for the production of corn, might yet serve for the plantation of vines and olive-trees; which delight to extract, the one its fatness, the other its sprightly juice, chiefly out of such dry and flinty places."-MAUNDRELL'S Journey, pp. 65, 66.

"Even in those parts where all is now desolate," remarks Dr. Robinson, "there are everywhere traces of the hand of the men of other days. . . Most of the hills, indeed, exhibit the remains of terraces built up around them, the undoubted signs of former cultivation." Again, when travelling towards Hebron, he observes, "Many of the former terraces along the hill sides are still in use; and the land looks somewhat as it may have done in ancient times."-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. ii. pp. 187, 428.

"The desolation and barrenness of the land,” remarks a recent traveller, "predicted in the Bible, have been brought about by those political events which are fast causing the depopulation of the country: it now no longer numbers men sufficient to till the ground, nor can the people raise funds adequate for the purpose. Thus does man, unwittingly, bring about the unerring decrees of the Almighty."I

When these observations are added to the foregoing accounts of the evident tokens of the former fertility of the Holy Land, and to those of its present desolation, we can hardly fail to recall the words of the Psalmist, "A fruitful land maketh He barren, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein."

Here, indeed, we find the solution of every difficulty which may arise in our minds at first sight of all the evils which have befallen this once highly-favoured country. The ground is again cursed for man's sake; but when he shall turn to the Lord, the curse shall be taken away.

In the review of some of the principal prophecies respecting the Holy Land, in the first chapter, one (1) Lady F. Egerton's Journal of a Tour in the Holy Land, pp. 94, 95.

remarkable prediction of Isaiah remained unnoticed, and we cannot close this volume better than by alluding to it. It is one, the truth of which is confirmed by the reports of each traveller who has visited the country. It runs thus:

"Yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves."—(Isaiah vi. 13. See also xvii. 6.)

Notwithstanding that the glory of Jacob has been made thin, we find that amidst all the neglect and desolation which prevails, the substance is yet in the land. The soil, though uncultivated, is fat and loamy, and exhibits every sign of the greatest fecundity. In many places it seems as "rich as soil can be." "There are at present in Palestine all the materials requisite for the forming of a prosperous people ;" and it needs but that the blessing of God should again shine upon the land which is desolate for the sins of its inhabitants, and the "earth shall bring forth her increase," as of old; the valleys shall again stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing; the mountains shall rejoice, and the trees of the field, before the Lord.

In conclusion, it may not be out of place to say a few words respecting the remarkable people for whom this goodly land is reserved, and our duty towards them.

The conversion of Israel is inseparably connected with their restoration to their own land. When they shall be gathered from all lands to the inheritance of their fathers, they shall look on Him whom they have pierced, saying, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

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And let not the Gentile think that he is uninterested in this great event, and that God's promises of mercy to repentant Israel are nothing to him." For this would be to show that very temper which our blessed Lord reproved so strongly in the Jews of old-that selfish temper which kept the elder son from partaking in his

father's joy, when he welcomed the prodigal home. Rather let us seek for the spirit which Jesus showed, when He wept over Jerusalem; for the zeal which warmed the breast of the great apostle of the Gentiles, when he exclaimed, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, is, that they might be saved !"

Let us, too, beseech God to take from his ancient people "all ignorance, and hardness of heart ;" and the veil that hides the true Messiah from their eyes, and so quickly to fetch them home to his flock, that the word of His dear Son may be fulfilled, and Jew and Gentile become " one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord." Let us often read with joyful hope the words of St. Paul, in the 11th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans: "Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid : but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles. . . If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the word, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? . . . Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! . . . For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

APPENDIX.

NOTE I.

The "Desert," near Gaza.

IT is most probable that the expression in the book of Acts which might at first seem to apply to Gaza itself, and to describe it as then "desert," is to be referred to the particular road from Jerusalem to Gaza, on which the Evangelist was to find the eunuch, viz. the southern road, leading from Eleutheropolis to Gaza, through the "desert," or region without villages, as is the case at the present day.

"In Acts viii. 26," observes Dr. Robinson, "Philip is directed to go from Samaria toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert .. Here desert may refer either to the way, or to Gaza. The facts in the history of Gaza ... render it improbable that the city is here meant; although there is a possibility that Luke might have written just after the destruction of Gaza, about A.D. 65; and thus have been led, from the novelty of the event, to mention it. (Thus understood,) the words must belong to Luke... as a mere parenthetic remark. If attributed to the angel, and understood in this sense, it is difficult to see what bearing they could have upon his instructions to Philip; since the latter was not to go to Gaza, but only upon the road leading to it; and this road was the same, whether Gaza was desolate or not.

"More probable therefore is it, that the term desert is to be referred to the road on which Philip should find the eunuch; and was indeed meant as a description, to point out to him the particular road where he should fall in with the latter. This was the more necessary, because there were several ways leading from Jerusalem to Gaza. The most frequented at the present day, although the longest, is the way by Ramleh. Anciently, there appear to have been two