THE JOY OF THE EARTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 77

THE JOY OF THE EARTH.

By a Baskeb.

In these days of travelling for recreahon and pleasure the question as to the countiy to be visited and the route to be chosen claims the careful consideration of the intending tenrist. But of all the various places to winch travellers are attracted, whether by beauty of natural scenery or otherwise, there can be no question whntever that the Holy Land far excels all other places on earth in entrancing interest.

Apart from ho many exciting historical associations viliich so crowd the pages of its annals, ranging from the martial deeds of the gallant Crusaders; the appalling sufferings of the beleaguered capital during the great siege; the cruel torture and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of heroic and noble Christian martyrs by the heathen Ronipn emperors; the awful events attending the foundation of the Christian religion ; the sanguinary history of many of ihe Jewish kings ; right back to the patriarchal days which saw the birth of the Jewish race — apart from all these stupendous landmarks in the history of the human race, the physical attractions of Palestine are of no mean order. Landing at Joppa (now Jaffa), ihe traveller at once proceeds to the chief centre of interest — Jerusalem. Travelling by road in preference to the prosaic railway, the wonderful orange gardens are soon reached, consisting of perhaps two or more square miles of forests of great trees, every bough heavily loaded in rich profusion with enormous golden fruit.

Passing this astonishing display of the lavish bounty of Nature, the road now winds through the beautiful valley of Sharon. On all sides flowers of brilliant colouring form & manyhued floral carpet of scarlet and gold, azure and vermilion, violet and ioEe pink: graceful, drooping lilies, tall, richly-tinted anemones, handsome cyclamens, wi + h inimrnersble other gems of the floral world, such as in more temperate climes are only to be seen in heated censervaxcries. After a time, after passrug through a succession of ravines and rocky mountain passes, Jerusalem, most ancient of all cities, bursts upon the view ; its domes and minaiets glittering in the sun, its frowning embrasured walls aud towers, though grisly end black with age, as solid as when upreared by the Crusaders, and its many quaint," Oriental dwellings, embowered and half concealed by palm tree, orange, and oleander, all combining io produce a picture so impressive and so beautiful as amply to justify its old-time appella■tion, "the joy of the whole earth." But not its beauty, not the reminiscence of its grandeur during the reigns of its earlier Jewish monarchs, when its -chief edifices were in part overlaid with solid gold, decorated with precious stones, and embellished withall that was rich and rare from all parts of the civilised earth ; not all this has graven it so deeply in the heart of Christendom. For on this hallowed spot the Son of God, leaving for a time His throne in heaven, leaving His bright retinue oi angels »nd archangels, and ihe hymning choirs of beatified spirits from throughout the vast universes, consented to take upon Himself 'he punishment due to aL. those who, by transgressing against the Almighty, or by dishonouring Him by forgetting Him, had incurred the dread condemnation of the wrath io come. Bat that sacrifice of the Redeemer will be of no avail if the personal and individual acceptance of it be refused or lieglected. __^___^___^