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Small wonder that the Danite spies exclaimed of the Plain of Huleh with its rich pastures, its countless herds of buffalo, its clouds of wildfowl of every wing, "It is very good, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth."

It was with the utmost reluctance that I could tear myself away from this majestic scene. Long after the rest of our party had gone I lingered behind, and mused amid the solitudes of this venerable castle once resonant with the tread of Crusading and Moslem knights, and perchance with the rude clash of Roman or

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Phoenician arms. At length another group of tourists climbed the cliff and conveyed the somewhat peremptory message from the Judge, that if I did not promptly return they were to throw me over the battlements. Dark clouds were lowering in the sky. The wind rose, and moaned through the crannied vaults and shattered walls, and sighed and whispered amid the olive groves below, and rain began to fall. I therefore surrendered at discretion, scrambled down the cliff and, mounting my faithful Naaman, galloped down the slope, narrowly escaping the fate of Absalom amid the low-branching olives. We dried off before

our charcoal fire, and a good dinner soon made us all right. But all night long the rain poured down and the gusty wind seemed determined to prostrate our tents. Indeed, that of Messrs. Read and Rorke did partially collapse. All this was an ill omen for our ride next day over the shoulder of Mount Hermon.

We have now in our journeyings reached the northern borders of Palestine and the extreme point which our Saviour is recorded as having visited. We have traversed its length and breadth, from Hebron to Cæsarea-Philippi, from Jaffa to Jericho. Many of our readers may not be privileged to visit these holy fields, with their sacred memories of patriarchs, prophets, priests and kings; of the disciples, apostles, and of our Lord Himself; but to use the words of Dr. Manning, "All may reach the better country, that is, a heavenly,' of which the earthly Canaan was but a type." Though their feet may not stand within the gates of the Jerusalem on earth, they may walk the streets of the New Jerusalem on high, "the city which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God."

It has often been said that the Holy Land itself is the best com. mentary on the Holy Book. Even so sceptical a writer as M. Renan has strongly expressed this sentiment. He says:

"I have traversed in all directions the country of the Gospels, I have visited Jerusalem, Hebron and Sainaria; scarcely any important locality of the history of Jesus has escaped me. All this history, which in the distance seems to float in the clouds of an unreal world, thus took a form, a solidity which astonished me. The striking agreement of the texts with the places, the marvellous harmony of the Gospel ideal with the country which served it as a framework, were like a revelation to me. I had before iny eyes a Fifth Gospel, torn, but still legible, and henceforward, through the recitals of Matthew and Mark, in place of an abstract Being, whose existence might have been doubted, I saw a living and moving, an admirable human figure."

With deeper and more tender feeling Mrs. Elizabeth Charles has expressed this sentiment in the following lines:

The pathways of Thy land are little | Still to the gardens o'er the brook it

changed,

Since Thou wert there:

leads,
Quiet and low;

The busy world through other ways Before his sheep the shepherd on it

has ranged,

And left these bare.

treads,

His voice they know.

The rocky path still climbs the glow. The wild fig throws broad shadows

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The waves have washed fresh sands Our path is onward till we see Thy

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In praise and prayer,

Man has not changed them in that There is Thy presence, there Thy Holy

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AWAKE! awake the stars are pale, the east is russet-grey;
They fade, behold the phantoms fade, that kept the gates of day;
Throw wide the burning valves, and let the golden streets be free,
The morning watch is past-the watch of evening shall not be.

Put off, put off your mail, ye kings, and beat your brands to dust ;
A surer grasp your hands must know, your hearts a better trust;
Nay, bend aback the lance's point, and break the helmet bar-
A noise is on the morning winds, but not the noise of war!

Among the grassy mountain paths the glittering troops increase;
They come they come!-how fair their feet-they come that publish

peace!

Yea, victory; fair victory! our enemies' and ours,

And all the clouds are clasped in light, and all the earth with flowers.

Ah! still depressed and dim with dew, but yet a little while,
And radiant with the deathless rose the wilderness shall smile,
And every tender living thing shall feed by streams of rest,
Nor lamb shall from the fold be lost, nor nursling from the nest.

For aye, the time of wrath is past, and near the time of rest,
And honour binds the brow of man, and faithfulness his breast-
Behold, the time of wrath is past, and righteousness shall be,
And the wolf is dead in Arcady, and the dragon in the sea!

PRISONS, AND OUR RELATION TO THEM.

REV. R. N. BURNS, B.A.

II.

I PROPOSE to discuss this subject in its application to three lines of work-Preventive, Prison, and PostPrison Work.

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Two questions

come our crimi

We shall find it wise, not only for scientific purposes, but also for economic reasons, to study the causes of criminality. We shall probably discover that our most important and beneficial work is outside prison walls and in our homes and streets.

press for an answer: Whence nals? and, How are they

manufactured or developed? I must here confess that I have not very much sympathy with the extreme notions of a certain class of scientific investigators of this subject, who have given too great a prominence to the idea that the criminal is an abnormal and special type of man, with different formation of head, and unusual mental and moral make-up. Lombroso, the great Italian specialist, and his American disciple, Macdonald, have done much to give public prominence to this idea. obtained the opinion of several thoughtful men, who have been in charge of, or intimately associated with, hundreds of criminals for years, and their unanimous verdict is, that while there were some facts, apparently, to support this special type theory, the majority of criminals are men and women very similar to those who are outside of prison walls.

It is probably more flattering to our vanity to suppose that the men we see, with shaven heads and variegated costume, marching or working in guarded gangs, are totally different from ourselves, but I venture to suggest that few of us could submit to the same transformation in dress and surroundings without encouraging the same suspicion about our criminal origin. Take a look at our initial cut above and ask yourself the question-Would my dignity and standing in the scale of manhood seriously suffer from such surroundings? If a

body of prisoners were marched in prison clothing to our new drill hall, and there attired in the regimental costume of the Royal Grenadiers, and marched forth headed by their splendid band, a very different class of comments would be made upon their two appearances. As they went in those watching them would likely say, "What a low type of men those prisoners are!" And as they marched forth in martial uniform, the same onlookers, if they did not know of the change of clothing within, would likely say, "What a fine lot of fellows those Grenadiers are!"

Someone has gone so far as to suggest that the chief difference between those inside and outside of prison walls is, that those outside have not been found out yet. That may be set down as a witty exaggeration, but unfortunately there is a large element of truth in it. We find men of culture and wealth, bearing no marks of the criminal type, justly placed behind the prison bars. Sometimes we are compelled to wonder at the greatness of the fall when we consider the homes and surroundings from which the fallen have come.

A pathetic case of this kind came to Mr. Charles Cook's notice in a visit to a Canadian prison. Taking up a hymn-book he found written on one of its leaves, "Mary Douglas, left Scotland July, 1881, reached Canada, August, 1881, once a father's pet and a mother's joy, but now a poor drunkard; but God will save me yet."

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I recognize, of course, the influence of heredity and environment in rendering some natures more temptable, and in furnishing more frequent temptations to criminality, but I have no sympathy with determinism either theoretically or in the realm of conduct where the workings of man's will are concerned. There is enough in this line of thought to lead us, in fulfilment of Paul's injunction, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted," to have more sympathy with most criminals and do something to counteract their hereditary tendencies and lessen the temptations to which they are subjected by social and civic conditions. It should also make us feel that the men and women separated from us by prison walls do not come from a different hemisphere of manhood, and should receive our most practical sympathy and help.

Mr. Cook, in his book on "The Prisons of the World," gives several instances of the ordinary traits of human nature being possessed by prisoners. As showing their tenderness, he tells of one man who, longing for company, made a pet of a mouse for months, and on the morning of his discharge asked the Governor for permission to take his mouse with him. I cannot leave this subject of heredity and environment without saying

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