532 THE JOUENEY TO PALESTINE 



funds subscribed for the conversion of the Jews for improving 

 agriculture and bettering their temporal condition. Thus : 



There is a feeling rising that for conversion of Mono- 

 theists, Hindus, &c., a broader theology, free of all doctrine 

 and less of the authorised Bible would be very efficacious, — 

 the personal Trinity is the great stumbling-block, and many 

 of the miracles that will not bear investigation — also the 

 anomalous conduct attributed to Jehovah in the Old 

 Testament, who is not there an unchangeable God of infinite 

 goodness and truth, but an anthropomorphous being, sub- 

 ject to like passions with ourselves, and carrying out Divine 

 purposes by means that are wholly opposed to Christianity. 

 The questions of truth of Prophecy, so easily answered in 

 England, here assume a very different aspect. Similarity of 

 Jew to Arab and Mussulman in assuming God's authority 

 for everything he wanted to have and God's approval for 

 everything he wanted to justify, however wicked, as recorded 

 in O.T. a great difficulty — another is progress of science — 

 another (discord ?) of all Christian sects — another, disputed 

 authority of many parts of O.T. as Jewish record — doubtful 

 if Moses really was a person. Answers to all these and a 

 thousand other practical difficulties, all learnt by heart 

 and rule in England, and explained away variously, rarely 

 satisfactorily. Jews and Mussulmen will not trouble them- 

 selves to discuss these things with protestant clergymen and 

 missionaries because these are all bound to certain sects and 

 doctrines — but wiirwith secular Christians. 



An enthusiastic lady had started the Garden of Solomon 

 anew for their agricultural salvation. It was. irrigated from the 

 aqueduct that once went to Jerusalem from Solomon's pools, 

 and under the foundress' vigorous management paid splendidly 

 from vegetables. The stimulus to all this was the supposed 

 near return of the Jews to Palestine and implicit faith in the 

 literal interpretation of prophecy concerning it, of which Hooker 

 remarks : 



I must read this subject up, for as the Jews have 

 never yet possessed but a portion of the promised land, I 

 do not see how a speedy realisation of the prophecy is 

 possible. 



