The Bible Story Part 125

MEMORY VERSES 503

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ON THE WEST OF JERUSALEM, LOOKING TOWARD BETHLEHEM

From a photograph belonging to the Forbes Library, Northampton, Ma.s.s., and used by special permission.

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PALESTINE

Blest land of Judea! thrice hallowed of song, Where the holiest of memories pilgrim-like throng; In the shade of thy palms, by the sh.o.r.es of thy sea, On the hills of thy beauty, my heart is with thee.

With the eye of a spirit I look on that sh.o.r.e, Where pilgrim and prophet have lingered before; With the glide of a spirit I traverse the sod Made bright by the steps of the angels of G.o.d.

Blue sea of the hills!--in my spirit I hear Thy waters, Gennesaret, chime on my ear; Where the Lowly and Just with the people sat down.

And thy spray on the dust of His sandals was thrown.

Beyond are Bethulia's mountains of green, And the desolate hills of the wild Gadarene; And I pause on the goat-crags of Tabor to see The gleam of thy waters, O dark Galilee!

Hark, a sound in the valley! where, swollen and strong Thy river, O Kishon, is sweeping along; Where the Canaanite strove with Jehovah in vain, And thy torrent grew dark with the blood of the slain.

There down from his mountains stern Zebulon came, And Naphtali's stag, with his eyeb.a.l.l.s of flame, And the chariots of Jabin rolled harmlessly on, For the arm of the Lord was Abinoam's son!

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There sleep the still rocks and the caverns which rang To the song which the beautiful prophetess sang, When the princes of Issachar stood by her side, And the shout of a host in its triumph replied.

Lo, Bethlehem's hill-site before me is seen, With the mountains around, and the valleys between; There rested the shepherds of Judah, and there The song of the angels rose sweet on the air.

And Bethany's palm-trees in beauty still throw Their shadows at noon on the ruins below; But where are the sisters who hastened to greet The lowly Redeemer, and sit at His feet?

I tread where the Twelve in their wayfaring trod, I stand where they stood with the Chosen of G.o.d,-- Where His blessing was heard and His lessons were taught, Where the blind were restored and the healing was wrought.

Oh, here with His flock the sad Wanderer came,-- These hills He toiled over in grief are the same,-- The founts where He drank by the wayside still flow, And the same airs are blowing which breathed on His brow!

And throned on her hills sits Jerusalem yet, But with dust on her forehead, and chains on her feet; For the crown of her pride to the mocker hath gone, And the holy Shechinah is dark where it shone.

But wherefore this dream of the earthly abode Of Humanity clothed in the brightness of G.o.d?

Were my spirit but turned from the outward and dim, It could gaze, even now, on the presence of Him!

Not in clouds and in terrors, but gentle as when, In love and in meekness, He moved among men; And the voice which breathed peace to the waves of the sea In the hush of my spirit would whisper to me!

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And what if my feet may not tread where He stood, Nor my ears hear the dashing of Galilee's flood, Nor my eyes see the cross which He bowed Him to bear, Nor my knees press Gethsemane's garden of prayer?

Yet, Loved of the Father, Thy Spirit is near, To the meek, and the lowly, and penitent here; And the voice of Thy love is the same even now As at Bethany's tomb on Olivet's brow.

Oh, the outward hath gone!--but, in glory and power, The Spirit surviveth the things of an hour; Unchanged, undecaying, its Pentecost flame On the heart's secret altar is burning the same!

--_John Greenleaf Whittier_.

[By permission of Houghton. Mifflin & Co.]

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The Patriarchs

The earliest years of Jewish history are called the Patriarchal Age, and the men who were the leaders of the people were called Patriarchs. It was a very simple age. The people were nomadic, wandering from place to place to find pasturage for their great flocks and herds. They lived in tents. The patriarchs were the sheiks of the tribes, like sheik Ilderim in the story of "Ben-Hur." It must be remembered that they lived in a rude and uncivilized time. They had none of the high moral teaching which we have. They often did things which were evil, but they also sought earnestly after G.o.d, and often in the silence of the desert, under the stars of night, found him, and worshiped him as truly as we do. Their story is the common human tale of struggle and defeat and victory, which is repeated under different circ.u.mstances in every age.

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ABRAHAM

_The Story of the First Great Hero of Israel's History. How He Tented with His Flocks on the Upland Pastures of Palestine, and Became the Father of a Great Nation._

THE MIGRATION.

_He Leaves His Father's Home and Journeys to a New Country_.

There was a man named Abram, who lived in the city of Ur of the Chaldees.

Now the Lord said unto Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth he blessed."

So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and all their families and servants; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

And Abram pa.s.sed through the land unto the place of {22} Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, "Unto thy family will I give this land": and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.

And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

ABRAM AND LOT.

_The Division of the Land_.

And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to hold them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herd men of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle.