flow with streams of testimony. Every rock cries out in bitter remonstrance against the unbelief of men. Every stone voices the praise of God. Palestine is more than a land of memories. It is a memorial land, as well.
Every volume that illustrates this harmony between the land and the book is an invaluable contribution to sacred literature. The field is still open. We some times think, for example, that the topography of Jerusalem is an exhausted subject. But we forget that the Jerusalem of to-day stands upon a mass of ruins and debris thirty or forty feet in depth. What a kindling of the fires of antiquarian controversy, and what valuable developments are yet in store for us when the Crescent wanes from Zion, and the city becomes another Pompeii for excavation and research!
In no department of eastern exploration does the Bible student acquire more instructive lessons than in that pertaining to the domestic habits of the people. The Scripture narrative enters largely into the details of social life. The old customs have not changed materially, and one can to-day reproduce the incidents of social life so graphically described in the Bible. Abraham still sits in the door of his tent; Ruth gleans after the reapers on the plains of Bethlehem, and on these plains shepherds keep watch over their flocks by night. Isaac meditates at eventide. Rachel descends from her camel and covers her beautiful face with the ample vail before she meets her lord. The marriage feast is still kept in Cana. The mourners with wailing follow the bier to the grave. Salutations are exchanged among the people as in the days of Abraham and Christ.
