It would be impossible, within our present limits, to say anything of the political or national outlook of Syria, or of the many schemes and agencies which are dealing with such problems. The impression made by Christian missions, however, must have a word of record before we close these notes of travel. We have already described at considerable length the sadness of Palestine. As you journey from place to place the impression deepens. Sores, exposed and fly-blown, intrude themselves into the memory of many a wayside and city street. The dirt and stench of the houses make the sunshine terrible. After weeks of travel the feeling of a sick land has deepened upon you until it has become an oppression weighing daily upon your heart. Suddenly you emerge in a mission-station, and an indescribable feeling of relief possesses you. There is at last a sound of joy and health. These are the spots of brightness in a very grey landscape, little centres of life in a land where so much is morbid. The visiting of sacred places would be the most selfish of religious sentimentalities if it were done without a painful sense of helplessness against the misery that surrounds them. The only thing that turns pity into hope in Palestine is the mission-work that is being done there. No one can see that work without being filled with an altogether new enthusiasm for missions. Across the sea, one believes in them as a part of Christian duty and custom. On the spot, one thanks God for them as almost unearthly revelations of “sweetness and cleanness, abundance, power to bless, and Christian love in that loveless land.” The names of Christian missionaries are imperial names in Syria. It is, indeed, an empire of hearts, and [Illustration: THE PLAIN OF JERICHO, LOOKING TOWARDS THE MOUNTAINS OF MOAB. The road in the foreground, stretching across the plain, is that from Jerusalem to Jericho.] its coming is not with observation. But of its reality and power there can be no question even now, and its sway is extending year by year. To those whose Syrian travels have given them the vivid imagination, vivid almost as memory, of the real fact of Christ in the past, this fact of Christ in the present is as welcome as it is evident. They feel, and the East too is feeling, that the Great Healer still goes about the land doing good. The future, whatever its political course may be, is religiously full of hope. It may take time--God only knows how long it will take. The ancient miracles of Christ did not reveal the Healer to the world in a day. Yet quietly and out of sight, the East is learning that Christ is indeed the Healer of mankind. It does not as yet confess this, even to itself. But the hearts of many sufferers know it, and every Christian knows that certainly “He will have it again.” Index Abana, 52, 59, 60 Achor, 47 Acre, 169 Agriculture, 71 Amphitheatres, 107 Angels, 220 Antipatris, 54 Aqueducts, 104 Arabia, Arab, 22, 29, 93 f., 149, 181, 198, 199