Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-08-09
CalnaSe

BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. d.

crlmo the preacher shows that in
order to make ones life work of real
value TO the world and humanity the
deep and true. The text Is Matthew
vii, 81, "And the rain descended. and
the floods came. and the winds blew,
md beat upon that house, and it fell,
and great was the fall of it."
The reason the Bible is not as plain
and interesting to some people as 1t
m.Ght be is because they do not IN
derstand the geographical and geolog-
ical and meteorological conditions of
the Holy Land. In order to intelligcntly
follow the earthly footsteps of the
Man of Galilec" the tourist should not
be content with Il cursory or superti-
cial examination. lie should study
the moteorology OF Palestine to the
last detail. lie should not only study
the tornadoes and hurricanes and
thundcrstorms which unsheath their
swords of destruction and tumble
down upon the earth huge masses Of
water when the windows of the
heavens are opened by great cloud
bursts, but lie should also study the
freshets and those movable sands
mixed with water, commonly called
"quicksands," and the simooms, or
siroccos, sweeping over its nearby
deserts, where there Is but little mois-
ture in the furnace heated air, for the
atmosphere of Palestine would not be
what it is il the Arabian desert was
not on its border. All these meteoro-
logical studies will clarity the lessons
OF many of Christ's parallels and give
an added meaning to some of the
strange, weird oriental customs Of
the Hebrew race.
1t is said that General Lew Wallace
wrote his great religious masterpiece,
"Ben-IIur," before he as a tourist had
ever seen Jerusalem. But. though Lew
Wallace might have evolved a true idea
of the Holy Land ont of books, l am
frank to confess that with all my theo-
logical studies | never knew what the
Holy Land was like until | set foot in
those sacred valleys and saw with my
own Eyes those hallowed hills. / ex-
pected TO find Palestine almost a trop-
ical land. | expected to find It's hills
covered with dense forests, It's valleys
dotted with farms, its bees turning
every mound into a ~honeycomb. all its
vineyards growing huge grapes Of Es-
chol and its flowers crowding every
nook and corner of the soil. Now, what
did | find? l found the Holy Land
nothing more or less han a parallel of
southern California with another name.
People who have been to Los Angeles
and ridden through San Diego county
can form an idea of the Palestine hills.
Like southern California.
The soils of both lands are rich
enough IL YOU can only get water upon
them, but the trouble is to get the wa
ter. Instead Of every two or three
weeks having n gentle rain or shower,
as we used tC have in the New Eng
land and the middle states, we have in
these two lands the dry and the rainy
seasons. When it is dry it Is awfully
dry. Day in and day out, week in and
week out, month in and month out,
lIltl hLN NtbllNl WA -NOt
one drop of water will fall from the
heavens during all that time. Literal
ly not one shower will come. Then the
grass withers. The soil becomes like
baked clay. The dust Is everywhere.
But when the rainy season ONE
then. in order to compensate for her
paucity of moisture, nature sends
storms in perfect deluges. Every
canyon has its raging torrent. The
hillsides are cut into deep gullies.
The water seems TO be everywhere.
This fact Is due to the geographical
conditions, because the waters cannot
find their drainage outlets as they do
In the verdure covered hillsides Of the
east. No man, except the bravest,
dare venture out Of doors when the
storms break upon Los Angeles in the
rainy easons The sewers will be
Choked with water. Every street from
curb to curb will be a huge, rushing
river. The car lines will be block
AIDED. All traffic will come to a stand
still. Then the hillsides and the val
leys will blossom as the rose. The
flowers and the rich grasses will spring
up as if by magic on every side. No
| New Yorker or New Englander can
fully understand this atmospheric o
! dition unless he has been in Palestine
or in southern California. Thus you
must study the meteorological infu.
ences of Palestine before yeu try to
interpret the parable of my text.
Christ is not here saying, Every
one who heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them not shall be likened
unto a foolish man who built his house
| upon the sands in Pennsylvania or IN
Germany or IN France, where 1t will
rain two or three days every two OF
three weeks in every season Of the
year and the water will be drained
quietly and quickly away" Christ Is
saying, Every n who heareth these
sayings Of mine and doeth them not Is
to be likened unto n foolish ma who
builds his house IN the sands at the
foot of some Palestine canyon in a dry
season. That dry season may con
tinue months and even years, but
uge will come. Then the hurricane
will beat upon that house from above
and the freshet will undermine tha'
house from beneath, and 1t will fall
and great will be the fall of it. Will
these few words of geographical ant
atmospheric explanation let us now
approach the parable IA little more ir
$500 O.