“And who art thou that mournest me?” Jerusalem may say, “And fear’st not rather that thyself May prove a castaway! I am a dried and abject branch, My place is given to thee; But, woe to every barren graft Of thy wild olive-tree! “Our day of grace is sunk in night, Our time of mercy spent, For heavy was my children’s crime, And strange their punishment: Yet gaze not idly on our fall, But, sinner, warnéd be; Who sparéd not His chosen seed, May send His wrath on thee! “Our day of grace is sunk in night, Thy noon is in its prime; O turn, and seek thy Saviour’s face, In this accepted time! So Gentile, may Jerusalem A lesson prove to thee, And in the new Jerusalem Thy home for ever be.” [Illustration: The Valley of Jehoshaphat] CENTRAL PALESTINE, OR SAMARIA. [Illustration: CENTRAL PALESTINE, OR SAMARIA. _Enlarged from Keith Johnston’s Map._ ] [Illustration: Head-Piece] JERUSALEM TO SHILOH. FROM Jerusalem northward as far as Bethel, a distance of ten or twelve miles, we pass through the territory of Benjamin. The topography of the district illustrates the prophecies of Jacob and Moses as to the destinies of this small but warlike tribe, and explains the peculiar position which it held in the Jewish commonwealth. From the central plateau, which runs north and south, a succession of rugged and difficult passes lead east and west, debouching on the fertile Philistine plain on the one side, and on the yet more fertile valley of Jericho on the other. Its barren rocky soil, ill-adapted for agriculture, gave birth to a race of hardy warriors, whose military prowess was often called into exercise in protecting Jerusalem against invaders from the north, in guarding their own mountain fastnesses, or in making forays upon the territories of their eastern or western neighbours. Almost every hill-side has been the scene of a battle; almost every mound of ruins marks the site of some ancient village memorable for the heroic deeds there enacted. “Benjamin shall ravin like a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.”[169] “And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord (_Jerusalem_) shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders:”[170] a prophecy fulfilled when centuries afterwards the Lord took up His earthly abode among the mountains of Benjamin. With its barren soil and numerical inferiority it yet won for itself the proud