The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-10-16
on thisroad during the ages past, you might
| almost Walk on turrets from Joppa to Jeru

5ss
Now We pass guard houses which are Gus.
ties OF chopped straw and mud, where at
night and partly through the aay armed men
dwell and keep the bandits off travellers In
the caves OF these mountains dwell men to
whom massacry would be high playand
purse with few pennies would be com
pensation enough for the struggle that the
savage may have with the wayfnrer. There
is only one other defense that amounts to
much in these lands and that is the Law OF
Hospitality. Ii you can get mn Arab to cut
With you, fonly one mouthful, you are sure
ofhis protection, and that has been SO from
age to age The Lord s supper was built on
TINT custom, a special friendship q ter par
taking food together. To that custom,
Walter Scott refersi in his immortal Taisman,
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
enemy, heheadsd, 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 Oriental hospitality, to give the
fatal blow. NJ
Armed attendants. Tho only lands
where it is safe to travel unnrmed
are Christian lands. Human life is
more highly valued and personal rights
are better respected, and am glad to be-
iievo that in our country, from the Atlantic
| ocean to the Pacific ocean, there is not
a place to-day where a man is not
safer without pistol than with one. But
all through our Journeys in Palestine we re-
quircd firearms. While tho only weapon /
had on my person was New Testament, we
| went through the region where said to the
dragoman: David, arc you armed?" and
| hesaid: YES and said: care those 5 or
! 20 muleteers and baggagemen and attend
L n prv md En H. tfnoS oYoH
| 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 oil ages.
| There has been controversy as to what
| flower it was: Some say 1T was marsh
| mallOw that thrives here, and some claim
| this honor for the narcissus, and some for
| the blue iris, and some for the scarlet ane-
| none, for you must know that this plain of
Sharon is rolling ocean OF color when the
| spring brGezes move across it, But, leaving
it is, would take the most aromatic and
beauti ul of them into garland Tor the
"Nams which is above every name. =
1onder, q little to the north as we move
on, is the plain of Ono. The Bible mentions
it again and again. The village standing on
this plain OF Ono is mud village. Two
great basins ofrock catch the rains for the
than in modern time was the plain OF Ono.
But as the dragoman announced it and in
the Bible / read oft was reminded o. 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, no!
Will you start out in some Christian enter
prise? Oh, mol Do you think the world
is getting any better? Oh, no. They lie
down in the path of all good movements,
sanitary, social, political andrelgious. 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 q thousand Of them the price of a
clipped 10 cent piece They are in the plain
of Oh, no! May the Lord multiply the num-
bers of those who, when anything good is
undertaken are found to live in tho plain of
! Oh, yes! Will you support this new charity?
evil habit can be reformed? Oh, yes! Are
you willing to do anything, whether OBJ
scure or resounding, Tor the welfare OF the
church and the salvation of O ruined world?
Oh, yes! But I 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 fox
es are no rarity in this land. I counted at
one time 20 or 80 of them in one group and
theory all along the line was Foxes! Look
at the fo1es!' and at night they sometimes
bark until all attempts to sleep are an alb
surdity. Those / saw and heard in Pales-
tine might have been descendants OF the very
| foxes that Samson empl Dyed for an appall-
ing incendarism. The wealth Of that land
| was in the harvests and it was harvest time
and the straw was dry. Three hundred fox
en- are caught and tied in couples by some
wire or incombustible cord which the flames
! lirf1 o,,A fro hyoy, T1o foe
| to those couple of foxes, and the affrighted
/ creatures are let loose and run every Whith
! er among the harvests and in the awful
blaze down go the corn shocks. and the vine
yards, and the olives, and all through the
valleys and over the 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 l
learn from it that great man may some
times stoop to very mean piece of business,
| and that if men would use as much ingenuity
| in trying to bless as they do in trying to
| destroy, the world all the way down would
have been in better condition. Yet the fire
of the toxes kndled that night in Pales-
tine. has not gone out but has leaped the
I seas, and the SLY foxes, the human foxes, are
| now still running every whittier, kindlng
political fires, fires of religious controversy
|
| harvests of righteousness perish. 1t took
| the hard work of multitudes on all these
| plains ofPalestine for mont tbs and months to
| rear the vine and raise the corn, but it took
only 800 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-Jearm, where the ark of God stayed
| until David took it to Jerusalem. Yonder
John the Baptist was born Yonder is EN-
maus where Christ walked with the disciples
| at eventide. Here are men ploughing, only
one handle to the plough, showing the accu-
4 racy OF Christ's allusion. When we plough
in America or England there are two han
dies. out in Palestine only one handle. And
SO Christ uses the singular saying: .'No
/ man having put his hand to the plough and
looking back is fit Tor the kingdom The
OK is urged 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 goud. And the
bible refers to that when it says to Saul ut
is hard for thee to kick against the goads .
1 Here is the valley ofthe Ajalon, lannon's
/ for Joshuas pursuit OF the five kings, and
! the lunar arrest. And in imagination / see
/ the moon in day time halt. Who has not
sometimes seen the moon dispute the throne
i with the sun? But when the king of day and