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K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
April 1924
are returning to the various lands from which they came. Conditions are very much upset and one newspaper editor said that he feared a great bloodshed before things were finally adjusted. As one passes through the land, the bet tor class Arabians leek interviews with “The Americans” whom they seem to think are the ones able to help them in their difficulties. These conversations are more enlighten ing, and after one has discounted much of what they have said the impression remains that at least the educated Arabians are inclined to be fair:minded and that they have some real grievances.' Several times they told us, “There is room enough for all’ and yet would follow this statement with incidents which indicated that they had been treated most unfairly. The Arabian has done what farming and cattle raising Palestine could support for centuries. The Jew is not a farmer but a merchant. The large influx of Jews has more than filled the opportunities for the mer chant Jew, and that leaves him with but two principal openings, either a position with the government, or the life of a farmer for which he is not naturally fitted. Land laws have been passed to apportion land between the Jews and Arabians and it is in connection with these laws and their administration that one hears the most woes poured into his ears. The feeling is becoming very bitter and lovers of the Jews ought to know these facts in order to intelligently pray for them in their own land today, that they may be wise in administering the trust that has been placed in their hands by the great British nation. Fishermen and the Sea of Galilee: In connection with the thought of intelligent inter cession, one must add a note concerning the starving fish ermen of the western coast of the Sea of Galilee. Surely one thinks of fishermen when Galilee is mentioned and yet the bitter truth remains that they are hauling sand in their boats for a pittance; because there are no fish in the sea, and their children are going hungry. The story they tell you is that the spawning places of the fish on the eastern side of the Sea have been screened in and the fish cannot get over to the western side any more. When you ask them for an explanation of who is doing it, they seem un able to exactly locate the blame,^-international boundary lines are close together, and the orient has subtle ways, but this one thing they do know, that where once they were able to make a good living at the time honored occupation of fishing, now an occasional job of sand-haulihg or of row ing tourists is their sole means of support. The men who rowed us said they had been starving, and they looked it. Lastly: Lastly, let us include in our earnest prayers the missions, far too few in number, which are taking the true gospel story back to the inhabitants of the very land where our Lord died for them and for us, and of which fact these same natives need to be told in simple words devoid of superstition and filled with the power of Him who is the Spirit of Truth.
THE CHOSEN PEOPLE—THE LAND— AND THE BOOK Jewish News Notes Compiled by J. A. Vaus, Supt., Jewish Department, Bible Institute of Los Angeles . The following Jewish news notes have been furnished by Miss Winifred Rouzee, one of the Bible women of the Bible Institute, who has recently returned from a trip to the Orient: A Visit to Palestine A visit to Palestine brings one to a new realization of the literal fulfilment of prophecy. The first introduction to the barren hills is in striking contrast to the original prom ise of Jehovah that it should be a land flowing with milk and honey (Lev. 20:24), but it is in exact fulfilment with the Lord’s promise of punishment if they sought other gods. Strangers indeed marvel at the desolateness in just the way the Palestinian covenant prophesied they would,-^“Tlie stranger shall ,come, from a far land, and shall say, when they see the plague of that land, and the sickness which the Lord hath laid upon it: and that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein...................... Even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land?............ Then shall men say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt!', (Deut. 29:22-25). In this connec tion it is interesting to notice that the rainfall is now slightly on the increase as the prophecy regarding the eventful restoring of the latter rain promised (Joel 2.23). True the prophecy refers to the coming time of God’s restor ing the kingdom to the Jews, but “Coming events cast their shadows before.” A Trip Through the Hills of Samaria A trip through the hills of Samaria reveals that the once proud and lofty city of Samaria is really in ruins and is “as an heap of the field, and as the plantings of a vineyard,” and literally “the stones thereof” have been poured “down into the valley” (Micah 1 :6 ). Bethsaida, Capernaum and Tyre: Bethsaida and Capernaum are in ruins today and Sidon is a comparatively flourishing little town, and one cannot help remembering the words of our Lord in Matt. 11:20-24 concerning their relative opportunities. Upon approaching Tyre, one sees another word for word fulfilment of an old prophecy in Ezekiel 26:7-12. Nebu chadnezzar did leave Tyre in ruins on the mainland, but some of the inhabitants escaped to an island a half mile off shore. Alexander of Greece came two hundred and fifty years later and caused a roadway to be built to the island by means of the “stones and dust and timber” of the ancient ruins on the mainland. Lazy camel trains wind their way over tliat road today to the island city. The Present Zionist Movement: The present Zionist movement is doubtless preparing the way for that great gathering together of the Jewish nation which God has long promised, but like all such great movements it is passing through a more or less disturbed period. In the interests of truth it must be stated that numbers of Jews who migrated to Jerusalem and Palestine,
Oh, let me know The power of Thy resurrection! t , ; ; , Oh, let me show Thy risen life in clear reflection! Oh, let me soar Where Thou, my Saviour Christ, are gone before! In mind and heart Let me dwell always, only, where Thou art.
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(Havergal)
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