PALESTINE—-MONTGOMERY. 435 
westward in the trading vessels and stations of the Phoenician 
cities, which established their factories and colonies in a fringe about: 
the great sea, even beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, as far as Britain 
and the west coast of Africa. With the rise of their maritime com- 
merce and dominion the Greeks had these Syrian peoples to contend 
with, and later Rome fought a battle to the death with Carthage, 
the greatest of the Phoenician colonies. It must not be forgotten 
that Syria remained part of the western empire of Rome until the 
rise of Islam in the seventh century. And subsequently this con- 
trol was renewed for two centuries in the Crusades, when Syria 
came again under western and Christian control and was divided 
into a number of Frankish kingdoms, patterned after the feudal 
administration of Europe. Although Islam regained its own again, 
nevertheless the presence of a large Christian population in Syria— 
six-sevenths of the people of Lebanon are Christians—has always 
kept the ties close knit with Europe, and the present French claims 
to the possession of central Syria are based on these ancient rela- 
tions going back to the Crusades and the memories of the Roman 
Empire. 
Syria, accordingly, has always been in close touch with the western 
world, far more, for instance, than Asia Minor, which projects 
farther into the European sphere. We Americans, with our idea that 
“Westward the course of empire takes its way,” hardly realize 
the ancient bonds uniting the whole Mediterranean world, the west- 
bound Asiatic forces propelled from the Syrian coast and the east- 
bound forces of Europe claiming at least the western fringe of Asia 
as their own. But there is the further element of relationship which 
binds that Syrian land with the west. It is based on something 
stronger and deeper than commerce and politics and the lust of con- 
quest. It is a sentiment, yet the most vital of human sentiments, 
namely, religion. Syria, or more exactly its southern section Pales- 
tine, is the home of the Bible and the Bible religions. The religion 
of Europe and America is Christian, and their lands trace their 
spiritual lineage back to Palestine. And likewise the religion of the 
Jews, that small but potential people, which has nested, despite 
vicissitudes of time and persecution, in the midst of Christendom, 
looks back with still older bonds to the same land, and with senti- 
ments of race and affection that exceed those of the Christian. For 
the whole of the western world the little land of Palestine must share 
in the interest which the intelligent mind has for Greece and Rome, 
for from these three centers sprang the roots of our modern 
civilization. 
The Bible is the book of that land. Its pages have been open to 
us for 2,000 years. It has been read and studied and interpreted to 
