344 THE OLIVE LEAR ' CHAP. 



yet he was Divinely summoned to abandon it, to leave 

 his work there, and go away to the south-western region 

 of Palestine, the old land of the Philistines not to a 

 larger sphere of usefulness, not to a scene of more 

 crowded and varied human life, but " unto Gaza, which 

 is desert." 



This place was on the very border-line, at the extreme 

 south of the Holy Land, farthest removed from all the 

 scenes and associations of Philip's ordinary life. The 

 region round about was without towns or villages, lonely 

 and desolate. It had been laid waste by the ravages ot 

 war j and the encroachment of the drifting sands of the 

 coast completed the ruin which man had begun. For- 

 merly, the traveller going north from Egypt to Syria, or 

 south from Syria to Egypt, had to pass through it ; and 

 here provisions were laid in for the journey either way. 

 But this route, owing to the lawless tribes roaming about 

 ready to rob and maltreat the traveller, -and to the de- 

 struction of the city of Gaza and the surrounding villages, 

 had been abandoned ; and now the only objects that 

 diversified the landscape were a few solitary palm-trees, 

 and perhaps the dusky tent of a wandering desert Arab. 



If Philip had reasoned about the Divine command, 

 he would naturally have wondered much why he should 

 be sent to such an out-of-the-way desert-place. What 

 motive could there be for such an apparently arbitrary 

 proceeding ? What good could he do in such a spot ? 

 And yet, whatever his thoughts might have been, he 

 immediately obeyed the Divine command. He left 

 Samaria, and " went into the way that goeth down from 



