sound be there heard of the joy into which its waste places shall break forth when the Lord shall make it also the dwelling of peace and the joy of many generations. But the God of Jerusalem shall therefore be glorified the more. The record is plain, and the truth is clear; and the word of our God abideth for ever. He is ever mindful of his covenant; and prefixed to these glorious things that are written concerning Jerusalem is this command to Israel, "Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion," &c.2 2

The two plates here inserted from the engravings illustrative of the work on Syria of the able and worthy Schubert, give a view of Jerusalem from the south and from the north. In the former Mount Zion and Mount Moriah, between it and the valley of Jehoshaphat, are distinctly marked, together with that valley itself, and the Mount of Olives, on the east of Jerusalem. In the other an ampler view is given of the waste places around it. (See plates.)

The view of the site of Solomon's gardens shows how utterly desolate the fairest portions of Palestine have become; while a few fig and olive trees are, like many others in like patches, spread over the land, the memorialists of a departed glory, and the heralds of a greater than that of Solomon.

About twelve miles north of Jerusalem stood the great city of Gibeon, now the poor village of El Jib. The natural fertility of the country around it, together with its terraced hills, was worthy of a royal city. The bare fronts of the close terraces of a steep mountain, as seen from beneath, present to view little or nothing but

stones or rocks; and ten or twelve olives are the only relief to the eye in surveying a seemingly sterile hill. But the whole was terraced, and yet awaits the time when it shall bud forth anew. Another hill of similar appearance was partially cultivated. The terraces were filled with fruit, as all those of Israel yet shall be. And the stony mountain side, as it seemed, till cultured anew, was transformed into a rich hanging garden. The green and close foliage of the branches which the mountain shot forth, vines being entwined round fig trees and pomegranates, wholly hid the frowning rock from view, and presented a smiling vineyard in its stead. In all the higher ground desolation towered over it, and every empty terrace spoke of a curse yet unremoved; but the base of the mountain, in one beauteous spot, formed a vineyard and a garden, which, were it not unweeded, from the budding of the blossom to the ripening of the fruit, would be still worthy of Israel, and show how the land shall become like the garden of Eden.

Farther on the way from Jerusalem to Samaria, in passing through the terraced hills of Ephraim, now at best a pasture for flocks, but more generally the resort of wild beasts, partial spots are to be seen, as near the village of Ain Jehrub, covered with vines and other fruit trees. In an ampler space the valley of Mazrah shows how the bare and bleak terraces were once luxuriantly clothed, and in passing through it the traveller forgets that he sojourns in a desolate land. All along the declivities of the opposite hills, and in the bottom of the valley, thousands of fig and olive trees, and seemingly in the distance vines, wholly cover the terraces, and, though untouched by the pruner's knife, and left to nature's care, a rich orchard spreads every-where around.