My Palestine Recollections. 4. Going Towards Jerusalem

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 17
THIS night’s ride across the Plain of Sharon was not only at too late a season in the year to enable me to appreciate the floral luxuriance which still in so good a measure characterizes it, but the darkness concealed many a landscape feature which my companion could otherwise have pointed out. So although, the young moon having some time set, I could not descry the traditional Azekah, Gibeon, or the Valley of Ajalon, rendered so memorable by the words of Joshua, in Josh. 10:1212Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. (Joshua 10:12), and the Lord’s response to His servant’s voice when “the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies,” other circumstances occurred calculated to bring to mind Scriptures equally impressive and instructive.
Our muleteer not having filled the water-skin before leaving Joppa, relying as he said upon a roadside well before reaching Ramleh, which well he likewise failed to discover, we were anxiously looking out for means to quench our thirst when seven horsemen joined our little company. One of them proved to be the Governor of Es-Salt, which is Ramoth-Gilead: another was the Mufti of Nablus: and they and their attendants being mounted on well-bred Arab horses, our humble barbs seemed to instinctively improve their pace and carriage in emulation of the superior mounts of our new companions. Salutes and wayfaring compliments having been exchanged, one of the party unbuckled his girdle, to which was attached the leather water bottle, from which I took a most refreshing draught of cold spring water, not very long before filled at the fountain. I returned the bottle to the owner, asking my companion to express my thanks in the vernacular, and to say how it brought to my mind the words in the Gospel about the “Living Water.” At one of the villages we passed hearing the cock crow brought to my remembrance the words of the Lord to Peter, “Before the cock crow thou shalt deny Me thrice” (Luke 22:6161And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. (Luke 22:61)). In Mark 14:3030And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. (Mark 14:30) we find the words “Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny Me thrice.” In this surely the Lord’s tender grace is manifest who gave His disciple a second admonition although he had not paid heed to the first; and as the cock crows more loudly when the morning draws near than in his first crowing near midnight, may we not learn that often, if we do not attend to the first warnings the Lord sends us, He may, in love and wisdom, find it necessary to visit us with more solemn admonitions? Perhaps the history of Job most strikingly illustrates this principle.