Beyond it the valley of Lebonah, partially cultivated, is surrounded by terraced hills, mostly bare and waste,a blighted paradise. There, as of old, it may be seenwhere men go to the place which was in Shiloh, where the Lord set his name at the first-what the Lord hath done to it and to the land, because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Yet, even there, none can look on the environs of a village, or on the terraces ranged in order on the surrounding hills, without seeing what the Lord shall yet do for Israel, when his name shall be set up at the last in Jerusalem, and the covenant of peace shall be established with his people.

Sihor, with its lonely vale, whose inhabitants came forth to see Jesus, and many of whom, without a miracle but that of grace, believed on him there, has hitherto in a great measure escaped the curse which has lighted on the cities that would not hear the messenger of the Lord. Groves of olives, orchards, and gardens, are intermingled with fields of corn, as if the hill of Gerizzim, at the foot of which it stands, yet echoed some of the blessings which Joshua read, while all the curses taken up by the four winds of heaven have spread over the land. Almonds, oranges, pomegranates, olives, figs, peaches, dates, may all be gathered in a single spot; and as they successively ripen, the ground is literally covered with fruit. The place where Abraham was first stayed on reaching Canaan, and where Jesus held not his hands as among Israelites to an unbelieving people, is a well watered garden, and thus a token of what the land shall be when the day that Abraham saw afar off and was glad shall come, and all the renovated cities of the land shall know that Jesus is the very Christ. In speaking as all the prophets spake of that glorious consummation, the mountains of Ephraim and Samaria were not forgotten any more

than those of Judah. Less blighted than these, they are in many places covered with rich pasture; and the terraced mountains of Samaria, like that on which its capital stood, need no more than the planting of vineyards, that the shoutings of the vintage, that long have ceased, may return. They too cry out for the completion of the promises of the God of Israel. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord, sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations : publish ye, and praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold I will bring thee, and gather thee, saith the Lord; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.'

The glory of Jacob has indeed waxed thin; but some vestiges may thus still be seen of what it was. And other exceptions to the general desolation that has come over the mountains of Israel, have been marked in various directions by passing travellers. The land has enjoyed its Sabbaths, and has rested for ages. But, like that of fallowed or long pastured fields, its rest has not been in vain. Its unproductiveness in produce for man during centuries past has progressively increased; and instead of being reduced by unceasing cropping, the soil has been accumulating from generation to generation. The terraces are so constructed that they act as filters, and the mould, instead of being washed down the sides of the hills by the earlier and latter rains, has not only been retained, but has received new accessions by the annual decay of the rank grass, or the thickset thorns

'Jer. xxxi. 5-9,

and briars and thistles which grow in confirmation of the threatened curse, and in preparation for the promised blessing. The substance that is in it is not wasted but increased. The wild produce, often impenetrable in its rankness, has kept the mountains in continued manure; and the strangers who have boasted that the mountains of Israel were given unto them for a possession, by the very act of extirpating the vines and destroying the vineyards, have made way for a produce that could not profit them, but which unceasingly deposited on the surface of the soil the substance which the roots of the thorns drew from the interstices of the rocks. The terraces, as it were, are carpeted all over with low thorny plants, covered with thick prickly leaves, which turn aside the foot of the intruder, and pay all their tribute to a land which a blessing yet awaits, till Jacob become an inheritor of his own mountains again. The desolations of many generations, during which the mountains of Israel have been always waste, have not passed unprofitably for Israel, though unproductively to aliens.

While the hills of Judah and of Ephraim have been resting and gathering strength in their repose, labour where needful has been called into exercise in other lands than those which the Israelites anciently possessed, in preparation for the time when they shall enlarge the place of their tent, and stretch forth the curtains of their habitations. The people who have dwelt within their inheritance, driven from the fertile plains that needed no culture to promote their fertility, have not been idle in other mountains where their labour would finally be profitable to the rightful possessors of the land.

Dan lay on the south of Lebanon, which, though all included in the promised heritage, formed no part of the

land in which the Israelites dwelt. But the Lord wil bring his people into the land of Lebanon,' and there the preparation for their entering seems to be completed, and the day may be at hand when it shall be said, Is it not yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fertile field.?

"The country of Kesrouan (north-east of Beyrout),” says Burckhardt, " presents a most interesting aspect; on the one hand are steep and lofty mountains full of villages and convents, built on their rocky sides; and, on the other, a fine bay, and a plain of about a mile in breadth, extending from the mountains to the sea. There is scarcely any place in Syria less fit for culture than the Kesrouan, yet it has become the most populous part of the country. The quantity of silk produced annually amounts to about three hundred and thirty hundred weight English. The extraordinary extortions of the government are excessive."3

6

"On the summit and on the eastern side of Anti-Libanus (between Damascus and Baalbec) there are many spots affording good pasturage. It abounds also in short oak trees." The monastery of Mar-Elias has extensive grape and mulberry plantations, and on the river side a well cultivated garden. The town of Zahle is surrounded by vineyards. The terraces in the vicinity of the convent are covered with vines, as recently seen and painted by Colonel Macniven. Though few in number compared to those of the mountains of Israel, which often embrace the whole sides of successive valleys to the very summits of the hills, the view of them as in the plate may convey to the reader some idea of the labour expended in ages past in preparation for the fulness of the covenanted promises to Israel.

Zechariah x. 10. ? Isaiah xxix. 17. Burckhardt, pp. 182-187, 188. Ibid. pp. 20, 21. 5 Ibid. p. 4. 6 Ibid. p. 7.