my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness." (Jer. xii. 10.)1

In the course even of this small work, consisting principally of extracts from different travellers, the reader will hardly fail to notice the frequent repetition of the word ruins; ruined cities; villages; forts; where now wild animals, or birds and scorpions lurk: for "the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever; the multitude of the city shall be left; the defenced city shall be desolate; and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness; your cities are burned with fire, and the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste.'

Again, we find continually that where once the land was fertile and productive, it now lies desert; where once, in well-watered plains, the stately tree and fruitful shrub abounded, (see JERICHO,) barrenness now reigns; so that scarce a tree is to be seen throughout the perished and dusty country. The rose of Sharon has vanished; and here and there only we find a few lovely and verdant spots to tell what once the land of promise was. The remains of cisterns are to be found, in which they collected the rain-water; and traces of the canals by which these waters were distributed on the fields, but now, even the plentiful fountain gushes forth in vain, for there are none to direct its waters; and it has come to pass which was written, "Ye shall be as a garden that hath no water. How long shall the land, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?"

Many of the foregoing passages are taken from the travels of an acute and accurate observer, whose testimony is the more valuable, since it is that of an enemy, for he was himself an unbeliever in that very word of prophecy which his own narrative continually,

1 For some of the principal prophecies alluded to concerning Judæa, see Lev. xxvi.; Deut. xxix. 22-24; Isa. i. vi. xxiv. xxxii. 9, &c., xxxiii. 8; Jer. iv. 20, &c., xii. xviii. 6; Ezek. vii. 21, &c., xii. 17-20; Dan. ix. 27.

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(though to himself unconsciously,) proves to be very sure. Mr. Keith observes, that in one single sentence he shows the fulfilment of not less than six predictions. They are as follows:

"I will destroy your high places, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation." Lev. xxvi. 30, 31; Amos ii. 5.

"The palaces shall be forsaken." -Isaiah xxxii. 14.

"I will... destroy the remnant of the sea-coast."-Ezek. xxv. 16. "I will make your cities waste." -Lev. xxvi. 31.

"Few men left."-Isaiah xxiv. 6. "So will I ... make the land desolate; yea, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all their habitations."-Ezek. vi. 14.

MR. VOLNEY WRITES"The temples are thrown down,

The palaces demolished,

The ports filled up,

The towns destroyed,

And the earth, stripped of its inhabitants,

Seems a dreary buryingplace."1

The preceding extracts may serve to give a slight sketch of the past and present state of Judæa, and to point out briefly the fulfilment of prophecy, in the latter. It may not be amiss to close the chapter with a more cheering theme, and to allude to those prophecies which promise brighter and happier days to this desolate and afflicted land, and her despised and wandering sons. "The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee . . . And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it... Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Ye, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel . . . and 1 Keith's Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion, pp. 19, 20.

I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited: For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall be no more pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." (See Deut. xxx. 3—5; Isa. lx. 8, &c., lxi. 4, &c. ; Ezek. xxxvi. 8, &c.; Amos ix. 13, 15, &c.)1

1 For a fuller review of the fulfilment of prophecy in the present state of Judæa, the reader is referred to Keith's "Evidence of Prophecy," and the same author's "Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion;" from which sources much of the preceding matter is derived.