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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



and have its place in the civilization of 

 the present. 



The inhabitants, mostly i\Iuslims, are 

 a strong and often handsome race, nat- 

 urally equal to the races of Southern Eu- 

 rope; but as Palestine stands today, it is 

 a land of the past, a land of memories — 

 memories of religion, but chiefly of re- 

 ligious war, and always rather of war 

 than of peace. The only work ever done 

 in it for peace was done by the preaching, 

 19 centuries ago, of One whose teaching 

 His followers have never put in practice. 



The strife of Israel against the Amo- 

 rites and of the Crusaders against the 

 ]\Iuslims pale to insignificance compared 

 with the conflict between five great na- 

 tions today who bear the Christian name, 

 and some of whom are claiming the Al- 

 mighty as their special patron and pro- 

 tector. 



To one other kind of impression some- 

 thing remains to be said. Does travel in 

 the Holy Land give a clearer compre- 

 hension of the narratives of the Old and 

 New Testament? Does it give a livelier 

 sense of their reality? This question 

 must be answered separately for the two 

 divisions of the Bible. 



Israel's neighbors 



On the Old Testament the traveler gets 

 an abundance of fresh light from visiting 

 the spots it mentions. The history of 

 Israel from the time of Joshua — indeed, 

 from the time of Abraham — stands out 

 vividly. One realizes the position of the 

 chosen people in the midst of hostile 

 tribes — some tribes close to them : the 

 Philistines at the western part of the 

 Judean hills ; the Tyrians almost within 

 sight of Carmel, to the north ; Anialek in 

 the desert to the south, raiding as far as 

 Hebron ; Moab and the Beni Ammon on 

 the plateau that lies beyond Jordan to 

 the east, while the Syrian kingdom of 

 Ben-hadad and Hazael threatens from 

 behind the ridges of Galilee. 



One sees the track along which the 

 hosts of Egypt and Assyria marched. 

 One feels the breath of the desert upon 

 the prophets, for the desert comes into 

 Palestine itself. One traverses it de- 

 scending from Jerusalem to the Dead 

 Sea. It lies in bare, brown cliffs above 



the gardens of Jericho. One understands 

 what the foe of Israel meant when he 

 said that the gods of Israel were gods of 

 the hills, and his own gods of the valleys. 



HOW NEAR WAS ENDOR ! 



One sees how near to the Gilboan 

 jSIountains was Endor, where Saul Avent 

 to consult the witch the night before the 

 fatal battle (i Samuel, Chapter 28), and 

 how near also the wall of Bethshan, to 

 which the Philistines fixed his body and 

 that of the gallant Jonathan. Samaria, 

 the stronghold of Omri, and long after- 

 ward of Herod, frowns upon the plain 

 beneath, and at Jezreel the slope is seen 

 up which Jehu drove his steeds so furi- 

 ously to the slaughter of Jezebel (II 

 Kings, Chapter IX). 



One can feel it all to be real. Elijah 

 runs before the chariot of Ahab while the 

 thunder is pealing above, and Naaman is 

 bathing in Jordan on his way back to 

 Damascus from the visit to Elisha. The 

 historical books of the Old Testament are 

 so full of references to localities that one 

 uses them almost as a handbook. Na- 

 poleon, they say, had them read aloud to 

 him in the evenings in his camp on the 

 Syrian expedition of 1799. 



And though the aspect of things has 

 been greatly changed since those days by 

 the disappearance of ancient forests, the 

 introduction of some new trees and new 

 kinds of buildings, not to speak of two 

 railways and a few macadamized roads, 

 still the natural features of hill and valley 

 remain, and there is much in the ways 

 and customs of the people that remains 

 the same. The shepherd leads the same 

 life, except that he has no longer to fear 

 the lion, who has long since vanished, nor 

 the bear, who survives only in the re- 

 cesses of the northern hills. 



NEW TESTAMENT PALESTINE 



When one turns to the New Testa- 

 ment, how great is the difference. Ex- 

 cept as regards Jerusalem and the Sea of 

 Galilee, there are scarcely any references 

 to localities in the Gospel narratives, and 

 in those few references little or nothing 

 turns upon the features of the place. 



We can identify some of the spots 

 where miracles are related, such as Nain 



