The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-11-27
THOSE HOLY HILLS,
Dr.. Talmage Still Telling the
Story Of his Visit to
Palestine.
The Victory Of the Cross and
the Foundations of Chris
"..M tianity.


text. Numbers K, 81: "Forasmuch "a tn on
knowest how we are to encamp in the wilder
ness" .,, ..u
Night after night We have slept in tent in
Palestine. There are large villages of Be-
douns without house. and for 8, 900 years
the people of those places have lived in black
tents, made out of dyed SKINS and when the
winds and storms wore out and tore loose
those coverings. others of the same kind took
their places. Noah lived in tent. Abra-
ham in tent. Jacob pitched his tent on
the mountain. Isaac pitched his tent in the
valley. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.
In tent the woman Jael nailed Sisera, the
general, to the ground. first having given
him sour milk called "lcben," as q sopori6c
to make him soundly sleep, that being the e.
feet OF SUI en- nutrition, as modern travellers
can testify. The Syrian army in tent.
The ancient battle shout was ITO your
tents, o Israeli Paul was a tent m aker.
Indeed, Isaiah, maGnifcently poetic, indi-
Gates that all the human race live under q
blue tent, when he says that God "stretcheth
out the heavens q curtain and spreadetb
them out as tent to dwell in" and Heze
kiah compares death to the striking of a
tent, saying: MY age is removed from me
as q shepherds tent
In our tent in Palestine tonight hear
something | never heard before and hope
never to hear again. 1t is the voice OF a by.
ena amid the rocks near by. When you
may have seen this monster putting his
mouth between the iron bars of q menagerie
he is captive and gives a Inundated and
suppressed crv But yOnder in the midnight
on a throne of rocks he has nothing to fear
and he utters himself in loud, resounding
terrific almost supernatural sound. split
ting up theslnrkness into deeper midnight.
1t begins with howl and ends with II sound
something like q horses whining. In the
hyenas voice are defiance and strength and
blood thirstiness and crunch of broken
bones and death.
| am glad TO say that for the most part
Palestine is clear of beasts of prey. The
1eopards, which Jeremiah says cannot change
their spots, have all disappeared and the
lions that once were so common all through
this land and used by all the prophets for
illustrations of cruelty and wrath, have re-
treated before the discharges of gunpowder,
of which they have an indescribable fear.
But for the most part Palestine is what it
originally was. With one exception of O
wire thread reaching from Joppa to Jerusa.
lem and from Jerusalem to Nazareth and
from Nazareth to Tiberas and from Tiberias
to Damascus. that one nerve Of civilization
the teegraphic wire (for found
ourselves only few minutes off from Brook
Ign and New York while standing by Lake
Galilee) with that one exception, Pales tine
is Just as it always was
Nothing surprises me so much as the per-
sistence Of everything. A sheep or horse
falls dead and, though the sky may one min
ute he clear OF all wings. in five minutes
fer. the skies are black with giles clawing,
screaming. Ringing. fighting for ROOM con-
tending ,or largest morSrs o extinct quad
ripped All. now understand the force OF
tbrist'a il'nstrnt ion when He said. "Where-
no 20 Nov ,rin h, OCr1a b.
Enthnr"d tOo"ther." The longevity of the
eaeles is wonderful. They live so or go and
sometimes 100 years, All. that exp'nins
what David meHnt when he saws: Thy
youth 10 renewed like the eagles" Is:, " ~ ahep.
herd with hafolds oths coat far hent on twnr.l
ard wondered what WAS confirmed in TIL at
amplitnd" nfnrparc nm | sail to the drago
man. ''Nhat has that shepherd got under his
""ht:' And the dragomnn said, lit is g
very yOunglamb he is carrying. it is too young
and too weak and too cold to keep up with
the flock At that moment l saw the lamb
put it's head out from the shepherds bosom
and said, "There it is now. Isaiah's de.
scription Of the tenderness of God-'He sh all
gather the lambs in His arms and carry them
in His bosom.'''
Passing by a village home in the Holy
Land. about noon, great crowd in
and around private house. and 1 said to
the dragoman. David, what is going on
there?' He said, "somebody hos recently
in for several days after to sit down
and weep with the bereaved." There it is
l said, the old scriptural custom: "And
many OF the Jews came to Martha and Mary
to comfort them concerning their brother.'
Early in the morning passing by cemetery
in tho Holy Land. saw among the graves
about SO women dressed in black, and they
were crying "Oh, my child! ''Oh. my
husband!'' ooh. my father" ooh, my
mother!' Our dragoman told us that every
III, F.,
a burial, the women go to the sepulchre,
and after that every week very early for a
year. AS saw this group Just after day
break. I said: There it is again. The
same old custom referred to in Luke, the
evangelist where he says: Certain women
which were early at the sepulchre.''
But here we found ourselves ut Jacob
well. the most famous we'll in history. most
distinguished for two things, because it be-
longed to the I'D patriarch after whom it
was named, and for the wonderful things
which Christ said, seated on this well curb,
to the Samaritan woman We dismount
from our horses in drizzling rain. and our
dragoman climbing up to the well over the
slippery stones, stumbles and frightens u s.
all by nearly falling into it. measured
the we'll at the top and found it six feet from
edge to edge. Some grass and weeds and
thorny growths over-hang it,. In one place
the roof is broken through. Large
stones embank the wall on all sides
Ouf uraBoman UOOK peDDleS ana dropped
them in, and from the time they left his
hand to the instant they clicked on the bot
tom you could hear it was deep, though OF
as deep as once, for every day travellers are
applying the Same test, and though iu the
time of Maundrell, the traveller, the we'll was
a hundred and sixty-five feet deep. now it If
only seventv.five. So great is the curiosity
of the world to know about that we'll, that
during the dry season a Captain Anderson
descended into this we'll. at ono place the
sides were 80 close he hadto put his hands owe,
his head in order to get through. and then
he tainted away and lay at the bottom O
the well as though dead. until hours after re-
covery, he ame to the surface.
1t is not like other wells digged down to q
fountain that fills it, but a reservoir to catct
the falling rains and to that Christ refers
when speaking to the Samaritan woman
about O spiritual supply. he said that b,
would, if asked haye given her living wa
ter" that is, water from flowing spring il
distinction from the water of that well which
was rain water But why did Jacob make
reservoir there when there is plenty of water
all around and abundance of springs anf
fountains and seemingly no need of that res
ervoir? Why did Jacob go to the vast ex
pense OF boring and digging well perhaps