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Show PROSPEROUS CITY OF EAST Shechem, or Nablus, as It Is now Called, Site of Impressive Scenes in Biblical History. A prosperous Oriental city nestled In a fertile valley between two mountains moun-tains and surrounded by gardens and olive groves, Shechem or Nablus, a it as now called, occupies the elte of some of the most impressive scenes la Bible history, says the Christian Herald. Her-ald. Here Abraham pitched his tent and made the first stopping place la his niigrution to the country of which the Lord snid: "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Here Joseph divided the Israelites Into two-hosts, one of which encamped on the slope of Mount Ebal on the north and the other on th-slope th-slope of Mount Gerizlm on the south, while the Levltes rend the Iuw of Moses which was to be the constitution of the infant nation. Shechem seems to. have been a sort of capital for tlie-Hebrew tlie-Hebrew nation even after David had established his residence at Jerusalem, as we read in I Kings 12 that all Israel assembled at Shechem to crown Iteho-boam. Iteho-boam. The separatist elements of ih nation sought to legitimatize their acts, by making Shechem a temporary capital, cap-ital, although the residence of the-northern the-northern kings was established at a point about six miles northwest and called Samaria. Shechem Is nowhere mentioned by name in the New Testament, though either It or suburb appears in John 4:5 under the name of Sychar"; and it was here, at Jacob's well, that the-fiaruu-itan woman met Christ and first-heard first-heard the message of his universal gospel. gos-pel. Jacob's well Is still pointed out and is almost the only undisputed laud-mark laud-mark of our Lord's earthly life. The city now contains about 25,000 inhabitants. inhabit-ants. Nablus contains a small, colony of about 200 persons, who claim to be the descendants of the Israelites of the northern kingdom. They accept only the five books of Hoses as being-of being-of divine authority and hold MuuDt Gerizim to be the seat of their religion, reli-gion, instead of Jerusalem. |