Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SOUTH FKOM JEKUSALEM. CHAPTER XV. THE HOME OF THE PATRIARCHS. is one remarkable peculiarity in the Bible, as a revelation of God’s will to man?or rather of the many books which make up the one which we call the Bible?that it is a record of historical events, extending over thousands of years, all of which occurred in many different places, but these principally situated within a very small territory. Accordingly there is hardly a hill or valley, stream or fountain, town or village in Palestine which has not been the home of some person or the scene of some event known and familiar to the Church of Christ. Every spot is consecrated by holy associations. And so in journeying through the land, we almost every hour visit some sacred locality. Thus, for example, in one day’s ridesouth from Jerusalem, after leaving the city by the old Jewish tower at the gate of Jaffa, we cross the plain of Rephidim, pass close to the tomb of Eachel, visit Bethlehem, drink at the pools of Solomon, stand on the plain of Mamre and by the well of Abraham, wind among the vineyards of Eshcol, and end with Hebron. This was our day’s ride, and let me tell the reader something of what we saw in so brief a journey. As to the general aspect of the country, it is beyond doubt the least picturesque in Palestine, and, apart from associations, does not possess any attractive feature. The hills which cluster over this upland plateau are like straw beehives, or rather, let me say, like those boys’ tops which are made to spin by a string wound round them, but turned upside down, the grooves for the string representing the encircling ledges of the limestone strata, and the peg a ruined tower on the summit. Imagine numbers of such hills placed side by side, with a narrow deep hollow between them …