The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-22

more highly valued and personal rights are
| better respected, and | am glad to believe
that in our country, from the Atlantic ocean
| to the Pacific ocean, there is not place to-
| day where 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 New
Testament we went through the region where
/ said to the dragoman: David, are you
armedT' and he said YES" and said: "Are
those fifteen or twenty muieteers and bag
gage men and attendants armed?' and be
| said "Yes" and felt safer.
On we roll through the plain OF Sharon.
! Here grew the rose after which Christ was
named, Rose Of Sharon, celebrated in all
Christendom and throughout all ages.
| There has been controversy Us to what flow
| er it was. Ycnne say it was marshmalloW
that thrives here, and some claim this honor
Tor the narc1ssus, and some 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 breeze:
| move acrossit, But leaving the botanists in
controversy as to what it is, would take the
most aromatic and beautiful Of them all anc
twist them into q 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
1t again and again. The village standing on
this plain Of Ono Is mud village. Two
great basins Of rock catch the rains for the
people. or more Importance In olden time
than in modern time was this plain OF Ono
But as the dragoman announced itand in the
Bible Tread of it was reminded Of the vast
multitude Of people who now dwell in the
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, mol
Do you think the world Is getting any bet
ter? Oh, mol They lie down in the path of
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 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, yesl Will you support this new
charityf Oh, yesl Do you think that this
victim Of evil habit can be reformedi Oh,
yesl Are you willing to do anything,
fare Of the church and the salvation Of a
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. 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 sometimes bark until all attempts to
sleep are an absurdity. Those ! saw and
heard In Palestine might have been descend
ants Of the very foxes that Samson employed
for an appalling incendiarism. The wealth
of that land was in the harvests, and 1t 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 f1reSrands 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 60 the corn shocks, and
the vineyards, and the olives, and all through
the valleys and over tho hills and among the
villages Is heard the cry of "Fire" 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 I
learn from it that great man may some
times stoop to q very mean piece OF business,
and that If men would use as much ingenu-
ity in trying to bless as they do in trying to
",
be in better condition. Yet tbe 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. It took the hard work
of multitudes 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 klr-
jath-Jearim, where the ark Of God statd un-
til David took it to Jerusalem. Yonder John
the Baptist was born. Yonder is Emmaus,
where Christ walked with his disciples at
eventide. Here are men plowing, only one
handle to the plow, showing the accuracy. OF
Christ's allusion. When we plow In America
or England there are two hands on two
handles, but in Palestine only one handle.
And 80 Christ used the singular saying, mo
man having put his hand to the plow and
looking back is At for the kingdom" The OK
is urge,i on by a wooden stick pointed with
sharp iron, and the OK knows enough not to
kick, for he would only hurt himself instead
Of breaking the goad: And the Bible refers
thee to kick against the goads."
Here is the valley Of Ajalon, famous for
Joshua's pursuit Of the five kings and the
lunar arrest. And in Imagination I see the
moon in daytime halt. Who has not some
times seen the moon dispute the throne with
the sun? But when the king Of day and the
queen OF night who never before Joshua's
time nor since then stopped moment IN
their march, halted at Joshua's command it
was a scene, enough to make the universe
shiyer: Moon, stand thou still In the valley
of Aialonp At another time we will see the
sun stop above Gideon. but now we have only
to do with the moon, and you must remem-
ber It was more Of an orb than 1t Is now. 10
Is burnt out world now, dead world now.
an extinct world now, q corpse laid out in
state in the heavens, waiting for the judg.
ment day to bury it. But on the day Of
which speak the moon was probably liv-
ing world, yet it halted at the wave Of JOSH
ua's finger, "Stand thou still~ Do not bulge
an inch until Joshua finishes those FIVE kings,
who are there tumbling over the rocks, sword
Of man slashing them, hailstones out OF the
sky pelting them.
And there Is the cavern Of Makkedah,
where they fed for safety, and where they
they were taken out to be slain, and in which
they were afterward buried, and you do
well to examine that cavern, for within a
few hours it became three things which no
other cave ever was-fortress, prison,
sepulcher.
Now we pass the place where once lived
one of the greatest robbers of the country,
Abou Gosh BY name. From this point you
see he could look over the surrounding coun-
try, and long before the travellers came up to
him the plan for taking Of their monsy or
At.. - 1~N1l, ta1 10 nY,n
day found q company Of monks who would
net pay, and he snothered them to death in
a hot oven. in his last days he lived here
like IN oriental prince, and had attendants