Viewed from such a stand-point, the Holy Land is a world in miniature, possessing the three great terrene features of the globe――sea-board, plain, and mountain. Yielding the fruits of every climate, and containing a population corresponding in their physique to that of the inhabitants of every zone, there is displayed in this variety of scenery and climate the wisdom of God. Selected by Providence to be the medium of divine truth to men of all lands, it was necessary that the national home of the Bible writers should open to their imaginations the most wonderful and varied of the works of the Creator. Naturally inclined to express our adoration of the Deity in allusions to his wisdom and goodness displayed in nature, we experience a unison of devotion with those who were the oracles of inspired truth to us in their sublime illustrations, drawn from the sea and land, the valleys and hills, the climate and fruits, and the beasts and birds of the country that gave them birth. Had they dwelt at the poles, or on the equator, or in the heart of Arabia, or on the banks of the Nile, they could not have given the same universality of expression to the message they were sent to announce. It is evidence of the presence of that All-wise Spirit that the prophets and psalmists, the Savior and the apostles, drew their simplest, noblest figures from nature, such as can not fail to arrest the attention of the untutored mind in every land, and inspire intellects of the highest culture with admiration. Who of all the great maritime nations of earth can fail to appreciate the Psalmist’s description of his native sea, as from its shore, or from some mountain-top, he beheld its wonders: “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches; so is this great sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.”[24] And who that has ever crossed the ocean, or witnessed a storm at sea, does not realize the perfection of his description: “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep; for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof: they mount up to heaven, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.”[25] The mountaineer feels that the Psalmist sings of “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed,” when he describes, “The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies.”[26] The dweller at the poles is conscious of a fellow-feeling when he reads those sublime words: “He giveth snow like wool; he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes: he casteth forth ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?”[27]