Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-10-17

have fallen on this road during the age
past you might almost walk On turrets from
Joppa to Jerusalem.
Now we passed the guard houses, which
are castles of chopped straw and mud whert
at night and partly through the day armed
men dwell and keep the bandits of travellers
In the caves of these mountains dwell meL
to whom massacre would be high play anC
purse with few pennies would be com
pensation enough for the struggle that the
savage might have with the wayfarer
There is only one other defense that amounts
to much in these lands and that il the law Of
hospitality. If 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 par
taking food together. To that custom Wal.
ter 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 suddenly that the body OF his en-
envy, beheaded, 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 the oriental hospitality, to give tbs
fatal blow.
The only lands where it is safe TO travel
unarmed are Christian lands. Hurnan life Is
more highly valued and personal rights are
better respected, and | am glad to believe
that in our country, from the Atlantic ocear
to the Pacific ocean, there is not place to-
dav where a man is not safer without pistol
than with one. But all through our journeys
in Palestine we required firearms. While the
only weapon [ had on my person was a New
Testament we went through the region where
I said to the dragOInan: David, are you
armed? and he said Yes" and said: "Are
those fifteen or twenty muleteers and bag
gage men and attendants armed?' and he
said Eyes" and felt safer.
On we roll through the plain of Sharon.
Here grew the rose afJe-' which Christ was
named Rose of Sharon, celebrated in all
Christendom and throughout all ages.
There has been controversy as to what flow
er it was. Some say it was a narshmalloW
that thrives here, and some claim this honor
for the narc1ssus, and soma for the blue iris,
and some for the scarlet anemOne, for you
must know that this plain Of Sharon is a roll
ing ocean Of color when the spring breezes
| move across it, But leaving the botanists in
controversy as to what it is, I 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, little to the north as we move
on is the plain Of Ono. The Bible mentions
it again and again. The village standing Oh
this plain Of Ono is a mud village. Two
great basins Of rock eaten 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 itand In the
Bible read of it [ was reminded 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 Will you help to
build church? Oh, mol Will you start out
in some new Christian enterprise? Oh, no!
Do you think the world is getting any bet
ter? Oh, moi They lie down in the path of
all good movements, sanitary, political and
@hnirh n
traces to pull ahead, but only breeching
straps to hold back. For all Christian work
I would not give for thousand of them the
price of a clipped ten cent piece. They are
in the plain of Oh, mol May the Lord multi
ply the numbers of those who when anything
good is undertaken are found to live in the
plain of Oh, yes! Will you support this new
charity? Oh, yes! Do you think that this
victim of evil habit can be reformed? Oh,
yes! Arc you willing to do anything,
fare of the church and the salvation Of
world? Oh, yes! But, am sorry to say
that the most populous plain in all the earth
to-day is the plain of Ono.
Here now we come where stood the fields
into which Samson fired the foxes. The
foxes are no rarity in this land 7 counted
at one time twenty or thirty of them in one
group and the cry all along the line was
''FoxesI Look at the foxesw and at night
they sometimes bark until all attempts to
sleep are an absurdity. Those I saw and
| heard in Palestine might have been descend
| ants Of the very foxes that Samson employed
for all appalling incendiarism. The wealth
of that land was in the harvests, and it was
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 frebrandS are
| fastened to those couples 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 the cry Of "Firer' And in
| the burnt pathway walk hunger and want
! and desolation.
| All this for Spite And some theologians
learn one thing and some another. But
| learn from it that great man may some
| times stOOp to very mean piece OF business,
| and that if men would use as much 1ngenu-
1ty In trying to bless as they do In trying to
I Destroy the world all the way down would
| be in better condition. Yet the fire of the
| foxes kindled that night in Palestine has not
| gone out, but has leaped the seas, and the sly
| foxes, the human foxes are now still run
| ming every whittier, kindling political fires,
| fires Of religious controversy, fires OF hate,
| world wide fires and the whole harvest of
| Righteousness perish. 1t took the hard work
| of nlultitudes On these plains of Palestine for
months and months to rear the vine and raise
the corn, but it took only three hundred
worthless foxes one night to blaze all into
| ashes.
! Brace up your nerves now, that you may
| look while point them out. Yonder is kir-
| jath-J earim, where the ark of God staid I'M
! til David took IL > Jerusalem. Yonder John
! the Baptist was born. Wonder is Emmaus,
where C1rist walked with bis disciples at
eventide. Here are men blowing, only one