right of possession is never challenged, and need not be contested where there are empty dwellings, ready for occupation, and fertile plains that cry in vain for cultivators. The wandering Arabs cause the inhabitants to wander. The government, to whom alone all property in the land belongs, has no power to protect it; and the cities and the land, with none that can keep the one or cultivate the other, are without possessors, as if they pertained to a people that are no longer there. All other bonds are broken, all other claims disannulled, but that of Israel's everlasting covenant. The time is come when there is room for a million of human beings to form a new colony, in the country beyond Jordan, which was formerly partitioned among two tribes and a half of Israel. And while the wandering tribes that traverse the land, and move incessantly from place to place, as if sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and dwelling in tents amidst cities in which no man dwells, the wanderers throughout the world who can call no other region theirs, are numbered by millions, and one of the fondest schemes of the Jewish mind, not without recent attempts to realise it, is that of colonizing the land of their fathers.

This extensive region beyond Jordan, newly restored to the notice of the world, begins to be appreciated, and signs there are that the time may not be distant that it shall also be appropriated by the people to whom the Lord had given it. Who that can relish the beauties of nature, or value its bounties, could look on the lovely mountains of Gilead, and the rich plains of the Haouran, even though they did not bear a single consecrated name, without a wish that the blessedness of such lands. bore some similitude to their fertility and beauty? And who that has the faith of Abraham, and mourns over the miseries of his expatriated race, does not wistfully

look for the time when the captivity of Israel shall be brought back,-when Dan, ere his own allotment be fixed in another portion of the land as rich and lovely, shall leap from Bashan, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. These lands retain such inherent richness and such natural beauty, still undefaced by man, that they are worthy of being claimed by the Lord of the whole earth as his own. And God hath spoken in his holiness, "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine." He has reserved them still for his people Israel, notwithstanding their past unfaithfulness in his covenant. And although He has turned human instrumentality to the execution of his judgments, he has so wrought out his purposes, and still kept his covenant in view, that of all lands these are the most inviting for a colony, and the most free for immediate occupancy; so that, as is stated, a million of men might take possession of them at once, not to the detriment, but to the gain of all the regions around. Where or when, with even the semblance of truth, could this be said of any other country? or what land besides, throughout all the earth, holds forth to myriads of immediate settlers such temptations of unappropriated lands, of unoccupied cities, of empty but habitable houses, of numberless fountains, of rich and beauteous mountains, and of fertile plains covered with luxuriant pasturage, ready for immediate tillage? The hand of the Lord God of Israel is assuredly in all this. It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. And, showing forth his faithfulness, it is a token, could any be needed, that He loves Israel still, and has his people in remembrance, and will not suffer his promises to fail. Who is the Lord but our God? Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Has He not according to his

1 Ps. lx. 7.

According to

word made this whole land what it is, whether as respects the cities and houses that have cast out their inhabitants, and the men to whom He has not given them in possession, or the uncultivated plains which have passed under his sentence of desolation, and yet retain their substance? And as surely as Gilead is the Lord's, and Manasseh is His, has He not reserved them and and made them ready, whenever the people of his covenant shall be turned to him again, for the accomplishment of his word which we delight to repeat," I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead." "Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." It has been said that these lands may suffice for the occupancy of a million of men. Israel is still numbered by millions, but the tribes of Israel shall not always bear the name of outcast, and many shall yet be added to those that are now known. Gilead alone, even with all its surrounding regions, is not a land too rich or large for the thousands of Israel that shall yet be assem bled there. For saith the Lord, "I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and place shall not be found for them."3

1 Jer. 1. 19.

2 Micah vii. 14, 15, 19, 20.

3 Zech. x. 10.

CHAPTER X.

RUINS OF CITIES IN JUDEA, &c.

There is a contrast strikingly reversed, as drawn by Josephus and every modern traveller, between the region on the west and the east of the Jordan. Prior to the Jewish war, which terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, the region beyond the Jordan was partly desert, and was esteemed less fertile than Judea; while the latter country was universally cultivated and full of cities, and while Samaria and Judea were not only everywhere clothed with fruitful trees, but were also so exceedingly populous, that two provincial towns in the plain of Judah could send forth thirty thousand armed men. But while some portion of the ancient glory of Gilead still lingers there, that of Judea has departed, its mountains are desolate, and its cities have fallen, though not, like those of Edom, for ever.

The prophetic Scriptures could in two words characterise for many ages the separate fate of all the tribes in distinguishing the dispersed of Judah from the outcasts of Israel. In like manner, while the cities of Israel beyond the Jordan have been either ruined or deserted, many of them being dispeopled though not destroyed, the word of the prophet now teaches us, in passing the Jordan, to look for the decayed places of Judah. This

one word thus sets them before the reader as they are. Among them we are not to look for "indestructible towns;" nor do they in this respect show us anew cities still existing, though without inhabitant, or houses still standing, though without man. Judea has been the scene of sieges and of contests which have laid most of its cities even with the ground; and it has not therefore such conspicuous ruins and such forsaken though not fallen cities, as those with which the Haouran is covered, unlike to any other land on earth. But deserted villages and ancient towns utterly abandoned, the region on the west of Jordan can also show. And built up again as its cities shall be, we may warrantably look there also, as throughout all the land, for the ready materials of a speedy reconstruction, and see, if over that land too there be, as in the ruined towns beyond the Jordan, hewn stones in abundance where cities stood, waiting for the time when the hands of strangers shall build up the walls that there have fallen, and when it shall be said to the cities of Judah, Behold your King.

A more summary view may here suffice, as decayed cities have less to tell.

Jesus preached the gospel from city to city throughout the lands of Galilee and Judea. He sent forth his apostles and seventy disciples to declare throughout them all that the kingdom of God was come nigh unto them. They preached in vain. But not in vain did they shake off the dust of their feet as a testimony against them. Not Chorazin and Bethsaida alone, but many others besides, sharing in the sin of not believing in Jesus, have shared the same fate. Though they were exalted unto heaven, and rivalled each other in their greatness, and the boast could be made of them that they were excelled by none, yet their pride, their im