The giant cities of Bashan : and Syria's holy places

XIII

THE COTTAGE BY THE CATHEDRAL AND OTHER PARABLES. \ytistOut. XIV.

THE VOICE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE IN SONG, [Just Out.

T. NELSON AND SONS, LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK.

THE V ■ f / .?

GIANT CITIES OF BASH AN

AND SYRIA'S HOLY PLACES. " .

THE

Giant Cities of Bash an ;

AND

SYRIA'S HOLY PLACES.

. J^By the RE V. ft Xi >OR TER, A.M.,

A uthor of " Five Years in Damascus,'" " Murray's Hand-Book for Syria and Palestine? " The Pentateuch and the Gospels" &*c.

LONDON: T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;

EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.

I8 74 .

\The right of Translation Reserved.]

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

Y LORD, — I dedicate this little volume to you in grateful acknowledgement of that personal friendship with which you have honoured me, and as a humble testimony, from one who feels a deep interest in Syria's welfare, to those noble exertions which your Lordship made to heal the divisions and promote the prosperity of that unhappy land. I have good reason to know that the wise counsels you gave and the enlightened policy you advocated, while British Commissioner in Syria, secured the esteem and confidence of all parties ; and I feel assured that, had the policy which you inaugurated with such success in the Lebanon been extended in the manner you proposed to the whole of Syria, the dawn of a bright future would ere this have begun to illumine its blood-stained plains and mountains.

1 have not said much in these pages of that war between

11 DEDICA TION.

rival sects which recently desolated some of the fairest provinces of Lebanon, nor of those massacres which must leave the brand of everlasting infamy alike on those who planned, fostered, and perpetrated them. I should perhaps have said more had I not expected that they would have found an abler historian in "our mutual friend" Mr. Cyril Graham. In the absence of fuller details, I am happy to be able to insert in an Appendix one or two deeply interesting papers from the Rev. Smylie Robson, who, as you know, passed through the fearful three days' carnage in Damascus.

I confess that I feel considerable hesitation in placing these sketches of Bible lands and Bible story before one in every way so competent as your Lordship to detect their many imperfections. You will perceive that they are fragmentary. I do not attempt a description of all Palestine, or of all Syria. I omit many of the most noted places, and some of the most celebrated shrines. I do so, not because I think their mines of interest and instruction have been exhausted ; far from it — I believe there is still much, very much, to be done for the illustration of the history and language of the Bible by the thoughtful and observant traveller. Bible stories are grafted upon local scenes ; and, as is always the case in real history, these scenes have moulded and regulated, to a greater or less extent, the course of events ; consequently, the more full and graphic the descriptions of the scenes, the more vivid and life-like will the stories become. The imagery

DEDICA TION. ill

of Scripture, too, is eminently Eastern : it is a reflection of the country. The parables, metaphors, and illustrations of the sacred writers were borrowed from the objects that met their eyes, and with which the first readers were familiar. Until we become equally familiar with those objects, much of the force and beauty of God's Word must be lost. The topography of Palestine can never be detailed with too great minuteness ; its scenery and natural products can never be studied with too much care. Bible metaphors and parables take the vividness of their own sunny clime when viewed among the hills of Palestine ; and Bible history appears as if acted anew when read upon its old stage.

I have not avoided those more familiar localities, then, because previous writers have exhausted them, but simply because I have been anxious to lead my readers to other and less familiar scenes. I had opportunities, during my long residence in the East, of visiting regions seldomsome of them never before — trodden by European travellers. As I could not undertake a survey of all the Bible lands over which I wandered, I have thought it best to confine myself in this volume to those which appear to furnish information in some measure fresh and new. I have' passed by Bethlehem and Nazareth, Hebron and Jericho, Tiberias and Shechem, that I might linger in Philistia and Sharon, Lebanon and Palmyra, Hamath and Bashan.

You will also observe, my Lord, that the book is not a

IV

DEDICA TION.

simple diary of travel ; nor is it a disquisition upon history or geography. I have in most cases attempted to group together in a popular way the incidents and results of two, three, and occasionally many visits to the same region, filling in the events of sacred history, and showing the customs of primitive life, as illustrated by what passed before me. My aim has been to give, as far as possible, a complete picture, and to enable my readers to see the distant past more clearly through the medium of the present.

During all my journeys the Bible was my constant companion. I read its prophecies, as well as its history, amid the scenes to which they refer. I could not shut my eyes to the graphic details of the Record, nor to the ruin and desolations of the land ; and I could not resist the conclusions which a careful comparison forced upon me. I do not wish, my Lord, to make you in any way responsible for these conclusions, or for the views I have ventured to express. Free thought and free inquiry, conducted honestly, and in the case of the Bible reverentially, is the right of every man. This, while fully granting it to others, I claim for myself. I have in all cases attempted to exhibit two pictures, — one of the country, as seen by myself; another as sketched by the Hebrew prophets. My readers, if not satisfied with my conclusions, can draw their own.

One thing, however, all Eastern travellers must admit ■ — the perfect harmony between the Bible and the land

DED1CA TION.

in which it was written. I have heard your Lordship bear noble and eloquent testimony to the fact. Even M. Renan, with all his prejudices, saw it, and has expressed it in language of equal truth and beauty: "Toute cette histoire qui, a distance, semble flotter dans les nuages d'un monde sans r^alite, prit ainsi un corps, une solidite qui m'dtonnerent. L'accord frappant des textes et des lieux, la merveilleuse harmonie de l'id^al evangelique avec le paysage qui lui servit de cadre furent pour moi comrne une revelation." These are remarkable words, which the Biblical student must fully appreciate.

Permit me, in conclusion, to thank your Lordship for this opportunity of paying my hearty, though humble tribute to your high talents and distinguished services, and to subscribe myself,

My Lord.

Yours faithfully and respectfully,

J. L. PORTER.