visualize the glory of the monarchy as well as its subsequent decline and fall. Where world powers trod, communicated, wrought, traded, flourished, fought, and died, can be shown with more than reasonable certainty. In this land are cradled multiplied events, hopes, aspira tions, and disappointments of the dominant powers of antiquity. To the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ the land has no rival for here the Savior was born, cradled, reared, taught, then Himself taught, minis tered in an incomparable outpour ing of divine compassion for the human race in a healing, teaching, and loving ministry. On this soil the apostles and disciples of the risen Lord proclaimed salvation for one and all; here they were perse cuted, beaten, and martyred for the truth they preached, as did their Lord, that He would one day return to complete earth's history in a blaze of glory. But this land is infinitely more. It is the land of redemption. For on this soil the greatest transaction of God for man was carried out. In Jerusalem He was condemned, mocked, maltreated, scorned, laughed at, beaten, then nailed to the ignominious gibbet, concerning which death Cicero, the great Ro man orator, had declared that, so horrendous a punishment was it, it should not only be far from the experience of every Roman citizen, but even from his thinking. Yet for saken by friend and foe alike, the blessed Savior gladly, yet agoniz ingly, took the sinner's place, re ceiving man's capital punishment into His own sinless bosom. When He declared redemption finished (John 19:30), the greatest event in human history had occurred. On a
PSALM 122 A Song of Ascents, of David. 1. I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." 2. Our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem, 3. Jerusalem, that is built As a city that is compact together; 4. To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord — An ordinance for Israel— To give thanks to the name of the Lord. 5. For there thrones were set for judgment, The thrones of the house of David. 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you. 7. "May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces." 8. For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, "May peace be within you." 9. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good. (N.A.S.B.) As the writer sits here in Jeru salem and looks over the old city, memories from many a century crowd the mind. Though the land be ancient and hoary with age, the impressions on each successive visit are fresh and abiding. No land on earth can claim, as this one can, to be the land of history. Beyond dispute the Judaeo-Christian faith, unlike the nature religions and the ethnic faiths, is grounded in and founded upon history and geogra phy. Here God began His specific providences in the lives of Abra ham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Where they lived and wrought can be pointed out clearly today. In postpatriarchal times the sites of the conquest of the land under Joshua form a connected, coher ent, and remarkable story of God's gracious intervention on behalf of His people. In place after place one can retrace the history of the times of the prophets and kings, and
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