Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/130

 and in every age; and I know no spot in the world in which there could have been found brought together so many phenomena of Nature, maritime and desert, mountain and plain, hill and valley, tropical, temperate, and arctic, as are brought together there within the space of a few miles. And when I remember that that Book was to be for the teaching of all men, for all time, I feel that there is something providential in that ordering of circumstances which led to the selection of the only spot, as far as we know, in the whole world, in which there is such a great variety of objects for the illustration, comparison, and elucidation of Holy Writ as in that country of the Holy Land. Often, when I have been in that country, on one of its hills, and have noticed the variety of scenery brought into my view at one time, I have thought to myself, 'What would the Bible have been if its pages had been written by men who had lived only in the monotonous valley of the Nile? What would they have been able to pen in the way of illustration which would have come home to the heart of the English peasant?' Again, if that Book were written by men who were only familiar with the phenomena of Arabian deserts, how could it have come home to those who dwell on the sea? Had it been written by inhabitants of tropical India, how would it have come home to those who are familiar with 'snow and frost and vapour, fulfilling His will?' In fact, there are illustrations taken from every kind of natural phenomena, and yet none of them are very marked or startling."

[Authorities and Sources:—"Palestine in its Physical Aspects." Rev. Canon Tristram, F. R. S. Survey Memoirs: "The Fauna and Flora." Rev. Canon Tristram. "The Animals mentioned in the Bible." Henry Chichester Hart, B.A., F.L.S.]