The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-11-22

- ~ ~ w ~ al ShAO oASAASS tA@
the other $50 in beginning to dig your
W well. Or, if you have 81, 900 a year.,
spend $500 of it in living-ten per cent,
or 800 in benevoleGce and the remain
ing 500 in beginning to dig your own
we'll.
l suppose when Jacob began to dig
this we'll on whose curb we are now
seated this December noon, IL was a dry
season then as now and some n comes
up and says: snow. Jacob, suppose
you get the we'll fifty feet deep or two
hundred feet deep and there should be
no water to fill it. would you not eel
silly?" People passing along the road
and looking down from Mount Gerizim
or Mount Ebal near by would laugh and
say: That is Jacobs we'll, a great
hole in the rock, illustrating the mans
folly" Jacob replied, There ever
has been a we'll in Palestine or any
other country, that once Thoroughly dug
was not sooner or later filled from the
clouds, and this will be no exception"
For months after Jacob had completed
the we'll people went by and out of re-
spece for the deluded old man put their
hand over their mouth to hide a smoker
and tho we'll remained as dry as the
bottom of a kettle that had been hang
ing over the fire for three hours. But
one day the sun was drawing water and
the wind got round to tho east and it be-
gan to drizzle and then great drops
splashed all over the we'll curb and the
heavens opened their reservoir and the
rainy seasons poured its food for six
weeks and their came maidens to the
we'll with empty pals and carried them
away full and tho camels thrust their
mouths into the troughs and were salts
fled and the water was in the we'll three
feet deep and fifty feet deep, and
two hundred feet deep and all the
Bedouins of the neighborhood and
all the passers-by realized that
Jacob was wise in having his own
we'll. My nearer, it is your part
to dig your own we'll and it is Gods
part to fill it You do your part and He
! will do His part.
Much Is said about good LUCK" but
people who are Industrious and self-de-
nying almost always have good luck.
You can afford to be laughed at because
Of your application and economy. for
when. you get your we'll dug and filled 1t
will be your turn to laugh.
But look up from this famous we'll and
see two mountains and the plain be-
tween them on which was gathered the
largest religious audience that ever as.
sembled on earth, about 500, 900 people.
Mount Gerizim, about 500 feet high, on
one side, and on the other Mount Ebal.
the former called the Mount of Bless
ing and the latter called the Mount OF
Cursing. At Joshua's command six
tribes stood on Mount Gerizim and read
the blessings for keeping the law, and
six tribes stood on Mount Ebal reading
the curses for breaking the law, while
the 500. 900 people on the plain cried
amen with an emphasis that must have
made the earth tremble. 81 do not
believe that" says some one, for those
mountain tops are two miles apart, and
how could q voice be heard from top to
top?' My answer is that while the tops
are two miles apart, the bases of the
mountains are only half a mile apart
and the tribes stood on the sides of the
mountains, and the air is so clear and
the acoustic qualities of this great
natural amphitheater so perfect that
voices can be distinctly heard from
| ilOuuldsu W uuOunbillp dS udS DOOu
demonstrated by travellers fifty times in
fifty years.
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 lead at the news from his bad boys
Phineas and Hophni; and life is not
worth living after ones children have
turned out badly, and more fortunate
was Eli. instantly expiring under such
It'd ings. than those parents who, their
children recreant and proflgate. 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
But | turn from this Shiloh of Ellis
| sudden decease under bad news from
his boys and find close by what is called
tho 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 olapping
cymbals and a blare of 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 n the Bible de-
scribes. One night, while by the light
Of the lamps and torches these gayeties
wen on, 200 Benjamites, who had been
hidden behind the rocks and among the
trees, dashed upon the scene. They
;ame not to injure or destroy, but
wishing to oct up households
OF their own, the women of their
own land having been slain in battle,
and by preconcerted arrangement each
one Of the 200 Benjamites seized the n
whom he chose for the queen of his
home and carried her away to largo
estate and beautiful residence, for these
200 Benjamites had inherited the wealth
Of a nation.
As to-day neal Shiloh we look at the
meadow Of the Feast" where the
maidens danced that night and at the
mountain gorge up which the Benjam-
ties carried their brides, we betbink
ourselves OF the bettet land and the bet
ter mes in which we live. when such
scenes are an impossibility, and mid
orderly groups and with prayer n
benediction, and breath Of orange bios
SONS and the roll of the wedding march,
marriage is solemnized, and with oath
recorded in Heaven. two immortals start
arm in arm on a journey to last until
death do them part.
But we must this afternoon, o r. last
day before reaching Nazareth, pitch our
tent on the most famous battlefield of
all time-the plain of E~sdraelon. What
must have been the feelings OF the
Prince of Peace as he crossed it on the
way from Jerusalem to Nazareth Not
o flower blooms there but has in its
veins the inherited blood Of flowers
that drank the blood of fallen armies.
Hardly a foot OF the ground that has
not at some time been quilted with war
chariots or trampled with the hoofs of
cavalry. 1t is a plain reaching from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Upon
1t look down the mountains of Tabor
and Gilboa and Carmel. Through 1t
RACES at certain seasons the river
Kishon, which swept down the armies
of Sisera, the battle occurring in
November, when there Is almost
always a shower of nIeteors, SO hat
'the stars in their course" were said to
have fought aga INST Sisera- Through
this plain drove Jehu and the iron char.
lots of the Canaanites scythed at the
hubs of the wheels, hewing down their
awful sWaths of death, thousands in q
minute. The Syrian armies. the Turk
ish armies. the Egyptian armies again
and again trampled it. There they ca
reer across it, David and Joshua and