The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-11-26

down from yOnQe1 Mount Ena!, aLo
out yonder in the valley is plenty OF
water" oh" replied Jacob, "that is
ali true but suppose my neighbors
should get angered against me and cut
off my supply Of mountain beverage
what would l do, and what would my
family DO. and what would my locks
and herds do? Forward; ye brigade
of pick-aNes and crowbars and go down
into the depths Of these rocks and
make NE independent Of all except
Him who fills the bottles of the clouds
| must have nv own we'll.
l suppose when Jacob began to dig
this we'll on whose curb we are now
seated this December noon, 1t was a
drv season then as now and some one
comes up and SAYS: Now, Jacob, sup.
pose YOU get the well fifty feet deep OF
two hundred feet deep and there should
lie no water to fill 1t, would you not
feel silly?:" People passing along the
road and looking down from Mount
GeriZim OF Mount Ebal near by would
laugh and say: That is Jacobs well
a great hole in therock, illustrating the
mans folly" Jacob replied. There
never has been a we'll in Palestine OF
any other country, that once thorough
II dug was not sooner or later filled
from the clouds, and this will be no e1-
ception." For months after Jacob had
completed the well people went by and
out Of respect for the deiuded old man
put their hand over their mouth to hide
a snicker and the well remained as dry
as the bottom Of a kettle that has been
hanging over the fire for three hours
But one day the sun WAS drawing Wa
ter and the wind got around to the east
and it began to driZzle and then great
drops splashed al over the well-curb
and the heavens opened their reservoir
and the rainy season poured its floods
for six weeks and there came maidens
to the well with empty pals and car
ried them away full and the camels
thrust their mouths into the troughs
and were satisfied and the water was
In the well three feet deep. and fifty
feet deep. and two hundred feet deep
and all the Bedouins Of the neighbor-
hood and all the passers-by realized
that Jacob was wise in having his own
well. My hearer, it is your part to dig
your own well and it is Gods part to
fill it. You DO your part and He will
do His part.
On and on we ride until now, we
have come to Shiloh, a dead city on a
hill surrounded by rocks, sheep, goats,
olive gardens and vineyards. Here
good Eli fell backward and broke his
neck, and lay dead at the news from
his bad bows Phineas and Hophni; and
life is not worth living after ones
children have turned out badly, and
more fortunate was Eli, Instantly e2-
piriDg under such tidings, than those
parents who, their children recreans
and prohigate, live on with broken
hearts to see them going down into
deeper and deeper plunge. There are
fathers and mothers here to-day to
whom death would be a happy release
because of their recreant sons. And II
there be recreant sons here present, and
your parents be far away, why not bow
your head in repentance, and at the
close Of this service go to the telegraph
Office and put it on the wing Of the
lightning that you have turned from
your evil ways? Before another twen-
ty-four hours have passed, take your
feet off the sad hearts at the old home
stead. Home to thy God, o prodigal!
But turn from this Shiloh Eli'ssud-
den decease under bad news from his
boys, and find close by what is called
the Meadow of the Feast" While
this ancient city was in the height of
its prosperity, on this Meadow Of the
Feast" there was an annual ball where
the maidenS of the city amid clapping
ctmhalS and a blare trumpets danced
in a glee, upon which thousands of
spectators gaZed. But no dance since
the world stood ever broke up in such
a strange way as the one the Bible de-
scribes. One night while by the light
of the lamps and torches these gaietes
went on. two hundred BeDjamites, who
had been hidden behind the rocks and
the trees, dashed upon thes scene. They
came not to iDiure or destroy, but
wished to SET up households of their
own. the woman Of their own land hay
ing been Slain in battle, and by pre-
concerted arrangements each one OF
the two hundred Benjamites seized the
one whom he chose for the queen of his
home, and carried her away to large
estate and neutrality-suspicious., for these
two hundred Benjamites had inherited
the wealth of a patron.
But we must this afternoon, our last
day before reaching Nazareth, pitch
our tent on the most famous battlefield
of all times-the plain of Esdraelon.
What must have been the feelings of
the Prince of Peaceas he crossed it on the
way from Jerusalem to Nazareth! Not
a flower blooms there but has In its
veins the inherited blood Of flowers
that drank the blood of fallen armies.
Hardly foot OF ground that has not
at some time been guiled with war
chariotS or tralnpled with the hoofS
of cavalry. 1t is a plain reaching from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan.
Upon it look down the mountains of
Tabor and Gilboa and Carmel.
Through it ranges at certain seasons
the river hishon which swept down
the armies of Sisera. the battle occur
ring in November when there is almost
,lwayS a shower of meteors so that 'the
stars in their courses" were said to
have fought against Sisera. Through
this plain drove Jehu, and the iron
chariotS OF the CanaaniteS, scythed at
the hubs Of the wheels, hewing down
their awful swatheS of death, thou
sands in minute. The Syrian armies,
the Turkish armies, the Egyptian ar
mics again and again trampled it.
There they career across 1t David and
Joshua and Godfrey and Richard Occur
de Lion and Baldwin and Saladin-a
plain not only famous because the Bi-
bic says the great decisive battle of the
world will be fought there-the battle
of -Armageddon.
TO me the plain was the more ab-
scribing because of the desperate bat
tie here land in regions round in which
the Holy Cross, the very two pieces Of
wood on which Jesus was supposed to
have been cruciiied was carried as a
standard at the head of the Christian
host, and that night closing my eyes in
my tent on the plain of ESdraelOn-fOr