Henry Martyn Field

“ Religion is the source of all man's highest inspirations — of all things great and noble; of all things pure and good; of all things sweet and gracious in human intercourse; of endless kindnesses and charities. It makes men honest and brave; it habituates them to self-control, and to obedience to law, and thus makes good citizens; while it inspires the higher virtues of self-sacrifice and devotion.
Are not these great elements on which to lay the foundations of a state? Such was the political economy of Moses when he founded the Hebrew Commonwealth on Religion. Was it wisdom or folly? ”

“ The Peninsula is as unique in its scenery as in its history — combining the three great features of the desert, the mountains and the sea; the sands, the cliffs, and the rolling waters — all which have a peculiar fascination when seen in a pure, transparent atmosphere, with the lights and shadows of sunrisings and sunsettings. Passing through such a country, not as an explorer, but only as a traveller, the writer has been content to accept what came within his personal observation, and to describe only what he could see with his own eyes. ”

“ So under the Hebrew Law, death, sorrow, widowhood, orphanage, all threw a shield of protection over the desolate and the unhappy. By this spirit of humanity infused into the relations of life, all the members of the community — the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak — were united in fellowship and fraternity. One sacred tie bound them still closer: not only were they of the same race and nation, but they had an equal share in the same religious inheritance; all were fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. ”

“ It may seem a welcome change to turn our backs on a wilderness of rocky defiles. But one who has been riding for days through these wild passes, observing the fantastic forms of the cliffs and crags on either side, and their infinite variety of color, cannot without a regret turn away from these dark, sombre mountains. And to come down from all this to the desert, is a change which involves a double descent, a descent from the mountain to the plain, and from the richest colors to the perpetual glare of the naked limestone! ”

“ We were now on Jebel Mousa, the summit which ancient tradition assigns as the place of the giving of the Law; although, as we shall see, later explorers incline to another peak of the same mountain which more directly overlooks the plain of Er Rahah. Jebel Mousa is over six hundred feet higher than Serbal, though in appearance it is less imposing. But it is a magnificent dome of rock. As I crept to the verge of the cliff, the dragoman grasped me by the arm and drew me back, lest I should be made giddy by the fearful height: for one slip there, and I should be dashed a thousand feet below. ”

“ If indeed civilization is ever to invade those waste places of the earth — if law and order are to subdue the children of the desert, and make their roving-ground as safe from robbers as the sea is from pirates — it must be by the pressure of something stronger than Egyptian or Turkish power. This is a matter which concerns, not England alone, but all commercial nations as well, which have communication with the far East, and which, coming and going, have to traverse these desolate plains, that have been given up hitherto, in more senses than one, to the spirit of destruction. ”

“ Who can measure the germinating power of a great principle of justice — how it multiplies itself in its application to different countries and races, adapting itself to all times and climes, to all the relations of men as they may change to the end of the world? It is the handful of corn in the top of the mountain, but the fruit thereof shakes like Lebanon. To a law so beneficent, is it possible to ascribe an origin too high or too sacred? Law in its highest form has always been regarded as the emanation of Divinity. ”

“ Such is the story of the Hebrew Commonwealth — a story that has its counterpart in every age, and under all forms of government — always teaching the same lesson, that the decay of religion is the decadence of the state.
Is there nothing in all this worthy the notice of the political economists of our day? Are we grown so wise and great that we can despise the wisdom of antiquity and the experience of ages? History repeats itself nowhere more unerringly than in the rise and fall of nations. Human nature is the same in all ages and all countries, and the same causes produce the same effects. ”

“ At the farther end of the plain, the surface is more broken, rising and falling in gentle undulations, so that if any fled terror-stricken from the base of the mount, they could still behold it afar off, from the distant slopes, while they heard the mighty voice that swept across the plain, and reverberated like thunder in the farthest recesses of the mountains. No wonder that those who stood trembling at the sight said to Moses, "Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die." ”

“ The next morning we said good-bye to granite. The great mountain range which covers all the lower part of the Peninsula of Sinai, here sinks down like a wave in the sea, and is seen no more. It is completely submerged, not reappearing till it lifts up its head again in the mountains of the Caucasus, while over it here flows the dark red sandstone. New mountains come into view, which are often pyramidal in form, with strata as regular as the layers of the Great Pyramid, looking as if they might have been piled up by some race of Titans before man came upon the earth. ”

“ As we think of these pilgrims, who left their bones in the wilderness, we are reminded that this broad track in the desert has been the royal road of Death for more than a thousand years. Mecca has been the very nest and breeding-place of those diseases which are the scourges of Asia — the cholera and the plague — which have been carried there by pilgrims from all parts of Asia and Africa, and which returning pilgrims have brought with them and scattered over the world. ”

“ Here "the warm precincts" are not behind, but before; the "longing" is not for that we leave, but for that we enter; and we return to "this pleasing, anxious being," which, however troubled with care, still is life — life never so dear as when we come up out of the desert, as out of the valley of the shadow of death.
To-day this feeling of a new existence was bounding in our veins. Everything conspired to kindle it — the dewy freshness of the morning air; the wide, open, rolling country, like the breezy downs of England. The wild flowers of Palestine were under our feet ”

“ We had been in a region of limestone, where the mountains were almost as white and glaring as the sand of the desert; but now the eye rested, with a sensation of relief, on huge masses of old red sandstone, the effect of whose rich colors was heightened by the outline of the cliffs and crags, which took on all fantastic shapes, looking like old castles and towers. One can imagine how they stand out against the sky when the sunset strikes upon them. We pitched our tents in a little valley that was set in an amphitheatre of mountains. ”

“ The earth grew calm and still, as if suddenly the course of nature had stopped, and all things had ceased to live. Although the Red Sea still gleamed in the distance, yet as we moved away from it, we could no longer hear the lapping of its waves; and there was no sign of life on sea or land, or in the sky. Not a bird wheeled in the air; not even an insect's hum broke the stillness of the desert. Even nature seemed to have hushed her voice; no murmuring brook made music in our ears ”

“ After all this wreck and ruin of cruel rites and degrading superstitions had been swept from the minds of the Hebrews, as they had often seen a vast plain swept by the winds of the desert, Moses began to construct the fabric of a pure religion — the worship of One Living and True God; and out of this central principle, as the root of a mighty banyan-tree, there sprang a hundred trunks and arms, spreading far and wide, so that a whole nation could dwell under its shade. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." ”

“ Nowhere have we seen so many palms since we entered the desert, and they are not like the palms of Egypt, naked trunks, with but a tuft of leaves at the top, but are feathered from the ground, and thus spread out their foliage in all the wildness and beauty of nature. No wonder this water-course is a great attraction for the Bedaween, who gather here with their flocks and herds. Up to this time we had seen scarcely a living animal on the desert, except the camels and the little black goats, which furnish the Arab with milk, and with haircloth for his cloaks and his tents. ”

“ The missionary now led the way into his house, which, like all Eastern houses, had a central court, enclosed by a wall, within which the sound of a fountain gave a delicious sense of coolness during the heats of Summer. In the rooms all was very plain and simple, and yet there was a neatness and modest taste, that I have found in all parts of the world, to mark the missionary's home, making it a type of Christian civilization. Within is order, comfort, and intelligence, while without is poverty and filth, vice and degradation, in their most disgusting forms. ”

“ In the foreground was the camp which we had left at daylight in the morning, and sprinkled here and there among the palms of the Wady Feiran were the tents of Arabs. Turning to points still farther away, to the very ends of the wadies, one could see little black patches in the yellow sand, which we had learned to recognize as Arab villages. Strictly speaking, the Arab has no village; he is a nomad, whose only house is a tent, who camps wherever he can find a stream of water, or a little pasturage for his camels, and when that is gone, "folds his tent and silently steals away." ”

“ It is one of the chief pleasures of this desert travelling, that it brings before us so vividly the mode of life of patriarchal times: for the world does not change on the desert, and men live now as they lived thousands of years ago. Abraham was a sheikh — not in character like the one from whom we have just parted, but in appearance perhaps not unlike a sheikh who may be seen now and then, aged and venerable, with long and snowy beard falling on his breast. He was a prince of the desert, rich in camels and asses, and flocks and herds, and men-servants and maid-servants. ”

“ For a nation, as for an individual, the only security is inspiration from above. That alone ennobles human character or human life:
"Unless above himself he can erect himself,
How mean a thing is man!"
Unless he can reach up to something higher than himself, and take hold of a power stronger than himself, he is but a helpless unit floating in the great universe, like a mote in the sunbeam. To give any dignity to his life on earth, he must find an attraction out of himself — a central orb around which his little existence can revolve. ”

“ I have spent between four and five years of my life in foreign countries — a portion of the time in distant parts of the earth — and have had many and varied experiences, but nothing I think that imparted a sensation quite so exquisite as this coming up out of the desert — out of void and vacancy, out of vast spaces and solemn silences — into the world of life and sound and motion. The return is very gradual. Nature gives signs of the coming change by an occasional quiver in her frame; perchance a rill trickling in the sands marks where the life-current is flowing faintly in her veins ”

“ Few things in a country are more suggestive than its roads, especially those which lead to great capitals, and along which sweeps a flood of tumultuous life. The Coliseum itself has not more associations than the Appian Way, over which the legions marched, "bringing many captives home to Rome"; and hardly less interesting is this great highway of the desert, which has been swept by forty generations of pilgrims.
One cannot stand by such a highway, and think to where it leads, without a strong desire to follow it to the end — to Mecca itself! ”