THREE DAYS IN THE EAST. I. No Ir was "a morning without clouds." object appeared in the distance to wish for, and there fell upon the ear no sound but the soft breathing of our camels, and the gurgling of the water jars they carried. The outward eye, half closed against the burning glare of the sun, compelled the mind to turn inwards. We were leaving Egypt and Memphis, the Nile and the Pyramids, "coming up from the wilderness,' "2 and soon to behold "the promised land." Cairo, with its busy streets, had been left 12 Sam. xxiii. 4. 2 Sol. Song viii. 5. behind us days ago; sinking as it were in the distance, until the last of its tall minarets seemed buried in the sand. We journeyed on that road by which God had led "his ancient people," 1 and the very monotony of the dreary waste around proclaimed by its silence, truths never taught with such impressive grandeur by the loudest din of cities, and lessons never read in the other and fairer pages of the book of nature. Many a proud host had crowded this vast plain. Many "a chariot came up and went out of Egypt battle, and the warriors of bygone days had been guided over this trackless sand by the very piles of stones we noticed near the road, placed there by the men in olden times, to whom "Set thee up way-marks,"3 had been a command. ,, 2 to The earth glittered sometimes with white crystals; but when tasted, they were bitter, like deceitful pleasures in the wilderness of 1 Isaiah xliv. 7. 21 Kings x. 29. 3 Jer. xxxi. 21. Then bright water gleamed far off in the horizon, but an hour or two shewed us that it was only the mirage; vapour raised by the sun. "Where," I asked myself, "are the mighty princes of Babylon, who once led armies over this barrier of sand?" "All the kings of the nations, even all of them lie in glory, every one in his own house," 2 in dark and dismal tombs, like those at Thebes, the sepulchres of "the kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves." Alas, how we care for the life of the body, and seek even to preserve it after death, whilst the soul is deprived of heavenly food, and suffered to perish for ever! Yet the immortal jewel defies destruction, and no means, however costly, can save the casket from decay. Sometimes we passed over large plains of pebbles; at others, the soft desert yielded to 2 Isaiah xiv. 18. 3 Job iii. 14. 1 Jer. xvii. 6. the camel's feet, or the yellow hills, as billows of smooth sand, were studded with little bunches of the "heath in the desert," "I which the camel lowers his long neck to pluck, for "he searcheth after every green thing," 2 like the wild ass, "whose house I have made the wilderness and the barren land his dwellings.' I was aroused by a delightful coolness in the air a little cloud had passed over the sun, and it brought to my mind the verse, "Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud." 4 Then the wild Bedouins encouraged their camels with this song— At length we came to a green palm-tree, nourished by hidden moisture even in the 1 Jer. xvii. 6. 2 Job xxxix. 8. 4 Isaiah xxv. 5. 3 Job xxxix. 6. |