The Bible Story Part 38

What does Paul say about the foundation of the Christian temple? 440 S.A.

What does Paul say dwells in the Christian temple? 443 S.A.

What does Paul say makes the Christian temple strong? 443 S.A.

What do you think may have suggested to Paul the figure of the Christian as a warrior? 414, 447 S.A.

Describe the spiritual armor. 447, 448 S.A.

What does Paul say are the enemies against which the Christian warrior must fight? 447 S.A.

What does Paul say of the immortality of the soul? 449-455 S.A.

What message did John write to the church in Ephesus? 460 S.A.

What promise for faithfulness was given the church in Smyrna? 460, 461 S.A.

What was the charge against the church in Pergamum? 461 S.A.

What was the message to the church in Thyatira? 462 S.A.

For what was the church in Sardis rebuked? 462, 463 S.A.

What promise was given to the church in Philadelphia? 463,464 S.A.

What charge was brought against the church in Laodicea? 464 S.A.

What beautiful promise was held out to the Laodiceans? 464 S.A.

Name some of the symbols used in the successive scenes of this revelation. 467-478 S.A.

What name was given, in John's vision, to the Heavenly City? 476 S.A.

Name some of the characteristics of the Heavenly City. 477, 478 S.A.

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PART III

THE LAND OF THE BIBLE

_Visiting Palestine with THE BIBLE STORY_

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"A land not of sailors, not of traders, not of foresters, but a land of lonely highlanders who won their living from the soil, from grain fields, from vineyards, from orchards, and from sheepfolds. A land of paths, not of thoroughfares, with but one great city. A land, not far from the highroad between Europe and the East, yet secluded on its hilltops, where prophets and patriots dreamed in its safe caverns. A land which, because it had little possible outreach, reached upward."

--_William Byron Forbush_.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: RADIAL KEY MAP ILl.u.s.tRATING THE OLD TESTAMENT (With approximate distances and directions from Jerusalem). Used by permission of the American Baptist Publication Society.

_Copyrighted by Geo. May Powell, 1901_.]

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VISITING PALESTINE WITH THE BIBLE STORY

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE LAND

The land of Palestine would be one of the most interesting even if sacred events had never occurred within its borders.

In the first place, it is part of the world's largest oasis. Have you ever thought that it is the most isolated country on earth? Hemmed in by the desert, on part of one end by high mountains and on the west by the sea, it seems separated from an other lands as for some peculiar purpose.

It is most astonis.h.i.+ng in its physical contour. Though smaller than New Hamps.h.i.+re and of about the same shape, its elevation varies from the height of Mount Hermon, 9000 feet above the sea, to the lower level of the Jordan, 1300 feet below it. In the short distance of twenty miles from the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea there is a drop of over 4000 feet. Within these limits flourish the pine and the palm, the wheat and the cane, the grackle and the skylark, the mountain wolf and the gazelle. The mountain may be covered with snow when the plain is green with verdure. From more than one hilltop the traveler can see at once the glaciers of Hermon and the steaming cauldron of the Dead Sea.

These diversities explain many interesting points of history, and we may understand them more clearly through some of the rare and attractive photographs in THE BIBLE STORY.

The Seacoast Plain

Palestine may be most easily described as consisting of four strips widening from north to south, and broken across by Mount Carmel and the Valley of Esdraelon. These strips are, from west to east: the lowland plain, the highlands, the Jordan valley, and the tablelands east of the Jordan.

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The lowland plain has several significant features. The coast line of Palestine, as you may see by the map (14 T.J.), is broken by only one indentation, that of the headland of Carmel, and has not a single harbor. The general character of its sh.o.r.es is admirably ill.u.s.trated by the picture (110 S.A.), and their exposure by the picture of ancient Ascalon (474 T.J.). Jaffa, anciently Joppa, was then as now the common landing place for imports, but the small boats (168 T.J.) indicate how limited must have been the foreign commerce that could be carried among the rocks which fringe that sh.o.r.e. The plain farther inland was known at the north as the Plain of Sharon and at the south as the Plain of the Philistines. As the map (112 T.J.) shows, the main highroad from Asia Minor to Egypt ran through it. That Jerusalem was a spiritual rather than a commercial capital is seen in the fact that it was not on this road. Aijalon (364 H.T.) was one of those easy gateways at which Judea struggled with Philistia, and the valley of Sorek (180 T.J.), deeper among the hills, was the home of the individualistic patriot, Samson.

The Highlands

When Abraham came down over the backbone of Canaan and stood on the summit of Mount Ebal, which crowns the highlands, he chose for himself the hill country of Judah and Hebron. There may have been a stern prescience in this, as well as generosity to his luxury-loving nephew.

Thenceforth the history of the Hebrews, like that of the Scotch, was largely that of highlanders. How suited were those hills for defense is suggested by photographs (304, 344, 356 H.T.). These highlands slope up gradually from the lowland plain on the west, but on the east they fall toward the Jordan with frightful rapidity, broken by kopjes, small canyons, and almost inaccessible swift streams. What this country is like is suggested by the picture (154 G.B.). It was a fitting home for such lonely prophets as Elijah and John the Baptist.

Along these highlands rested the high towns of Hebron (44 H.T.), Bethlehem (14 H.T.), Jerusalem (496 H.T.), Shechem (82 H.T.), Samaria (156 T.J.), and, beyond Esdraelon, Nazareth (60 L.J.). Farther to the north lived the brave prophets of the Northern Kingdom among the mountain sanctuaries of the Lebanon (44 S.A., 460 H. T.) under the shadow of the King of the Land, Mount Hermon (60 S.A.). On these highlands this mere speck of a people intrenched themselves for ages against the mightiest of world powers. Here lived all their great men.

Here were written their histories. Here were their two capitals. In one of their hill towns lived the Master for thirty years; in another, Jerusalem, he consummated his mission.

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The Jordan Valley

Jordan is more glorious in poetry than in history or in fact. As a stream it begins nowhere and ends in a salt lake. Its lower banks are a great hot muggy bowl (126, 394 T.J., 280, 290 H.T.). The stream has never been anything but a boundary, since it is not navigable and is too low for purposes of irrigation. Its fords have been the scene of many wars of conquest and defense (284 H.T., 64 L.J.), but the people living near it have always been weak and degenerate. It has been called the pantry of Canaan, fertile for food but ever open for easy attack. In literature, the stream has been often referred to as the symbol of the transition of death, and the outlet, the Dead Sea, as the emblem of judgment (34, 258 H.T.).