Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-10-06

/ - iCQuIISu lot OlNOItSiiS1U 10 IOI q
man to say to his wife, Be off, don't
want you any more. Woman a slave
in all lands. except those in which the
/ gospel of Jesus Christ makes her a
queen. And yet in Christian countries
here are women posing as skeptics,
and men with family deriding the only
religion that makes sacred and honor
able the names of wife. mother, daugh-
ter and sister
ROBBERY AND HOSPITALITY.
What is that2 Town of Ramleh,
birthplace, residence and tomb of
Samuel, the glorious prophet Near
by Tower of Forty Martyrs, SO called be-
cause that number of disciples persisted
there for Christ's sake; but if towers
had been built for all those who, in the
time of war as in time of peace, have
fallen on this road during the ages past
you might almost walk on turrets from
Joppa to Jerusalem.
Now we pass guard houses which are
castles of chopped straw and mud
where at night and partly through the
day armed men dwell and keep the
bandits off travellers. In the caves of
these mountains dwell men to whom
massacre would be high play and a
purse with a few pennies would be
compensation enough for the struggle
that the savage might have with the
wayfarer. There is only one other de-
Tense that amounts to much in these
lands, and that is the law of hospitality
Ii you can get an Arab to eat with you,
if only one mouthful, you are sure of
his protection, and that has been so
from age to age The Lords supper
was built on that custom, a special
friendship after partaking food to-
gether. To that custom Walter Scott
refers in his immortal '"Talisman, }"
where Saladin, with one stroke of the
sword, strikes the head from an enemy
who stands in Saladin's tent with
cup in his hand and before he has time
to put it to his lip, and does it so sud-
denly that the body of his enemy, be-
headed, stands for moment after the
beheading with the cup still in his
right hand. After the cup had been
slipped it would have been impossible,
according to the laws of oriental hos
pitality, to give the fatal blow
The only lands where it is safe to
travel unarmed are Christian lands.
Human life is more highly valued and
| personal rights are better respected, and
am glad to believe that in our coun-
| try, from the Atlantic ocean to the Pa
cific ocean, there is not place today
where man is not safer without a pis-
toll than with one But all through our
| journeys in Palestine we required fire
arms. While the only weapon [ had
on my person was a New Testament
we went through the region where I
said to the dragoman, David, are you
armed?" and he said, Eyes, and said,
care those fifteen or twenty muleteers
| and baggagemen and attendants
armedp' and he said. Eyes, " and felt
safer
THE ROSE OF SHARON.
On we roll through the plain of
Sharon. Here grew the rose after
which Christ was named, Rose of Shar-
on, celebrated in all Christendom and
| throughout all ages. There has been
controversy as to what flower it was
Some say it was a marshmallow that
| thrives here, and some claim this honor
for the narcissus, and some for the blue
iris and some for the scarlet anemone,
| for you must know that this plain of
| Sharon is q rolling: ocean of color when
| the spring breezes move across it. But
| leaving the botanfsts in controversy as
to what it is, | would take the most
aromatic and beautiful of them all and
twist them into a garland for the
''Name which is above every name"
Yonder a little to the north as we
move on is the Plain of Ono. The BIZ
ole mentions it again and again. The
village standing on this Plain of Ono is
a mud village. Two great basins of
rock catch the rains for the people. OF
more Importance in olden time than in
modern time was this Plain of Ono.
But as the dragoman announced it, and
as in the Bible [ read of it, was remind
ed of the vast multitude of people who
now dwell in the Plain of Ono. They
are by their nervous constitution or by
their lack of faith in God always in the
negative VIII you help to build
church? Oh, no! VIII you start out
in some new Christian enterprise?
Oh, no! Do you think the world is
getting any better? Oh, no! They
lie down in the path of all good move
ments, sanitary, social, political and
religious They harness their horses
with no traces to pull ahead, but only
breeching straps to hold back.
For all Christian work would not
give for a thousand of them the price of
a clipped ten cent piece. They are in
the Plain of Oh, mol May the Lord
multiply the numbers of those who,
when anything good is undertaken, are
found to live in the Plain of Oh, yesi
VIII you support this new charity?
| Oh, yesl Do you think that this vic
tim of evil habit can be reformed2
Oh, yes! Are you willing to do any
thing, whether obscure or resounding,
| for the welfare of the church and the
salvation of a ruined world? Oh, yes!
But am sorry to say that the most
populous plain in all the earth today is
the Plain of Ono
THE DEMON OF DESTRUCTION.
Here now we come to wherestood the
fields into which Samson fired the
foxes The foxes are no rarity in this
| land. I counted at one time twenty
or thirty of them in one group, and the
cry all along the line was ''Foxesl Look
at the foxes!" and at night they some
times bark until all attempts to sleep
are an absurdity. Those I saw and
heard in Palestine might have been de-
scendants of the very foxes that Sam
son employed for an appalling incendi-
arism The wealth of that land was
In the harvests, and it was the harvest
time and the straw was dry. Three
hundred foxes are caught and tied in
couples by some wire or incombustible
cord which the flames cannot divide,
and firebrands are fastened to those
couple of foxes, and the affrighted
creatures are let loose and run every
whittier among the harvests, and in the
awful blaze down go the corn shocks,
and the vineyards, and the olives, and
all through the valleys and over the
hills and among the villages is heard