The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-11-22
JACOBS WE'LL.
Continuation of DIR. Talmage's
Discourses on Palestine.
Little Changes In the Holy Land-Lessons
Drawn From Jacobs weil-Other No
table Places-GIorIous Triumph
of the Cross.

IN MS eighth sermon on the Holy
Land, preached at Brooklyn, Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage's subject was Among
the Bedouins," and his text Numbers
4. 81: For as much as thou knowest
how we are to encamp in the wilderness"
He said:
Night after night we have slept in
tent in Palestine. There are large viii
lagos Of Bedouins without a house, and
for 5000 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 o tent
Jacob pitched his tel on the mountain.
Isaac pitched his ten in the valley.
Lot pitched his ten toward Sodom. In
o tent the woman Jael nailed Sisera,
the General, to the ground, having first
given him o u milk called '1eben" as
q soporifio to make him soundly sleep.
that being the effect of such nutrition,
as modern travellers can testify. The
Syrian army in q tent The ancient
battle shout was: ITO your tents, o
Israeli Pau was q o maker. In
deed, Isaiah, magnihcently poetic, in
dicates that all the human race live I'M
der q blue tent when he says that God
stretched out the heavens as a curtain
and s~preadeth them out as a 9 n to
dwell In" and Hezekiah comparesdeath
to the striking OF a tent. saying: my
age is removed from me as a shepherds
tent"
am glad to say that for the most part
Palestine Is free from beasts Of prey.
The leopards, which jeremiah says can
not change their spots, have all disap-
peared and the lions that once were
common through all this land and used
by all the prophets for illustrations of
cruelty and wrath, have retreated be-
fore the discharges of gunpowder, OF
which they have an indescribable fear.
But for the most part Palestine is what
1t originally was. With the n excep-
ton Of q wire thread reaching from Jop-
Do to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to
Nazareth and from Nazareth to Tiberi-
as and from Tiberias to Damascus, that
one nerve Of civilization, the tele-
graphic wire (for we found ourselves
only q few minutes off from Brooklyn
and New York while standing by Lake
G~alilee) with that one exception, Pal
estine is just as 1t always was.
Nothing surprised me SO much as the
persistence OF every thing. A sheep or
horse falls dead and, though the sky
may one minute before be clear of all
wings, In five minutes after the skies
are black with eagles cawing, cream
Eng, plunging, fighting for room, contend
srD Cor larnrnof ranranIu IF Tho o~ttnnt
quadruped. Ah. now l understand the
force Of Christ's Illustration when He
said: "Wheresoeyer the carcass is there
will the eagles be gathered together"
Early In the morning, passing by a
cemetery in the Holy Land, / saw
among the graves about fifty
dressed in black, and they were crying:
80, my child!' 30, my husband!" 20,
my fatherI' 10. my mother!" Our
dragoman told us that every morning
very early for three months after a
burial the women go to the sepulchre.
and after that every week very early
for q year.. As I saw this group just at
ter daybreak ! said: There 1t is again,
the same old custom referred to in
Luke, the Evangelist where be says,
certain women which were early at tho
sepulchre."
But here We found ourselves at ia
cob's we'll, the most famous we'll in
history, most distinguished for two
things, because 1t belonged to the old
patriarch after whom 1t was named, and
for the wonderful things which Christ
said seated on this we'll curb to the
Samaritan woman. We dismount from
our horses in q drizzling rain, and our
dragoman climbing up to the we'll ove
the slippery stones stumbles and fright
M us all by fairly falling into it.
] measured the we'll at the top and
found it six fee from edge to edge.
Some grass and weeds and thorny
growths overhang It In one place the
roof 10 broken through Large stones
embank the wall on all sides. Our
dragoman took pebbles and dropped
them In. and from the time they left
his hand to the instant they clicked on
the bottom you could hear 1t was deep,
though not as deep as once, for every
day travellers are applying the same
test, and though in Ihe time Of Maun-
drell, the traveller, the we'll was 1G5 feet
deep, now 1t Is only seventy-five.
1t is not like other wells dug down
to @ fountain that fills 1t, but a reser-
voir to catch the falling rains and to
hat Christ refers when speaking to the
Samaritan woman about q spiritual sup
ply, He said that He would, II asked.
have given her 'living water" that is,
water from a flowing spring in distinc-
ton from the water Of that we'll which
was rain water.
When Jacob t?lus wisely insisted on
having his own we'll he taught us not to
be unnecessarily dependent on others.
Independence Of business character.
Independence of moral character. In
dependence of religious character.
Have your own we'll of grace. your own
we'll of courage, your own we'll Of divine
supply. II You are an invalid you have
Q right to be dependent On others. But
II God has given you good health. COM
mon sense, and two eyes. and two ears,
two hands, and two feet He equipped
you for independence of all the universe
except Himself II He had meant you
to be dependent on others you would
have been built with a cord around your
waist to tie fast to somebody else. No:
you are built with common sense to
fashion your own opinions, with eyes
to ind your own way. with ears t.
select you own music, with hands to
fght your own battles. There Is only
one being In the universe whose advice
you need and that is God. Have your
own we'll and the Lord will fill it. Dig
It If need be through two hundred feet
of solid rock. Dig it with your pen. or
dig Ii with your yardstick, or dig 1t with
your shovel, or dig it with your Bible
In my small way / never accomplished
any thing for God or the church, or the
world, or my family, or myself except
In contradiction to human advice and
in obedience to divine counsel. God
knows every thing and what is the use
of going for advice to human beings
who know 80 little that no n but the
God IA realize how little
It is. l suppose that when Jacob
began to dig his we'll on which we are
sitting this noOntide. people gathered
around and said. what q useless ex-
pense you are going to- when rolling
down from yonder Mount Gerizim and
down from yondsr Mount Ebal, and out
in the valley is plenty o: water"
90" replied Jacob, shat is all true,
but suppose my neighbors should get
angered against me and cut of my sup
ply of mountain beverage what would
10, and what would my family do. and
what would my fscks and herds do?
Forward, ye brigade of pickaxes and
,rowbars and go down into the depths
these rocks and make me independ-
int of all except Him who fills the bot
lies OF the cloudsl ] must have my W