THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



nuded of its vegetable growth the very skeleton of a 

 country changes and decays; even the skies and 

 clouds are altered. How great the changes that 

 have taken place in Palestine we can but faintly 

 imagine, but many of the trees mentioned in the 

 Bible still grow there if in much reduced numbers. 

 On Lebanon grow the Cedars in all their pristine 

 majesty, but vastly fewer in numbers than in the 

 days when Balaam compared the far-stretching en- 

 campments of the Israelite tribes in the Jordan val- 

 ley to "cedar trees beside the waters" (Numbers, 

 chap. XXIV, v. 6). 



Whether the word "cedar" in the Old Testament 

 connotes one or many kinds of tree may be left to 

 the biblical critics and Hebraists, but there is ample 

 and unmistakable proof that the Cedar of Lebanon 

 was well known to the Prophets and other teachers 

 of the old Hebrews. By their poets, as every Bible 

 reader knows, the forests of Lebanon Cedars were 

 regarded with sacred awe. They were the type of 

 power and majesty, of grandeur and beauty, of 

 strength and permanence; as "trees of Jehovah 

 planted by His right hand crowning the 'great 

 mountains'"; masterpieces in lofty stature, wide- 

 spreading shade, perpetual verdure, refreshing per- 

 fume, and unfailing fruitfulness. Some of the finest 

 imagery in Old Testament song is drawn from this 

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