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Show The Valley of Jeboeaphat. Cloe at our feet, a we turned to loot towards the west, writes Dr. Robinson Rob-inson to the Christian Union, lay that tremendous graveyard, tne vailey ol Jehojaphat, in which year after year the myriad stones of Jewish burial are increasing. Even before our Savior was cruc.fied, the rocks had begun to be hollowed out for sepulchres, and now there is hardly room for one to pass up the hill without treading on some memorial of the dead. The Flope is fairly flagged in some parts with slabs that cover the coffins These slabs are level wiih the ground; sometimes you may find a name upon them, written in rude Hebrew characters, charac-ters, but no one can help being impressed im-pressed with the entire ab.-ence of all emblems upon these passive monu ments of the dead. Of all that Israelites Israel-ites dread, there ia no one thing they consider bo inexpressibly repulsive and hateful as death. They never use any funeral symbols. A tombstone is just left blank. I have somewhere read that the imagery of the Jewish nation never pictures this last enemy except under the figure of a snare lying in wait, or of one offering a cup of poison for another to drink. They never plant trees, or scatter wreaths or hang flowers about sepulcures. It is their custom simply to put the dead away in burial out of sight of the living. Gazing down upon these myriads of white spots, spread over acres of soil. I could not keep from recalling the striking vision of the prophet. I said to myself, over and over again, Can these dry bones live ! My imag nation ran wild as I seemed to see that final hour, when under the souna of the trunrjet, there would be the grand awakening of everything mortal beneath be-neath the sod. Where would it begin upon this hillside ? The Jews have always fabled that "Zacbarias, son of Barachias," who fell "between the temple and the altar," would rise first among the redeemed. And sure enouirh his tepulehre is pointed out here in thj very valley before us. How solemn sol-emn it will seem to witness the earliest stir on all the earth, the first rupture of the surface ; and how the agitation will spread, as grave after grave will be broken, and all the millions of sepulchred sep-ulchred dead will arise a living army once more erect ! |