Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-08-17
A ELaspHEnoUs DEsECRATIos.


When The traveller 10 the East leaves his
ship at Joppa, famed 10 sacred story, he con-
tinues still &c strike to the eastw ard. Mount
ing into the high country, turning a little to
the south, be reaches Jerusalem. Going on
with his face still toward the rising sun, he
comes to the brow of the highlands, upon
which be has been travelling, and looks down
upon a plain green with a vegetation pless-
ant to the eye that las been offended by the
glittering of the Orient sun upon gray rocks
bare and sterile. Through the verdan, carp I
winds a river, glowing in the sharp light like
FURNISHED silver, and to the right, toward the
south, it runs into a lake. That river
ia the Jordah-that lake is The Dead
Ses. There, below the spectator, the "cities
Of the plain" once stood; those hills that
loom up beyond the spct Lot feel from so
precipitately, are the bound aries of Moab.
The valley, then, is i~nclosed by the hills east
of Jerusalem, from whose summit the trav-
eler is gszing, and the frowning fionIs OF
Moab beyond. 1t is a pleasing scene in the
immediate front and toward the north; and
u WhaL tCchCn bo' MI thal NolVJ bcCu Ia
canvass and the drear dark mountains the
frsmel How tine mind furnished with the
scrip ure narrative looks for the spot where
is the ford crossed by thcs, taking that wsy
"to go down to Egypt"-the spot where the
Hebrews crossed 10 enter the Canaan where
their fathers had wandered; the epot where
John had baptized. and a greater than John
had done some OF his wonderful works! Wno
that has trodden those rocks, stood upon that
hilly verge, gszed upon that valley as
Abraham did when looking upon
'drai h1kikor he saw their smoke 60
up as the smoke of a furnsce-would like 10
think that scene 80 beautiful, yet with ssso-
~ciatious that have filled his mind with awe
and bowed his soul in reverence and touched
his heart With emotions that went olGse by
the fount Of tears, those solemn features Of
the landscap, being annihilsted, The Jordan
swallowed up, the Dead SEA hidden beneath
submerging walters, the mountain sides echo.
ing The scream of steam whistles, and the
smoke of steamboat tunnels ~pollutiug The
pure ether of the breeze that blows from The
Hlkul5 VI hSDauOu-lO ucuOlu INC WhOIC
scene transposed into a resemblance 10 a
steamboat landing, with the appliances and
machinery of modern Western life s!rewed
here and there along a spot but lately
80 solemn, go productive Of reverence, go
Astounding in sacred associations? Yet this
il the very abomipation men are plotting to
commit 'al Adoaai w'al Meshico; for does it
not look like proclamation TO turn the valley
of the Jordan into a canal, and the cite of
the cities of the plain into a wharf? II De
Laseepe's claim will not permit the Euglish
to put up q second canal in Egypt they are
scheming to make a canal Ct this holy plain,
and to drown its sacred sites beneath waters
whose SUFFICE Is dashed by the paddls-WheeI.
A company hiss been formed, the Duke Of
Marlborough chairman, engineers are to
survey the valley of the Jordan, 10 sound the
depths of the Dead Sea, to gauge the gullies
and measure the hilltops, then by the Gulf
OF Aksbah the eastern arm Of the northern
extremity OF the Red Sea is to be united with
the Mediterranean, aud 80 English boa's
cross for India. The Lake OF Galilee
would be oblitsrated, trade with Jeru-
salem instituted, Bethlehem and Jericho
made ports with wharves and sheds, and
turpauIin and ropes and tar. Is not the
thought hatetul? Ought not a modern cru
slde for the deliverance of the Holy Land
from the English duke and his execrable
fellow.vandals to be instituted? 1t seems
incredible that such a design for wholesa ale
dissertation could be found, but it IL, and we
| cannot best wish, in the words OF "God Save
the King" that heaven may "oonfound their
kuavish tricks" and find them a less unholy
| occupation.