN THE PRIVATE CHAPEL OF WINDSOR CASTLE, ON 
 TRINITY SUNDAY, JUNE 15. 
 
 I see that all things come to an end, but thy commandment is exceeding 
 broad. — Psalm cxix. 96. 
 
 THE Psalmist throughout the whole of this Psalm 
 labors, in every variety of form, to express his 
 conviction of the value, — the authority, — the excel- 
 lence, of what is called by the various terms of " the 
 law, " — '' the commandment," — " the statutes," — 
 "the testimonies of God." What was the precise idea 
 intended to be conveyed by these different names it is 
 difficult for us to determine at this distance of time, 
 and in the absence of any direct explanation from the 
 Psalmist himself; but, from the general tenor of the 
 Psalm, we cannot be mistaken in supposing that they 
 cover, at any rate, two leading thoughts : — first, and 
 chiefly, the moral Law of duty; and, secondly, and 
 as connected with and based upon this, the Revelation 
 or Dispensation of God. The two are, in fact, in his 
 mind, inseparable, as we shall see, if we follow, verse 
 by verse, the various expressions of rapture, indigna- 
 tion, contrition, awe, reverence, and love which the 
 various phases of the Law excite in his mind. 
 
138 THE END. [Serm. XIV. 
 
 Amongst all the characteristics which he thus gives, 
 one of the most striking is that in the text. " / see 
 that all things come to an end^^ — I see that every- 
 thmg else has an abrupt termination, a limitation, a 
 point beyond which you cannot push or apply it ; a 
 narrowness, a httleness, an insufficiency, — '' hut Thy 
 commandment is exceeding broads It reaches as far 
 as we can see backwards and forwards ; it includes 
 all besides, it outlives all besides, it comprehends all 
 besides. 
 
 There is an ancient tradition, that Abraham, as he 
 stood on the hills above Damascus, was converted to 
 the true faith in one God, from the worship of the 
 heavenly bodies, by observing that the stars, the moon, 
 and the sun, however bright and glorious, at last sank, 
 and were succeeded by others. " I like not," he said, 
 " those that set ; " and so turned to the one unchangea- 
 ble Lord and Maker of all. This, but in a higher and 
 more precise form, is the force of the Psalmist's argu- 
 ment. He prefers, — and we ought to prefer, — the 
 Commandment, the Revelation, of God, not only be- 
 cause it lasts longer than anything else, but because 
 it includes and comprehends and absorbs into itself all 
 that there is good in everything else. 
 
 It is exactly this aspect of Divine Revelation which 
 is broucrht before us in the ancient doctrine of the 
 Church which we this day commemorate. The 
 doctrine of the Trinity, when rightly understood, 
 impresses upon us, beyond all other doctrines, the 
 Infinity, the Immensity of the Godhead, of Revelation, 
 of Truth, of God's Word, and of God's Command- 
 ment. Its very claim to be considered as the crown- 
 ing doctrine of Christianity rests upon this, — that it 
 
Seem. XIV.] GOUS COMMANDMENT. 139 
 
 includes and embraces all other doctrines and opinions 
 about the nature of God that have ever existed in the 
 Church. The theological part of this great argument 
 I leave untouched ; but it may be well to see, practi- 
 cally, in how many instances we are sustained and 
 guided and comforted by this reflection of the breadth, 
 the immensity, the vastness of God's Commandment 
 and of God's Revelation. 
 
 1. " I see that all things come to an end." So we 
 may say of all human institutions and customs, espe- 
 cially when we have gone through many lands, and 
 seen many forms of opinion and worship. " I see that 
 there is a boundary beyond which they cannot pass," — 
 I see that the institutions of the West come to an end 
 almost abruptly when they reach the extremity of 
 Europe. I see that the institutions of the East come 
 to an end no less abruptly when they reach the 
 extremity of Asia. We have followed each to their 
 utmost limit ; they cannot pass farther. But there is 
 one thing which is broad enough to embrace them 
 both and cross them both, namely, the Commandment 
 of God. Go where we will, through East or West, 
 the moral Law of God, as written in the hearts of men, 
 is still found the one bond of human brotherhood. 
 Amidst all other differences, justice, purity, generosity, 
 truth, though they meet with different degrees of 
 appreciation, yet do still claim everywhere our respect 
 and reverence and the respect and reverence of others. 
 And yet more than this : go where we will, we shall 
 find that true Christianity — for the very reason that 
 it is based on the moral law, and lays the whola stress 
 of religious teaching upon it — is capable of address- 
 ing itself to the most diverse forms of the human race. 
 
140 THE END. [Serm. XIV. 
 
 It came fi'om Asia: it has taken root in Europe. 
 " Christendom " is not merely a geographical expres- 
 sion. Its boundaries are not confined to the place of 
 its birth nor to the scenes of its subsequent establish- 
 ment. No single Church can claim for itself the 
 graces of the whole. No single creed has exhausted 
 the whole of Christian truth. We may dwell with 
 pleasure, with comfort, on the goodness and the truth 
 which prevail in each. When we return to our own 
 Church, we may thank God that it is large enough 
 and generous enough to have a place for all who love 
 the Lord Jesus Christ and wish to serve Him faithfully. 
 When we return to our own country, to our own 
 duties, to our own homes, we may thankfully remem- 
 ber that Christ is here as well as there ; that, though 
 there. He is also here, — to be loved and followed and 
 adored here, as faithfully as ever in former times He 
 was loved and adored and followed there. 
 
 2. This is the most general sense in which these 
 words are true. But they are also true in all the 
 special relations of life. " I see that all things come 
 to an end." " I see that all earthly pleasures and 
 enjoyments, one after another, have their natural 
 ending." Not only wicked and selfish pleasures, which 
 last only for the moment of their gratification, but 
 innocent, just, good enjoyments, of necessity come to 
 an end, or pass into something else. One kind of 
 enjoyment succeeds to another, one occupation treads 
 on another's heels. The journey of life, like the 
 actual journey of travellers, is broken up again and 
 again. One scene puts another out of our recollection. 
 " But the commandment of God is exceeding broad." 
 Through all this complicated web there is one golden 
 
Seem. XIV.] GOD'S COMMANDMENT. 141 
 
 thread, which runs on without breaking, and that is the 
 thread of duty, which is the thread of honor and use- 
 fiihiess and happiness. This leads us into spheres 
 which go on enlarging and enlarging still, with every 
 step in life. Unlike that story of the iron shroud or 
 room, which enclosed its prisoner, day by day, within 
 a narrower and narrower circle, the chamber of duty 
 and of God's commandment widens and opens and 
 expands with new interests, new enjoyments, new 
 affections, new hopes, at every successive step we take, 
 till we find ourselves at last in that Presence, where 
 there is indeed " fulness of joy and pleasure for 
 evermore." 
 
 3. Again, " I see that all human greatness comes to 
 an end." Every station in life, however great or 
 however prosperous, has its drawbacks, its checks, its 
 limits. It depends on circumstances over which we 
 have no control, and which may crumble beneath our 
 feet ; it depends on popular favor, which may cease ; 
 on friends who may fall away, on enemies who are 
 watching for our overthrow ; on the chances of 
 advancement ; on the life, or the health, or the caprice, 
 of ourselves or of others. But moral or Christian 
 greatness is " exceeding broad." The basis on which 
 it is built up is as broad and firm as the conscience and 
 heart of man, as the grace and goodness of God. It 
 cuts across all other divisions of life. A good deed, a 
 Christian feeling, can cheer us when nothing else can 
 cheer us, — can support us when nothing else can 
 support us, — can give a zest to happiness, which not 
 to have is not to have happiness at all ; which in 
 adversity can console us when every other kind of 
 comfort is useless. 
 
142 THE END. [Seem. XIV. 
 
 4. Again, " I see that all things come to an end." 
 Even the most far-reaching intellect and its effects 
 come to an end at last. Look at those greatest of all 
 monuments of the mind of man, — books. How 
 rapidly they come to an end ! How often it happens 
 that the very characteristic which insures to a book its 
 fame for this year or this century, is the very cause of 
 its passing away in the next ! One Book alone has 
 outlasted many generations, in all nations equally, and 
 that is the Bible ; and this is because of its " exceed- 
 ing breadth," — because it embraces every variety and 
 element of thought, and every phase of society ; above 
 all, because it embodies in every part the moral com- 
 mandment of God, which endures forever in Heaven, 
 and which speaks not to one condition of life only, 
 but to all. 
 
 5. Again, " I see that all human characters come to 
 an end." How often do we see those who are good 
 and wise up to a certain point, but beyond that we 
 come, as it were, to a precipice, — they break down, 
 as we say; we wonder that, being so good as they 
 are, they are not better, that, being as wise as they 
 are, they are not wiser. One Character there is 
 which is so '•'• exceeding broad," as to grasp and 
 overlap all others. This is the true sign of the 
 Divinity of the Character of Christ. It is the per- 
 sonification not of one part only, but of the whole of 
 the Law of God. It has not the littleness of a mere 
 teacher, nor the narrowness of a hermit or a saint, 
 nor the eccentricity of genius. " His shoulder," as 
 the Prophet says, is broad enough " to bear the gov- 
 ernment " and the sins of the whole world. His mind 
 is wide enough to sympathize with all our infirmities, 
 
Serm. XIV.] GOD'S COMMANDMENT, 143 
 
 as well as with all our efforts after good in every direc- 
 tion. No griefs of life are more trying than those 
 which arise from the half-goodness or the half-wisdom 
 of those Avhom we wish to love and respect. It is 
 when we think of these things, that the Perfect Law 
 and the Perfect Mind of Christ is so inexpressibly 
 consoling. " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and / will give you rest." Come unto 
 Him, and in His greatness we shall find the enlarge- 
 ment of our littleness, in His tenderness we shall find 
 the softening of our harshness, in His compassion we 
 shall find the lio-htenincr of our burden. " I said, It is 
 mine own infirmity ; but I will remember the years of 
 the right hand of the Most Hio;hest." 
 
 6. Again, " I see that human life comes to an end." 
 Our earthly life, the earthly life of those whom we 
 have known and loved, is cut short by that dark abyss 
 into which we cannot penetrate, and over wdiich our 
 thoughts can hardly pass. But God's commandment, 
 and the ftdfilment of God's commandments, is " ex- 
 ceeding broad ; " it is broad enough to span even 
 that wide and deep river which parts this life and the 
 next. For it is this which makes this life and the next 
 life one. Knowledge, prophecies, gift of all kinds pass 
 away, but the Love of God and the Love of man never 
 fail. They continue into the unseen world beyond the 
 grave ; the remembrance of these things, as we have 
 known them here, enables us still to think of them 
 there ; the unselfish purpose, the generous sympathy, 
 the deep affection, the transparent sincerity, the long 
 self-control, the simple humility, of those to whom the 
 Commandment of God has been precious, — these are 
 the arches of that bridge, on which our thoughts and 
 
144 THE END. [Serm. XIV. 
 
 hopes cross and recross the widest and most myste- 
 rious of all the chasms which divide us ; the gulf which 
 divides the dead and the living, the gulf which divides 
 God and man. 
 
 7. Yes, " I see that all things come to an end." I 
 see that human systems, human pleasures, human 
 greatness, human wisdom, human excellence, human 
 life, come to an end. But the Commandment, the 
 Kevelation of God never comes to an end, because 
 God Himself is Infinite, — God, whom we this day 
 adore in His Three Infinite Perfections. So let us 
 conclude with that Apostolic benediction which, in 
 summing up those Divine Perfections, expresses all 
 that any human being can wish for another in the 
 welcomes or the partings of life, — " the Love of God, 
 the Grrace of our Lord Jesus Christy the Felloivship of the 
 Holy Ghost:' 
 
 The " Love of God " our Father never comes to an 
 end. In every dispensation, sorrowful or joyful — in 
 every duty, in every trial — in the great waters, in 
 the heaven of heavens — in our manifold blessings — 
 in our laughter, in our tears, in the fiilness of health, 
 in the darkness of the grave — the Hand of God is 
 with us ; His love is with us ; — and may it be with 
 us always. 
 
 " The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ " never 
 comes to an end. The " grace " the beauty, the love- 
 liness of His character is infinite. The " grace " the 
 favor, the good-will, which He alone can give, is far 
 beyond all human popularity, above all human praise, 
 and worth all human judgment. The " grace," the 
 forgiveness, the mercy, which we all so much need, 
 which we are all so unwilling to give to others, — this 
 
Serm. XIV.] GOD'S COMMANDMENT. 145 
 
 in oiir loving Saviour is " exceeding broad," granted 
 to the first beginning of repentance, giving welcome to 
 the Immblest of our efforts after good. i\Iay this grace 
 of Christ our Lord be with us now and always ! 
 
 And " the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost^^ the com- 
 munion of the Holy Spirit — this also has no end. It 
 has no end, no limit, except that which our own self- 
 ishness, or sin, or folly, puts in its way. The fellow- 
 ship, the communion, in good thoughts, in good deeds, 
 in wise words, — the mterchange of loving hearts, and 
 the combination for noble objects, and the cooperation 
 for one another's welfare, and the approval of those 
 whom we love and honor, — this is a fellowship which 
 reaches across all differences of time and place and 
 station and tastes and character ; which reaches to the 
 very verge of the grave, and beyond the grave, — for 
 it is the fellowship of the Eternal Spirit of God Him- 
 self. May this communion and fellowship be with us 
 and remain with us always, and bind us ever closer 
 and closer to each other and to God ! 
 
 10 
 
NOTICES 
 
 OF SOIE LOCALITIES IN THE EAST 
 
 VISITED BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE 
 OF WALES, IN 1862. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 I. THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. 
 II. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER, 
 m. GALILEE. 
 
 IV. HERMON AND LEBANON. 
 V. PATMOS. 
 
INTEQDUCTION. 
 
 I HAVE already stated in the Preface to this vol- 
 ume, that the following Notices do not pretend to 
 anything like a continuous narrative of His Royal 
 Highness's journey. They are intended simply to 
 record some of the scenes peculiar to the occasion, 
 and to fui-nish a few additional illustrations to works 
 already published. 
 
 The tour of the Prince of Wales was originally to 
 have included Greece, Egypt, Palestine, and Constan- 
 tinople. The delay, occasioned by the death of the 
 lamented Prince Consort, necessitated the omission of 
 Greece from the earlier stage of the tour, which thus, 
 after a rapid journey through Europe, and brief visits 
 to the most remarkable spots in the Adriatic, may be 
 said to have begun with Egypt. In Egypt, between 
 Alexandria and the First Cataract, were spent the 
 three first weeks of March. The voyage of the Prince 
 up the Nile was facilitated in every way by the munif- 
 icent hospitahty of the late Viceroy, and he was thus 
 enabled in a very short space of time to see the chief 
 wonders of Egypt, — the Pyramids, Esneh, Philae, 
 Edfou, Thebes, Dendera, Memphis, Cairo, Suez. To 
 my own former impressions of Egypt I have but httle 
 to add. Yet there are two points on which I w^ould 
 touch for a moment. The first is the melancholy 
 
150 EGYPT. [INTROD 
 
 thought, that ours is probably the last generation 
 which will be permitted to see the glory of the Egyp- 
 tian sculptures, as they were first revealed to the ex- 
 plorers of the beginning of this century. Even with- 
 in the nine years which elapsed between my two visits, 
 the smoke of travellers' torches, and the disfigurement 
 by travellers' names, and the injury by travellers' 
 spoliations, have rendered " the fine gold dim " in many 
 of the paintings and inscriptions ; in another fifty years 
 it is probable that many of them will be almost unde- 
 cipherable. But, on the other hand, the excavation 
 of the ancient monuments had in the same interval 
 brought to light so much, and promises to do so much 
 more, that, as I have elsewhere expressed a hope, the 
 study of Egyptian History has still a large field in 
 prospect. One such result is to be seen in the statues 
 in the museum at Cairo, collected by M. Mariette. 
 Amongst them (to select only one) is the oldest statue, 
 or at least the representation of the oldest known 
 countenance in the world, — Chephren^ the builder 
 of the Second Pyramid. No one who has seen it 
 can lose the recollection of his singularly expressive 
 features, his strong protruding mouth, his immov- 
 able head, supported and protected by the claws and 
 wings of the Sacred Hawk, the Bird of the Sun. 
 Another result, on a larger scale, is the Temple of 
 Edfou. Formerly it was choked up by the mud-huts 
 of an Egyptian village, the heads of the sculptured 
 gods, and the capitals of the vast pillars just emerging 
 from the piles of sand and rubbish. M. Mariette, in 
 1859, had been sent by the Viceroy to clear it out. 
 The peasants refused to move. He drew a trench 
 round the Temple, and reduced them by blockade. 
 
INTROD.] PALESTINE. 151 
 
 The villagers surrendered, and tlie village was trans- 
 planted to the outside. Now, as one looks from the 
 top of the gigantic towers, the whole edifice stands out 
 more perfect in all its parts than any deserted abbey of 
 Western Europe. Three points struck me particularly 
 as illustrative of the ancient Egyptian worship. There 
 was the same complexity and multiplication of cham- 
 bers, staircases, and passages, to and fro, as that exhib- 
 ited in any mediaeval cathedral ; even down to the 
 small closets or vestries, with cupboards and recesses 
 for the sacred vestments. There was the innermost 
 sanctuary, standing (as may be seen, though less clear- 
 ly, at Karnak and Luxor) quite distinct from every- 
 thing adjoining ; a space, as in the Jewish Holy of 
 Hohes, drawn round it, evidently to prevent it from 
 coming into contact with any part even of the Temple 
 itself. There was in this sanctuary a huge granite 
 shrine, such as is seen nowhere else in Egypt, but 
 such as must in some form have existed everywhere. 
 It stands by itself, the marks of the door or grate still 
 visible in the entrance, which doubtless enclosed the 
 sacred animal, — probably the Sacred Hawk, — the rep- 
 resentative of the Deity of the Temple. 
 
 We returned to Cairo on the evening of Sunday, the 
 
 23d of March In the course of that week the 
 
 Prince of Wales embarked from Alexandria for Pales- 
 tine, and at its close, arrived at Jaffa, where we disem- 
 barked on the 31st March. 
 
 In the journey through the Holy Land, from which 
 the follo"v\dng Notices are chiefly taken, it will readily 
 be understood that, whilst the general characteristics of 
 the tour were those which would have belonged to the 
 
152 PALESTINE. [INTROD. 
 
 passage of any other English traveller, there were some 
 which were peculiar to this journey, and which thus 
 revived again and again the thought that, since the 
 time of Prince Edward and Eleanor, this was the first 
 visit paid by an heir of the Crown of England to 
 these sacred regions. 
 
 That long cavalcade, sometimes amounting to a 
 hundred and fifty persons, of the Prince and his suite, 
 the Enghsh servants, the troop of fifty or a hundred 
 Turkish cavalry, their spears glittering in the sun, and 
 their red pennons streaming in the air, as they wound 
 their way through the rocks and thickets, and over the 
 stony ridges of Syi'ia, was a sight that enlivened even 
 the tamest landscape, and lent a new charm even to 
 the most beautiful. Most remarkably was this felt on 
 om- first entrance mto Palestine, and on our first ap- 
 proach to Jerusalem. The entrance of the Prince into 
 the Holy Land was almost on the footsteps of Richard 
 Coeur de Lion, and of Edward I. under the tower of 
 Eamleh and in the ruined cathedral of S. Georcre, at 
 Lydda. Thence we had climbed the pass of Joshua's 
 victory at Beth-horon,^ had caught the first glimpse of 
 Jerusalem from the top of the Mosque of the Prophet 
 Samuel, where Richard had stood and refused to look 
 on the Holy Sepulchre which he was not thought 
 worthy to rescue. Then came the full view of the 
 Holy City from the northern road, the ridge of 
 Scopus,^ — the view immortalized in Tasso's description 
 of the first advance of the Crusaders. The cavalcade 
 had now swelled into a strange and motley crowd. 
 The Turkish Governor and his suite, — the English 
 Consul and the English clergy, — groups of uncouth 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. iv. 210, 214. 2 ii)id. c. iii. 186. 
 
INTKOD.] PALESTINE. 153 
 
 Jews, — Franciscan monks and Greek priests, — liere 
 and there under the clumps of trees, groups of children 
 singing hymns, — the stragglers at last becoming a mob, 
 — the clatter of the horses' hoofs on the hard stones of 
 that rocky and broken road drowning every other 
 sound, — such was the varied procession, which, barbar- 
 ous as it was, still seemed to contain within itself the 
 representatives, or, if one will, the oflPscourings of all 
 nations, and thus to combine the impressive, and, at the 
 same time, the grotesque and melancholy aspect which 
 so pecuharly marks the modern Jerusalem. 
 
 Our tents were pitched outside the Damascus Gate, 
 near the scene of the encampment of Godfrey de 
 Bouillon, and from thence we explored the city and 
 the nei2:hborhood. 
 
THE lOSQUE OF HEBEOK 
 
SKETCH PLAN OF THE MOSQUE AT HEBRON. 
 
 REFERENCE TO FIGURES. 
 
 1. Shrine of Abraham. 
 
 2 
 
 " " Sarah. 
 
 3 
 
 " " Isaac. 
 
 4 
 
 ■• Rebekah. 
 
 5 
 
 " Jacob. 
 
 6 
 
 " Leah. 
 
 7 
 
 " " Joseph. 
 
 
 , Two Mo- 
 
 8 
 
 " } hammedan 
 
 
 ( Saints. 
 
 9 
 
 Fountain. 
 
 10 
 
 Raised platform. 
 
 11. 
 
 3Iikmb. 
 
 12. 
 
 Merhala* (or platform 
 
 
 for the Preacher). 
 
 13. 
 
 Circular aperture lead- 
 
 
 ing to Cave. 
 
 U. 
 
 Minbar (or pulpit). 
 
 N. B. — The deep black lines mark the ancient Jewish Wall. The sliaded parts are unknown. 
 
 EEFERENCE TO LETTERS. 
 
 A. Flight of Steps to out- 
 
 er door. 
 
 B. Long narrow passage 
 
 of easy steps, bound- 
 ed on the left by an- 
 cient Jewish wall. 
 
 C. Fountain. 
 
 D. Here Shoes are left at 
 
 the door of a ceiled 
 room. 
 
 E. Passage Chamber. 
 
 F. Mosque, containing 
 
 two Slirines. 
 
 G. Outer Court. 
 
 H. Cloister of round arch- 
 es, with domed roof. 
 — The Outer Nar- 
 thex. 
 
 K. Inner Narthex. 
 
 L. Nave of Byzantine 
 Church. 
 
 M. Long, lofty Room, 
 leading to circular 
 Chambers, contain- 
 ing Shrines of Jacob 
 and Leah. 
 
 N. Do., to that containing 
 Shrine of Joseiih. 
 
 O. Minaret. 
 
 P. Windows. 
 
 Q. Minaret. 
 
 R. The Jiwaliyeh Mosque, 
 built by Jawali. 
 
 S. Supplementary Stair- 
 case running up the 
 N.W. waU. 
 
 The accompanying Plan was drawn up by my friend and fellow-traveller, the Hon. R. H. Meade, with the assistance of Dr. Rosen, immediately after the 
 visit to the Mosque. It may be comptired with the Sketches of the Mosque, given from the information of Mussulmans, in Osburn's Palestine Past and 
 Present, and in the Travels of AH Be;/. I have also compared it with an unpublished Plan shown to me by the kindness of M. Pierotti. Between tliese various 
 sketches there are several points of difference. But it has been thought best to give Mr. Meade's Plan as it was drawn up at the time, independently of any 
 Other authority. 
 
 * This platform in Egyptian Mosi]' 
 by Mr. Lane, not, within his Itnowledge, applied to this kind of platform, 
 means a fitase. resting-place, or goal of ! ' .- . . 
 
 heard the word in this specific sense app 
 In a castle on an island in the Wadi En 
 
 It was, however, certainly used for the plfi 
 
 it may have been used in connection with the final resting-place of the Patriarchs' earthly remains. Mr. Cyril Graham informs i 
 
 by the Bedawin of the tribe Metlek, ea^t of the Haur&n, who hold very holy the Merhatat of a certain Lady Nimreh, bint en na77iiir, i 
 
I. THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. 
 
 THERE were formerly four sanctuaries in Palestine, 
 which Mussulman jealousy carefully guarded from 
 the approach of Christians. These were the Mosque 
 of Omar and the Mosque of David at Jerusalem, the 
 Great Mosque at Damascus, and the Mosque of He- 
 bron. Of these, however, the first and third had 
 within the last few years become accessible, and to 
 these every facility of access was given to the Prince 
 of Wales on the present occasion. The second was of 
 too dubious a character (as will be presently noticed) 
 to justify any strong demand for its inspection. But 
 the fom-th, the Mosque of Hebron, — in other words 
 the Sanctuary, first Jewish, then Christian, now Mus- 
 sulman, which is supposed to cover the Cave of Mach- 
 pelah, — is, of all the Holy Places in Palestine, the 
 one which has excited in modern times the keenest 
 curiosity, and which at the same time rests on the best 
 historical evidence. When on the eve of my first visit 
 to Palestine in 1852, I saw the great German geogra- 
 pher, Ritter, this was the point to which he most ear- 
 nestly invited my attention. When in the course of 
 that journey we reached Hebron, it was with reluc- 
 tance that we abandoned, as a total impossibility, the 
 hope of penetrating within that inaccessible sanctuary. 
 It is through the effort made by the Prince of Wales 
 in his jom^ney of 1862, that this wish has, so far as 
 
158 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 circumstances could admit, been at last gratified, and 
 the success which crowned this effort gave to his 
 Eastern pilgrimage a peculiar value such as has been 
 attached to the visit of no other European Prince to 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 It will be well first to indicate the extraordmary 
 interest which attaches to the spot. 
 
 The Cave of Machpelah is described in the Book 
 of Genesis with a particularity almost resembling 
 The Cave of ^^^^ ^^ ^ legal deed. The name of " Mach- 
 Machpeiah. pgi^h," or rather "the Machpelah," appears 
 to have belonged to the whole district or prop- 
 erty,^ though it is applied sometimes to the cave,^ 
 and sometimes to the field.^ The meaning of the 
 word is quite uncertain, though that of '' double," * 
 which is adopted in all the ancient versions (almost 
 always as if applied to the cave) is the most probable. 
 In this " Machpelah" was a field, " a cultivated field," 
 which belonged not to one of the Amorite chiefs,-^ 
 Aner, Eshcol, or Mamre, — but to a Hittite, Ephron 
 the son of Zohar.^ The field was planted, as most of 
 those around the vale of Hebron, with trees ; olives, 
 terebinths, or ilexes. At one " end," ^ probably the 
 upper end, was a cave. The whole place was in the 
 face^ of "Mamre," that is, as it would seem, opposite 
 
 1 Gen. xxiii. 17. " The field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah." 
 
 2 Ibid. 9 ; XXV. 9. " The cave of (the) Machpelah." 
 
 3 Gen. xxiii. 19; xlix. 30; 1. 13. " Tiie field of (the) Machpelah." 
 
 4 " Speluiica duplex," Vulgate, rb anf/Xatov, to dtTrXovv, LXX. passim. 
 Syriac, passim, except in Gen. 1. 13, where it is rendered " the double 
 field." 
 
 5 Gen. xxiii. 8; xxv. 9. 
 
 6 Gen. xxiii. 9. 
 
 "> This interpretation of the words "before" or "in the face of" Mamre, 
 would require that Mamre should be on the hill immediately to the south 
 
I.] THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 159 
 
 the oaks or terebinths of Mamre, the Amorlte, where 
 Abraham had pitched his tent. In this case, it would 
 be immediately within view of his encampment ; and 
 the open mouth of the cave may be supposed to have 
 attracted his attention long before he made the pro- 
 posal which ended in his purchase of this, his first and 
 only property in the Holy Land. " There they buried 
 Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac 
 and Rebekah his wife ; and there," according to the 
 dying speech of the last of the Patriarchs, " Jacob 
 buried Leah ; " and there he himself was buried^ "in 
 the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham 
 bought for a possession of a burial-place from Ephron 
 the Hittite before Mamre." 2 
 
 This is the last Biblical notice of the Cave of Mach- 
 pelah. After the close of the Book of Genesis, no 
 mention is made of it in the Scriptures. Even in the 
 New Testament, in the speech of Stephen,^ by a sin- 
 gular variation, the tomb at Shechem is substituted 
 for it. It is not even mentioned in the account of 
 Caleb's conquest of Hebron, nor of David's reign 
 there. The only possible allusion is the statement in 
 Absalom's life,* that he had vowed a pilgrimage to 
 Hebron. 
 
 But the formal and constant reference to it in the 
 Book of Genesis is a sufficient guarantee not only for a 
 spot of that name having existed from early times, but 
 
 of the modern town of Hebron. It must be admitted that such a position 
 is inconsistent with the traditional locality either of the existing " oak" of 
 Abraham, or (what is more important) of the place of the sacred " tere- 
 binth " worshipped as the spot of his encampment, five miles to the north 
 of Hebron. The Vulgate translates the words, " e regione.''^ 
 
 1 Gen. xlix. 30. 3 Acts vii. 16. 
 
 2 Ibid. 1. 13. 4 2 Sam. xv. 7. 
 
160 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 also for its having been known at the time of the com- 
 position of the Book, and of its introduction into the 
 Jewish Canon. That cannot be earher, on any hy- 
 pothesis, than the time of Moses, nor later than the 
 times of the Monarchy. 
 
 We are not left, however, entirely in the dark. 
 The En- Joscplius, in liis " Antiquitics," tells us that 
 closure. there were ^ " monuments built there by 
 Abraham and his descendants ; " and in his " Jew- 
 ish War," that " the monuments of Abraham and his 
 sons " (apparently alluding to those already mentioned 
 in the Antiquities), " were still shown at Hebron, of 
 beautiful marble, and admirably worked." ^ These 
 monuments^ can hardly be other than what the 
 " Bourdeaux Pilgrim," in a. d. 333, describes as " a 
 quadrangle of stones of astonishing beauty;" and these 
 again are clearly those which exist at the present day, 
 — the massive enclosure of the Mosque. The tradi- 
 tion, thus carried up unquestionably to the age of 
 Josephus, is in fact carried by the same argument 
 much higher. For the walls, as they now stand, and 
 as Josephus speaks of them, must have been built 
 before his time. The terms which he uses imply this ; 
 and he omits to mention them amongst the works of 
 Herod the Great, the only potentate who could or 
 would have built them in his time, and amongst whose 
 buildings they must have occupied, if at all, a distin- 
 guished place. But, if not erected by Herod, there is 
 then no period at which we can stop short of the Mon- 
 archy. So elaborate and costly a structure is incon- 
 ceivable in the disturbed and impoverished state of the 
 
 1 Am. i. 14. 2 B. J. iv. 9, § 7. 
 
 3 For the later list of witnesses see Robinson's B. R. ii. 77, 78. 
 
I.] THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 161 
 
 nation after the Return. It is to the kings, at least, 
 that the walls must be referred, and, if so, to none so 
 likely as one of the sovereigns to whom they are 
 ascribed by Jewish and Mussulman ^ tradition, — 
 David or Solomon. Beyond this we can hardly ex- 
 pect to find a continuous proof. But by this time, 
 we have almost joined the earlier tradition implied in 
 the reception of the Book of Genesis, with its detailed 
 local description, into the Jewish Sacred Books. 
 
 With this early origin of the present enclosure its 
 appearance ^ fully agrees. With the long continuity of 
 the tradition agrees also the general character of He- 
 bron and its vicinity. There is no spot in Palestine, 
 except, perhaps, Mount Gerizim, where the geiiius loci 
 has been so slightly disturbed in the lapse of centuries. 
 There is already a savor of antiquity in the earliest 
 mention of Hebron, "built seven years before Zoan^ 
 in Egypt." In it the names of the Amorite * inhabi- 
 tants were preserved long after they had perished else- 
 
 1 The Mussulman name at the present day for the enclosure is " the wall 
 of Solomon." 
 
 2 The peculiarities of the masonry are these: — (1.) Some of the stones 
 are very large; Dr. Wilson mentions one 38 feet long, and 3 feet 4 inches 
 deep: others are 16 feet long, and 5 feet high. The largest in the Harara 
 wall at Jerusalem is 24i feet. But yet (2) the surface, in splendid pres- 
 ervation, is very finely worked, more so than the finest of the stones at 
 the south and southwest portion of the enclosure at Jerusalem; the sunken 
 part round the edges (sometimes called the "bevel") very shallow, with 
 no resemblance at all to mere "rustic work." (3.) The cross joints are not 
 always vertical, but some are oblique. (4.) The wall is divided by pilas- 
 ters about 2 feet 6 inches wide, and 5 feet apart, running the entire height 
 of the ancient wall. There are eight of these pilasters at the ends, and 
 sixteen at the sides of the enclosure. These observations are taken partly 
 from Mr. Grove, who visited Hebron in 1859, partly from Dr. Robinson 
 B. R. ii. 75, 76.) The length and breadth are given by Dr. Robinson re- 
 spectively at 200 and 150 feet, by Signor Pierotti at 1981 and 113^ feet, 
 who also makes the ancient wall 48 feet high, and 6\ feet thick. 
 
 3 Num. xiii. 22. 4 jud. i. 10. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 where ; and from the time that the memory of Abra- 
 ham first begun to be clierished there it seems never 
 to have ceased. " The Terebinth, as old as the Crea- 
 tion," ^ was shown in the time of Josephus. The Ter- 
 ebinth gave to the spot where it stood the name which 
 hngers there down to the present day ,2 centuries after 
 the tree itself has disappeared. The fair held beneath 
 it, the worship offered, show that the Patriarch was 
 regarded almost as a Divinity. The " oak of Abra- 
 ham," now called " the oak (^Sindia7i) of Sibteh," 
 which stands in the valley of Eshcol, about a mile 
 westward of Hebron, though not able to lay claim to 
 the same antiquity as the long vanished Terebinth, yet 
 seems to have divided the traditional honors with it. 
 Josephus, who, in one of his works, speaks of the Ter- 
 ebinth, in another speaks of the oak, " the Ogygian," 
 antediluvian oak,^ and this is the view taken by the 
 Septuagint. It is still in a green old age. Since I 
 saw it in 1853, the glory of its spreading branches has 
 been somewhat diminished ; one large bough had fallen 
 in 1856 to the terror, almost the awe, of the surround- 
 ing peasants ; but the trunk * and the main limbs of 
 
 1 B. J. iv. 9, § 7. 
 
 2 The name " Terebinthus " was a recognized appellation of the spot in 
 the time of Jerome. The field immediately northeast of tlie building called 
 Eametel-Khalil, is known by the name of the " Halkath-el-Butm," "Field 
 of the Terebinth." 
 
 3 Joseph. A7iL i. 10, § 4, Tf/v ^Qyvyrjv Ka?iov/j.Ev?iv dpvv. 
 
 * " In the winter of 1856-57, when in the streets of Jerusalem the snow 
 fell deep and lay for many days, the accumulation upon the Abraham's 
 oak was so great that one of the finest boughs gave way under the weight 
 and fell to the ground. Owing to a superstition that any person who 
 should cut or maim the oak would lose his first-born son, considerable 
 difficulty was experienced in procuring hands to saw up the timber for 
 transportation to Jerusalem. Seven camels were loaded with the wood of 
 the one limb of this fine tree." A paper " On Three Oaks in Palestine," 
 
I.] THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 163 
 
 the tree remain vigorous and knotted and vast as be- 
 fore. Not seldom in our own churchyards the aged 
 yew and the aged church stand side by side ; and, as 
 we glance from one to the other, we hardly know 
 which of the two monuments of the past is the most 
 venerable, the most affecting. Even so it is with " the 
 oak of Abraham " and the sanctuary which we are 
 now more especially considering. 
 
 With the sanctuary no less than with the oak, his 
 name is indissolubly connected. Very early in the 
 Middle Ages, that sepulchral quadrangle assumed the 
 title of " the Castle of Abraham." But from thence 
 the name spread to the whole place. The Mussulman 
 name of " Elkhalil," " The Friend (of God), has as 
 completely superseded in the native population the 
 Israelite name of " Hebron," as the name of " He- 
 bron " had already superseded the Canaanite name 
 of " Kirjath-arba." The town itself, which in ancient 
 times must have been at some distance (as is implied 
 in the original account of the purchase of the burial- 
 place), from the sepulchre, has descended from the 
 higher ground on which it was formerly situated, and 
 clustered round the tomb which had become the chief 
 centre of attraction. A similar instance may be noted 
 in the name of El-Lazarieh, applied to Bethany, ft-om 
 the reputed tomb of Lazarus, round which the modern 
 village has gathered. In our own country a parallel 
 may be observed at St. Alban's. The town of Veru- 
 1am has crossed the river from the northern bank on 
 which it formerly stood, and has climbed the southern 
 
 by J. D. Hooker, M. D., in the Transactions of the Linnasan Society, vol. 
 xxiii. p. 382. It contains (plate xxxvi.) an excellent representation of the 
 oak, of which the scientific name is Quercus pseudococcifera. 
 
164 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [L 
 
 hill in order to enclose the grave of S. Alban, whose 
 name, in like manner, has entirely superseded that of 
 the original Verulam. 
 
 For the sake of this sacred association, the town has 
 become one of the Four Holy Places of Islam and of 
 Judaism, — the other three in the sacred group being, 
 in the case of Islam, Mecca, Medinah, and Jerusalem ; 
 in the case of Judaism, Jerusalem, Safed, and Tiberias. 
 The Mosque is said to have been founded and adorned 
 in the successive reigns of Sultan Kelaoun, and of his 
 son Naser-Mohammed, in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries. Its property consists of some of the best 
 land in the plains of Sharon and Philistia. 
 
 But of all the proofs of the sanctity of the place 
 the most remarkable is the impenetrable mystery in 
 which the sanctuary has been involved, being in fact a 
 living witness of the unbroken local veneration with 
 which the three religions of Jew, Christian, and Mus- 
 sulman have honored the great Patriarch. The stones 
 of the enclosure have, as has been said, been noticed 
 from the time of Josephus downwards. The long roof 
 of the Mosque, the upper part of its windows, the two 
 minarets at the southwest and northeast corners 
 rising above the earlier and later walls of the enclos- 
 lire, have been long familiar to travellers. But what 
 lay within had, till within the present year, been a 
 matter if not of total ignorance, yet of uncertainty 
 more provoking than ignorance itself. There were 
 confused accounts ^ of an early Christian Church, of a 
 subsequent mosque, of the cave and its situation, which 
 
 1 Of these there is a collection in the Appendix to Qimtrem^re's Transla- 
 tion of the History of the Mamelook Sultans of Egj'pt, published by the 
 Oriental Translation Fund, vol. i. part ii. p. 239-242. 
 
I.] VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 165 
 
 transpired tlirough widely contradictory statements of 
 occasional Jewish and Christian pilgrims, Antoninus, 
 Arculf, and S^wulf, Benjamin of Tudela, and Maun- 
 deville. For the six hundred years since the Mussul- 
 man occupation, in a.d. 1187, no European, except in 
 disD'uise, was known to have set foot within the sacred 
 precincts. Three accounts alone of such visits have 
 been given in modern times ; one, extremely brief and 
 confused, by Giovanni Finati, an Italian servant of Mr. 
 Bankes, who entered as a Mussulman;^ a second, by 
 an English clergyman, Mr. Monro, who, however, does 
 not profess to speak from his own testimony ; ^ a third, 
 by far the most distinct, by the Spanish renegade 
 Badia, or " Ali Bey." ^ While the other sacred places 
 in Palestine, — the Mosque at Jerusalem, within the 
 last ten years, the Mosque of Damascus, within the 
 last two years, — have been thrown open, at least to 
 distinguished travellers, the Mosque of Hebron still 
 remained, even to royal personages, hermetically 
 sealed. 
 
 To break through this mystery, to clear up this 
 uncertainty, even irrespectively of the extraordinary 
 interest attaching to the spot, was felt by those most 
 concerned, to be an object not unworthy of the first 
 visit of a Prince of Wales to the Holy Land. 
 
 From the moment that the expedition was defini- 
 tively arranojed in January 1862, it was de- 
 
 • TT- -n* TT- 11- 1 The visit of 
 
 termmed by His Royal Highness and his ad- the Prince 
 
 of Wales 
 
 visers, that the attempt should be made, if it 
 
 were fomid compatible with prudence, and with the 
 
 1 Trnveh of Finati, 1830, ii. 236. 
 
 2 Summer Rmnble in Syria, 1835, i. 242. 
 
 3 Travels of Ali Bey (1803-1807), ii. 232. 
 
166 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 respect due to the religious feelings of the native pop- 
 ulation. On arriving at Jerusalem, an inquiry imme- 
 diately arose, as to the possibility of accomplishing this 
 long-cherished design. Mr. Finn, then the English 
 Consul, had already prepared the way, by requesting 
 a Firman from the Porte for this purpose. The Gov- 
 ernment at Constantinople, aware of the susceptible 
 fanaticism of the population of Hebron, sent, instead 
 of a direct order, a Vizierial letter of recommendation 
 to the Governor of Jerusalem, leaving in fact the 
 whole matter to his discretion. The Governor, Suraya 
 Pasha, — partly from the natural difficulties of the 
 proposed attempt, partly, it may be, from his own 
 personal feeling on the subject, — held out long and 
 strenuously against taking upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of a step which had liitherto no precedent. Even 
 as lately as the preceding year, he had resisted the 
 earnest entreaty of a distinguished French scholar and 
 antiquary, though armed with the recommendations of 
 his own government and of Fuad Pasha, then Turkish 
 Commissioner in Syria. The negotiation devolved on 
 General Bruce, the Governor of the Prince of Wales, 
 assisted by the interpreter of the party, Mr. Noel 
 Moore, son of the Consul-General of Beyrut, and 
 himself now the Consul at Jerusalem. It may truly 
 be said, — as it was in enumerating the qualifications 
 of the lamented General after his death, — that the 
 tact and firmness which he showed on this occasion 
 were worthy of the first ranks of diplomacy. Many 
 grave political difficulties might, in other and grander 
 spheres, have been unlocked by the dexterity with 
 which he gained admittance to the Mosque of Hebron. 
 Suraya Pasha offered every other civility or honor 
 
I.] THE TOMB OF DAVID. 167 
 
 that could be paid. The General took his position on 
 the ground, that since the opening of the other Holy 
 Places, this was the one honor left for the Turkish 
 Government to award on the rare occasion of a visit 
 of the Prince of Wales. He urged, too, the feeling 
 with which the request was made ; that we, as well 
 as they, had a common interest in the Patriarchs com- 
 mon to both religions ; and that nothing was claimed 
 beyond what would be accorded to Mussulmans them- 
 selves. At last the Pasha appeared to give w^ay. But 
 a new alarm arose out of a visit of the Royal party to 
 the shrine commonly called the Tomb of David, in 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The '' Tomb of David," could it only be ascertained, 
 would be of considerable importance, not ^j^g r^^^^ 
 only on account of its intrinsic interest, but «f ^'^^^'i- 
 because it would determine the disputed question of 
 the site of Mount Zion and the City of David, in 
 wdiich the sepulchre was undoubtedly situated. And, 
 if discovered at all, it would be capable of almost 
 certain identification, because as containing the graves 
 of by far the larger part of the Kings of Judali, it 
 must be a sepulchral catacomb of considerable extent. 
 The spot now shown as the site of the tomb is beneath 
 the ancient church claimed by Christian tradition as 
 the Coenaculiim or Upper Chamber of the Last Sup- 
 per, of the Pentecostal assembly, of the death of the 
 Virgin, and of the burial of Stephen. This spot is by 
 the Mussulmans, — and apparently by them alone, — 
 believed to be the tomb of David and his son Solo- 
 mon. Their belief rests on too recent and too ques- 
 tionable a foundation to be of any substantial value ; 
 
168 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 and for this reason no special stress ^ was laid on the 
 request that it should be made accessible to the Prince 
 of Wales. But on our visit to the Chapel of the 
 " Coenaculum," which is shown to all travellers, there 
 seemed to be no decided disinclination to permitting 
 some approach to the chamber beneath. This accord- 
 ingly w^e saw. It is evidently the crypt of the church 
 above. At the east end of this chamber is a recess 
 fenced off by an iron gate, through which is visible a 
 cenotaph, such as is always found over the graves of 
 Mussulman saints. It is a large coffin-like structure, 
 covered with a green cloth, on Avhich hangs the 
 inscription,^ '' O David, whom God has made vicar, 
 rule manldnd in truth." Immediately in front of the 
 shrine is a well. On the south side of the recess is a 
 small window, and a wooden door. Over this door is 
 an Arabic inscription, " This is the gate of the garden 
 of Paradise," — which is the usual designation of a 
 saint's tomb, — and the door, according to the keepers 
 of the Mosque, leads to the cavern itself, but had 
 never been opened as far back as the memory of them- 
 selves or their forefathers extended. It was to this 
 door, which the Prince and a few members of his suite 
 
 1 The "sepulchre of David" is mentioned by Nehemiah (iii. 16), as 
 known after the return from the captivity; and in the Acts of the Apostles 
 (ii. 29) and Jo?ephus {Ant. vii. 15, 3; xiii. 8, 4; xvi. 7, 1,) at the time of 
 the Christian era. The last authentic mention of it is in the time of Ha- 
 drian {Dio Casslus, Ixix. 14). For the traditions respecting it see Sinai 
 and Palestine, c. xiv. 455; Williams' Holy City, ii. 505-513. 
 
 2 This recess is described and engraved, M^ith some exaggeration, in the 
 City of the Great King (p. 209), by the American Dr. Barclay, from the 
 representation of IMiss Barclay, who, by a fortunate accident, obtained 
 admission. It is said that she gained such a celebrity from this sketch as 
 to be known usually in her own country by the name of " the Daughter of 
 Zion." 
 
I.] THE TOMB OF DAVID. 169 
 
 were allowed to approach closely, that our attention 
 was chiefly attracted. But the keepers were resolute ; 
 the people in the neighborhood became excited ; the 
 excitement was increased by the number of Europeans 
 who had been drawn to the spot by the natural curi- 
 osity of the occasion ; and finally, the Pasha himself 
 arrived with a troop of soldiers, inspired by a feeling, 
 no doubt, similar to that which brought down Clau- 
 dius Lysias from the fortress of Antonia to the court 
 of the Temple, in the scene so forcibly described in 
 the " Acts of the Apostles." ^ A long argument 
 ensued, in which the whole question was discussed, 
 together with the further and more important problem 
 of the admission to the Mosque of Hebron. His 
 arguments were extremely characteristic. "You did 
 not order the pavement of the Chapel of the Holy 
 Sepulchre to be taken up ; yet if it be really a Jew- 
 ish tomb, the Holy Sepulchre must be underneath." 
 " When the tomb of the Prophet at Medinah needed 
 repair, a rich recompense was offered to any one who 
 would go in for the purpose. A man was found bold 
 enough to make the attempt ; he went in and repaired 
 it ; and on coming out was put to death. That was 
 his recompense. This is our sentiment on the subject 
 of opening the tombs of saints." " Even if this or the 
 tomb of Hebron were open, I should not go in ; I would 
 not approach any one so holy as Abraham or David." 
 " I will, if you wish, consult the Moollah or the Kadi ; 
 but I know beforehand what his answer will be." 
 The difficulties raised in this attempt naturally com- 
 
 1 "Tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem 
 was in an uproar: who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran 
 down unto them." — Acts xxi. 31, 32. 
 
170 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I- 
 
 plicated the question, in wliicli the Prince was chiefly- 
 interested, of the access to Hebron ; and in the course 
 of that evening the Pasha finally declared that the 
 responsibility was too grave, and that he could not 
 undertake to guarantee the Prince's safety from the 
 anger, either of the population of Hebron, or of the 
 Patriarchs themselves, who were always on the watch 
 within their tombs to avenge any injury or afii'ont to 
 their sanctity.^ 
 
 It was an anxious moment. On the one hand, there 
 was the doubt, now seriously raised, as to the personal 
 safety of the attempt, which though it hardly entered 
 into the Prince's own calculation, was a paramount 
 question for those who Avere charged with the respon- 
 sibility of the step. On the other hand the point, 
 having been once raised, could not be lightly laid aside ; 
 the more so, as it was strongly felt that to allow of a 
 refusal in the case of the Prince of Wales, would 
 establish an impregnable precedent against future 
 relaxations, and close the doors of the Mosque more 
 firmly than ever against all inquirers. General Bruce 
 adopted a course which ultimately proved successful. 
 He announced to the Pacha the extreme displeasure 
 of the Prince at the refusal, and declared his inten- 
 tion of leaving Jerusalem instantly for the Dead Sea ; 
 adding that if the sanctuary at Hebron could not be 
 entered, the Prince would decline to visit Hebron al- 
 together. We started immediately on a three days' 
 
 1 An illustration of this occurred on my journey in 1853. In visiting the 
 "Tomb of the Prophet (or Patriarch) Seth," on the Anti-Lebanon, one of 
 our party was standing -with his back towards the entrance. " Tell him," 
 said the keeper of the mosque to our dnigoman, " that he would not turn 
 his back upon the Sultan: why should he not show at least equal respect 
 to the Prophet? " 
 
I.] JOURNEY TO THE DEAD SEA. 171 
 
 expedition, the usual excursion to Bethlehem, the 
 Dead Sea, and Jericho. It will readily be supposed 
 that in this route there is nothing to relate that is not 
 familiar to every Eastern traveller or reader of Eastern 
 travels. Only I may remark the extraor- Bethlehem, 
 dinary effect produced by the beauty of the people of 
 Bethlehem — of the children especially — often ob- 
 served before, but not often seen to such advantage as 
 then, when through every broken wall or ruined win- 
 dow of that rugged and narrow street, from every 
 housetop that overhung our long cavalcade, every face 
 in the village was looking down upon us, and every 
 face (it is hardly too much to say) was beautiful. 
 And another impression not less pleasing, even if acci- 
 dental, was the " peace and good will " which seemed 
 to prevail amongst the diflPerent religious communities 
 Greek, Latin, Armenian, which cluster round the 
 scene of the Nativity, contrasted with the jealousies 
 and rivalries, Greek, Latin, Armenian, Protestant, 
 which rage round the scene of the Sepulchre at Jeru- 
 salem, and which the visit of any distinguished person- 
 age only brings more clearly to light. 
 
 Out of the wide and wild sweep of hills roimd 
 Bethlehem, which formed the cradle of the Psalms of 
 David, we passed into the still wider and wilder sweep 
 of the hills, over which he wandered in the years of 
 his early manhood. These high upland regions are 
 indeed the " wilderness of Judah " and, as we rode 
 over their huge indulations, they were silent and deso- 
 late as the desert itself — till suddenly every barren 
 ridge appeared bristling with groups of armed Arabs. 
 For a few moments there was an expectation of attack. 
 It is this incident which in foreign journals has been 
 
172 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 transformed into the story of the capture and release 
 of the Prince of Wales. It was, in fact, the alarm 
 which the streaming pennons and spears of our Turk- 
 ish escort had struck into the Bedouin tribes, who, 
 being in a state of chronic warfare with the govern- 
 ment at Jerusalem, imagined that a hostile assault was 
 intended. A few words from one of our partj who 
 rode forward to explain, dissolved the illusion, and the 
 hills were in a moment as silent and as lifeless as 
 before. 
 
 We descended upon the magnificent gorge of the 
 convent of Mar Saba, and in a small platform in the 
 gorge found our own tents pitched. But close beside 
 was a smaller encampment, which contained Suraya 
 Pasha, — nominally, to secure the Prince's safe passage 
 through the disturbed Arab tribes, but really to reopen 
 the negotiations about Hebron. He had followed us 
 by the more direct route from Jerusalem, and on that 
 same evenino; sent a formal messao-e offerino- to make 
 the attempt, if the numbers were limited to the Prince 
 and two or three of the suite, and promising to go 
 Return to himself to Hcbrou to prepare for the event. 
 Jerusalem, rpj^jg proposal was guardedly, but decisively 
 accepted. The next day we still continued on our 
 march to the Jordan ; and the third day returned from 
 Jericho to Jerusalem, up the well-known ascent of 
 Adummin — the scene of the parable of the Good 
 Samaritan,^ and cauo;ht the view of the citv from the 
 memorable point on the road of our Lord's triumphal 
 entry. The whole cavalcade halted at that long ledge 
 of rock, where " He beheld the city and wept over 
 it." 2 Before us lay the view, still splendid, of the 
 
 1 See Sinai awd Palestine, c. xiii. 424. 2 jj^id, c. iii. 192. 
 
I.] APPROACH TO HEBRON. 173 
 
 Mosque of Omar, the Temple platform, the broken 
 outline of Jerusalem, the deep ravine of the Keclron. 
 Behind us lay Mount Olivet, its " stones," ^ its " olive- 
 trees," its " fig-trees,"^ — even the flock of the black 
 " goats " and white " sheep," ^ which at that moment 
 followed their shepherd over the slope of the hill, — all 
 full of the Divine teaching, by which every portion of 
 its ruo-o'cd sides has been consecrated. 
 
 CO 
 
 Our return w^as on the Saturday evening. On 
 Sunday the Prince attended Divine Service in the 
 English Church, and the rest of the day was quietly 
 spent in Jerusalem. Early on the morning of Monday 
 the 7th of April, we left our encampment, and moved 
 in a southerly direction. The object of our journey 
 was mentioned to no one. On our way we were 
 joined by Dr. Rosen, the Prussian Consul at Jerusalem, 
 well known to travellers in Palestine, from his profound 
 knowledge of sacred geography, and in this instance, 
 doubly valuable as a companion, from the special atten- 
 tion which he had paid to the topography of Hebron ^ 
 and its neighborhood. Before our arrival at Hebron, 
 the Pasha had made every preparation to insure the 
 safety of the experiment. What he feared was, no 
 doubt, a random shot or stone from some individual 
 fanatic, who might have held his life cheap at the cost 
 of avenging what he thought an outrage on the sancti- 
 ties of his religion. Against Indian pilgrims, who are 
 well known to hang about these sacred places, we had 
 been especially warned, and one or two such we did 
 in fact meet on our way and on our return. Accord- 
 
 1 Luke xix. 40. 2 Matt. xxi. 19 ; xxiv. 32. 
 
 3 Matt. XXV. 32. 
 
 4 See his two Essays in the Zeiischrift der Morgenldndischen GesellscJiqft, 
 xi. 50; xii. 489. 
 
174 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 inglj, as the protracted file wound through the narrow 
 valley by which the town of Hebron is approached, 
 underneath the walls of those vineyards on the hill- 
 sides, which have made the vale of Eschol immortal, 
 the whole road on either side for more than a mile was 
 lined with soldiers. The native population, which 
 usually, on the Prince's approach to a town, streamed 
 The Ap- out to meet him, was invisible, it may be fron 
 proach. compulsion, it may be from silent indignation 
 We at length reached the green sward in front of the 
 town, crowned by the Quarantine and the Governor's 
 residence. There Suraya Pasha received us. It had 
 been arranged, in accordance with the Pasha's limitation 
 of the numbers, that His Royal Highness should be ac- 
 companied, besides the General, by the two members of 
 the party who had given most attention to Biblical pur- 
 suits, so as to make it evident that the visit was not one 
 of mere curiosity, but had also a distinct scientific pur- 
 pose. It was, however, finally conceded by the Gover- 
 nor, that the whole of the suite should be included, 
 amounting to seven persons besides the Prince. The 
 servants remained behind. We started on foot, two and 
 two, between two files of soldiers, by the ancient pool of 
 Hebron, up the narrow streets of the modern town, 
 still lined with soldiers. Hardly a face was visible as 
 we passed through ; only here and there a solitary guard, 
 stationed at a vacant window, or on the flat roof of a pro- 
 jecting house, evidently to guarantee the safety of the 
 party from any chance missile. It was, in fact, a com- 
 plete military occupation of the town. At length we 
 reached the southeastern corner of the massive wall 
 of enclosure, the point at which inquiring travellers 
 from generation to generation have been checked 
 
I.] THE MOSQUE. 175 
 
 in their approach to this, the most ancient and the 
 most authentic of all the Holj Places of the Holy 
 Land. " Here," said Dr. Rosen, " was the farthest 
 limit of my researches." Up the steep flight of the ex- 
 terior staircase, — gazing close at hand on the polished 
 surface of the wall, amplyjustifyingJosephus's account 
 of the marble-like appearance of the huge stones which 
 compose it, — we rapidly mounted. At the head of the 
 staircase, which by its long ascent showed that the 
 platform of the Mosque was on the uppermost slope of 
 the hill, and therefore above the level where, if any- 
 where, the sacred cave would be found, a sharp turn at 
 once brought us within the precincts, and revealed to 
 us for the first time the wall from the inside. A later 
 wall of Mussulman times has been built on the top of 
 the Jewish enclosure. The enclosure itself, as seen 
 from the inside, rises but a few feet above the platform.^ 
 
 Here we were received with much ceremony by five 
 or six persons, corresponding to the Dean and The Entrance 
 Canons of a Christian cathedral. They were Mosque. 
 the representatives of the Forty hereditary guardians 
 of the Mosque. 
 
 We passed at once through an open court into the 
 Mosque. With regard to the building itself. The Mosque, 
 two points at once became apparent. First, it was 
 clear that it had been originally a Byzantine church. 
 To any one acquainted with the cathedral of S. 
 Sophia at Constantinople, and with the monastic 
 churches of Mount Athos, this is evident from the 
 double narthex or portico, and from the four pillars 
 
 1 The expression of kvc\\\? {Fxirhj Travellers, p. 7), that the precinct was 
 surrounded by a low wall (humiU muro) might be explained if we suppose 
 that he was speaking of it as seen from the inside. 
 
176 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 of the nave. Secondly, it was clear that it had been 
 converted at a much later period into a mosque. This 
 is indicated by the pointed arches, and by the trunca- 
 tion of the apsis. The transformation was said by the 
 guardians of the Mosque to have been made by Sultan 
 Kelaoun. The whole building occupies (to speak 
 roughly) one third of the platform.. The windows are 
 sufficiently high to be visible from without, above the 
 top of the enclosing wall. 
 
 I now proceed to describe the Tombs of the Pa- 
 The Shrines triarclis, premisiuo; always that these tombs, 
 
 of the -.-, n 1 • TT 1 1 
 
 Patriarchs, like all tliosc \\\ Mussulman mosques, and 
 indeed like most tombs in Christian churches, do 
 not profess to be the actual places of sepulture, but 
 are merely monuments or cenotaj^hs in honor of the 
 dead who lie beneath. Each is enclosed within a 
 separate chapel or shrine, closed with gates or railings 
 similar to those which surround or enclose the private 
 chapels or royal tombs in Westminster Abbey. The 
 two first of these shrines or chapels are contained in 
 the inner portico or narthex, before the entrance into 
 the actual building of the Mosque. In the recess 
 on the rio-ht is the shrine of Abraham, in the recess on 
 the left that of Sarah, each guarded by silver gates. 
 The Shrine ^^^^ shriuc of Sarah we were requested not to 
 of Sarah. enter, as being that of a Avoman. A pall lay 
 over it. The shrine of Abraham, after a momentary 
 ^^ ^^ . hesitation was thrown open. The PTiard- 
 
 The Shrine ^ i fe 
 
 of Abraham, j^ns groaucd aloud. But their chief turned 
 to us with the remark, " The princes of any other 
 nation should have passed over my dead body sooner 
 than enter. But to the eldest son of the Queen of 
 England we are willing to accord even this privilege.'* 
 
I.] SHRINES OF ABRAHAM AND REBEKAH. 177 
 
 He stepped in before us, and offered an ejaculatory 
 prayer to the dead Patriarch, " Oh, Friend of God, 
 forgive this intrusion." We then entered. The cham- 
 ber is cased in marble. The so-called tomb consists of 
 a coffin-like structure, about six feet high, built up of 
 plastered stone or marble, and hung with three car- 
 pets,^ green embroidered with gold. They are said to 
 have been presented by Mohamed II. the conqueror 
 of Constantinople, Selim I. the conqueror of Egypt, 
 and the late Sultan Abdul Mejid. Fictitious as the 
 actual structure was, it was impossible not to feel a 
 thrill of unusual emotion at standing on such a spot,^ 
 an emotioh enhanced by the rare occasion which had 
 opened the gates of that consecrated place, as the 
 guardian of the Mosque kept repeating to us, as we 
 stood round the tomb, "to no one less than the rep- 
 resentative of Eno'Iand." 
 
 o 
 
 Within the area of the church or mosque were 
 shown the tombs of Isaac and Rebekah. They are 
 placed under separate chapels, in the walls of which 
 are windows, and of which the gates are grated not 
 with silver but iron bars. Their situation, planted as 
 they are in the body of the Mosque, may indicate their 
 Christian origin. In almost all Mussulman sanctuaries, 
 the tombs of distinguished persons are placed, not in 
 the centre of the building, but in the corners.^ To 
 Rebekah's tomb the same decorous rule of the rj^^ p|,„.j,g 
 exclusion of male visitors naturally applied as °^ Rebekah. 
 in the case of Sarah's. But on requesting to see the 
 
 1 In Ali Bey's time there were nine carpets. — Travels, ii. 233. 
 
 2 The arrangement, however, described by Arculf is somewhat different. 
 He speaks of the bodies (probably meaning the tombs) lying north aad 
 south, under slabs of stone. The tombs of the wives he also describes as 
 apart, and of a meaner construction. — Early Travellers, p. 7. 
 
 12 
 
178 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 tomb of Isaac, we were entreated not to enter ; and on 
 The Shrine asking, witli some surprise, why an objection 
 of Isaac. which had been conceded for Abraham should 
 be raised in the case of his far less eminent son, were 
 answered that the difference lay m the characters of 
 the two Patriarchs, — " Abraham was fall of loving- 
 kindness ; he had withstood even the resolution of God 
 against Sodom and Gomorrah ; he was goodness itself, 
 and would overlook any affront. But Isaac was pro- 
 verbially jealous, and it was exceedingly dangerous to 
 exasperate him. When Ibrahim Pasha (as conqueror 
 of Palestine) had endeavored to enter, he had been 
 driven out by Isaac, and fell back as if thunderstruck." 
 
 The chapel, in fact, contains nothing of interest ; 
 but I mention this story ^ both for the sake of the 
 singular sentiment which it expresses, and also because 
 it well illustrates the peculiar feeling which has tended 
 to preserve the sanctity of the place, — an awe amount- 
 ing to terror, of the great personages who lay beneath, 
 and Avho would, it was supposed, be sensitive to any 
 disrespect shown to their graves, and revenge it ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 The shrines of Jacob and Leah were shown in re- 
 The Shrine ccsscs correspoucHng to those of Abraham and 
 of Leah Sarah, — but in a separate cloister, opposite 
 the entrance of the Mosque. Against Leah's tomb, as 
 seen through the iron gate, two green banners rechned, 
 the origin and meaning of which was unknown. They 
 are placed in the pulpit on Fridays. The gates of 
 The Shrine J^cob's tomb wcrc Opened without difficulty, 
 of Jacob. though with a deep groan from the bystanders. 
 There was some good painted glass in one of the win- 
 1 1 have been unable to discover the origin of this legend. 
 
L] THE SHRINE OF JOSEPH. 179 
 
 dows. The structure was of the same kmd as that in 
 the shrine of Abraham, but with carpets of a coarser 
 texture. Else it calls for no special remark. 
 
 Thus far the monuments of the Mosque adhere 
 strictly to the Biblical account as given above. This 
 is the more remarkable, because in these particulars 
 the agreement is beyond what might have been ex- 
 pected in a Mussulman sanctuary. The prominence 
 given to Isaac, whilst in entire accordance with the 
 Sacred narrative, is against the tenor of Mussulman 
 tradition, which exalts Ishmael into the first place. 
 And, in like conformity with the Sacred narrative, but 
 unlike what we should have expected, had mere fancy 
 been allowed full play, is the exclusion of the famous 
 Rachel, and the inclusion of the insignificant Leah. 
 
 The variation which follows rests, as I am informed 
 by Dr. Rosen, on the general tradition of the country 
 (justified, perhaps, by an ambiguous expression of 
 Josephus ^) that the body of Joseph, after having been 
 deposited first at Shechem, was subsequently r^'^^ ^\ame 
 transported to Hebron. But the pecuhar sit- ""^ ^'''^'^^• 
 uation of this alleged tomb agrees with the exceptional 
 
 1 " The bodies of the brothers of Joseph after a time were buried by their 
 descendants in Hebron; but the bones of Joseph afterwards, when the He- 
 brews migrated fi'om Egypt, were taken to Canaan." — Ant. ii. 8, 2. This 
 may be intended merely to draw a distinction as to the time of removal, 
 but probably it refers also to a difference in the places of burial, and ex- 
 presses nothing positive on the subject. In Acts vii. 15, 16, the sons of 
 Jacob are represented as all equally buried at Shechem ; but then it is with 
 the perplexing addition that they were buried in the same place as Jacob, 
 and " in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the 
 sons of Emmor the father of Shechem." The burial of Joseph at Shechem 
 is distinctly mentioned in Josh. xxiv. 32. " The bones of Joseph, which 
 the children of Israel brought up out of Eg}^t, buried they in Shechem, in 
 ' the parcel of the Jield' which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father 
 of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver; and it became the inheritance 
 of the sons of Joseph." 
 
180 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 character of the tradition. It is in a domed chamber 
 attached to the enclosure from the outside, and reached, 
 therefore, by an aperture ^ broken through the massive 
 wall itself, and thus visible on the exterior of the 
 southern side of the wall. It is less costly than the 
 others, and it is remarkable that, although the name 
 of his wife (according to the Mussulman version, Zu- 
 leika) is inserted in the certificates given to pilgrims 
 who have visited the Mosque, no grave having that 
 appellation is shown. A staff was hung up in a corner 
 of the chamber. There were painted windoAvs as m 
 the shrine of Jacob. According to the story told by 
 the guardian of the Mosque, Joseph was buried in the 
 Nile, and Moses recovered the body, 1005 years after- 
 wards, by marrying an Egyptian wife who knew the 
 secret. 
 
 No other tombs were exhibited inside the Mosque. 
 In a mosque on the northern side of the great Mosque 
 were two shrines, resembling those of Isaac and Re- 
 bekah, which were afterwards explained to us as mere- 
 ly ornamental. On a platform immediately outside the 
 Jewish wall on the north side, and seen from the hill 
 rising immediately to the northeast of the Mosque, is 
 The Mosque ^^^^ domo of a mosquc named JaivaliyeJi^ said 
 
 of Jawali. ^Q l^^^g l^ggj^ l^^jj^ ^y ^l^g -gj^-j, ^^^^ gj^-^ 
 
 Sanjar Jawali, from whom, of course, it derives its 
 name, in the place of the tomb of Judas, or Judah, 
 which he caused to be destroyed.^ 
 
 These are the only variations from the catalogue of 
 tombs in the Book of Genesis. In the fourth century, 
 
 1 This aperture was made by Dahar Barkok, A. d. 1382-1389. — Quatre- 
 m^re, 247. 
 
 2 A. D. 1319, 1320. — Quatrem^re, i. part ii. p. 248. 
 
I.] THE MOSQUE OF JAW ALL 181 
 
 the Bourdeaux Pilgrim saw only the six great patri- 
 archal shrines. But from the seventh century clown- 
 wards, one or more lesser tombs seem to have been 
 shown. Arculf speaks of the tomb of Adam,^ " which 
 is of meaner workmanship than the rest, and lies not 
 far off from them at the farthest extremity to the 
 north." If we might take this direction of the com- 
 pass to be correct, he must mean either " the tomb of 
 Judah " or one of the two in the northern mosque. 
 This latter conjecture is confirmed by the statement of 
 Maundeville that the tombs ^ of Adam and Eve were 
 shown ; which would thus correspond to these two. 
 The tomb of Joseph is first distinctly mentioned by 
 Saswulf, who says that " the bones of Joseph were 
 buried more humbly than the rest, as it were at the 
 extremity of the castle." ^ Mr. Monro describes fur- 
 ther " a tomb of Esau, under a small cupola, with 
 eight or ten windows, excluded from l}^ng with the 
 rest of the Patriarchs." * Whether by this he meant 
 the tomb of Joseph, or the tomb of Judah, is not clear. 
 A INIussulman tomb of Esau was shown in the suburb 
 of Hebron called Sir.^ 
 
 The tomb of Abner is shown in the town, and the 
 tomb of Jesse on the hill facing Hebron on the south. 
 
 1 The tomb of Adam was shown as the " Fourth" of the " Four," who, 
 with the three Patriarchs, were supposed to have given to Hebron' the name 
 of Kirjath-Arba, " the city of the Four." By a strange mistake which 
 Jerome has perpetuated in the Vulgate translation, the word Adam in 
 Joshua xxiv. 15, '' a great man among the Anakims," has been taken by 
 some of the Rabbis as a proper name. " Adam maximus ibi inter Enacim 
 situs est." 
 
 2 Maundeville {Earhi Travellers, p. 161). 
 
 3 A. u. 1102 {Early Travellers, p. 45). 
 . •* Summer Ramble, i. 243. 
 
 5 Quatrem^re, i. pt. ii. p. 319. Probably Sirah, the scene of the murder 
 of Abner, 2 Sam. iii. 26. 
 
182 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 But these have no connection with the Mosque, or the 
 patriarchal burying-place. 
 
 We have now gone through all the shrines, whether 
 of real or fictitious importance, which the Sanctuary- 
 includes. It will be seen that up to this point no 
 The Sacred mention lias been made of the subject of the 
 Cave. greatest interest, namely, the sacred cave 
 
 itself, in which one at least of the patriarchal family 
 may possibly still repose intact, — the embalmed body 
 of Jacob. It may be well supposed that to this object 
 our inquiries were throughout directed. One indica- 
 tion alone of the cavern beneath was visible. In the 
 interior of the Mosque, at the corner of the shrine of 
 Abraham, was a small circular hole, about eight inches 
 across, of which one foot above the pavement was built 
 of strong masonry, but of which the lower part, as far 
 as we could see and feel, was of the living rock.^ This 
 cavity appeared to open into a dark space beneath, 
 and that space (which the guardians of the Mosque 
 beheved to extend under the whole platform) can 
 hardly be anything else than the ancient cavern of 
 Machpelah. This was the only aperture which the 
 guardians recognized. Once, they said, 2,500 years 
 
 1 This hole was not shown to Ali Bey, perhaps as heing only an ordinary 
 pilgrim. It is tlius described by Mr. Monro or his informant: —"A bal- 
 dachin, supported on four small columns over an octagon figure of black and 
 white inlaid, round a small hole in the pavement" (i. 264). It is also men- 
 tioned by the Arab historians. " There is a vault that passes for the burial- 
 place of Abraham, in which is a lamp always lighted. Hence the common 
 expression among the people, ' the Lord of the vault and the lamp'' " (Qua- 
 tremere, i. pt. ii. p. 247). " Near the tomb of Abraham is a vault, where is 
 a small gate leading to the minhar (pulpit). Into this hole once fell an 
 idiot, who was followed by the servants of the Mosque. They saw a stone 
 staircase of fifteen steps, which led to the minhar'' {Ibid.). The lamp is also 
 mentioned by Mr. Monro (i. p. 244), and by Benjamin of Tudela (see 
 in/m, p. 185). 
 
L] THE CAVE. 183 
 
 ago, a servant of a great king had penetrated tlirougli 
 some other entrance. He descended in foil possession 
 of his faculties, and of remarkable corpulence ; he re- 
 turned blind, deaf, withered, and crippled. Since then 
 the entrance was closed, and this aperture alone was 
 left, partly for the sake of allowing the holy air of the 
 cave to escape into the Mosque, and be scented by the 
 faithful ; partly for the sake of allowing a lamp to be 
 let down by a chain which we saw suspended at the 
 mouth, to burn upon the sacred grave. We asked 
 whether it could not be lighted now? "No," they 
 said ; " the saint likes to have a lamp at night, but not 
 in the full daylight." 
 
 With that glimpse into the dark void we and the 
 world without must for the present be satisfied. 
 Whether any other entrance is known to the Mussul- 
 mans themselves, must be a matter of doubt. The 
 original entrance to the cave, if it is now to be found 
 at all, must probably be on the southern face of the 
 hill, between the Mosque and the gallery containing 
 the shrine of Joseph, and entirely obstructed by the 
 ancient Jewish wall, probably built across it for this 
 very purpose. 
 
 It seems to our notions almost incredible that Chris- 
 tians and Mussulmans, each for a period of 600 years, 
 should have held possession of the sanctuary, and not 
 had the curiosity to explore what to us is the one 
 object of interest, — the cave. But the fact is un- 
 doubted that no account exists of any such attempt. 
 Such a silence can only be explained (but it is proba- 
 bly a sufficient explanation) by the indifference which 
 prevailed, throughout the Middle Ages, to any histori- 
 cal spots however interesting, unless they were actually 
 
184 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 consecrated as places of pilgrimage. Tlie Mount of 
 Olives, the site of the Temple of Solomon, the Rock 
 of the Holy Sepulchre itself, were not thought worthy 
 of even momentary consideration, in comparison with 
 the chapels and stations which were the recognized 
 objects of devotion. Thus at Hebron a visit to the 
 shrines, both for Christians and Mussulmans, procures 
 a certificate. The cave had therefore no further value. 
 In the case of the Mussulmans this indifference is still 
 more general. Suraya Pasha himself, a man of con- 
 siderable intelligence, professed that he had never 
 thought of visiting the Mosque of Hebron for any 
 other purpose than that of snuffing the sacred air, and 
 he had never, till we arrived at Jerusalem, seen the 
 wonderful convent of Mar Saba, or the Dead Sea, or 
 the Jordan. And to this must be added, if not in his 
 case, in that of Mussulmans generally, the terror which 
 they entertain of the effect of the wrath of the Patri- 
 archs on any one who should intrude into the place 
 where they are supposed still to be in a kmd of sus- 
 pended animation. As far back as the seventeenth 
 century it was firmly believed that if any Mussulman 
 entered the cavern, immediate death would be the 
 consequence. -"^ 
 
 It should be mentioned, however, that two accounts 
 are reported of travellers having obtained a nearer 
 view of the cave than was accomplished in the visit of 
 the Prince of Wales. 
 
 The first is contained in the pilgrimage of Benjamin 
 of Tudela, the Jewish traveller of the twelfth cen- 
 tury : — '' The Gentiles have erected six sepulchres in 
 this place, which they pretend to be those of Abraham 
 
 1 Quaresmius, ii. 772. 
 
I.] THE CAVE. 185 
 
 and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. The 
 pilgrims are told that they are the sepulchres of the 
 fathers, and money is extorted from them. But if any 
 Jew comes, who gives an additional fee to the keeper 
 of the cave, an iron door is opened, which dates from 
 the time of our forefathers who rest in peace, and 
 with a burnino" candle in his hands, the visitor descends 
 into a first cave, which is empty, traverses a second in 
 the same state, and at last reaches a third, which con- 
 tains six sepulchres, those of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and of Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah, one opposite 
 the other. All these sepulchres bear inscriptions, the 
 letters being engraved. Thus, upon that of Abraham 
 we read, — ' This is the sepulchre of our father Abra- 
 ham ; upon whom be peace,' and so on that of Isaac, 
 and upon all the other sepulchres. A lamp burns in 
 the cave and upon the sepulchres continually, both 
 night and day, and you there see tombs filled with 
 the bones of Israelites, — for unto this day it is a cus- 
 tom of the house of Israel to bring hither the bones 
 of their saints and of their forefathers, and to leave 
 them there." 
 
 In this account,^ which, as may be observed, does 
 not profess to describe Benjamin's own experience, 
 there are two circumstances (besides its general improb- 
 ability) which throw considerable doubt on its accu- 
 racy. One is the mention of inscriptions, and of an 
 iron door, which, as is well known, are never found in 
 Jewish sepulchres. The other is the mention of the 
 
 1 A somewhat similar account is given by Moawiyeh Ishmail, Prince of 
 Aleppo, — that in A. d. 1089 the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were 
 found; that many persons saw the bodies, preserved without change, and 
 that in the cavern were arranged lamps of gold and silver (Quatremere, 
 245). 
 
186 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 practice of Jews sending their bones to be buried in a 
 place, which, as is evident from the rest of the narra- 
 tive, could only be entered with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 The second account is that of M. Ermete Pierotti, 
 who, having been an engineer in the Sardinian army, 
 M. Ermete actcd for somc ycars as architect and engi- 
 Pierotti. j^ggj, ^Q Suraya Pasha, at Jerusalem, and 
 thus obtained, both in that city and at Hebron, 
 access to places otherwise closed to Europeans. The 
 following account appeared in the '' Times " of April 30, 
 1862, immediately following on the announcement of 
 the Prince's visit : — 
 
 " The true entrance to the Patriarchs' tomb is to be 
 seen close to the western wall of the enclosure, and 
 near the northwest corner ; it is guarded by a very 
 thick iron railing, and I was not allowed to go near it. 
 I observed that the Mussulmans themselves did not go 
 very near it. In the court opposite the entrance- 
 gate of the Mosque, there is an opening, through 
 which I was allowed to go down for three steps, and I 
 was able to ascertain by sight and touch that the 
 rock exists there, and to conclude it to be about five 
 feet thick. From the short observations I could make 
 during my brief descent, as also from the consideration 
 of the east wall of the Mosque, and the little informa- 
 tion I extracted from the Chief Santon, who jealously 
 guards the sanctuary, I consider that a part of the 
 grotto exists under the Mosque, and that the other 
 part is under the court, but at a lower level than that 
 lying under the Mosque. This latter must be sepa- 
 rated from the former by a vertical stratum of rock 
 which contains an opening, as I conclude, for two 
 reasons : first, because the east wall being entirely 
 
I.] THE CAVE. 187 
 
 solid and massive, requires a good foundation ; secondly, 
 because the petitions which the Mussulmans present to 
 the Santon to be transmitted to the Patriarchs are 
 thrown, some through one opening, some through the 
 other, according to the Patriarch to whom they are 
 directed ; and the Santon goes down by the way I 
 went, whence I suppose that on that side there is a 
 vestibule, and that the tombs may be found below it. 
 I explained my conjectures to the Santon himself after 
 leaving the Mosque, and he showed himself very much 
 surprised at the time, and told the Pacha afterwards 
 that I knew more about it than the Turks themselves. 
 The fact is, that even the Pacha who governs the 
 province has no right to penetrate into the sacred 
 enclosure, where (according to the Mussulman legend) 
 the Patriarchs are living, and only condescend to 
 receive the petitions addressed to them by mortals." ^ 
 
 This statement of the entrance of the Santon, or 
 Sheik of the Mosque, into the cave, agrees with the 
 account which was given to me at Hebron in 1852; 
 " that the cave consists of two compartments, into one 
 of which a dervish or sheik is allowed to penetrate 
 on special emergencies." Against this must be set 
 the repeated assertions of the guardian of the Mosque, 
 and of the Governor of Jerusalem, (which, as has 
 been seen, are substantially confirmed by the Arab 
 historians,) that no Mussulman has ever entered the 
 cave within the memory of man Of the staii'case 
 
 1 M. Pierotti adds (what has often been observed before) that " the Jews 
 who dwell in Hebron, or visit it, are allowed to kiss and touch a piece of 
 the sacred rock close to the northwest corner, which they can reach 
 through a small aperture. To accomplish this operation they are obhged 
 to lie flat on the ground, because the aperture is on the ground level." 
 This, however, is merely an access to the rock, not to the cave. 
 
188 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 and gate described by M. Pierotti, there was no 
 appearance on our visit, though we must have walked 
 over the very spot, — being, in fact, the pavement in 
 front of the Mosque. Of the separate apertures for 
 throwing down the petitions we also saw nothing. 
 And it would seem from Finati's account, ^ that the 
 one hole down which he threw his petition was that 
 by the tomb of Abraham. 
 
 The result of the Prince's visit will have been dis- 
 appointing to those who expected a more direct 
 Results of solution of tlic uivsteries of Hebron. But 
 
 the Prince's . "^ . . , . 
 
 visit. it has not been without its indirect bene- 
 
 fits. In the first place, by the entrance of the Prince 
 of Wales, the first step has been taken for the re- 
 moval of the bar of exclusion from this most sacred 
 and interesting spot. The relaxation may in future 
 times be slight and gradual, and the advantage gained 
 must be used with every caution ; but it is impossible 
 not to feel that some effect will be produced even on 
 the devotees of Hebron when they feel that the 
 Patriarchs have not sufiered any injury or afii^ont, and 
 that even Isaac rests tranquilly in his grave. ^ And 
 Englishmen may fairly rejoice that this advance in the 
 cause of religious tolerance (if it may so be called) and 
 of Biblical knowledge, was attained in the person of 
 
 1 " I went into a mosque at Hebron and threw a paper down into a hole 
 that is considered to be the tomb of Abraham, and according as the paper 
 lodges by the way, or reaches the bottom, it is looked upon as a sign of 
 good or ill-luck for the petitioner." — Travels of Flnad, ii. p. 236. 
 
 2 An account appeared in a French journal {L'Aiiii de la Religion^ in 
 May, 1802,) of the visit of the Prince of Wales to Hebron. Amidst curious 
 smaller inaccuracies it gave a tolerably correct narrative of the transaction 
 itself. The population of Hebron were, it Avas there stated, firmly con- 
 vinced that some great disaster would befall Suraya Pasha within the 
 year. 
 
I.J THE CAVE. 189 
 
 the heir to the Enghsh throne, out of regard to the 
 position which he and his country hold in the Eastern 
 world. 
 
 In the second place, the visit has enabled us to form 
 a much clearer judgment of the value of the previous 
 accounts, to correct their deficiencies and to rectify 
 their confusion. The narrative of Ali Bey, in particu- 
 lar, is now substantially corroborated. The existence 
 and the exact situation of the cave underneath the 
 floor of the Mosque, the appearance of the ancient 
 enclosure from within, the precise relation of the differ- 
 ent shrines to each other, and the general conformity 
 of the traditions of the Mosque to the accounts of 
 the Bible and of early travellers, are now for the 
 first time clearly ascertained. To discover the 
 entrance of the cave, to examine the actual places of 
 the patriarchal sepulture, and to set (eyes if so be) on 
 the embalmed body of Jacob, the only patriarch the 
 preservation of whose remains is thus described, — 
 must be reserved for the explorers of another genera- 
 tion, for whom this visit will have been the best 
 preparation. 
 
 Meanwhile, it may be worth while to recall the 
 general instruction fiirnished by the nearer General 
 contemplation of this remarkable spot. The ^*^^"^^^- 
 narrative itself to which it takes us back stands alone 
 in the Patriarchal history for the precision with which 
 both locality and character are delineated. First, 
 there is the death of Sarah in the city of Kirjath-Arba, 
 whilst Abraham is absent,^ apparently at Mamre. He 
 comes to make the grand display of funeral grief, 
 " mourning aloud and weeping aloud," such as would 
 
 ^ Gen. xxiii. 2. 
 
190 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 befit so great a death. He is filled with the desire, 
 not Egyptian, not Christian, hardly Greek or Roman, 
 but certainly Jewish, to thrust away the dark shadow, 
 that has fliUen upon him, " to bury ^ his dead out of 
 his sight." Then ensues the conference in the gate, — 
 the Oriental place of assembly ,2 where the negotiators 
 and the witnesses of the transaction, as at the present 
 day, are gathered from the many comers and goers 
 through " the gate of the city." As in the Gentile 
 traditions of Damascus, and as in the ancient narrative 
 of the pursuit of the five kings, Abraham is saluted 
 by the native inhabitants, not merely as a wandering 
 shepherd, but as a " Prince of God." ^ The inhabi- 
 tants are, as we might expect, not the Amorites, but 
 the Hittites, whose name is that recognized by all the 
 surrounding nations. They offer him the most sacred 
 of their sepulchres for the cherished remains.* The 
 Patriarch maintains his determination to remain aloof 
 from the Canaanite population, at the same time that 
 he preserves every form of courtesy and friendliness, 
 in accordance with the magnificent toleration and 
 inborn gentleness which pervade his character. First, 
 as in the attitude of Oriental respect, " he stands," and 
 then, twice over, he prostrates himself on the ground, 
 before the heathen masters of the soil.^ Ephron, the 
 son of Zohar, is worthy of the occasion ; his courtesy 
 matches that of the Patriarch himself:— "The field 
 give I thee, the cave .... give I thee ; in the pres- 
 ence of the sons of my people give I it thee." " What 
 is that betwixt thee and me ? " ^ It is precisely the pro- 
 
 1 Gen. xxiii. 4. * Ihid. 6. 
 
 2 Ibid. 10. 6 Jbid. 7-12. 
 8 Ibid. 6. 6 Ibid. 13-15. 
 
L] THE CAVE. 191 
 
 fuse liberality^ with which the Arab of the present 
 time places everything in his possession at the disposal 
 of the stranger. But the Patriarch, with the high 
 independence of his natural character (shall we say, 
 also, with the caution of his Jewish descendants?) 
 will not be satisfied without a regular bargain. He 
 " weighs out " ^ the coin. He specifies every detail in 
 the property ; not the field only, but the cave in the 
 field, and the trees ^ in the field, and on the edge 
 of the field, " were made sure." The result is the 
 first legal contract recorded in human history, the first 
 known interment of the dead, the first assignment of 
 property to the Hebrew people in the Holy Land.* 
 
 To this graphic and natural scene, not indeed by 
 an absolute continuity of proof, but by such evidence as 
 has been given above, the cave of Machpelah carries us 
 back. And if in the long interval which elapses 
 between the description of the spot in the Book of 
 Genesis (whatever date we assign to that description) 
 and the notice of the present sanctuary by Josephus, 
 so venerable a place and so remarkable a transaction 
 are passed over without a word of recognition, this 
 must, on any hypothesis, be reckoned amongst the 
 many proofs that, in ancient literature, no argument 
 can be drawn ao;ainst a fact from the mere silence of 
 authors, whether sacred or secular, whose minds were 
 fixed on other subjects, and who were writing with 
 another intention. 
 
 1 Such exactly was the language of Aghyle Aga, as described in the 3d 
 of these Notices. 
 
 2 Gen. xxiii. 16. 3 jUd. 17. 
 
 4 Several of the above details are suggested by an excellent passage on 
 . this subject in Thomson's Land and Booh, p. 577-579. 
 
192 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I. 
 
 We remained at Hebron for that day and during 
 the folio whig mornmg. It had been our original inten- 
 tion to have left the place immediately after our 
 departure from the Mosque, and encamped at some dis- 
 tance from the town. But Dr. Rosen predicted before- 
 hand that, if the entrance were once made, no addi- 
 tional precautions would be required. " They will be 
 so awe-struck," he said, " at the success of your at- 
 tempt, that they will at once acquiesce in the fact." 
 And so it proved. Although we were still accompanied 
 by a small escort, the rigid vigilance of the previous 
 day was relaxed, and no indications appeared of any 
 anger or vengeance. 
 
 In the early morning I visited, in company with Dr. 
 Rosen, some of the remains of antiquity on the wooded 
 hill facing the town of Hebron on the south. An 
 ancient well on the slope of the hill is sometimes 
 called " the Spring of Abraham," sometimes " the 
 New Spring " Ain-el-Jedidi ; ^ this last title, as often 
 the case in local designations, indicating rather the 
 antiquity than the novelty of the place in question. It 
 is vaulted over with masonry, and the channel, when 
 not filled with water, is believed in the neighborhood 
 to reach to the Mosque. In this vault the local tradi- 
 tion (attaching itself to the curious mistake before 
 noticed, respecting the connection of "Adam " with 
 Hebron) represents that Adam and Eve hid them- 
 selves after their flight from Paradise.^ Somewhat 
 
 1 Thus "New College," at Oxford, was called " New" in relation to its 
 first appearance, and has retained its name though twelve other new col- 
 leges have arisen since. 
 
 2 It was shown as such to Maundeville {Early Travellers in Palestine, 
 p. 16). 
 
I.] THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF HEBRON. 193 
 
 higher up the hill is a ruin called Deir Arhain^ (the 
 Convent of the Forty Martyrs,) consisting of old 
 masonry, which Dr. Rosen conjectures to be the 
 remains of the fortress built at Hebron by Rehoboam.^ 
 In a corner of this building is the so-called tomb of 
 Jesse. 
 
 After surveying the exterior of the Mosque, we rode 
 over the hills, south of Hebron, to visit the probable 
 scene of the romantic transaction, recorded in the Book 
 of Joshua and the Book of Judges, between Caleb 
 and his daughter Achsah.^ A wide valley, unusually 
 green, amidst the barren hills of the " south country," 
 suddenly breaks down into an almost precipitous and 
 still greener ravine. On the south side of this ravine 
 is a village called Dura., possibly tjie Adoraim of the 
 Book of Chronicles ; ^ on the north, at the summit of 
 a steeper and more rugged ascent, is Dewir Dan., which 
 recalls the name of Debir., the fortress which Othniel 
 stormed on the condition of winning Achsah for his 
 bride. — " Give me," she said to her father, as she rode 
 on her ass beside him, " a field," — "a blessing," — a 
 rich field, such as that which lies spread in the green 
 basin, which she and Caleb would first encounter in 
 their ride from Hebron. " For thou hast given me a 
 south land," — these dry rocky hills which extend as 
 far as the eye can reach, till they melt into the hazy 
 platform of the desert. " Give me also the 'bubblings' 
 QgnllotJi) of water — the upper and the lower bub- 
 blings." It is an expressive word which seems to 
 be used for " tumbhng, falling waA^es," and is thus 
 
 1 1 Chron. xi. 10. 
 
 2 Joshua XV. 16-19; Judges i. 11-15. See Lectures on the Jewish Churchy 
 p. 293, (Araer. ed.) 
 
 3 2 Chron. xi. 9. 
 
 13 
 
194 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [L 
 
 especially applicable to the rare siglit of the clear rivulet 
 that, rising in the green meadow above mentioned, 
 (^Ain Niinkar.^') falls and flows continuously down to 
 the bottom of the ravine, and by its upper and nether 
 streams gives verdure to the whole. The identifica- 
 tion is not perhaps absolutely certain. But the scene 
 lends itself to the incident in every particular. 
 
 We returned by many a vestige of ancient habita- 
 tions, chiefly the ancient wells and cisterns, and the 
 winepresses hewn out of the hving rock, — consisting 
 of the reservoir for the pressing of the grapes, the 
 channel through which the juice was to run off", and 
 the cellar or cavity into which it was to fall. The 
 wide extent of view and the number of traditional or 
 historical localities included in the prospect, gave to 
 this investigation of the neighborhood of Hebron, and 
 to our descent from its high elevation towards Jerusa- 
 lem, an interest which equalled that with which I had 
 traversed (in part) the same route on my first entrance 
 into the Holy Land in 1853. The advantage of an 
 mtelligent guide, like Dr. Rosen, to whom every spot 
 was familiar, both in its ancient and modern aspects, 
 rendered the journey doubly instructive. On the 
 nearer hills we explored in detail the remains ^ of the 
 " House or High Place of Abraham," Ramet-el-khalil, 
 the vestiges of the Temple, where the Patriarch had 
 been almost worshipped by the Arabs as a divinity, 
 and of the Oratory which Constantine had ordered to 
 be erected, when at the Emperor's orders the sacred 
 terebinth had been cut down, whence, as before re- 
 
 1 The local tradition is that these ruins are the foundations of the Mosque 
 of Hebron, before the builders were directed by a celestial light to the pres- 
 ent site. 
 
I.] THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF HEBRON. 195 
 
 marked, the name still lingers in the adjacent field. 
 On a conical hill close hy, — possibly called from this 
 mcident Gehel-el-Batrak^ the hill of the Patriarchy — 
 is the traditional site of the vision in which Abraham 
 received the promise.^ The wide horizon — the sea 
 visible in tlie western distance — the traces of antique 
 civilization all around, all so well according with the 
 destinies of his race — would entitle the prospect, 
 if the tradition had better ground, to be ranked with 
 those views which, as I have elsewhere ^ observed, 
 form such remarkable links between the history and 
 the geography of the Chosen People. In the yet fur- 
 ther distance to the northeast, a church or mosque on 
 a hilltop deserves, at least, a momentary glance as 
 the traditional tomb of the Prophet Gad or Nathan ; if 
 authentic, or even if only fanciful, how appropriately 
 planted in the midst of those early scenes of David's 
 life, in which those two Prophets played so large a 
 part ! From the hills to the westward, the plain of 
 Philistia lay flat beneath us ; and, as Ave advanced 
 through their many undulations, we passed the ruins 
 of the oratory which had stood on what the tradition 
 of the fourth century marked out with considerable 
 probability as the scene of Philip's encounter with the 
 Ethiopian chamberlain ^ at the well by the roadside, 
 almost directly at the point where through a wide 
 valley opens what is still the usual route to Gaza — 
 and (at least as compared with the northern road) 
 " deserted " of villages. By the pools of Solomon, the 
 
 1 Gen. XV. 1. 
 
 2 Sinai and Palestine^ c. ii. 130. 
 
 3 Acts viii. 36. The remains of the Roman road and of a Roman mile- 
 stone ^e still visible. 
 
196 THE MOSQUE OF HEBRON. [I- 
 
 green vale of Urtas, the Latin convent of Beit Jala,^ 
 the Greek convent of the Cross, we returned to Jeru- 
 salem on the 5th of April, and left it on the following 
 day for Bethel, Shiloh, and Nablus. 
 
 1 This convent, which overhangs the ridge of Bethlehem, is now usually 
 identified with Zelah or Zelzah, the burial-place of the house of Saul (2 
 Sam. xxi. 14). It is a curious instance of the random guesses of the Mo- 
 nastic establishments, that the monks in the convent represented it to us as 
 the site of Gideon's threshing-floor (Judg. vi. 11), which must, beyond 
 question, have been three days' journey distant amongst the hills of Ma- 
 nasseh. 
 
TEE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. 
 
PLAN OF MOUNT GERIZBI. 
 
 "'^S»l*ii 
 
 
 1. Fortress. 
 
 2. Seven steps of Adam out of Paradise. 
 
 3. Scene of the offerinc; of Tsaac, — a trougli like that used for the Paschal 
 
 Feast. 
 
 4. " Holy Place." 
 
 5. Joshua's Twelve Stones. 
 
 6. " Tomb of Sheik Ghranem," or " Shechem ben Hamor." 
 
 7. " Cave where the Tabernacle was built." 
 
 8. Hole Avhere the Paschal sheep are roasted 
 
 9. Trench where they are eaten. 
 
 1 0. Platform for the celebration of the Passover. 
 1 1 . Hole where the water is boiled. 
 
11. THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. 
 
 IF of all the Holy Places in Palestine the Mosqne of 
 Hebron was the one which, after my first journey, 
 I most regretted to have left unseen amongst the sacred 
 spectacles, the same may be said of the Samaritan 
 Passover. This on the present occasion we were 
 enabled to witness. A brief description of it had 
 been already given to me in 1854 by Mr. Rogers,^ now 
 Consul at Damascus. I am induced to give a full 
 account of its celebration as we saw it in 1862, not 
 only from its intrinsic interest, but because it is evident 
 that the ceremonial has been considerably modified 
 since the time when it was first described to me. Even 
 to that lonely community the influences of Western 
 change have extended ; and this is perhaps the last 
 generation which will have the opportunity of witness- 
 ino- this vestio;e of the earliest Jewish ritual. 
 
 The Samaritan Passover is celebrated at the same 
 time as the Jewish — namely, on the full moon of the 
 month Nisan. In the present instance, either by de- 
 sign or by a fortunate mistake, the Samaritan commu- 
 nity had anticipated the 14th of the month by two days. 
 It was on the evening of Saturday the 13th of April 
 that we ascended Mount Gerizim, and visited the 
 various traditional localities on the rocky platform 
 which crowns the most ancient of sanctuaries. The 
 
 1 His account has since been printed in his sister's interesting work, 
 Domestic Life in Palestine, 281. 
 
200 THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. [II. 
 
 whole community — amomiting, it is said, to one 
 hmidred and fifty-two, from which hardly any varia- 
 tion has taken place within the memory of man — 
 were encamped in tents on a level space, a few hun- 
 dred yards below the actual summit of the mountain,^ 
 selected on account of its comparative shelter and 
 seclusion. The women ^ were shut up in the tents. 
 The prepa- The uicu wcrc assembled on the rocky terrace 
 ration. -^^ sacrcd costumc. In 1854 they all wore 
 
 the sacred costume. On this occasion most of them 
 were in their ordinary dress. Only about fifteen 
 of the elder men, amongst whom was the Priest 
 Amram,^ were clothed, as formerly was the case 
 with the whole community, in long, White robes. 
 To these must be added six youths,^ dressed in white 
 
 1 It is only within the last twenty years that the Samaritans (chiefly 
 through the intervention of the English Consul) have regained tlie right, 
 or rather the safety, of holding their festival on Mount Gerizim. For a 
 long time before, they had celebrated the Passover like the modern Jews, 
 and, as in the nrst celebration of the institution in Egypt, in their own 
 houses. The performance of the solemnity on Gerizim is in strict conform- 
 ity with the principle laid down in Deut. xvi 15: — "Thou shalt keep a 
 solemn feast in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose," — and 
 with the practice which prevailed in Judaea till the fall of Jerusalem, of 
 celebrating the Passover at the Temple. 
 
 2 Those women, who, by the approach of childbirth or other ceremonial 
 reasons, Avere prevented from sharing in the celebration, remained in 
 Nablus. 
 
 8 It is stated in Miss Rogers' Domestic Life in Palestine (249) that Am- 
 ram is not properly a priest (the legitimate high priest, — the last descend- 
 ant, as they allege, of Aaron, — having expired some years ago), and that 
 he is only a Levite. He is, however, certainly called " the priest" (Cohen). 
 He has two wives. The children of the first died in infancy, and he was 
 therefore entitled, b}^ Samaritan usage, to take a second. By her he has a 
 son, Isaac. But, according to the Oriental law of succession, he will be 
 succeeded in his otfice by his nephew Jacob, as the oldest of the tlimily. 
 
 4 These youths were evidently trained for the purpose; but whether they 
 held any sacred office, I could not learn. In the Jewish ritual, the lambs 
 were usuallv slain by the householders, but on great occasions (2 Chron. 
 XXXV. 10) apparently by the Levites. 
 
II.] THE SACRIFICE. 201 
 
 shirts and white drawers. The feet both of these and 
 of the elders were at this time of the solemnity bare. 
 It was about half an hour before sunset, that the whole 
 male community in an irregular form (those attired as 
 has been described in a more regular order) gathered 
 round a long trough that had been previously dug in 
 the ground ; and the Priest, ascending a large rough 
 stone in front of the congregation, recited in a loud 
 chant or scream, in which the others joined, prayers 
 or praises chiefly turning on the glories of Abraham 
 and Isaac. Their attitude was that of all Orientals 
 in prayer ; standing, occasionally diversified by the 
 stretching out of the hands, and more rarely by kneel- 
 ing or crouching, with their faces wrapt in their 
 clothes and bent to the ground,^ towards the Holy 
 Place on the summit of Gerizim. The Priest recited 
 his prayers by heart ; the others had mostly books, in 
 Hebrew and Arabic. 
 
 Presently, suddenly, there appeared amongst the 
 worshippers six sheep,^ driven up by the side of the 
 youths before mentioned. The unconscious innocence 
 with which they wandered to and fro amongst The sacrifice, 
 the bystanders, and the simplicity in aspect and 
 manner of the young men who tended them, more 
 recalled a scene in Arcadia, or one of those inimitable 
 patriarchal tableaux represented in the Ammergau 
 Mystery, than a religious ceremonial. It did in fact 
 faithfully recall the pastoral condition of the Israelites, 
 when they emerged from the land of Goshen ; when 
 from their shepherds' flocks a lamb ^ or a kid was their 
 only and then' most suitable offermg. The sun, mean- 
 
 1 Compare the attitude of Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 42; xix. 13). 
 
 2 Seven sheep is the usual number. — Domestic Life in Palestine, 250. 
 
 8 Ex. xii. 5. " Ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats." 
 
202 THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. [II. 
 
 while, which hitherto had burnished up the Mediter- 
 ranean in the distance, now sank A^ery nearly to the 
 farthest western ridge overhanging the plain of Sharon. 
 The recitation became more vehement. The Priest 
 turned about, facing his brethren, and the whole his- 
 tory of the Exodus, from the beginning of the Plagues 
 of Egypt was rapidly, almost furiously, chanted. The 
 sheep, still innocently playful, were driven more 
 closely together. The setting sun ^ now touched the 
 ridge. The youths burst into a wild murmur of their 
 own, drew forth their long bright knives, and bran- 
 dished them aloft. In a moment, the sheep were 
 thrown on their backs, and the flashing knives rapidly 
 drawn across their throats. Then a few convulsive 
 but silent struggles, — "as a sheep — dumb — that 
 openeth not his mouth," — and the six forms lay life- 
 less on the ground, the blood streaming from them ; 
 the one only Jewish sacrifice lingering in the world. In 
 •the blood the young men dipped their fingers, and a 
 small spot was marked on the foreheads and noses of 
 the children. A few years ago the red stain was 
 placed on all. But this had now dwindled away into 
 the present practice, preserved, we were told, as a 
 relic or emblem of the whole. Then, as if in con- 
 gratulation at the completion of the ceremony, they 
 all kissed each other, in the Oriental fashion, on each 
 side of the liead.^ 
 
 1 " The whole assembly shall kill it ' betAveen the two evenings' " (Ex. 
 xii. 6). "Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down 
 of the sun," (Deut. xvi. 6). 
 
 2 I have recently seen an account of the Samaritan Passover, as cele- 
 brated in 1854, in Professor Petermann's Travels. He adds a few curious 
 details, as for example, that, at the moment of the slaughter of the sheep, 
 the High Priest recites in a loud voice the words from Exod. xii. 6: " And 
 the whole assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel shall kill 
 it in the evening." 
 
n.] THE SACRIFICE. 203 
 
 The next process was that of the fleecmg' and 
 roasting of the slaughtered animals, for which the 
 ancient Temple furnished such ample provisions. On 
 the mountain-side two holes had been dug, one at some 
 distance, of considerable depth, the other, close to the 
 scene of the Sacrifice, comparatively shallow. In this 
 latter cavity, after a short prayer, a fire was kindled, 
 out of a mass of dry heath, juniper, and briers, such 
 as furnish the materials for the conflag-ration in 
 Jotham's Parable, delivered not far from this very 
 spot. Over the fire were placed two caldrons full of 
 water. Whilst the water boiled, the cono:reo;ation 
 again stood round, and (as if for economy of time) 
 continued the recitation of the Book of Exodus, and 
 bitter herbs were handed round wrapped in a strip of 
 unleavened bread : " with unleavened bread and with 
 bitter herbs shall they eat it."^ Then was chanted 
 another short prayer. After which the six youths 
 again appeared, poured the boiling water over the 
 sheep, and plucked off their fleeces. The right fore- 
 legs ^ of the sheep, with the entrails, were thrown aside 
 and burnt. The liver was carefully put back. Long 
 poles were brought, on which the animals were spitted ; 
 near the bottom of each pole was a transverse peg or 
 stick, to prevent the body from slipping off. As no 
 part of the body is transfixed by this cross-stake, — as, 
 indeed, the body hardly impinges on it at all, — there 
 is at present but a very slight resemblance to a cruci- 
 
 1 In the ancient Jewish ritual the lambs were skinned, as in western 
 countries (2 Chron. xxxv. 11; Mishna, Pesachim, ch. v. 9). The process, 
 as above described, was like that of our mode of taking off the hair from 
 pigs after they have been killed. 
 
 2 Ex. xii. 8. 
 
 8 The right shoulder and the hamstrings {Domestic Life in Palestine, 
 
204 THE SAMAPdTAN PASSOVER. [H. 
 
 fixion. But it is possible that in earlier times the legs 
 of the animal may have been attached to the trans- 
 verse beam. So at least the Jewish rite is described 
 by Justin Martyr, — '' The Paschal Lamb, that is to 
 be roasted, is roasted in a form like to that of the 
 Cross. For one spit is thrust through the animal from 
 head to tail, and another through its breast, to which ^ 
 its forefeet are attached." He naturally saw in it a 
 likeness of the Crucifixion. But his remark, under 
 any view, is interesting : first, because, being a native 
 of Nablus, he probably drew his notices of the Passover 
 from this very celebration ; which, as it would thus 
 appear, has, even in this minute particular, been but 
 very slightly modified since he saw it in the second 
 century ; and, also, because, as he draws no distinction 
 between this rite and that of the Jews in general, we 
 have a right to infer that the Samaritan Passover is on 
 the whole a faithful representation of the Jewish. 
 That the spit was run right through the body of the 
 animal in the Jewish ritual, and was of wood, as in the 
 Samaritan, is clear from the account in the Mishna.^ 
 
 The sheep were then carried to the other hole 
 already mentioned, which was constructed in the 
 The roasting, form of tlic usual ovcu (tannuv') of Arab 
 villages, — a deep circular pit sunk in the earth, with 
 a fire kindled at the bottom. Into this the sheep were 
 thrust down (it is said, but this I could not see), with 
 care, to prevent the bodies from impinging on the sides, 
 
 1 Dial, cum Tryph. c. 40. 
 
 2 Pesdchim, ch, vi. 7. It was to be wood, not iron, in order thnt the 
 roastinf^ mifjlit be entirely "by fire," and not by the hot iron: and the 
 wood was to be pomegranate, as not emitting an}' water, and so not inter- 
 fering with the roasting. Whether the spits on Gerizim were of pomegran- 
 ate I did not observe. 
 
IL] THE SACRIFICE. 205 
 
 and so being roasted by anything but the flre.^ A 
 hurdle was then put over the mouth of the pit, well 
 covered with wet earth, so as to seal up the oven till 
 the roasting was completed. "They shall ^ eat the 
 flesh in that night roast with fire. Eat not of it raw, 
 nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire." 
 
 The ceremonial up to this time occupied about two 
 hours. It was now quite dark, and the greater part 
 of the community and of our company retired to rest. 
 Five hours or more elapsed in silence, and it was not 
 till after midnight that the announcement was made, 
 that the feast was about to begin. The Paschal moon 
 was still bricrht and high in the heavens. The whole 
 male community was gathered round the mouth of the 
 oven, and with reluctance allowed the intrusion of any 
 stranger to a close inspection ; a reluctance which was 
 kept up during the whole of this part of the transac- 
 tion, and contrasted with the freedom with which we 
 had been allowed to be present at the earlier stages of 
 the ceremony. It seemed as if the riffid exclusiveness 
 of the ancient Paschal ordinance here came into play, 
 — "A foreigner^ shall not eat thereof; no uncircum- 
 cised person shall eat thereof." 
 
 Suddenly the covering of the hole was torn off, and 
 up rose into the still moonlit sky a vast column of 
 smoke and steam ; recalling, with a shock of surprise, 
 that, even though the coincidence may have been acci- 
 dental, Reginald Heber should have so well caught this 
 striking feature of so remote and unknown a ritual : — 
 " Smokes on Gerizim's Mount, Samaria's sacrifice." 
 
 Out of the pit were dragged, successively, the six 
 sheep, on their long spits, black from the oven. The 
 
 1 Mishna, Pesachim, vi. 7. 2 Ex. xii. 8, 9. 3 Md 45^ 43. 
 
206 THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER. [II. 
 
 outlines of their heads, their ears, their legs, were still 
 visible, — " his head with his legs, and with the in- 
 ward parts thereof." ^ They were hoisted aloft and 
 then thrown on large square brown mats, previously pre- 
 pared for their reception, on which we were carefully 
 prevented from treading, as also from touching even 
 the extremities of the spits. The bodies thus wrapt 
 in the mats were hurried down to the trench where the 
 sacrifice had taken place, and laid out upon them in a 
 hue between two files of the Samaritans. Those who 
 had before been dressed in white robes still retained 
 them, with the addition now, of shoes on their feet 
 and staves in their hands, and ropes round their waists, 
 — " Thus shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your 
 shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand." ^ The 
 recitation of prayers or of the Pentateuch recom- 
 menced, and continued, till it suddenly terminated in 
 their all sitting down on their haunches, after the Arab 
 fashion at meals, and beginning to eat. This, too, is a 
 deviation from the practice of only a few years since, 
 when they retained the Mosaic ritual of standing 
 whilst they ate. The actual feast was conducted in 
 rapid silence as of men in hunger, as no doubt most 
 of them were, and so as soon to consume every portion 
 of the blackened masses, which they tore away piece- 
 meal with their fingers, — " Ye shall eat in haste." ^ 
 There was a general merriment, as of a hearty and 
 welcome meal. In ten minutes all was gone but a few 
 remnants. To the Priest and to the women, who, all 
 but two (probably his two wives), remained in the 
 tents, separate morsels were carried round. The rem- 
 
 1 Ex. xii. 9. 2 Jiid. 11. 
 
 3 Jbld. 11. The hasty snatching which I had heard described, I was un- 
 able to recognize. 
 
n.] THE PASCHAL FEAST. 207 
 
 nants were gathered into the mats, and put on a 
 wooden grate or hurdle over the hole where the water 
 had been originally boiled ; the fire was again lit, and a 
 huge bonfire was kindled. By its blaze, and by candles 
 lighted for the purpose, the ground was searched m 
 every direction, as for the consecrated particles of 
 sacramental elements ; and these fragments of the 
 flesh and bone were thrown upon the burning mass. 
 " Ye shall let nothing remain until the morning ; and 
 that which remaineth until the morning ye shall burn 
 with fire." "There shall not anything of the flesh 
 which thou sacrificest the first day at even remain all 
 night until the morning." " Thou shalt not carry 
 forth aucrht of the flesh abroad out of the house."^ 
 The flames blazed up once more, and then gradually 
 sank away. Perhaps in another century the fire on 
 Mount Gerizim will be the only relic left of this most 
 interesting and ancient rite. By the early morning 
 the whole community had descended from the moun- 
 tain, and occupied their usual habitations in the to-s\T.i. 
 " Thou shalt tmni in the morning, and go unto thy 
 tents." 2 
 
 With us it was the morning of Palm Sunday, and it 
 was curious to reflect by what a long gradation of 
 centuries the simple ritual of the English Church — 
 celebrated then, from the necessity of the case, with 
 more than its ordinary simplicity — had grown up out 
 of the wild, pastoral, barbarian, yet still elaborate, 
 commemoration, which we had just witnessed, of the 
 escape of the sons of Israel from the yoke of the 
 Egyptian King. 
 
 1 Ex. xii. 10, 46 : Deut. xvi. 4. 2 peut. xvi. 7. 
 
208 ANTIQUITIES OF NABL&S. [H. 
 
 I subjoin a few remarks on the situation and anti- 
 quities of Shechem, as we saw them on that day to 
 greater advantage than is usually the case ; partly 
 from again enjoying the guidance of Dr. Rosen, who 
 has devoted much attention ^ to the neighborhood of 
 Nablus, partly from the check imposed on the usual 
 fanaticism of the inhabitants by the presence of the 
 Prince of Wales. 
 
 As the view of Jerusalem from Mount Olivet 
 reveals all the peculiar features of the southern capi- 
 tal, so does the view from a huge projecting crag of 
 Gerizim — which Dr. Rosen, with great probability, 
 conjectures to have been the position of Jotham as 
 described in the Book of Judges — reveal all the 
 peculiar features of the northern capital Sliechem. 
 The view sweeps the whole valley, and shows how 
 completely it is in the very central draught (so to 
 speak) of Palestine. Alone of the cities of the Holy 
 Land, it commands the sight at once of the Trans- 
 Jordanic mountains on the east, and of the broad sea 
 on the west. Opposite, on the north, runs the long 
 ridge of Ebal, evidently the necropolis of the ancient 
 city, which, being itself deep in the valley, required 
 the mountain (and not, as at Jerusalem, the ravine) 
 for its tombs. Behind is Gerizim, sheltering in its 
 northeastern curves the little mosque which, in its 
 various names of AUon MoreJi (the Oak of Moreh), 
 Ahron Moreh (the Ark of Moreh), Shei/kh el Amad 
 (the Saint of the Pillar), seems to commemorate the 
 tradition of the consecrated oak and treasures of 
 
 1 Zeitschrift Deutsch. Morgenldml Gesellschaft, xiv. 634. 
 
II.] ANTIQUITIES OF NABLllS. 209 
 
 Jacob and the pillar of Joshua.^ Close by in the 
 mountain-side are the vast caverns, overhung with 
 luxuriant creepers, from which Jotham may have 
 issued on the day of his famous parable. ^ Immedi- 
 ately below lies the mass of various verdure, — unpar- 
 alleled in Palestine, — which gave him the materials 
 for his imagery ; the Olives taking the precedence 
 from their size and number ; but melting into the 
 richer green of the Fig-tree and the Vine ; and all of 
 them towering above the worthless Brier that creeps 
 aloncr the walls. 
 
 The actual shoulder (Shechem) which may seem 
 to have given its name to the ancient town is a water- 
 shed, is exceedingly low, like all those between the 
 Jordan and the Mediterranean, and rises a little to the 
 east of the present town, and thus nearer to the well- 
 known localities of the Consecrated Pillar and of 
 Jacob's Well. But the general situation of the place 
 must have been determined, then as now, by the 
 mighty burst of waters from the flank of Gerizim. 
 Thirty-two springs can be traced in different parts. 
 One of them (^Ain Karoun) is cherished with an 
 almost religious veneration. Partly from the archi- 
 tecture of the vault erected over it, partly from its 
 non-Arabic name, it seems to have been one of the 
 sacred springs so commonly found in the Eastern 
 Church under the name of Hagiasma^ itself perhaps, 
 in the heathen times of Neapolis, venerated as the 
 centre of a Pagan Nymphaeum. The chief mosques 
 are three. 
 
 The Eagle Mosque (^Nasr) and the Great Mosque 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, chap. v. 
 
 2 Judg. ix. 7. See Lectures on the Jewish Church, p. 386, (Amer. ed.) 
 
 14 
 
210 ANTIQUITIES OF NABlts. [II. 
 
 (^El Kliehir) have, I believe, been very rarely, if 
 ever, in the memory of man, visited by Em'opeans. 
 They are both formed out of Christian churches. 
 Both have the form of a Basilica, though the Great 
 Mosque, which was formerly a church of S. John, has 
 a fine Gothic porch, probably built by the Knights 
 of S. John during the Latin occupation of Palestine. 
 Both have columns of Egyptian granite ; of which 
 one in the Great Mosque has the completely Egyptian 
 style, both in its capital and in its coloring. 
 
 The third mosque is remarkable not for its Christian 
 but for its Samaritan antiquities. It is called " Hadra^^ 
 (" the Green "), or " Hussn-el-Yakoub " ("the Wail- 
 ing Place of Jacob "), from the Mussulman tradition 
 that there Jacob lamented the death of his favorite 
 son, and that the aged mulberry-tree which stands in the 
 court withered at the news of the loss of Joseph, and 
 became green again on his recovery. The mosque has 
 fragments of ancient columns built into its walls, and 
 is said to stand on the site of the ancient synagogue of 
 the Samaritans, erected b. c. 116, when their temple 
 was destroyed by Hyrcanus. A stone is built into the 
 tower of the minaret, inscribed with the Samaritan ver- 
 sion of the Ten Commandments, and ending, as if by a 
 combination of the Morning and Evening prayers of 
 the Israelite encampment, — " Arise, O Lord, and 
 turn again." ^ 
 
 The existing synagogue stands close by. I leave to 
 Hebrew and Samaritan scholars the vexed question of 
 the relative antiquity of the rolls which are exhibited, 
 A photograph was taken of that which claimed to be 
 the oldest, and which is believed by Dr. Rosen to be 
 
 1 Num. xi. 35, 36. See Sermon XI. 
 
II.] ANTIQUITIES OF NABLtfS. 211 
 
 at least as ancient as the destruction of the Samaritan 
 Temple b. c. 116. The dark spots which appear on its 
 surface are said to be from the kisses of the devout 
 Samaritans, imprmted on all the passages where the 
 name or the benediction of Aaron occurs. The hang- 
 ings in which the cases are wrapt are remarkable as 
 being embroidered with the emblems of the Jewish 
 worship, — amongst which the cherubs appear as birds, 
 and the altar is represented by a grate, much resem- 
 bling the hurdles over the fire in the Paschal Sacrifice 
 on Mount Gerizim. 
 
GALILEE. 
 
III. GALILEE. 
 
 FROM Nablus we passed by Samaria to Jenin. 
 Here the plain of Esdraelon lay spread out before 
 us. In skirting its southwestern corner on the follow- 
 ing day, we crossed the ancient road from Damascus to 
 Egypt, by which of old the Midianite merchants passed 
 when from the neighboring Dothan they carried off 
 their youthful slave ; ^ and by which in later times 
 Pharaoh Neco marched and encountered Josiah at 
 Hadad-Rimon, probably a Syrian sanctuary or cara- 
 vanserai, built by the Damascene caravans.^ We 
 then traversed the battle-field of Deborah and Barak, 
 and saw how from Taanach the Canaanite ^ host must 
 have watched the army of Barak descending from 
 Tabor which there breaks into view, and how the 
 " waters " of the numerous brooks, which descend 
 from Megiddo, must in the tempest of that memorable 
 day have swelled the stream of the Kishon till it swept 
 away the horses and chariots of the enemy. We en- 
 camped under the inland extremity of Carmel, by the 
 green hill of Tell Kaimon, probably the ancient 
 Jbkneam ; and thence ascended by the rocky dells and 
 tangled thickets of Carmel to the scene of the sacrifice 
 
 1 Gen. xxxvii. 17, 25. 
 
 2 2 Kings xxiii. 29. Zech. xii. 11. 
 
 3 See Lectures on the Jewish Church, p. 357, (Ara. ed.) 
 
216 GALILEE. [in. 
 
 of Elijali,^ wliere just before sunset was spread out 
 before us the view on which the King and the Prophet 
 had looked on the evening of their long conflict. 
 
 The next day we crossed the Kishon, as it forces its 
 way between the flank of Carmel and the projection of 
 the Galilean hills, into the plain of Acre. Over that 
 plain, teeming with game and wild animals of all 
 kinds, we at last reached the groves of palm and 
 orange trees that mark the neighborhood of Acre ; and 
 emerged on the cheering and romantic view of the 
 Mediterranean waters, dashing round the curve of the 
 little bay and against the walls of that famous city. 
 From those walls, under the guidance of one of our 
 party who had been present at the time, we explored 
 the traces of the siege of 1840 ; and, after a midday 
 repast in the ruined gardens of Abdallah Pasha, finally 
 struck across the plain into the mountains of Galilee to 
 the secluded and picturesque village of Shefa Omar. 
 
 From this point, the new route, on which I entered 
 in passing through Galilee, aflbrded many illustrations 
 to my former journey. The forest scenery, which I 
 had known before only from others, I now was able to 
 see for myself. Its chief luxuriance lies between the 
 plain of Acre and the plain of Asochis, or, as it is now 
 called, " the Buttauf." It is a continual succession of 
 parklike glades, abounding in those " birds of the air," 
 of brilliant plumage, which so often figure in the Gali- 
 lean Parables. It ends abruptly on the western edge 
 of the plain of Buttauf, which on the eastern side is 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. ix. I cannot forbear to express my hope 
 that no mistaken zeal will be encouraged to cover this interesting and 
 sacred site with the church or chapel of any particular sect, as was appre- 
 hended a year ago. 
 
m.] CANA, 217 
 
 bounded by the bare bills of Nazareth. On that west- 
 ern edge, planted on a rocky spur of the hills, is the 
 deserted village, which, according to the oldest local 
 tradition and the most recent critical researches, has 
 been identified with " Cana of Galilee." If, as has 
 been not unreasonably conjectured from the language 
 of S. John's Gospel,^ Cana was the scene not merely 
 of the occasional visits recorded, but of a lengthened 
 residence of our Lord in Galilee, its site becomes 
 doubly interesting. The name by which the place is 
 now known is still " Ghana^'^ or ''KJiana.'' The affix 
 ^l Jelil^ which Dr. Robinson ^ believed to be a still 
 further token of its identity with Cana of c^na of 
 Galilee^ I never heard in the neighborhood ^^^^®®- 
 nor on the spot. It has every characteristic which the 
 shght indications in the Gospel narrative require. It 
 is about four hours' journey from Nazareth ; about an 
 hom-'s journey from Sepphorieh, the traditional birth- 
 place of the Virgin, the seat of the Roman capital of 
 Galilee, Dio-C^sarea. The ruins of the modern, and 
 the vestiges of the ancient, village cover the rocky slope 
 of the hill which overhangs the northernmost extremity 
 of the plain. At the time of our visit (in the middle 
 of April) at this part of the plain was a swamp, almost 
 a lake,^ from the accumulation of recent rain. It is 
 probably from the neighborhood of this swamp that 
 the place derived its name of Cana^ or the Reedy ; and 
 the epithet of Galilee was added to distinguish it from 
 another Cana^^ one of the streams that flow into the Med- 
 iterranean, and so called doubtless for a similar reason, in 
 
 1 John ii. 1; iv. 46. 2 Biblical Researches, ii. 346. 
 
 3 From the top of Carmel it had quite the appearance of a lake. 
 
 4 Joshua xvi. 8 : xvii. 8. 
 
218 GALILEE. [III. 
 
 the tribe of Ephraim. Even on the dry rocky hill a few 
 tall reeds were growing amidst a quantity of fennel, to 
 vindicate the justice of the appellation. The ground is 
 perforated with several deep cavities. They might 
 have been tombs ; but were more probably cisterns. 
 Close under the village is a deep well, whence, if the 
 identification be correct, must have been the water 
 " which filled the water-pots up to the brim." ^ 
 Over one of the cavities a fig-tree — the only tree, if 
 I rightly remember, on the spot — spread its wide 
 green leaves, and recalled the shade of that fig-tree ^ 
 under which was seen, by the token that called him to 
 Christ, the one native of the village whose name has 
 come down to us, " Nathanael of Cana of Galilee." ^ 
 This is all that can be said to identify the spot. Yet, 
 if it be the place, the interest is enhanced by finding 
 that it stands at the entrance of one of the few wooded 
 glens in Palestine which can really claim to be called 
 beautiful ; and of which the romantic scenery, at least 
 to our modern notions, harmoniously blends with the 
 gay yet primitive festivity of that wedding-day which 
 has cast its brio;htness over all the marriages of 
 Christendom. 
 
 The glen leads, by a steep ascent of half an hour's 
 ride, into the presence of a locality of strangely differ- 
 ent associations. A huge wooded hill, parted from the 
 neighboring mountains by a deep, dry watercourse, 
 and called by the neighboring Arabs " Sliafat^ " or 
 '-'- Jafat^^ is, beyond all question, the Jotapata^^ of 
 
 1 John ii. 7. 
 
 2 John i. 50. 3 John xxi. 2. 
 
 4 Joseph. B. J. iii. 7. This, as well as the situation of Cana, is very well 
 given in Dr. Schultz's map of Galilee. By the assistance of this map, when 
 once in the Plain of Buttauf, we found these localities without a guide. 
 
in.] NAZARETH. 219 
 
 Josephus. There the Galilean Jews Intrenched them- 
 selves m a fortress, of which the ruins still remain 
 scattered over the hill ; and there Josephus, by his final 
 surrender of himself to the Roman army, saved the 
 life which his writings have rendered so far more val- 
 uable than he or Vespasian could at that time possibly 
 have anticipated. The spot, in connection with those 
 writings, is remarkable, as an instance of their general 
 exactness, combined with special inaccuracies. On the 
 one hand, the precipices are here, as in his account of 
 Jerusalem, prodigiously exaggerated. On the other 
 hand, the one singular peculiarity of the place is caught 
 and described. The hill is, as he says, enclosed in 
 other hills ; and, though so large and lofty in itself, is 
 invisible till you are close upon it. 
 
 Good Friday was spent at Nazareth. The fiirious 
 storm which on that day raged through the whole of 
 Syria, rendered it impossible to do more than Nazareth. 
 visit the well-known sanctuaries in the village.^ In 
 passing from one to the other, it was curious to observe 
 the different Eastern applications — so different from 
 our own — of the names of the great theological divis- 
 ions of Christendom. " What is this Church ? " I 
 asked from my Arab guide. " The Church of Rome," 
 he replied, meaning "the Church of New Rome — of 
 Constantinople — of the Roman Empire — of Greece." 
 " And this ? " " The Catholic Church ; " meaning the 
 Church of the Greeks who have become united to the 
 Roman Catholic Church, commonly called " United 
 Greeks " or " Greek Catholics." " And this ? " " The 
 Latin ; " meaning the Roman Catholic ChiuTh, to 
 which he himself belonged. We encamped by the 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. x. xiv. 
 
220 GALILEE. [III. 
 
 S]3ring of the Annunciation. Its source is within the 
 small Greek Church ; and it thence flows out into the 
 neighboring olive-grove to supply the town. Under 
 the guidance of Mr. Zeller, the Protestant Missionary, 
 stationed at Nazareth, we explored the remains of the 
 ancient cisterns on the hillside, which seem to indicate 
 both the antiquity of the situation, and also the fact 
 that the old town was on a somewhat higher elevation 
 than the modern. ■ 
 
 On the following day we ascended Mount Tabor. 
 Mount Tabor is the easternmost and southernmost ex- 
 tremity of the forestlike park which, overlapping the 
 Tabor. plain of Asocliis and the hills of Nazareth, 
 
 here runs out as if for one expiring effort into the green 
 woods which clothe the whole of the lower part of this 
 famous mountain. Its connection with Barak, its dis- 
 connection from the scene of the Transfiguration,^ I 
 have indicated elsewhere. But there are a few par- 
 ticulars attached to its modern history which demand 
 a notice here. The fortress of which the ruins crown 
 the summit had evidently four gateways, like those by 
 which the great Roman camps of our own country 
 were entered. By one of these gateways, Mr. Zeller 
 called my attention to an Arabic inscription, which he 
 had discovered on the spot, the only one on the moun- 
 tain. It lies on a broken fragment, and runs as follows: 
 — " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Mer- 
 ciful, those that spend their property for the glory of 
 God, and do not grudge what they have spent, will be 
 rewarded. Their reward is from their God, and they 
 have nothing to fear, nor will they suffer. Our Lord, 
 the mighty Sultan, the victorious, the sword of the 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. ix. 
 
m.] NAZARETH. 221 
 
 world and of the faith, the Sultan of Islam, the Kmg 
 Abubeker, the son of Khalil, the Prince of the Faith- 
 fill, ordered,^ the building of this blessed fortress on his 
 return from the East. The commencement of the 
 work was on the first day of the week, the fifth day of 
 the month Zilhijy, in the year 607. During the ad- 
 ministration of the Emir Ahme]idin-Lemin, the son of 
 Abdallah, the great King." 
 
 The contentions of the Holy Places have penetra- 
 ted even to the broad summit of this lonely mountain. 
 It is parcelled out in enclosures, belonging respectively 
 to the Greek and Latins ; one portion was ploughed 
 by the Mussulmans to prevent its occupation by the 
 Christians ; but it has been regained by one or other 
 of the rival churches. On the eastern extremity is 
 rising a Greek church, which owes its origin to the fol- 
 lowing story, curious as illustrating many legends of 
 earlier times. A Wallachian monk, of the name of 
 Erinna, is said to have received an intimation in his 
 sleep that he was to build a church on a mountain 
 shown to him in a dream.^ He wandered through 
 many countries, and found his mountain at last in 
 Tabor. There he lived on a tree which still remains, 
 and collected money from pilgrims, which at his death, 
 a few years ago, amounted to a sufficient sum to raise 
 the Church. He professed to be more than a hundred 
 years of age, and he was remarkable for his long beard, 
 and for a tame panther, which, like the ancient her- 
 mits, he was supposed to have as his constant com- 
 panion. 
 
 1 By "building" is probably meant "restoration." The date (in our 
 era) is a. d. 1210. The Sultan spoken of is the brother of Saladin, gener- 
 ally called SophacUn. 
 
 2 A similar story is told of the founder of S. John's College, Oxford. 
 
222 GALILEE. [III. 
 
 On the way between Tabor and Tiberias, we were 
 received by Aghyle Aga, a well-known Bedouin or 
 half-Bedouin chief in the neighborhood, who, after a 
 life of adventures, somewhat similar to those of David 
 at the court of Acliish, had acquired a certain reputa- 
 tion by the protection which he had extended to the 
 Christians of Nazareth and the neio-hborhood during 
 the disturbances of 1860. The reception was interest- 
 Bedouin i"g ^s bringing before us several of the well- 
 *^''^'- known traits of Arabian life depicted in the 
 
 Bible. The long tent of black goat's hair was entirely 
 open to the leeward side ; carpets and rugs were 
 spread on the ground, and a low divan was slightly 
 raised on cushions. The pegs of the tent were rough 
 stakes or pieces of wood. The " hammer " was a 
 large wooden mallet. The wife's tent was the same 
 as the other, only that no one enters it besides herself 
 and the chief, and hence all the valuables are kept 
 there. The meal, for the inadequacy of which Aghyle 
 Aga six times over repeated the most urgent apologies, 
 consisted of three courses. The first was in a larcre 
 pewter dish filled with small tender pieces of mutton, 
 taken with the fingers. The second was in a pewter 
 barrel, filled with sour milk (^Lebban), frothed like 
 cream, drunk with a cup, and a smaller pewter bowl, 
 filled with sweet milk (^Haleb^, to be drunk by raising 
 it to the mouth. In both were dipped the large flex- 
 ible rags of Arab cake or bread, thrown in profusion 
 on the carpets. The third stage consisted of a larger 
 bowl, filled with rice, which the two chiefs, who up to 
 this time had stood by watching our meal, now, when 
 requested to do so, sat down and devoured, rolling up 
 balls of rice in the hollow of their hands, and tossing 
 
III.] LAKE OF GENNESARETH. 223 
 
 tlie whole handful down their mouths with extraor- 
 dinary rapidity. 
 
 It is almost needless to point out in this the familiar 
 reminiscences of the tent of Abraham and the tent of 
 Jael, those two Biblical pictures of Patriarchal life. 
 There were the entreaties to stay, and partake of the 
 hospitality. " My lord, if now I have found favor in 
 thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy ser- 
 vant." ^ " Turn in, my lord, turn in to me." '^ There 
 is the meat from the flocks or herds " tender and 
 good," ^ " hastily dressed, and the morsel of bread to 
 comfort the heart ; " " fine meal kneaded, and made 
 into cakes on the hearth." * There is the " cream " ^ in 
 " the lordly dish," ^ as well as the sweet " milk instead 
 of water." There ^ is the host " standing by " whilst 
 the guests did eat." ^ There is the wife's tent close at 
 hand, but free from the intrusion of strangers.^ There 
 is the divan on which the sleeper might recline, raised 
 above the level ground ; ^^ and the rugs ^^ or carpets to 
 cover him.^2 There is the strong peg or stake of the 
 tent, and the huge wooden mallet to drive it into the 
 ground, or into the sleeper's temples. ^^ 
 
 On the evening of that day we reached the Lake 
 of Gennesareth. It had been arranged that on the 
 shores of its sacred waters we should pass our Easter 
 Sunday. Far away from the contentions which so 
 lamentably disfigure the relations of the various relig- 
 
 1 Gen. xviii. 3. 7 Gen. xviii. 8; Judges iv. 19, 25. 
 
 2 Judges iv. 18. 8 Gen. xviii. 8. 
 
 8 Gen. xviii. 7. 9 Gen. xviii. 9; Judges iv. 18, 20. 
 
 4 Gen. xviii. .5, 6, 7. 10 Judges v. 2. 
 
 5 Translated " butter." n Translated " mantle." 
 
 6 Gen. xviii. 8; Judges v. 25. 12 Judges iv. 18. 
 
 13 Judg. iv. 21 ; v. 26. 
 
224 GALILEE. III.] 
 
 ious communities of Modern Jerusalem, — that Easter 
 Day will be long remembered by every member of the 
 party. 
 
 The furious storm of Good Friday, which, we were 
 told, had made the Sea of Tiberias one sheet of snow- 
 white foam, gradually cleared away on Easter Eve. 
 Suddenly, as we rode across the desolate undulations 
 of the plain of Hattin, we came to the edge of the 
 hills which overhang the lake. When 1 first saw this 
 view nine years before, I felt, and strove to express ^ 
 that it was a moment, if any, when recollections of the 
 past are too powerful for any criticism of the actual 
 prospect, to determine whether it be tame and poor, 
 as some travellers have said, or eminently beautiful, as 
 others. That hesitation on this second sight of it was 
 entirely removed. No one who stood on those heights 
 on that evening could doubt the surpassing beauty of 
 the scene which lay before him, even had it been 
 devoid of any sacred interest. In one instant, as if 
 through a rent, opening in the earth beneath our feet, 
 flashed the whole expanse of the lake, as it lay in its 
 deep basin a thousand feet below us. The masses of 
 stormy cloud which were still flying to and fro, left 
 clear in the northern sky the white crown of Hermon ; 
 and the falling sun threw its soft light over the deep 
 descent, as we wound down the tortuous pathway, 
 round the ruined walls and battlements of Tiberias 
 to our encampment on the silent shore, — a silence 
 broken only by the gentle ripple of the waves on the 
 rough pebbly beach. 
 
 And hardly less beautiful was the dawn of the 
 Easter morning, when the sun behind a black bank of 
 
 1 Sinai and Palestine, c. x. p. 370. 
 
m.] LAKE OF GENNESARETH. 225 
 
 cloud rose over the wall of the mountains on the far- 
 ther side, themselves still dark in shadow, and poured 
 down its first rays upon the calm waters of the lake, 
 and the gray tops of the western hills were tinged 
 with golden light. . . . 
 
 In a long walk in the quiet afternoon of that Easter 
 Day above the shores of the lake almost to its southern 
 end, I was enabled to see more clearly than before the 
 exact scene of the exit of the Jordan. It creeps 
 silently through a flat grassy plain, and winds peace- 
 fully through the level. The rapid descent which it 
 makes farther to the south is not here visible. The 
 distant situation of the opening of the valley on this 
 plain through the eastern hills is worth noticing, as 
 showing how completely removed from the shores of 
 the lake is Um-keis (the ancient Gadara), which lies at 
 the head of this valley, and therefore how entirely 
 unsuitable to the incident of the demoniacs ^ in the 
 Gospel narrative, with which it has sometimes in later 
 times been connected. 
 
 On the following day we rode along the whole of 
 the western shore northwards. 
 
 The general features of the plain of Gennesareth 
 are even more marked than I had before represented 
 them. It is stamped as it were with a peculiar char- 
 acter by the deep rocky glen of the Valley of Doves 
 descending into it from the southwest. The situation 
 of the ancient fortress of Arbela, at the head of this 
 precipitous pass, makes it probable that this rather 
 
 1 1 may here take the opportunity of mentioning that a party of English- 
 men, who, in 1861, explored the Wady Fik on the Eastern shore (which I 
 had given as the probable scene of the transaction, Sinai and Palestine^ c. 
 X.), have stated to me considerable difficulties in the way of this identifica- 
 tion. 
 
 15 
 
226 GALILEE. [ni. 
 
 than any town in the level plain of Esdraelon, is the 
 fortress of Betharbel, in which, on the Assyrian inva- 
 sion, " the mother was dashed to pieces" (thrown down 
 the cliffs as it would seem), "upon her children."^ 
 The flights of wild hawks, doves, and jays, of brill- 
 iant plumage, over the rich plain more forcibly than 
 ever illustrated " the birds of the air " in the Para- 
 bles spoken by the lake -side ; whilst the intermix- 
 ture of corn-fields, thorn-trees, rocks, and pathways, 
 as represented in the great Parable of the Sower, 
 which I noticed before ^ in a single spot, seems to be 
 characteristic of the whole locality. 
 
 The disputed sites of the cities of Gennesareth 
 Gennesareth. must Still remain disputed. At Khan INiin- 
 yeh (or Ain-et-Tin,) the traces of artificial w^ork on 
 the rock which overhangs the spring — ■ cuttings 
 as if for streets or roads — add some slight confir- 
 mation to the theory that this was the situation of 
 Capernaum.^ The smooth white beach near Tabigah 
 suggests it as the probable scene of the interview with 
 the Seven Disciples.* The solid structures, of which 
 the ruins remain at Tell Hum, indicate a place of im- 
 portance ; but its distance from the plain, the absence 
 of any spring, and the slightness of the elevation on 
 which they stand, deprive it of any special appropriate- 
 ness for Capernaum. 
 
 From Tell Hum we rode to the northern extremity 
 of the lake. Here through a level plain, almost a 
 morass, entangled with thickets of oleander, which 
 cluster round its tributary brooks, the Jordan passes 
 into the lake under a group of five isolated palms. It 
 
 1 Hosea x. 14. 3 JUd. c x. 
 
 2 Sinai and Palestine, c. xiii. 4 John xxi. 3. 
 
m.] SAFED. 227 
 
 is already a tnrbid stream, carrying its brown color far 
 into the clear lake. But the swift and active descent 
 of its upper course is concealed within the walls of the 
 narrow gorge from which it issues into the plain. The 
 scene well suits the incident described by Josephus,^ 
 when his horse plunging in the morass threw him off. 
 On the gentle hill which rises immediately at the back 
 of the plain may be traced with sufficient accuracy the 
 situation of the northern Bethsaida, and the scene of 
 the incidents connected with it in the Gospel history. 
 On the first slope of the rising ground are the vestiges 
 of the village (Tell), supposed to mark the site of the 
 old town. On the second stao;e of the hill, imme- 
 diately above, is a broad green platform, where on the 
 " much grass " ^ the multitude may have been invited 
 to rest. On the third stage, at the summit of the 
 eminence, is a bare ridge, " the desert place," the 
 mountain to which our Lord may have retired "by 
 Himself alone," ^ overlooking from end to end the 
 whole lake, with the storm sweeping up it from the 
 south, and His disciples vainly toiling through the 
 waves as the shades of evening closed upon them.^ 
 
 It was two hours after sunset that, at the close 
 of a long day's ride, we mounted the steep safea. 
 ascent by which Safed is approached, and it was a 
 gladdening sound to hear the shout of welcome, almost 
 resembling a British cheer, with which the advanced 
 post of the Jews of Safed greeted in the darkness the 
 approach of the English Prince. Accompanied, pre- 
 ceded, followed by these Jewish colonists, some sing- 
 ing, some playing on tambours, some on foot, some on 
 
 1 In his " Life," § 72. 3 Mark vi. 31, 35, 40; John vi. 15. 
 
 2 Mark vi. 39 : John iv. 10. 4 Mark vi. 48 ; John vi. 16, 17, 18, 23. 
 
228 GALILEE. [HI. 
 
 liorseback, with tlieir infants in their arms, we reached 
 the encampment under the castle of Safed. It is 
 perched on an elevation so conspicuous as to give rise 
 to the notion that it may have been " the city set on a 
 hill." ^ From the summit of the castle, still rent in 
 many parts from the effects of the great earthquake of 
 1837, the view commands points in some respects pe- 
 culiar to itself. To the west and north the mountains 
 of Galilee intercept any further prospect. But on the 
 east, the eye actually looks down upon the flat tops of 
 the Trans- Jordanic hills, — those level, or at least 
 gently undulating plains, which gave that region the 
 name of " Misor," or " the Downs." A conspicuous 
 curving mountain ('' Kuleib," " the little heart ") 
 marks distinctly the centre of Bashan. The sea of 
 Galilee is unfolded in the most precise and character- 
 istic . form, even to the peculiar shape of the plain of 
 Gennesareth, the long precipitous defile of the Valley 
 of Doves, and the broad table plain of Hattin above, 
 crowned with the Mount of Beatitudes. On the slope 
 of the hill to the south, immediately facing Safed, is 
 visible a lono; low white buildino; which marks the site 
 of Meiron, the burial-place of Hillel and Shammai, the 
 centre of attraction to all the Jewish pilgrims of 
 Northern Palestine. 
 
 To be near these tombs, and to be within sight of 
 the sacred lake of Tiberias, seems to have been the 
 object of the colony of European Jews (for such they 
 are), which has congregated on the heights of Safed, 
 and rendered it, in spite of its absolute obscurity or 
 non-existence in earlier times, the fourth of the Holy 
 Places in Palestine in the eyes of modern Judaism. 
 
 1 Sinai and Palestine^ c. x. 
 
III.] KEDESH-NAPHTALI. 229 
 
 Safed is the modern sanctuaiy of the territory 
 now occupied by the tribe of Naphtah. A i^edesh- 
 day's journey northwards over bare hills and ^^p^*^^^'- 
 deep descending valleys, brought us to the site of 
 the true ancient sanctuary of the same great tribe, — 
 Kedesh-Naphtah, the '' Holy Place," the " City of 
 Refuge " of the tribe of Naphtali, the residence of 
 Barak, and the scene of the murder of Sisera, — the 
 burial-place, as the Jewish pilgrims of the Middle Ages 
 supposed, of Deborah, Barak, and Jael. Two green 
 plains succeed each other. The first, to the south, is 
 marked by a grove of terebinths. Here, if at all in 
 the neighborhood, was probably " the terebinth of the 
 unloading of tents," ^ under which Heber the Kenite 
 had pitched his encampment, and to which Sisera fled 
 for refuge. The second to the north, is immediately 
 under a rising ground occupied by the modern village, 
 still bearing the name of Kedes. No town in western 
 Palestine, with the exception of Jerusalem, Hebron, 
 and Shechem, has such evident vestiges of antiquity 
 and sacredness, as this remote northern sanctuary. 
 The summit of the hill is strewed with remnants of 
 ancient oil-presses, finely worked capitals,^ fragments 
 of ancient walls. Tombs of every kind are found in 
 the platform in front, and the valley behmd the vil- 
 
 1 See Lectures on the Jewish Churchy p. 361, (Am. ed.) 
 
 2 In the village the head of a female statue was offered to us. It is 
 apparently of a late Phoenician style. 
 
 I have dwelt at greater length on Kedesh- Naphtali because, though 
 described with his usual care by Dr. Robinson (Later Researches, 367- 
 369), there are in his account a few trifling inaccuracies: — 1. He speaks of 
 only one double sarcophagus. There are two. — 2. He omits to mention 
 the eagle sculptured on the portal of the westernmost edifice, which is 
 against his hypothesis of its being a Jewish synagogue. — 3. He did not 
 visit the other tombs, or the remains in the village. 
 
230 GALILEE, [HI. 
 
 lage ; tombs hewn out of the rock, — stone coffins 
 thrust into the side of the hill, — richly ornamented 
 sarcophaguses, raised on pedestals, double, as if for 
 man and wife. Not far from these last are the 
 remains of a solid massive building, believed by Dr. 
 Robinson to have been a synagogue, but, from the 
 eagle carved on its portal, as at Baalbec, more proba- 
 bly a heathen temple. Of all these remains there is 
 absolutely no history. We can but conjecture that 
 they are the continuation, probably through different 
 religions, of the original sanctity attached to the place 
 on the first conquest of Joshua ; if, indeed, that was 
 not itself engrafted on some earlier Canaanite worship, 
 bound up with the flowing springs and the green fields 
 that must always have given the spot a name and a 
 significance. There, — within sight of the city of 
 Jabin, his king, on the one hand (for wherever 
 Hazor be, it cannot be far distant), and the city of 
 Barak, his conqueror, — Sisera perished by the hand 
 of Jael. 
 
 The hills, which between Safed and Kedesh-Naph- 
 tali had been mostly bare, shortly afterwards, farther 
 north, were tufted with trees and thickets. And on 
 each side the prospect opens so as to include the best 
 views of this part of the country. On the west, the 
 hills of Naphtali extend to the sea. In the midst of 
 them on a crested heio-ht stands the castle of Tibnin, 
 seat of the Metawileh chiefs, whose tribes inhabit the 
 whole of this region. On the east, lies the plain of 
 the Upper Jordan ; the whole lake of Huleli (or 
 Merom) spread out in its wide basin, and on the north 
 the white cone of Lebanon, and the white wall of 
 Hermon. From the castle of Tibnin came Tamer 
 
m.] CJESAREA PHILIPPL 231 
 
 Bey, the Metawileli chief,^ with his magnificent hawks. 
 Far over the hills the party was scattered with a wide 
 dispersion, such as exactly recalled the incidents so 
 well described by Sir Walter Scott in the hawking 
 scene of the " Betrothed." In different groups we de- 
 scended through the woods, by the fine castle of 
 Hunin, down into the vale of the Jordan, crossed with 
 difficulty its many tributaries, and finally assembled for 
 our last mid-day meal in Palestine under the venerable 
 oak of Dan, which overhangs the Lower source of the 
 Jordan. 
 
 That evening we reached the upper source of the 
 river at Banias,^ and climbed to the little chapel of S. 
 George, above the cliff and the cave, from which the 
 sacred river issues. Our first day in the Holy Land 
 had led us through the ancient cathedral of the patron 
 saint whom the English Crusaders brought back with 
 them from Palestine ; our last, on S. George's day 
 (April 23), found us by this small shrine, where he 
 is revered as a Mussulman saint. 
 
 And now, having followed the scenes of the Gospel 
 history through " Judea, Samaria, and Galilee," we 
 parted from them at the last spot to which the journeys 
 of our Lord can be traced, — "the coasts of Caesarea 
 Philippi." 3 
 
 1 The Metawileh tribes, who inhabit these hills, are a colony of 
 " Shiahs," the Persian disciples of Ali. M. Renan told me that he had 
 seen pictures of the Shah of Persia in their cottages. 
 
 1 mention this, because notices appeared in some foreign journals that 
 the Prince of Wales had been received with acclamations by the Druze 
 chiefs. The Druze chiefs we never saw. The mistake probably arose 
 from this one day's meeting with the leaders of the Metawileh tribes from 
 Tibnin. 
 
 2 Sinai and Palestine, c. xi. 8 Matt. xvi. 13. 
 
HEEMON AND LEBANON. 
 
IV. HERMON AND LEBANON. 
 
 THE remaining period of our stay in Syria was de- 
 voted to those two great parallel mountain ranges 
 from which the whole physical structure of Syria 
 takes its rise.^ 
 
 On leaving the Holy Land, the interest of the coun- 
 try changes its character. It belongs for the most part 
 to secular geography and history. But this secondary 
 interest is of so peculiar a kind and attaches itself so 
 closely to the Land, of which these regions form the 
 outposts, that a few words may be added to fill up the 
 very imperfect account given of these parts in my 
 former work. 
 
 We were enabled to explore the two singular valleys 
 which intersect the lower regions of these great moun- 
 tain chains. The lirst is the Wady-et-teim. wady-et- 
 This is the valley which divides from each '^^^^' 
 other the southern portions of the Lebanon and Anti- 
 Lebanon, as the Beka'a or Coele Syria divides their 
 northern portions. It is formed by the Hasbany River, 
 — the river of Hasbeya, — which is, in strict geogra- 
 phy though not in history, the highest branch and 
 source of the Jordan. It has a sacredness of its own, 
 though neither Biblical nor classical, as the chief seat of 
 the Druzes, who settling there in the eleventh century, 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine^ c. xii. 
 
236 LEBANON. [IV. 
 
 under their founder Derazy, have since spread through 
 the surrounding hills and valleys in every direction. 
 
 The range which forms the western boundary of the 
 Wady-et-Teim is, in fact, the south-eastern spur of 
 Lebanon ; and from the highest ridge of this is obtained 
 one of the best geographical views (if I may so express 
 myself) that I ever saw. The double lines of Leb- 
 anon and Anti-Lebanon are full in sight ; and the 
 Jordan is visible in all its upper stages, through the 
 whole length of the valley of its northern tributary the 
 Hasbany ; through the whole valley of the lake of 
 Merom, down through the opening gap, to the waters 
 still distinct, and seen for the last time, of the lake of 
 Gennesareth. The Litany "^ (or Leontes) flows beneath. 
 It parts asunder the two portions of Lebanon, which 
 else would naturally be one ; and which still cling so 
 closely to each other that the dividing river is almost 
 lost in their narrow embrace. This is the peculiarity 
 which has of late years given such a stimulus to the 
 curiosity of travellers concerning it. From the mo- 
 ment that it leaves the broad plain of Coele Syria, in 
 which it rises, it plunges into a long ravine, so deep and 
 so precipitous that its course can with difficulty be 
 traced from the overhanging brow of the rocky emi- 
 nences which close it on either side. And it so com- 
 pletely cuts off communication from either side to the 
 other that, but for a singular freak of nature, no inter- 
 course could take place across its banks for a course of 
 nearly thirty miles. This fortunate freak is the natu- 
 ral bridge (the Kuweh), which consists of a solid mass 
 of earth or rock that has fallen over its course, and in 
 that one single spot, at the foot of the rocks, allows of 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. xii. 
 
IV.] HERMON. 237 
 
 a transit from east to west of the stream.^ So it rushes 
 through this dark and winding depth till, at the first 
 wider opening which it meets, it suddenly turns west- 
 ward under the huge precipice of the castle of Esh- 
 Shukif or Belfort ; a castle, as its name implies, built 
 by the Crusaders, but raised on the foundations or out 
 of the remains of some older fortress, intended to 
 guard the gorge, which once more closes in and con- 
 veys this most furious, but most secluded, of rivers 
 into the Mediterranean Sea not far from Tyre. 
 
 From this wild valley and mysterious river, the 
 passage over Mount Hermon, or Anti-Lebanon, again 
 brought us within the range of an antique sanctity, of 
 which the traces remain everywhere, but of which 
 the precise origin is veiled in obscurity. 
 
 I have elsewhere ^ shown that Mount Hermon is 
 probably the true scene of the Transfiguration, the 
 " high mountain " ^ above Caesarea Philippi ; and, if 
 so, the only one of all the eminences mentioned in the 
 New Testament, which is called " the Holy Moun- 
 tain." * In the Old Testament, besides the names of 
 Hermon, Senir, and Sion, it seems also to have borne 
 that of Baal-Hermon, " the sanctuary ^ of Hermon.'* 
 
 Of this sacredness the proofs are manifold. It is, as 
 
 1 The description of this bridge and of the Litany generally, is admirably 
 given by Dr. Robinson {Lat. Res. 422-424), though with a touch of ex- 
 aggeration very unusual in his sober pages. I cannot quote this work 
 without again bearing my humble testimony (with such slight exceptions 
 as I have here and elsewhere ventured to notice) to his rare merits as an 
 accurate, observant, and powerful describer of physical and historical 
 geography. 
 
 2 Sinai and Palestine^ c. xi. 3 Matt. xvii. 1. 
 
 4 2 Peter i. 18. 
 
 5 Judges iii. 3. " Mount Baal Hermon. " See Mr. Grove on this word 
 iu the Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
238 TEMPLES OF HERMON. IV.] 
 
 Dr. Robinson truly remarks, " girded with ancient 
 Temples of temples.^ They are found in all situations ; 
 Hermon. crowuiug liills and mountain tops, or secluded 
 in valleys and deep gorges. The founders and wor- 
 shippers have disappeared for unknown ages ; ^ Avhether 
 they were Phoenicians or Gr?eco-Syrians we cannot 
 tell; they have left behind no trace but these their 
 works, and no record how or why these works were 
 erected." That on its summit, of which some ruins 
 are still to be traced,^ was noticed by Jerome. To this, 
 on its heights or in its close neighborhood, may be 
 added no less than eighteen. Seven are to be seen 
 on its more southern uplands, Rukleh, Kul'at Bostra, 
 Hibbaryieh, Neby Sufa, Deir-el-Ashayr, Burkush. 
 That of Neby Sufa " stands facing the east,^ directly 
 over against Hermon, in his most imposing aspect." 
 That of Hibbaryieh " fronts directly on the great 
 chasm of Wady Shiba, looking up the mighty gorge, 
 as if to catch the first beams of the mornino; sun risino* 
 over Hermon."^ That of Rukleh, which is further 
 east, "fronts westward" also "towards the Mount of 
 Hermon," and is distinguished by a finely-carved hu- 
 man countenance, as if intended for Baal or Astarte.^ 
 That of Deir-el-Ashayr^ fronts eastward, and is re- 
 markable as consisting of a double edifice, one below 
 the other ; ^ as on a larger scale at Baalbec. 
 
 Eleven more can be traced in the passes of the 
 Anti-Lebanon westward of Damascus. One, indeed 
 
 1 Rob. Lat. Res. 432. 6 Md. 417. 
 
 2 Ibid. iii. 418. 6 jMd. 436. 
 
 3 Porter in Rob. Lat. Res. 432. 7 Jbid. 437. 
 
 4 Rob. Lat. Res. iii. 426. 
 
 8 Of this there is a representation in Mr. Bedford's Photographs; proba- 
 bly the only one ever taken of the ruijis. 
 
IV.] HERMON. 239 
 
 two, stand over the source of Ain Fijeh, as if to con- 
 secrate that most abundant of all the Syrian springs, 
 the supposed source of the Barada. Large traces of 
 another, also in connection with the river, are to be 
 seen at Kefr Zeit.^ Another, of which the many co- 
 lumnar fragments give its name to the village where 
 they are fovmd, " Kefr-el-Awamid," "the village of 
 the columns," is near Abila, and must have faced tow- 
 ards the sacred hill, now crowned by the alleged 
 tomb of Abel ; the tomb itself, as it would seem, plant- 
 ed on a more ancient sanctuary. Two or three cluster 
 on the slopes of the hill below Bludan. By one of 
 these stands a clump of aged ilexes, perhaps, with the 
 exception of that of Hazuri, near Banias, the best hke- 
 ness in Syria of the ancient groves of Astarte. On a 
 rude altar among the trees, by an immemorial usage 
 which has given to the spot the name of Um-es-Shu- 
 kakif,^ " the mother of fragments," the neighboring 
 villagers are in the habit of breaking earthen jars. 
 The hill of Nebi Yunas (the Prophet Jonah), above 
 Bludan, is, in like manner, fall of similar remains. At 
 its foot, in the plain of Suraya, are two evidently con- 
 secrated to the spring which gushes out from its rocks 
 (^Aln Fowar). Halfway up is a third; on its summit 
 are two, one of more antique appearance than the 
 other; both commanding a magnificent view of Her- 
 mon and the surrounding valleys.^ 
 
 Two or three other temples exist not far off: Medjil, 
 further south, and Ain Ata, farther north, in the plain 
 
 1 Robinson, Lat. Res. 478. 
 
 2 Porter's Five Years in Damascus, i. 281. 
 
 8 To this array of heathen sanctuaries must be added the legends of 
 later Jewish or Mussulman tradition which are given in Sinai and 
 Palestine, c. xii. 
 
240 HERMOK [IV. 
 
 of the Beka'a, or Coele Syria. But Baalbec stands su- 
 Baaibec. preme, and may well close the series which 
 has been given of the sanctuaries of Anti-Lebanon* 
 Its identification with any Biblical site must remain 
 extremely uncertain. It may possibly be Baalath, the 
 frontier city of Solomon, or Baal-Hamon, the pleasure 
 garden of the Canticles, or Baal-Hermon, the " sanc- 
 tuary of Baal in Hermon," or Baal Gad^ ("the gath- 
 ering of Baal,") " under Hermon." Against each of 
 these suppositions there are objections, which must 
 prevent us from coming to any positive conclusion on 
 the subject. Of the general importance of Baalbec in 
 ancient times, however, there can be no question. 
 
 The size and beauty of the buildings render them at 
 once a physical landmark and a historical monument 
 which no notice of Syria ought to omit. " In vastness 
 of plan combined with elaborateness and delicacy of 
 execution, they seemed to surpass all others in West- 
 ern Asia, in Africa, and in Europe." The ranges of 
 columns 2 which give to the edifices their peculiar 
 grace belong to the same age of later Roman mag- 
 nificence which has left so many proud memorials of 
 itself throuo;hout the East. But there are touches of 
 an earlier antiquity which give it a true connection 
 with the history of Palestine and Egypt. 
 
 Its situation was probably fixed by the necessity of 
 a sanctuary to greet the travellers and merchants on 
 the great caravan route between Damascus and Tyre, 
 
 1 Baalath (1 Kings ix. 28), Baal-ffa7non, Cant. viii. 11, Baal-liermon^ 1 
 Chron. v. 23 ; Judges iii. 3. Baal Gad, Joshua xi. 16. Several of these 
 names may in fact be synonymous for the same place. Baalath is advo- 
 cated by Mr. Hogg {The Names of Baalbec, p. 2-4:.) Baal Gad by 
 Ritter (ii. 230). 
 
 2 Eobinson's Lat. Res. 517. 
 
IV.] BAALBEC. 241 
 
 as Petra between Damascus and the Gulf of Elath. 
 Its name, even if we cannot connect it with any 
 BibHcal spot, evidently points to its connection with 
 Baal, — "the assembly or gathering of Baal," ^ — as 
 its Greek name " Heliopolis " shows the identification 
 of Baal with the Sun. Baal was in Greek mythology, 
 identified, as the supreme God, with Jupiter; as the 
 Sun-god with Apollo ; and hence in the descriptions 
 of different temples included in the vast sanctuary has 
 arisen, both in ancient and modern times, a confusion 
 between the two which it is now almost impossible to 
 rectify. 2 Like the temples of Baal ^ at Samaria and at 
 Gades,* it included the inferior deities as well as the 
 chief Sun-god himself. " To the Gods of Heliopolis " 
 is the inscription which still testifies to the plurality of 
 divinities worshipped there. 
 
 The influence of Egypt is indicated not only by the 
 legend of the sacred image ^ brought from the Egyptian 
 city of the sun, — " On" "Heliopolis," but by some 
 striking peculiarities of Egyptian architecture : as for 
 example, the Egyptian symbol of a winged globe is in 
 one of the recesses of the great court ; an Egyptian 
 capital crowns one of the columns of the lesser Tem- 
 ple ; and the crested eagle with its outspread wings 
 in the portal occupies the same relative position, and 
 apparently represents the same idea, as the blue wings 
 over the Egyptian doorways. " Under the shadow of 
 
 1 " Bekka," is the same word as " Mecca," the m and b being inter- 
 changed as in the name Baalbec itself, sometimes Mnalhec. Bee is to 
 press, as in a crowd; Mek, to suck out as a young camel the milk from the 
 udder. I derive this information from Dr. Vandyck, of Beirut. 
 
 2 See Mr. Hogg on the Names of Baalbec, p. 47. 
 8 2 Kings X. 26, 27. 
 
 * Liv. xxi. 22. 
 
 6 Macrobius, Saturn, i. 23 (Robinson's Lat. Res. 518.) 
 16 
 
242 HERMON. [IV. 
 
 thy wings shall be my refuge," is the more general 
 expression in which the figure appears in the Biblical 
 imagery. " The son of righteousness shall rise with 
 healing in his wings,^^ ^ is the figure which is more 
 directly illustrated by the eagle of Baalbec. 
 
 Finally, the huge substructions of the outer enclos- 
 ure probably point to the earliest foundation of the 
 building, Phoenician, Jewish, or Syrian. The three 
 vast stones, which for a long period gave to the whole 
 building the name of the " Threestone " {^TriUtJiOTi), 
 exceed in size even those of Hebron or Jerusalem, 
 and with the still vaster stone ^ on which they rest, 
 and which has nearly escaped observation from its 
 being also the corner-stone of the wall, present the 
 most £i;io;antic masses of hewn stone that are to be 
 found in the world. In the adjacent quarry are to 
 be seen the stones still standing cut out of the rock, 
 like tall trees waiting to be felled ; one already lies 
 prostrate with the lines drawn across its two ends, as 
 if for the cutting off of the unfinished part. 
 
 Within the precincts of the temple of Baalbec, the 
 worship of Baal lingered to the latest days of Pagan- 
 ism,^ with a union of licentiousness and ferocity which 
 renders the spot a memorial of the ancient Canaanite 
 religion, on its darker side, as its magnificence and 
 beauty recall the brighter and nobler side of the faith 
 of the whole ancient world. 
 
 I have given this brief summary of the sanctuaries 
 of the Anti-Lebanon, because some of them were new 
 to me, and because attention has hardly been suffi- 
 
 1 Malachi iv. 2. 
 
 2 It is of a dai-ker color and is hewn away at the top. It is sixty-eight 
 feet long; the others are sixtj^-four. 
 
 s Eobinson's Lat. Res. 522, 523. 
 
IV.] DAMASCUS. 243 
 
 ciently called to tlie number of temples wliicli attest 
 its ancient sanctity. 
 
 In point of time, in the Prince's tour, Baalbec in- 
 tervened between the two chief cities of the Anti- 
 Lebanon and Lebanon, Damascus and Beirut. It was 
 after leaving Hasbeya and Rasheya, both memorable 
 as being the first scenes of the massacres of 1860, — 
 that we approached Damascus by that splen- Damascus. 
 did view ^ which I need not here again describe, but 
 which still appeared to me to stand amongst the fore- 
 most in the world. There are other views more beau- 
 tiful or more instructive. There can hardly be another 
 at once so beautiful and so instructive. " This is 
 indeed worth all the toil and danger which it has 
 cost me to come here," was the expression used but 
 a few days later on the same spot by the distinguished 
 writer^ whose premature death at Damascus, almost 
 immediately afterwards, gave a mournful significance 
 to w^ords which every traveller will feel to be true. 
 
 Our descent to the city was accompanied by the 
 crowd and tumult which always greeted the Prince's 
 arrival. But it is worth noticing, as a proof of the 
 deeply seated irritation of the Mussulman population 
 of Damascus against the Powers of Christendom, that, 
 here alone of all the Eastern cities through which he 
 passed, was there any indication of a wish to withhold 
 the respect due to his rank and position. Along the 
 streets and bazaars many a Mussulman remained sullen 
 and immovable on his seat, instead of rising to salute 
 the long cavalcade as it approached. A message from 
 
 1 Sinai and Palestine, c. xii. 
 
 2 Henry Thomas Buckle died at Damascus, May 29, 1862. 
 
244 DAMASCUS. [IV. 
 
 the Pasha afterwards corrected this unusual sign of 
 aversion to the appearance of a Christian Prince. But 
 the natural feeling of the populace was not to be 
 mistaken. 
 
 It was in the interval between my two visits that 
 the terrible tragedy had taken place, which will render 
 the summer of 1860 forever dark in the annals of 
 Damascus. 
 
 The story of these events, which we heard on the 
 spot from eye-witnesses, has been told, and will doubt- 
 less often be told again in a fuller shape than can be 
 given here. But the view of the Christian quarter, as 
 we saw it, will gradually disappear, and with it the 
 actual monument (so to speak) of the great catastrophe. 
 From well-built streets we passed into a vast scene 
 of ruin, extending over probably a fourth part of the 
 city. A few buildings were rising again, but most of 
 the houses remained nearly in the condition in which 
 they were discovered after having been fired and 
 plundered. In those of the wealthy merchants the 
 traces of gilding and painting still remained on the 
 broken walls. The great church of the Greek Patri- 
 archarte of Syria, which had for many generations been 
 transferred to Damascus from Antioch, and has been 
 since these events transferred from Damascus to Bei- 
 rut, is shattered to pieces. Mosaics, marble columns, 
 cloisters, have all disappeared. One vast mosaic alone 
 of the Virgin is left, riddled with shot ; and the mar- 
 ble pavement of the altar can still be traced, to which 
 the Christians fled for refuge, and were there slaugh- 
 tered by hundreds, like the Jews in the last siege of 
 Jerusalem. Abd-el-Kader, the soldier and theologian 
 united in one, whose heroic resistance to the fanaticism 
 
IV.] DAMASCUS. 245 
 
 of his co-religlonists furnishes so rare an example of 
 this virtue, rare both to Mussulmans and Christians, 
 received with graceful modesty the compliments which 
 the Prince paid to him for his conduct on this occasion. 
 " It was no more than my duty. My religion would 
 not allow me to do otherwise than I did." So deep an 
 impression had been made upon his mind by the trans- 
 action, that, when asked some questions respecting the 
 books of the Old Testament, the only remark which he 
 made in answer was that he believed the massacres of 
 Damascus to have been foretold by the Prophet Isaiah 
 — alluding, no doubt, to the words " Damascus shall 
 be a ruinous heap," ^ — as true of the city after this 
 devastation by its own inhabitants, as after any of its 
 many sieges by foreign invaders. 
 
 Of the antiquities and traditional localities of Da- 
 mascus, I saw much more than on my former visit, 
 chiefly through the kindness and intelhgence of the 
 excellent Presbyterian missionary, Mr. Robson. 
 
 The great Mosque, once the Church of S. John, for- 
 merly a heathen temple, till the last two years had 
 been closed aojainst Christians. The main cause of 
 this exclusion was the fear lest they should gain access 
 to a sacred room, where (as in the Mosque of Omar at 
 Jerusalem) every prayer is presumed to be granted. 
 It is a small chamber, begrimed with dust, and covered 
 with the names of Mussulman pilgrims, in what is 
 called the Minaret of Isa (Jesus), so called from the 
 belief that on that minaret, and into that chamber, He 
 will descend to judge the world. 
 
 The " Place " or Mosque of Abraham, at Birzeh, 
 about four miles from Damascus, to which attention 
 
 1 Isaiah xvii. 1. 
 
246 DAMASCUS. [IV. 
 
 had been called since my first visit, I now saw, and 
 have elsewhere described at length. ^ In itself it has 
 but little interest. But its situation is remarkable, in 
 the corner of the vast plain, just where the bare hills, 
 intersected by a deep ravine, descend on the mass of 
 verdure which reaches up to the very foot of the 
 rocks. Its connection with Abraham is the oldest 
 local tradition which can be ascertained in or around 
 Damascus. 
 
 The '' Straight Street," 2 the " Via Recta " of the 
 Roman city, is apparent to any careful observer. The 
 eastern entrance of the main thoroughfare of the mod- 
 ern town is a triple gateway of Roman architecture. 
 It is evident that each of its three arches opened 
 upon a street — the central arch on the broad highway 
 — the two lesser ones on the side streets, parted from 
 the main street by colonnades, of which a few frag- 
 ments still remain. For about a hundred yards, the 
 straight direction of this thoroughfare is still discern- 
 ible. It is then choked up by houses and bazaars ; but 
 enoup-h remains to prove that it once ran, like all the 
 main streets in the rectangular cities of the Syro-Gre- 
 cian or Syro-Roman times, right through Damascus. 
 The traditional " house of Judas, " where St. Paul 
 lodged, is sufficiently within the track to render the 
 tradition possible. 
 
 From Damascus we turned westward, and by tlie 
 route of Ain Fijeh, Abilah and Baalbec, reached Beirut 
 on the 6th of May. This was the last of the Prince's 
 remarkable approaches to the great Eastern cities, and 
 
 1 Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, p. 532, (Am. ed.) 
 
 2 Acts ix. 14. 
 
IV.] BEIRtlT. 247 
 
 demands special notice from its contrast to the entry 
 into Damascus. The welcome from tlie Christian pop- 
 ulation — now swelled far beyond its original propor- 
 tions by the immigration of the fugitives from Damascus 
 — was very striking. The ever deepening and multi- 
 plying crowd — the women wrapped in their white 
 sheets — monks, soldiers, beggars, mingling in the 
 procession, — the Greek clergy standing by the road- 
 side throwing up incense as the Prince passed, — boys 
 hanging on the branches of the wayside trees, inev- 
 itably, from their posture and their eastern costume, 
 recalling the story and the pictures of Zacclneus, — the 
 dust thickening, till the whole scene was enveloped as 
 if in a dense cloud, — this was " the day the like of 
 which," as it was said at the time, " Beirut had never 
 seen before." They marvelled much to see the Prince 
 enter in his simple travelling costume, without a crown 
 on his head, or even a white plume in his hat ; but 
 they consoled themselves with the thought, that, 
 had he travelled in royal pomp, it would have been 
 impossible for him to have seen anything. 
 
 From Beirut the Prince visited Tyre and Sidon ^ on 
 the south, and the entrance of the Lycus or Dog River 
 on the north. 
 
 When I had visited this spot in 1853, the inscrip- 
 tions and sculptures, which have made it so ^^^ p 
 famous, had been very imperfectly deci- ^*^^^" 
 phered. Since that time, the researches and the 
 contests of scholars have fixed the attention of 
 travellers on these curious memorials, here alone in 
 the world united, of the three ancient Empu'es of 
 
 1 See Sinai and Palestine, c. vi. 
 
248 BEIRtfT. [IV 
 
 Egypt, Assyria, and Rome — to which, in more modem 
 times, have been added the marks of the early Empire 
 of the Turks, and the present Empire of the French. 
 These two more recent inscriptions may be briefly 
 dismissed. The first, left by Selim I., the conqueror 
 of Egypt and Palestine, is near the bridge which spans 
 the river. The second was written to commemorate 
 the occupation of Syria by the French army in 1860.^ 
 But those of the three former Empires are of perma- 
 nent interest, the more so as their gradual resuscita- 
 tion from the neglect of centuries has kept paca with 
 the gradual advance of a more critical knowledge of 
 the ancient world ; and they have thus become, as it 
 were, water-marks of its rising tide. The first that 
 attracted the attention of modern travellers was the 
 Latin inscription of the Emperor Antoninus to com- 
 memorate the cutting of the Roman road through the 
 pass. This, which remained unobserved through the 
 Middle Ages, was not beyond the comprehension of 
 the travellers of the 17th and 18th centuries ; and they 
 accordingly have all noted and copied it. But the 
 others, which have within the last few years riveted 
 the regards of Europe, were then hardly thought 
 worth a passing remark. Maundeville imagined them 
 to be " perhaps the representations of some persons 
 buried hereabouts." Pococke saw in them only " some 
 small figm'es of men in relief .... very much de- 
 
 1 It has sometimes been said that the French army erased one of the 
 ancient inscriptions in order to substitute their own. This is not the case. 
 The tablet on which their inscription (questionable, perhaps, under any 
 circumstances) is written, though ancient, was blank. It is the one marked 
 by Dr. Robinson {Lat. Res. p. 619), who saw it in 1852, as "No. 1, square 
 at top; no fij^re, apparently no sculpture." 
 
IV.] BEIRUT. 249 
 
 faced by time." ^ The Egyptian scholars first demanded 
 for them the celebrity which they have since acquired. 
 M. De Saulcy afterwards denied that any were Egyp- 
 tian, and claimed them all for Assyria. It is now cer- 
 tain that of the nine tablets three are Egyptian, 
 and six Assyrian ; although it may be argued ftirther ^ 
 that Egyptian tablets have been, in some instances, 
 appropriated by the Assyrian invaders six centuries 
 afterwards, as one, at least, has been appropriated by 
 the French invaders nearly three thousand years 
 afterwards. 
 
 It is on these tablets alternating along the face of 
 the cliff upon the ancient road, that the interest of 
 the Bibhcal student is chiefly fixed. 
 
 There, side by side, we encounter the figures of the 
 earliest and latest oppressors of Israel, — Rameses 
 and Sennacherib.^ Kameses must have passed by that 
 road at a time when the course of Sacred history had 
 hardly penetrated into Syria. His memorials can 
 scarcely seem more ancient to us than they did to the 
 first Grecian travellers who saw and recorded these or 
 like vestiges of his conquests. When we trace the 
 well-known figures — exactly as we see them on the 
 temples of Thebes ^ — the King and the God, as usual, 
 giving and receiving offerings — it is with much the 
 
 1 See Robinson, Lat. Res. p. 623. 
 
 2 Ibid. 622. 
 
 8 See Lectures on the History of the Jewish Churchy p. 100, (Am. ed.) 
 4 The Egyptian sculptures are less distinct than the Assyrian. But the 
 figures are unmistakably Egyptian ; and though, as I saw ttiem, it was 
 difficult to conceive how Dr. Lepsius could have read the hieroglyphics, 
 yet it was equally difficult to conceive how Dr. Robinson (p. 620) and 
 others should have failed to see the figures. The fact is that, as he himself 
 suggests, " under different conditions of light and shade," both sculp- 
 tures and inscriptions become more or less visible or invisible. 
 
250 BEIRUT. [IV. 
 
 same sense of remote antiquity as that with which 
 Herodotus (if so be) must have chmbed the same 
 pathway, and " in the part of Syria called Palestine " ^ 
 (to use his own words), " himself saw the monuments 
 of Sesostris still in existence." 
 
 But the Assyrian tablets, if they do indeed contain 
 the name, as they undoubtedly represent the country 
 and empire, of Seyinacherib^ have a still more striking 
 connection with the ancient history of Israel and of 
 Syria. In the speech which is reported as delivered 
 by his messenger in the historical narrative of the 
 Prophet Isaiah,2 the King of Assyria thus describes 
 his march into Palestine : — " By the multitude of my 
 chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, 
 to the ' edge ' of Lebanon ; and I have cut down the 
 height of his cedars and the beauty of his fir-trees ; 
 and I entered into the height of his border, and the 
 forest of his ' park.' " " I have digged and drunk 
 water ; " "I have made a ' bridge.' " ^ 
 
 " The multitude of his chariots," such as they are 
 seen on the Assyrian monuments of the farther east, 
 must have wound their difficult way through these 
 romantic passes, up to the very *' heights of the moun- 
 tam " rancres, and along; " the extreme edo;es of Leba- 
 
 1 Herod, ii. 106. The word which Herodotus uses is orrfkai. But this 
 is frequently applied to slabs or tablets, as well as to pillars; and there 
 can thus be but little doubt that these are the monuments Avhich he pro- 
 fesses to have seen. When we combine this fact with the frequent 
 representations of a king bearing the same name (even although that 
 name may be wrongly read), on the Egyptian temples, in connection with 
 acts of conquest and triumph, we may safely argue (in contradiction to 
 recent doubts), that there is a solid foundation for the history of a great 
 Egyptian conqueror, whose arms extended as least as far as Syria. 
 
 2 Isa. xxxvii. 24, 25. 
 
 8 £-Qi]Ka ye(j>vpav. Isa. xxxvii. 25. 
 
IV.] THE CEDARS. 251 
 
 non," — along the banks of the streams which he 
 drained off by his armies, or over which he threw 
 bridges for them to pass. But there was one spot 
 more sacred than all, to which the conqueror boasts 
 that he had penetrated. He had gone into " the ex- 
 tremest height of Lebanon, the forest of its park : " 
 and there he had cut down with ruthless insolence " the 
 height of its cedars, the beauty of its fir-trees." ^ 
 
 These words may well be taken as an introduction 
 to the next scene to which the course of our The Cedars. 
 journey led us. We can hardly fail to see their ap- 
 phcation, if not to the actual grove of the present Ce- 
 dars of Lebanon, at any rate to spots so like it, that 
 the description of the one may justly be regarded as 
 the description of the other. 
 
 Often as the Cedars have been seen, yet, as in the 
 case of the first view of Niagara, or the first view of 
 Jerusalem, an interest attaches to each new impression 
 formed by every traveller who for the first time ap- 
 proaches them. Li 1853 I had been prevented from 
 visiting them by the snow which at that early season 
 rendered them inaccessible, and on the present occasion 
 the same obstacle shut us out from the usual route over 
 the crest of the mountain from Baalbec, or even over 
 its western shoulder by Afka. For this reason we 
 approached the place from Tripoli. As the valley of 
 Hasbeya is the sacred country of the Druzes, so the 
 valleys and hills between Tripoli and Ehden, converg- 
 ing towards the deep glen of the " Holy River," the 
 Kadisha, — probably so called from its numerous mon- 
 
 1 I have left this rendering of the word in the English version un- 
 changed. It may, however, be "cypresses" or "pines," or, perhaps 
 even " young cedars." 
 
252 THE CEDARS. [IV. 
 
 asteries, — form the Kesrouan^ the sacred country of 
 the Maronites, the fierce Christian sect with which the 
 Druzes are at deadly war. On the edge of the river 
 is Kanobin (^Coenohiurn) ^ the residence of their Patri- 
 arch. On the heights above is their chief village Eh- 
 den. It is from this village that the ascent is made to 
 the Cedars. 
 
 A wide view opens of the long terraces of the Mo- 
 raines ^ (to use the technical name) of ancient glaciers 
 descending into the valley. A green slip of cultivated 
 land reaches up into the verge of their desolate fields. 
 Behind them is a semicircle of the snowy range of the 
 summit of Lebanon. Just in the centre of the A^ew, 
 — in the dip between the Moraines and the snow-clad 
 hills beyond, — is a single dark massive clump, the 
 sole spot of vegetation that marks the mountain wil- 
 derness. This is the Cedar grove. It disappears as we 
 ascend the intervening range, and does not again pre- 
 sent itself till we are close upon it. Then the exact- 
 ness of the Prophetic description comes out. It is 
 literally on the very " edge " of the height of Lebanon, 
 a " park " or " garden " of the forest ; as truly as the 
 " Jardin " or " garden " well kno\\Ti to Swiss travellers 
 in the bosom of Mont Blanc. It is indeed worthy, 
 from its mysterious elevation and seclusion, to be ranked 
 by the Prophet Ezekiel as the *' Garden of God." 2 It 
 
 1 See J. H. Hooker, M. D., on the Cedars of Lebanon, Nnt. Hht. Rev. 
 V. 12, which contains the most complete scientific account of the cedars. 
 
 2 Ezek. xxxi. 8, 9. "The Cedars in the Garden of God ... all the 
 trees of Eden that were in the Garden of God envied him." Gesenius 
 interprets Eden here of the actual village, often mentioned in these pages, 
 Ehden. It is said hy Arabic scholars, that the difference of orthography- 
 is too great to admit of this identification. But the comparison of the 
 Cedar Grove to the " Garden of God" remains unshaken. 
 

 PLAN OP THE CEDAK3 OF LEBANON, AS SURVEYED BY COHJIANDEll A. L. MANSELL, E.N. 
 
 {PMished by permission o/ADMiaAL TViSHINOTON, K.N.) 
 1 print indicate the number of trees in eacli group ; tlie figures in italics, the height in feet above the level of the i 
 
IV.] THE CEDARS. 253 
 
 stands as if on an island eminence, broken into seven ^ 
 knolls, of which six are arranged round the seventh, 5 
 square mount in the midst of which stands a rude 
 Maronite chapel. This variation of level and outline 
 makes the whole group a kind of epitome of forest 
 scenery. The outskirts of the eminence are clothed 
 with the younger trees, whose light feathery branches 
 veil the more venerable patriarchs in the interior of 
 the grove. This younger growth, which has entirely 
 sprung 2 up within the last two centuries, amounts now 
 to more than three hundred. The older trees, which 
 are so different in appearance from the others as to 
 seem to belong to a different race, are now about 
 twelve in number. Their forms are such as must 
 always have impressed the imagination of those who 
 saw them. Their massive trunks, clothed with a scaly 
 texture, almost like the skin of living animals, and con- 
 torted with all the multiform irregularities of age, may 
 well have suggested those ideas of regal, almost divine, 
 strength and solidity which the Sacred Writers ascribe 
 to them. They stand at the apex, so to say, of the 
 vegetable world. " From the Cedar tree that is in 
 Lebanon " downwards extends the knowledge of Solo- 
 mon.^ " To the Cedars of Lebanon " upwards reaches 
 the destruction of the trees from the burning]: bramble 
 of Jotham.* The intermarriage of the inferior plants ^ 
 with the Cedar is the most inconceivable of all pre- 
 
 1 Dr. Hooker mentions nine {Nat. Hist. Rev. v. 13), and this is the num- 
 ber brought out in the accompanying map, engraved by permission of 
 Admiral Washington from the survey of Captain Manseil, R. N"., of The 
 Firefly. The variation is occasioned by reckoning within the circle two 
 outlying hillocks. 
 
 2 br. Hooker, p. 13. 4 Judges ix. 15. 
 
 3 1 Kings iv. 33. 5 2 Kings xiv. 9. 
 
254 THE CEDARS. [IV. 
 
 sumption. The shivering of their rock-hke stems ^ by 
 the thunderbolt is hke the shaking of the sohd moun- 
 tain itself. 
 
 In ancient days the grove must have been much 
 more extensive, or rather, perhaps, the great trees 
 then overspread the whole. Now they are huddled 
 too^ether on two or three of the central knolls, and the 
 peculiar grace of the Cedar, as we see it in Europe, 
 with its long sweeping branches, feathering down to 
 the ground, is there unknown. In one or two instan- 
 ces the boughs of these aged trees are held up by a 
 younger tree ; others again of the smaller ones, whose 
 trunks are decayed, are actually supported in the gi- 
 gantic arms of their elder brethren. But in earlier 
 times the breadth and extent of the trees seems to be 
 as much noticed as their height and solidity. The 
 Cedar is the model of the " spreading abroad " ^ — 
 the constant "growth" of the righteous man; his 
 boughs are "multiplied," and "become long," "fair," 
 " thick,' " overshadowing " ^ in " length " and in " mul- 
 titude." So viajorous and vast was the ancient life of 
 the Cedars that it seemed as if all the snows and waters 
 of Lebanon were gathered up into them. They are 
 " filled," their " root is by great waters ; " " the 
 waters " make them great, " the deep sets them up 
 on high." * 
 
 The spot thus becomes a centre to all the various 
 
 1 Ps. xxix. 5. 2 Ps. xlii. 13. 
 
 8 Ezek. XXX. 3, 5, 7, 8. 
 
 4 Ezek. xxxi. 4, 5, 7. " The rills from the surrounding heights collect 
 on the upper flat and form one stream, which winds among the Moraines 
 on its way to tlie lower flat, whence it is precipitated into the gorge of the 
 Kadisha. The cedars grow on that portion of the Moraine which imme- 
 diately borders this stream, and nowhere else." — Dr. Hooker, p. 12. 
 
lY.J THE CEDARS. 255 
 
 forms of the life of the wilderness in the midst of 
 which it stands. " Nature was never silent in the 
 forest ; the cicale here were extraordinarily loud ; and 
 the trees were full of little hirds of the brightest green 
 and gold plumage, with a sweet clear note." ^ This 
 is the scene which Ezekiel contemplates when he 
 describes how under the Cedars " all the fowls of the 
 air nestle, and all the beasts of the field brino; forth 
 their young." ^ Still more exactly it is the theatre in 
 which the Psalmist gathers too:ether the whole of 
 animal hfe round " the Cedars which the Lord has 
 planted ; " " the birds making their nests," the " storks 
 in the fir-trees," the marmot or shaphan^ ("coney") 
 in the surrounding cliffs ; the chamois on the hills, the 
 roarino; of the lions in the stillness of the nig-ht* — 
 whilst the distant view is filled up on the one side by 
 the sea, with its monsters, its swarms of living crea- 
 tures, and its ships ; ^ and on the other by the " gar- 
 ment of light " in the sky, the "clouds" and " the 
 wind " on the mountain ; the " springs of the Kadi- 
 sha and of the other rushing streams of the Lebanon ; 
 the cornfields and the vineyards on the nearer slopes 
 for the service of humanity, — "to make glad and to 
 strengthen the heart of man." 
 
 And if their very appearance and aspect thus con- 
 nects them with the poetry of the Bible, their history 
 
 1 INIiss Beaufort's Syrian Shrines^ 288. I quote from this as a detailed 
 description of tlie Cedars in summer. 
 
 2 Ezek. xxxi. 6. 
 
 3 Ps. civ. 17, 18. 
 
 4 Ps. civ. 21. Lions no longer exist in the Lebanon. But leopards, 
 which alfo infested it formerly (Cant. iv. 8), are still found. 
 
 5 Ps. civ. 25, 26. I owe this remark to a friend, who observed on the spot 
 that all the natural features of the 10-ith Psalm are within view from the 
 Cedars. 
 
256 THE CEDARS. [IV. 
 
 is also bound up with its history. We know not who 
 first attacked the Cedars of Lebanon, but ah'eady in 
 the time of David they were invaded for the building 
 of the palaces at Jerusalem.-^ Many were the trees 
 dragged down the steep descent, no doubt, to the har- 
 bor of Tripoli, to be embarked on rafts for Joppa. 
 Thence they reappear in the woodwork of Solomon's 
 Temple, 2 and in the vast palace, which from its rustic 
 casing in cedar wood seemed to be almost a transplan- 
 tation of the sacred grove to Jerusalem, *' the house of 
 the forest of Lebanon ;" ^ whilst in the gardens the 
 costly cedars, transplanted from Lebanon, seemed to 
 have taken the place of the native sycamore. 
 
 For statues, for houses,^ for masts of ships, the huge 
 branches were carried off to Tyre and Zidon. But the 
 great destroyer long remembered was Sennacherib. 
 He, as we have seen, is described as making it his especial 
 boast that he had penetrated to the sacred garden or 
 park, and cut them down. It is on his approach probably 
 that the Prophet's wail is lifted up, " Open thy doors, 
 O Lebanon, that the fire may devour tliy Cedars ; howl, 
 fir-tree, for the Cedar is fallen." ^ And in like man- 
 ner, on his fall, the triumphant cry is raised in the 
 lower world, " Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee and 
 the Cedars of Lebanon, saying, since thou art laid 
 down no feller is come up against us." ^ From that 
 time they have become rarer and rarer. Other groups, 
 
 1 2 Sam. V. 11; vii. 2; 1 Chron. xxii. 4. 
 
 2 1 Kings V. 6,8,9; vi. 9, 10. 
 8 1 Kinss vii. 2; x. 17,27. 
 
 4 See the passages quoted in Robinson's Lnt. Res. 592. 
 6 Zech. xi. 1, 2. It must be borne in mind that this passage probably 
 belongs to the earlier prophet of that name. Zech. ix.-xiii. 
 8 Isa. xiv. 8. 
 
IV.] EHDEN. 257 
 
 indeed, are said to exist in different parts of the moun- 
 tain, but they have been seen only by two travellers.^ 
 By the sixth century the supply of cedar wood was 
 almost, by the fifteenth century entirely, exhausted for 
 the purposes of building. And now, for at least two 
 centuries, they have become invested, by the venera- 
 tion of pilgrims and by the increased admiration felt for 
 natural objects, with a sanctity almost approaching to 
 that w^ith which they were formerly revered as special 
 miracles of Divine power by the Psalmists of Israel. 
 The old Hebrew name of Arz has never deserted them, 
 and is even perpetuated in the puny imitation of them 
 in the Western Larch? The Maronites long guarded 
 them, under penalties of excommunication : ^ they still 
 honor them as the " Twelve Apostles," " the Friends 
 of Solomon." The sanctuary, which was a rude altar, 
 and is now a rude wooden chapel, they yearly fre- 
 quent on the festival which the Oriental Church treats 
 as the Feast of all " high mountains," the Feast of the 
 Transfiguration.* 
 
 This was our last expedition in Syria. It was un- 
 dertaken amidst storm and rain, which drove us fr^om 
 the Cedar grove, shortly after we had reached it, back 
 to our encampment at Ehden. The bells of the Ma- 
 ronite churches — an unwonted, indeed an impossible, 
 sound in any other region of Syria — (for they are 
 tolerated nowhere else) were ringing, almost as if 
 
 1 Eobinson, Lat. Res. 592. Dr. Hooker (12) gives several reasons for 
 doubting: the ancient extent of the cedar forests. 
 
 2 El-Arz corrupted into Alerce^ Larch. 
 
 3 Robinson, Lnt. Res. 590. 
 
 4 On this day, the monks of Athos ascend the highest peak of that 
 mountain, and celebrate a midnight service. See a striking description 
 of it in Vacation Tourists of 1861, p. 118. 
 
 17 
 
258 EHDEN. [IV. 
 
 witli the feeling of a European Sunday, as we re- 
 entered the village. Close by our encampment stood 
 the large deserted house — it might almost be called 
 castle — of the Maronite chief Sheik Joseph, who, in 
 consequence of some complications arising out of the 
 late disturbances, had been banished to Constantinople. 
 It was touching to see the excitement and distress of 
 the villagers over the loss of their chief. Wherever 
 we went — especially whenever the Prince appeared 
 — there was the same cry amongst the men, the same 
 beating of breasts and wailing amongst the women, 
 " Restore us our Bey," Oh ! restore us our Bey." It 
 was after a walk through the village — in which we 
 visited several of the churches and cottages of the 
 place — that we found the stairs and corridors of the 
 castle lined with a crowd of eager applicants, '' sick 
 people taken "with divers diseases," ^ who, hearing that 
 there was a medical man in the party, had thronged 
 round him, " beseeching him that he would heal them." 
 I mention this incident because it illustrates so forcibly 
 those scenes in the Gospel history, from which I have 
 almost of necessity borrowed the language best fitted 
 to describe the eagerness, the hope, the variety, of the 
 multitude who had been attracted by the fame of this 
 beneficent influence. It was an affecting scene ; our 
 kind Doctor was distressed to find how many cases 
 there were which, with proper medical appliances, 
 might have been cured ; and, on returning to the ship, 
 by the Prince's desire a store of medicines were sent 
 back, with Arabic labels directing how, and for what 
 purposes, they should be used. 
 
 On the 13 til of May we left the shores of Syria, 
 
 1 Matt. iv. 24; Luke vii. 3. 
 
IV.] ARVAD, 259 
 
 visiting only one more spot in departing ; a spot rarely 
 seen, but ftill of interest in connection both with Phoe- 
 nicia and with the Cedars of Lebanon. Just where 
 Lebanon, with its white line of snow, ends and melts 
 away on the north into a range of low green hills, 
 Phoenicia, and the last remains of Phoenicia, also end 
 in the northernmost of the Phoenician cities, Ar- 
 vad, Aruad, by the Greeks called Aradus, and now 
 Ruad. Like Tyre, it was planted on a rocky island, 
 a few miles from the shore ; like Tyre, it is de- 
 scribed by Strabo as crowded to excess by reason 
 of the limited range of the island. In both cities 
 this led to an arrangement which must have made 
 them striking exceptions to most ancient, and to 
 most Oriental, towns. For the sake of economizino; 
 the narrow space, the houses of both were built up, 
 regardless of earthquakes, to the height of many stories, 
 resembling the aspect of no other city of the old 
 world,^ except that of the gigantic mansions of Au- 
 gustan Rome. These have all vanished ; but on the 
 western and north-western side of the island huo;e rem- 
 nants still exist of the old wall, compacted of immense 
 stones, and guarded by a vast trench cut through the 
 living rock. M. Penan had, previously to my journey, 
 represented these remains to me as the oldest of all the 
 monuments of Syria ; and such, from their massive, 
 archaic appearance, they may well be supposed to be. 
 
 The Aradians or Arvadites were of old famous for 
 their nautical skill, and are said to be so still. They 
 
 ^ Strabo, xvi. 753. It is a minute and characteristic proof of Lord 
 Macaulay's extensive learning, that this feature of Tyre thus incidentally 
 noticed by Strabo, is caught in the short passing notice of it in his History 
 of England, vol. v. 204. 
 
260 ARVAD. [TV. 
 
 were selected from the rest of the Phoenicians for 
 passing on rafts up and down the Lycus and up and 
 down the Jordan ; ^ probably in connection with the 
 transport of the cedar wood to Jerusalem. If ever 
 Syria were to recover anything of its former commer- 
 cial position, the harbor of Ruad is said to be one of 
 the best along its coast ; ^ and in that case its inhab- 
 itants would regain some portion of their fame in 
 ancient days, when they so powerfully contributed to 
 the naval and military strength of Tyre : 
 
 " High on the stately "wall 
 
 ' The spear of Arvad hung.' " 
 
 " The inhabitants of Arvad were thy mariners : the 
 men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls 
 round about." ^ 
 
 1 Strabo xvi. 755. 2 See Allen's Dead Sea, ii. 173. 
 
 8 Ezek. xxvii. 8, 11. For a complete description of Ruad or Arvad, see 
 Ritter's Phoenicia and Lebanon, p. 868-879. 
 
PATIOS. 
 
V. PATMOS. 
 
 THE island of Patmos does not fall Tvathin the course 
 of any Mediterranean steamer. It was therefore 
 only the opportunity afforded by our homeward voy- 
 age in H. M. Yacht Osborne, that enabled us to visit 
 this sacred spot. We had already visited Rhodes and 
 seen the excavation of one of the tombs at Camirus. 
 We then passed through the marvellous crater of the 
 ancient Thera, the modern Santorin, and landed on 
 the almost desert island of Antiparos, to explore its 
 famous grotto, and, early on the morning of the 17th 
 of May, reached the harbor of Patmos. 
 
 It is one of those spots of which there are not a few 
 in the world, — especially in connection with Sacred 
 History, — which present an entire blank for cen- 
 turies, and then by one single incident acquire an 
 absolutely universal celebrity. Such in Palestine are 
 Nazareth and Capernaum, unknown in the long period 
 of Jewish history till they became the homes of Clu'ist. 
 Such in the Mediterranean are Malta and Patmos. 
 
 Malta, after years of obscurity, suddenly springs into 
 light, when S. Paul and his companions landed on its 
 shores from the di'iving storm and "knew that the 
 island was called Mehta." ^ This, indeed, was but the 
 beginning of its fame. A modern history was still in 
 
 1 Acts xxvii. 1. 
 
264 PATH OS. [V. 
 
 reserve for it, when fifteen centuries afterwards it 
 became the reftige of the Knights of S. John, and 
 after three centuries yet again, the fortress of the Eng- 
 hsh power in the Mediterranean. 
 
 But Patmos owes its fame solely to its connection 
 with " the Revelation of S. John the Divine." ^ Before 
 that time it is mentioned but three times in the whole 
 course of classical literature ; twice in the merely pass- 
 ing notices of Strabo and Pliny ; once in relation to 
 Greek history, when the Athenian general Paches 
 pursued the Lacedemonian fleet " as far as Patmos." ^ 
 
 An inscription, preserved in the island, seems to 
 show that its original name was Patnos ; and this, like 
 many other archaisms of the Greek language, has been 
 pei-petuated in the common dialect of the country, in 
 which it is still called Patino? A legend derived the 
 name from Trarr/^a "the footstep" or "stepping-stone" 
 of the Sea God. The Italian corruption of Palmosa 
 probably arose from the palms, which, with the rest 
 of the vegetation of the island, have gradually disap- 
 peared, and now only are to be found in one spot called 
 "the Saint's Garden." 
 
 The island is about fifteen miles in circumference. 
 It is remarkable from the complexity of its shape and 
 outline ; in this respect bearing a singular resemblance 
 to Ithaca, and presenting a striking exam})le of that 
 indentation and variety of coast, wliich has been often 
 
 1 I do not here enter into any of the other questions connected with the 
 Apocalypse. But its association with Patmos is undoubted. 
 
 2 Strabo X. p. 488; Pliny iv. 23; Thucyd. iii. 23. 
 
 8 See Dvscyipt'ion de l He de Putnios, par V. Giierin. Paris, 1856. From 
 this work (the knowledf^e of which 1 owe to the kindness of my friend Dr. 
 Howson) I have taken the account of the classical notices of the island, 
 and of the legendary life of S. John, by his disciple Prochorus. 
 
v.] P ATM OS. 265 
 
 remarked as characteristic of European, and, above all, 
 of Grecian geography. Small as it is, Patmos is broken 
 asunder into two separate insulated peaks, united only 
 by a narrow isthmus, and whilst the ' rocky hills are 
 broken into innumerable crags, the shore is indented 
 with innumerable bays. The original capital was ap- 
 parently where the little seaport town (La Scala) now 
 stands in the creek formed by the isthmus. Its an- 
 cient name seems to have been Phora, and its Acrop- 
 olis stood on a rocky hill immediately behind. The 
 present city (so to call it) is clustered round the mon- 
 astery of S. John, on the summit of the southernmost 
 of the two peaks of which the island is composed. 
 This change of situation is worth noticing; as an illus- 
 tration of two characteristics of ancient historical topog- 
 raphy; the first, that which Thucydides^ has noticed 
 in Greece generally ; the removal of the town inland 
 from its original situation, where it was more exposed 
 to the attacks of pirates, — a calamity to which the 
 secluded situation, and at the same time the accessi- 
 ble bays, of Patmos rendered it singularly liable ; the 
 second, that which I have ah'eady noticed in speaking 
 of Hebron, — the tendency of the population to desert 
 their old secular habitations, for the sake of clustering 
 round the new spots, less convenient for intercourse, 
 but more available for the sacred resort of pilgrims 
 and worshippers.''^ 
 
 " I John was," or rather "became a dweller," ^ "in 
 the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and 
 
 1 Thucyd. i. 7. 
 
 2 The monastery was founded by a rich Greek, Christodulos, in 1070. 
 This contains the celebrated Library, and the Charter of the Foundation 
 granted by Alexius Comnenus. 
 
 3 See Dr. Wordsworth on Eev. i. 9. eyev6fX7]v not ^v. 
 
266 PATH OS. [V. 
 
 for the testimony of Jesus Christ.'' This is the sum 
 total of our authentic information of the circumstances 
 of S. John's stay in Patmos. But it agrees with the 
 general tradition of the early Christian writers that, 
 whether under Nero or Domitian, he was exiled 
 thither. That Patmos should have been selected as 
 a place of exile is in conformity with the general 
 usage of the Roman Empire, according to which the 
 islands of the Mediterranean were employed for this 
 purpose ; and the curious simplicity of the explana- 
 tion, " an isle that is called Patmos," agrees with the 
 actual seclusion, and (as before noticed) the previous 
 obscurity, of the Island itself. 
 
 The connection of Patmos with this famous exile 
 divides itself into two parts : that which is legendary 
 or traditional, and that which directly illustrates the 
 Book of the Apocalypse. 
 
 (1.) The traditional details are contained in a work 
 Traditions. Called " The Travels of S. John in Patmos," 
 professing to be written by his disciple Prochorus, and 
 accepted by the Greek Church as authentic. It is 
 evidently a late work, consisting chiefly of prodigies 
 performed by S. John, and particularly of a contention 
 with a demon of the name of Cynops, who lived at 
 the southern extremity of the island, and was ulti- 
 mately transformed ^(as in the corresponding legends 
 of the Odyssey at Corcyra) into a rock, still shown in 
 the harbor. Historically worthless as is this story, it 
 is interesting as the only record of the ancient names 
 of the villages of the island. It is also remarkable 
 from its omissions. It contains no allusion to the 
 Latin legend of S. John's Roman persecution ; and 
 it has no mention of the Apocalypse. It would seem 
 
v.] PATH OS, 267 
 
 as if the ecclesiastical jealousy which so long prevented 
 the recognition of the Apocalypse amongst the Canon- 
 ical Scriptures, had thrown it into the shade even in 
 the legends of Patmos. 
 
 On the composition of the Gospel, however, the 
 legend lays much stress ; and this it places, not, ac- 
 cording to the usual and probable tradition, at Ephesus, 
 but in Patmos. In a striking passage, which rises 
 above the flatness of the rest of the narrative, the 
 Apostle is described as found by his disciple standing 
 wrapt in prayer. He bids Prochorus take pen and 
 paper ; a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder shake 
 the rocky mountain, and the Apostle bursts forth, " In 
 the beginning of the Word," and so, he standing and 
 Prochorus seated at his feet, the Gospel is recited by 
 him from first to last. The scene of this transaction 
 is laid by the legend at a spot called " The Repose " 
 (KaraTravo-is) . This is still pointed out, and is, in fact, 
 the only locality in the island directly connected by 
 tradition with the Apostle's visit. It is a small chapel 
 half-way up the hill, between the town on the summit 
 and the port at the foot. It professes to be built over 
 the cave, in which the vision of the Apocalypse was 
 seen, and the commencement of the Gospel was writ- 
 ten. The rocky floor and rocky roof of the cave are 
 visible in one of the side chapels^ Of the Apocalypse 
 the record is merely a picture on the Iconostasis of 
 the inner chapel, representing the vision of the Angels 
 of the Seven Churches, and S. John asleep beneath. 
 As in the legendary biography, the composition of the 
 Gospel takes the chief place. S. John appears in a 
 picture dictating it to Prochorus, under the light of 
 an illuminating ray ; at the entrance is shown the 
 
268 P ATM OS. [V. 
 
 exact spot where he pronounced the opening sen- 
 tence of the Prologue ; and a triple fissure appears 
 in the roof, through which, according to the barbarous 
 simplicity of the legend, the doctrine of the Trinity 
 is said to have been revealed to him. 
 
 (2.) But the real interest of a visit to Patmos con- 
 Biustrations sists, uot iu tlic cudcavor to ascertain these 
 aiypse.. Special localities of a doubtful tradition, 
 which, even if true, would throw no clear light on 
 the events or characters in question, but in the in- 
 quiry how far the general situation yields any illus- 
 tration of the vision of which it is the scene. 
 
 The Discourses of the Gospels and the Epistles of 
 S. Paul are raised, for the most part, too far above the 
 local circumstances of their time, to allow of more than 
 a very slight contact with the surrounding scenery. 
 It is only when the teaching assumes a more directly 
 pictorial or poetic foi-m, as in the Parables of the Gos- 
 pels, or the Athenian speech of S. Paul, that the ad- 
 jacent imagery can be- expected to bear its part. But 
 this is precisely what we might expect to find in the 
 Apocalypse. The " Revelation " is of the same na- 
 ture as the prophetic visions and lyi'ical psalms of the 
 Old Testament, where the mountains, valleys, trees, 
 storms, earthquakes, of Palestine occupy the foreground 
 of the picture, of which the horizon extends to the mi- 
 seen world and the remote future. 
 
 For this reason I had always eagerly desired to visit 
 the island of Patmos. I was not disappointed. The 
 stern rugged barrenness of its broken promontories 
 well suits the historical fact of the relegation of the 
 condemned Christian to its shores, as of a convict to 
 his prison. And the view from its summit, with the 
 
v.] PATH OS. 269 
 
 general character of its scenery, still more deeply en- 
 ters into the figures of the vision itself. 
 
 He stood on the heights of Patmos in the centre of 
 a world of his own. The island, then probably less 
 inhabited than now, was almost a solitude. " He was 
 in the Spirit," withdrawn from earthly things, like 
 Moses on Sinai, or Elijah on Carmel. But the view 
 from the topmost peak, or, indeed, from any lofty ele- 
 vation in the island, unfolds an unusual sweep, such 
 as well became the " Apocalypse," the " unveiling " 
 of the future to the eyes of the solitary seer. It was 
 "a great and high mountain,"^ whence he could see 
 things to come. Above, there was always the broad 
 heaven of a Grecian sky ; sometimes bright, with its 
 " white cloud," ^ sometimes torn with " lightnings and 
 thunderings," and darkened^ by "great hail," or 
 cheered with " a rainbow like unto an emerald." 
 Over the high tops of Icaria, Samos, and Naxos rise 
 the mountains of Asia Minor ; amongst which would 
 lie, to the north, the circle of the Seven Churches to 
 which his addresses were to be sent. Around him 
 stood the mountains and islands of the Archipelago, 
 — "every mountain and island^ shall be moved out 
 of their places ; " " every island fled away, and the 
 mountains^ were not found." At his feet lay Patmos 
 itself, like a huge serpent, its rocks contorted into the 
 most fantastic and grotesque forms, which may well 
 have suggested the " beasts " with many heads and 
 monstrous figures,^ the " huge dragon," struggling for 
 victory, — a connection as obvious as that which has 
 
 1 Rev. xxi. 10. 4 ihid. vi. 14. 
 
 2 Ibid. xiv. 14. 5 Ibid. xii. 3, 9; xvi. 20. 
 8 Ibid. iv. 3; viii. 7; xi. 19; xvi. 21. 6 JUd. xiii. 1, 21; xvii. 3. 
 
270 P ATM OS. [V. 
 
 often been recognized between the strange shapes on 
 the Assyrian monuments and the prophetic symbols 
 in the visions of Ezekiel and Daniel. When he stood 
 "on the sand of the sea,"^ the sandy beach at the 
 foot of the hill, he would see these strange shapes 
 "rise out of the sea " ^ which rolled before him. 
 When he looked around, above or below, " the sea " 
 would always occupy the foremost place. He saw 
 " the things that are in the heavens and in the earth 
 and in the sea."*^ ^ The angel was " not to hurt the 
 earth or the sea^^^^ nor " to blow on the earth or on the 
 «e«." " A great mountain," like that of the volcanic 
 Thera, " as it were burning with fire," was " to be 
 cast into the sea^ ^ The angel was to stand Avith 
 " his right foot upon the sea,^ and his left foot on the 
 earth ; " " the vial was to be poured out upo^i the 
 sea;^^"^ the voices of heaven were like the sound of 
 the waves beating on the shore, as " the sound of 
 many waters ; " ^ " the millstone was cast into the 
 sea;^^^ "the sea was to give up the dead which 
 were in it ; " ^^ and the time would come when this 
 wall of his imprisonment, which girdled round the 
 desolate island, should have ceased ; " there shall 
 be no more sea." ^^ 
 
 Sucli was the scene of the Apocalypse, varied, doubt- 
 less, by otlier images drawn from the Prophetic books 
 of the older Scriptures, and from the report or the 
 
 1 Rpv. xiii. 1.' 8 Jbid. V. 13; x. 6; xiv. 7. 
 
 2 Ihirl. xiii. ii. 4 Jbid. vii. 1-3. 
 
 6 Jbid viii. 8. I have not enlarged upon this. But the extraordinary 
 aspect of Thera (the modern Santorin), even when its volcanic fires were 
 dormant, may well have furnished this image. 
 
 « Rev. X. 2, 5, 8. 9 Jbid. xviii. 21. 
 
 7 Jbid xvi. 3. 10 Jbid. XX. 13. 
 
 8 Jbid. xiv. 2; xix. 6. " Jbid. xxi. 1. 
 
v.] PATH OS. 271 
 
 actual sight of the great cities of the earth. These 
 peculiarly local illustrations, be they many or few, 
 of the Apocalyptic Vision contrast remarkably with 
 the total absence of illustration of the Gospel and 
 Epistles of S. John as derived from the sight of 
 Ephesus. The ruins of Ephesus we saw on Ephesus. 
 the evening of the same day. The remains of the 
 theatre, built into the side of Mount Pion,^ if we 
 people it once again with its fiirious mob, piled tier 
 above tier, in the face of their beloved temple of 
 Diana, give a lively picture of the outbreak of the 
 Ephesian silversmiths against S. Paul.^ But there 
 is nothing to recall S. John, excej^t the rock-hewn 
 tomb, called by his name, near the summit of the de- 
 serted hill. The grave of the greatest of all the Apos- 
 tles, — if we may measure greatness by the divine 
 excellence of the works which bear his name, — lies 
 overgrown with brushwood, and only marked by the 
 broken offerings of a few Greek peasants. It is, if 
 we choose so to Aaew it, a true emblem of the spiritual 
 elevation of his spirit and of his words above any mere 
 earthly associations of time or place. We understand 
 the Apocalypse better for having seen Patmos. But 
 we can understand the Gospel and Epistles of S. John 
 as well in England as in Patmos or Ephesus, or even 
 in his own native Palestine. 
 
 It is needless to follow the homeward route, through 
 the well-knoAvn scenes of Smyrna, Constantinople, 
 
 ^ This seems to be the correct orthography of the hill usually called 
 Prion. See Faulkner's Ephesus, p. 27. 
 2 Acts xix. 29. 
 
272 CONCLUSION. [V. 
 
 Athens, Cephallonia, and Malta, to the conclusion of 
 our Eastern Tour in the harbor of Marseilles. A 
 rapid journey brought us through France. On the 
 evening of the 14th of June, His Royal Highness 
 reached Windsor Castle ; and the travellers, who had 
 lived together in unbroken intercourse for more than 
 four eventful months, parted to their several homes. 
 From one, — the chief of our expedition, — it was a 
 parting for life. General Bruce on the 27th of June, 
 within a fortnight after our return, sank under the 
 effects of a fever contracted during his journey in the 
 East. To him, the Queen and the lamented Prince 
 had confided the anxious charge of the Eastern Tour. 
 Throuo;h his unwearied exertions it was brought to 
 its prosperous conclusion ; and, if in the foregoing 
 pages it has appeared that any fresh instruction or 
 profit was gained from revisiting these sacred scenes, 
 this valued increase of knowledge is an additional 
 ground for always recalling with gratitude the mem- 
 ory of his thoughtftd care, as well as the kindness and 
 consideration, from the highest to the humblest, of all 
 those who cheered the trials and shared the pleasiu'es 
 of our travels in the East. 
 
 CAMBUinCE: PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON. 
 
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