the Land of Promise.* Palestine is a small country-not quite as large as Wales-and yet more wonderful things have happened in it than in any other. It was our Lord's land. Here He lived His holy life on earth, here He was buried, and from this land of Palestine He went up to heaven.

If you look at a map of Palestine as it was in our Lord's time, you will see that different parts. of it were called by different names. The southern part was called Judæa. Jerusalem was in Judæa, and that alone would make the people think more of this part of the country than of any other. God's beautiful Temple was in Jerusalem, and the learned men who studied the Law of Moses, and taught religion to the people, had their homes in this holy city. In Judæa there were fewer Gentiles or foreigners than in any other part of the country. Judæa was the land of the vine. It grew on the sides of the hills, and the grapes were very large and beautiful.

Next to Judæa, and in the middle of the country, *Gen. xii. 5; Gen. xl. 15; Exod. xv. 14, Is. xiv. 29; I Sam. xiii. 19; Is. xix. 17; Hos. ix. 3; Zech. ii. 12; Heb. xi. 9.

was Samaria. In our Lord's time there were very few Jews in Samaria, for long before the kings of Assyria had taken away very many of the Israelites who lived in Samaria, and had brought other people to live in it. It was the descendants of these foreign people and the Israelites left in the land. who lived in Samaria in the time of Jesus.

Passing through Samaria, and still going on towards the north, we come to Galilee. In Lower Galilee there were many fruitful plains. In harvest-time these plains looked like very large corn fields, for a great deal of corn was grown upon them. The northern part of Galilee, called also Higher Galilee, was more hilly. It was the land of the olive tree.

To us, Galilee is more interesting than any other part of Palestine, because it was our Lord's country-the home of His childhood. Nazareth, where Jesus passed so many years, was built on the side of a hill in Galilee, and from the top of the hill you can see all over Galilee. Many beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers grew wild everywhere, and very many birds lived in its fields and groves.

CHAPTER VII.

The Holy Feast of the Jews.-Jesus goes up to Jerusalem.-Jesus and the Learned Men.

Read St. Luke ii. 41-52.

HE Jews kept three great feasts every year.
They were called the Feast of the Pass-

over, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. These feasts or festivals were times of gladness, like our Christmas-day. The people rejoiced before God; and so many men, women, and children came to Jerusalem from distant parts that the houses could not hold them, and they lived in the tents they had brought with them. All the open places in Jerusalem, and much of the space outside the walls of the city, were covered with these tents.

Now, when one of these feasts came round, what would a stranger have seen, if from some mountain top he could have looked over all the land of Israel?

In every town and village he would have seen men meeting together, and getting ready for a long

journey. All is bustle and preparation.

Then in a little while they leave their homes to the care of their heavenly Father, and begin their long pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There are no railroads and no coaches, and no roads even at all like our roads, but only paths. The men walk, but the old and the lame ride on mules or asses. And as there are no inns the travellers take with them everything they need by the way-food to eat, and tents to live in. Friends and neighbours and kinsfolk meet together, and keep each other company. They come from every part of the land, and hasten on, eager to see the holy city of Jerusalem, and the beautiful Temple, "whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord."* Morning and evening they chant the Psalms of David; and when at last they catch sight of the holy city, and see the Temple of the Lord, all bright and glorious, its white stones and gilded roof glittering in the sunshine, their joyful voices are raised in one loud song of praise and gladness. Joyfully do they

*Ps. cxxii. 4.

66

repeat the words, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." My soul longeth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God!"

The greatest of these feasts of the Jews was the Feast of the Passover. Do you remember what that was? Do you remember what God commanded the Israelites to do the night before they came out of Egypt? Every family was to kill a lamb, and to sprinkle its blood upon the upper post and the two side posts of the doorway of the house. Then when the Angel of the Lord came to slay the eldest son in every Egyptian home, he passed over the houses on which he saw the blood of the lamb. On that night, while the Egyptians were sleeping, the Israelites ate in haste the Paschal lamb. They ate it in haste with travelling shoes on their feet, and walking staves in their hands, ready to escape for their lives from Egypt, and to begin their long journey through the wilderness to Canaan.*

Jesus Christ is our Paschal Lamb. He is the

* Exodus xii. 3—27.