ites contended after they were driven from the hill-country, and from which, the Book of Judges naïvely tells us, "The Lord could not drive them out, because they had chariots of iron."* Imagine, then, the State of Vermont, its western shore bounded by the Atlantic Ocean instead of by Lake Champlain; the Connecticut Valley, its eastern boundary, a deep and almost impassable ravine cleft by some great convulsion in the solid rocks; the northern peaks of its Green-Mountain range overtopping Mount Washington; its southern hills rounded like those of Western Connecticut; its northern climate and productions not widely different from those of the Middle States; its southern counties akin in both respects to the Gulf States, and the reader will have a tolerably accurate picture of that land which, the birthplace and home of Jesus Christ, is the cradle of Christianity.† * Judges i., 19. + See Frontispiece. In this picture the artist has grouped the more characteristic features of the Holy Land in one view. In the foreground is a glimpse of the Dead Sea and the tropical vegetation of Southern Palestine. Beyond, and in the centre of the picture, rises Mount Tabor. To the right are to be seen the waters of the Sea of Tiberias, while in the distance rise the snow-clad heights of the Lebanon and Mount Hermon. To combine in one view these varied aspects, and to preserve with accuracy the topography of the country, was impossible, and has not been attempted. But the characteristic features of the land, excepting the plains and the sea-shore, have been caught and preserved by the pencil, CHAPTER II. THE JEWISH COMMONWEALTH. (HE curtain rises on the Jewish drama, disclosing a nation of slaves suffering under the most intolerable bondage of an Egyptian despotism. They are delivered by God through the hand of Moses. They cross the Red Sea near its northern terminus, pass down its eastern shore, and at length assemble on an extended plain in the midst of a wild and grand rocky fastness, well fitted to be the cradle of a free people,* that they may there receive from the hand of God the gift of national life and liberty. Here Moses recounts to the people their deliverance; he nominates Jehovah to be their king; he declares that God will be their God if they will be His people. In the most solemn manner the question is submitted to their suffrage. With acclamation they accept Jehovah as their civil ruler. Thus begins their national history. Men grow into freedom. into freedom. A race long enslaved is seldom fitted for liberty with less than an education which outlasts the first generation. In accordance with this almost universal law of history, the Hebrew people wait till the generation of slaves is dead before their children are brought to the land of their fathers-the land which God had destined for them. But this forty years is not misspent. During that time a constitution and system of laws is perfected and taught to them which underlies not only all their subsequent * The picture of Mount Sinai which accompanies this chapter is from drawings and photographs taken at the place. The edge of Mount Sinai proper is seen upon the left. The plain which occupies the centre is supposed to be the location of the Israelites' encampment. For a description of it, see Robinson's Researches, vol. i., § iii., p. 140, and Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 42, 43. Exod. xix., 1-9. |