"We will shout with triumph in thy salvation,

And in the name of our God will we set up a banner.'1

Again, in another Psalm of David, whose adventurous life of border warfare had doubtless led him to become very familiar with matters of sanctuary, there seems a further reference to the same custom'Save me, O God, by Thy name, And by Thy might vindicate me.

For strangers are risen up against me,

And terrible ones seek after my life.'2

Exulting in the power of Jehovah's exalted name, and the certainty of His vindicating those who appeal to it, he adds

Behold, God is my helper,

He will return the evil unto mine enemies;

In Thy truth cut them off.' 3

But still plainer is the allusion of the wise man, when, speaking of the Divine protection, he says—

'The name of Jehovah is a strong tower,
The righteous runs into it, and is safe.'

Here the believer who honours God by publicly calling upon His name, and by confessing his trust in the Most High as his defender, is represented as if he had fled into a strong place of refuge, where he finds safety from his foes. When Satan, like 'the

1 Ps. xx. 5. "We will set up a banner," not "banners," as in the Authorised and Revised Versions, is the true rendering required by the verb here, nidgoal.

2 Ps. liv. 1, 3.

avenger of blood,' seeks our destruction, let us call upon the name of our great and compassionate Champion. The believing soul that in simple trust turns to the Lord Jesus and makes mention of His righteousness only; the soul that thus appeals to Christ. by confessing its own helplessness and danger, and by placing itself unreservedly under His protection, shall assuredly find the help of One who is mighty to save, and Who never fails to vindicate the honour of His great name.'

1 Palestine Explored, 4th edit., pp. 108-111.

A PROFESSIONAL MEASURER OF CORN BUILDING A CONE ON THE MEASURE UNTIL

PICTURES OF PALESTINE FARM LIFE.

TOWNS have always been few in number in Bible countries. This accounts for the comparatively few Bible references to belladeen, or "town," life, and for the chief of these references occurring on the lips of the prophets who were raised up to rebuke abounding worldliness and luxury. The great bulk of the land is and ever has been given over to agriculture, carried on by the Fellahheen, or peasants, the mass of the people. Yet the traveller can hardly realise this as he looks around for the first time. No solitary farm

houses are to be seen, no cottages here and therenothing, in a word, answering to the picturesque homesteads which dot our English landscape and add such a charm to its peaceful scenery. In fact, this state of our country-side witnesses to a centralisation of government, and a consequent security for life and property, which have almost always been unknown in Bible lands. In Palestine, as throughout all the adjacent regions, the country people, farmers and labourers, high and low, rich and poor, all live together in closely clustered houses, in unwalled villages, the population of which varies from four hundred to a thousand persons. On the plains the low houses are built of rude sun-dried brick, and on the mountains, of good stone, though, in the case of some of the latter, without mortar. The peculiar construction of these low, one-storied, one-roomed houses I have already described.' Mingled amongst them may be seen conical huts of clay mud, looking at a distance like Kaffir dwellings, but which are not intended for human habitation, being used only as storehouses for cattle fodder.

Not only are there no scattered dwellings, but— and this seems even stranger to a Western eyethere are no visible marks of division into fields or farms, and the whole arable land lies in one unbroken stretch around each village. The only spots in any way enclosed are gardens, vineyards, orchards, and sometimes olive-groves and fig-yards. Throughout

1 See pp. 123-127.

the mountains and on some of the lowland plains a peculiar unmortared wall of rough unhewn stone, the waste of the quarries, is commonly used for this purpose, called a jedar. This word is evidently the Hebrew gadair, sometimes geder, with a feminine form gedairah. The desert sheepfolds are surrounded by such a wall, and gedairah in the Old Testament is

A PALESTINE JEDAR.

1759

the name for sheepfold.' These walls are some three feet in width below, becoming narrow towards the top, and from four to six feet high. In constructing them, large stones are piled up carefully outside and on the top, and the centre is filled with small fragments. They have many advantages in a

1 Numb. xxxii. 16, 24, 36; 1 Sam. xxiv. 3; and Zeph. ii. 6.