T H E   L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .

CINCINNATI, AUGUST, 1844.

      THERE are, perhaps, no records in the annals of time which possess such an interest, and bind us with such a magic influence, as those of Greece and Palestine. They lead us back to the places which age has hallowed, to which we have been accustomed to look for our models--whose names are linked to deeds worthy of lasting remembrance, and around which our brightest associations ever delight to linger. There is even something in antiquity itself which is calculated to give an air of authority and an impressiveness to the scenes and actions which once transpired there, for which we look in vain in the scenes and actions of our own times. When we learn from the past, we learn from the dead; and their hollow, sepulchral tones seem to give an additional sanction to their teachings. This feeling is not confined to those who, once full of life and animation, acted their parts on this ever-changing scene; but it also extends to the scenes and circumstances by which they were surrounded. Thus the solitary ruin, the deserted city, the ivy-covered tower, and the moldering column, have all a language, and they speak with a force which every heart can feel, and which every mind can understand. Walk amid the solemn relics of departed grandeur--look at the decayed splendors of the palace--the faded glories of the triumphal arch--the deserted fane, once thronged by worshipers--the hall once vocal with the voice of mirth and revelry--and even the sepulchral monuments already crumbling to the unconscious dust which they cover, and there, communing with the spirit of the past, reverently open thy heart to receive its solemn lessons. People again these deserted scenes with their busy crowds--let the ruler and the ruled start up with life-like vividness before thee, agitated by the hopes and fears, the varied passions ana feelings of our kind, and there, amid such scenes, ask the questions, "How lived--how loved--how died they?"

      But there are some spots which have ever seemed to claim a proud pre-eminence in the history of the past--distinguished, some by the genius, some by the ambition, some by the bravery, and even some by the crimes and follies of those who once made them the scenes of their vices. Among these, few have reached a more elevated station (or elicited more attention, or whose departed glory has been more admired) than that which the almost universal assent of enlightened nations has awarded to Greece in her palmy days. And wherefore? It is because of her poets, whose undying strains have not only stamped their impress upon the people among whom they had their origin, but also have lent some of their richest and deepest impressions to all subsequent ages--because of her historians, whose excellences have rendered them the models of modern times--because of her orators, of whom it is our boast to be even successful imitators--because of her painters, who almost gave breath to the canvass on which was depicted the beings of their bright imaginings--because of her sculptors, who, taking nature in all her ten thousand forms of beauty and grandeur as their only teacher, almost bade the rugged marble start into life at their magic touch--because of the wisdom of her philosophers, the bravery of her warriors, and the integrity of the men who enacted her laws, and stood at the helm in the hour of danger. But to these claims on our attention, we might add her genial clime, her freedom-inspiring air; her shores, ever washed by the foam-capped waves; her groves, sacred to the Muses; her forests, which fancy peopled with nymph and faun; her mountains and her streams; her fountains, famed for their inspiring draughts, and her valleys, some of which seemed to the eye of the dreamy Greek fit representations of the abodes of the blest. And though the sun of her glory has gone down, and time is fast tracing the word oblivion on her proudest monuments, yet there are even among her very ruins many things which are calculated to call up to remembrance her former greatness, and make even her desolation throw a charm over her perishing glories. Who can visit Athens in the calm twilight of a summer's eve--who can sit, musing among the ruins of the Acropolis until the moon, emerging from behind the blue waves, casts its softened rays upon the pillars of the Parthenon, without feeling that he is lingering among the sepulchres of a mighty people? or, as he casts his eye over the rippling waves of the Ægean, as they chase each other to the shore, remain unmoved at the remembrances which they waken, or without having his bosom stirred at the recollection of Salamis, while even the soft zephyrs which float around him appear to whisper the names of Platea and Marathon? [225]

      All these, though they may afford a melancholy delight, are but as the sad and solemn pomp of the funereal train--the gloomy and stately grandeur of the silent sepulchre; for though they may please the lover of classic scenes, yet a closer and narrower inspection will at last, though unwillingly, extort the confession that her former spirit has departed, and she is, emphatically, "Greece--but living Greece no more." These, however, are but the sentiments of the mere multitude: the scholar may treasure them up as the most precious relics of the past, the shrines at which even the man of the world may bow without humility.

      But we have only introduced Greece in this place for the purpose of comparison, in order to show, by the strong light of contrast, that, while the great throng boast of the classic ground of Greece, the intelligent Christian, with as much assurance, can look upon Palestine as the Holy Land--as the scene of such events as put to the blush those of all other lands--as the home of those men who have, by their virtues, become the greatest examples to men of every clime. Were we to institute a comparison between all the great men of each country, and the great events which have rendered them memorable, we doubt not but the scale would preponderate greatly in favor of Palestine. But the space allotted would not justify us in glancing at all the great points of contrast which present themselves to our attention; and we must, for the present, content ourselves with looking, for a few moments, at some of the most prominent objects which offer themselves to our inspection.

      But before I enter upon this task, permit me to say, that I feel unable to frame any good reason why the cities, temples, and shrines of Pagan nations, have occupied so much more space in the eyes of the world than those of the country in which the true religion had its birth; and, more especially so, since the history of the latter is encircled by such a train of events as are unequaled in the history of any other nation. But if, however, I may indulge an opinion on this subject, I would say that it is because most men feel a repugnance to the men whose lives are a standing reproof to their own, and also to those places which are celebrated for incidents which are far from being consonant with their views of true greatness. To illustrate more fully what we mean, some men can dwell with the greatest delight on the stern patriotism of Leonidas, or pay the most profound attention to the laws of Lycurgus, awhile they are utterly unmoved by the earnest zeal and wide-spread philanthropy of Paul, and who see nothing worthy of admiration in the character or acts of the great lawgiver of the Jews. If I have thus fallen upon the true reason, is it not passing strange that heathen valor should, in the minds of thinking men, take the precedence of Christian fortitude--the noblest of virtues?

      But, to return, we shall glance, in the first place, at the aspect of the country. And, O, that we were adequate to the task, so that we might present before the mind's eye of the reader, the delightful view of Palestine which burst upon the vision of the man of God when, leaving his brethren in the plain below, he ascended to Pisgah's top, from whence he might see the goodly land spread out before him in all its richness, and in all its beauty! Behold it as it was spread before his gaze, like a vast amphitheatre! See its gently undulating fields waving with the rich harvests--its hills almost embowered in the vines which clustered thickly around them--its groves of lofty palm trees, waving softly to and fro in the summer air--the taper olives which, at eve, throw their lengthened shadows from the brow of Olivet--Carmel, white with flocks, and Lebanon with its gigantic cedars hiding their lofty tops in the clouds--the stately flow of Jordan, and, glittering in the sunlight, the calm waters of Galilee! Add to these the fertility of its rich valleys--the salubrity of its climate, and you have before you a country worthy to be called the garden of God.

      Shall we speak of its warriors? Where shall we find nobler spirits than those to be found among her judges, or braver deeds than the exploits of her kings? In what land were the forces so disproportioned, or the victories so decisive?

      Shall we speak of her poets? who, in addition to their native genius, had their lips touched by the sacred fire of inspiration--whose strains, instead of arousing us to martial deeds, either melt the soul into tenderness, or elevate it to God. It is true, beyond contradiction, as Fenelon has eloquently said, "Homer himself never reached the sublimity of Moses' song, or equaled Isaiah describing the majesty of God. Never did any ode, either Greek or Latin, come up to the loftiness of the Psalms." The poetry of the Scriptures is unequaled--the beauty and sublimity of its imagery, the fervency which is discoverable in every line, and, more than all, the purity of its lessons, recommend it to the man in whose eyes the charm of moral beauty is superior to all others.

      In the splendor of its national festivals, what nation ever excelled this? Which of the Grecian games could ever present so sublime a spectacle as that which was exhibited by the Jews, when, from every clime from swarthy Arabia to the frozen pole, from every valley, and from every hill, with loud acclamations, and glad hosannas, they pressed their way to the city of their God, to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. What were the chariot races, the songs of the poets, or the rhapsodies of the orators, compared with the awful grandeur of that [226] moment when the high priest, emerging from the holiest of all, stood before the waiting assembly, and with hands upraised blessed them in the name of the Lord Jehovah! What was the exultation of the wreath-crowned victor, or the applause which was lavished upon the successful candidate, compared with the shout which burst from the lips of that vast assembly, when the priests, blowing on their silver trumpets, gave the signal for every voice to be raised in the great halleluiah, the loftiest ascription of praise that ever ascended from the tongue of mortal! The reason of this may be found in the fact that one was occasioned by the mere admiration of physical skill, but the other was the result of highly cultivated moral and religious feeling.

      In opposition to those who, among the Greeks, were denominated the great, the wise, and the good--whose deeds have procured for them the praise of all succeeding ages--we might mention Solomon, who exemplified in his own person the combined qualities of Greece's boasted ones. In him we not only find the glory of an imperial monarch, the wisdom of a philosopher, the profound sagacity and integrity of a judge, but, also, in his hours of ease, the power to strike the lyre with a master-hand. The splendor of the temple and the palaces which he erected, the grandeur of the throne from which he issued his mandates, and which far outshone all the subsequent imitations of the most magnificent of the princes of the east, the number and equipage of the attendants by which he was surrounded, the works of art that decorated his halls, the most costly gems which flashed in his diadem, the gold of Ophir which gleamed in endless profusion around him, the variety of plants from every clime which bloomed in his gardens, the beauty of his villas, the extent of his vineyards, which altogether formed such an unexampled exhibition of wealth and taste, that even those who had been reared in palaces, and possessed regal honors, were dazzled and astonished by the glory of the court of the greatest and wisest of Israel's kings. In him we find one whose abilities, in the varied departments of government, philosophy, and song, have never been equaled, and to whose example the Greeks themselves are indebted for much of the refinement for which they were afterward distinguished.

      But, to proceed, what importance can we attach to the responses of the Delphian Oracle, which at best were but the devices of juggling priests, or the ravings of temporary insanity, when compared with the spotless purity of those revelations which issued from the place where God had condescended to set his name, and to which the world is so much indebted, not only for those blessings connected with our future well-being, but even for the progress of intellectual light, the improvement and elevation of our race? Contrast the character of the priests, and the effects which have been produced upon the devotees of these respective shrines, and it will be impossible to deny that the worship of the Jews has more claims upon our attention, unless we agree that the moral degradation and mental debasement of our race are objects more deserving our attention than its gradual elevation--its full and final emancipation from the thraldom of ignorance, vice, and superstition, in all the forms in which they can present themselves.

      But our limits will not permit us to introduce all the points of contrast of which this subject admits, nor have we time to bring forward all the bright and illustrious acts which are unfolded to us on the sacred page, which must ever endear the land in which they transpired to the lover of the Bible, to the lover of distinguished moral worth, and to the lover of God. There is not a plain in Palestine which is not endeared to us by some pleasing recollection; for it was on one of them that the angelic choir, breaking on the stillness of the night with their heavenly minstrelsy, proclaimed to the wondering and adoring shepherds the most joyful tidings that ever saluted the ears of mortals. Not a hill which does not bring to mind scenes in which the destiny of our race has been intimately concerned; for on one of them the old patriarch offered the great type of Him who, in the fullness of time, came to take away our guilt by the sacrifice of himself. Not a stream but is linked to our dearest associations; for Jordan rolled back its waves at the approach of the ark of God; and the gentle murmur of the brook Kedron brings to our recollection the solemn scene of that night when the suffering Nazarene for the last time passed over its limpid waters. And even the obscure villages have their remembrances; for in Bethlehem we see at once the site of Jesse's farm, where his more renowned son once fed the flocks of his father, and the place where the faithful Moabitess gleaned in the field of her future husband--memorable, too, from the slaughter of the infants by the bloody edict of Herod, and as the lowly birth-place of the prince Messiah.

      And if there had been nothing, antecedent to the last event which we have named, that was capable of arousing our interest, surely the scenes of the Savior's actions will give to Palestine the pre-eminence over all other lands. The very traces of his footsteps are fully sufficient to hallow the ground on which he trod. Let us then follow him, and carefully note the places which were more particularly the scenes of his beneficent acts. Here we see the mount, the first scene of his public labors, where he imparted to his wondering followers those holy precepts which were to be the rules of [227] life for all those who would follow him and enter into his kingdom. Behold him there in all the dignity of a heaven-descended teacher--he speaks, and his first word is to utter a blessing. What is there in the Porch of the Stoic, and his unmeaning teachings--what in the groves of the Academy, or the dreamy reveries of Plato--or what in the soul-lulling theories of the Epicurean, to compare with the stately grandeur of the doctrines of Him of whom it was said, "Never man spake like this man!" See him in the crowded city--follow him to the temple--and behold that temple, though no longer illumined by the Shechinah of God's presence, dignified by the brightness of the Father's glory, and irradiated by the express image of his person.

      Trace his pathway from the busy hum of the city to the quiet retirement of the village where Mary and Martha dwelt--where, in the presence of the multitude, both the sympathy and power of the Savior were displayed; for though, as a man, it was here that Jesus wept, yet, at the mandate of the same being, the dead Lazarus sprang to life. See him at Jacob's well, instructing the simple-hearted Samaritan in the great truths of his kingdom! Follow him with the multitude into the desert--go with the chosen three into the sacred mount where he once assumed his former glory--go into the solitary spot where Jesus went apart to pray, and ask your own heart if he has not by his deeds consecrated every spot! Leave the land, and on the calm and glassy bosom of the Lake of Galilee, think how its proud crested waves, which once tossed themselves so tempestuously, sunk, as it were, to a peaceful slumber at the voice of Him who alone can say to the angry waters, "Peace, be still!"

      Let the lover of Greece then boast of the bright waters of the Ægean, its surface interspersed with isles which, like gems, bestud its crystal waters--let him call up all the memories which linger about Salamis--all the scenes which belong to the wave or shore, and they will all seem unworthy of comparison with the grandeur of that spectacle to which we have just alluded, when the God of nature, vailed in flesh, rebuked the contending elements, and they obeyed his voice. Pursue him still farther--see Olivet with all its scenes before you--go to the garden of Gethsemane, the scene of his unexampled sorrow and suffering--finally, think on Calvary, the cross, the sepulchre, and if these cannot give deep and lasting interest to this land, it will be because the love of all that is dignifying and soul-elevating has no place in our hearts.

      But we must leave those scenes, amid which the soul loves to linger, and which are fraught with the dearest and purest remembrances, and turn our gaze to Palestine, when, like a queen bereft of her glory, she sat solitary amid her own ruins; and even in her desolation we shall find much to call forth our admiration and sympathy; for even after the star of Judea's splendor had gone down in blood, and the sceptre had for ever fallen from the hands of her kings, yet there was still a certain gloomy grandeur which must give her, even in her fall, a proud pre-eminence over the land with which she has been contrasted. Notwithstanding Greece has been called the land of heroes, and her sons lauded to the skies for their lofty and unyielding patriotism, her fall was signally unworthy of her former character; for truth compels us to say, while speaking concerning the subjugation of Greece, that she fell more by the force of Roman gold than the Roman sword. Her former nobility deserted her, and she tamely bent her neck to receive the yoke of her proud conquerors. But how different the history of Judea's fall! How long and how bravely did she resist the legions of haughty Rome! What prodigies of valor marked her declining days! And how could the patriotism of her children be better evinced, than by making their beloved city the nation's hope, the funereal pyre of the nation's greatness! No matter what were the crimes of this people--no matter how just and signal their punishment, still we are compelled to admire their unyielding and self-sacrificing devotion in the hour of their greatest extremity.

      Look at Jerusalem! She stands beleaguered by the conquering legions of the world's proud capital, whose eagles have gleamed under every sky, and have waved in triumph over countless foes. But behold them now, under the command of the energetic Titus, foiled and driven back in disgrace from her gates. Every artifice and every stratagem which Roman ingenuity could devise, every plan of assault which Roman valor dared to attempt, are called into requisition--towers, and warlike engines of every description are multiplied against her; but in vain, till famine, far more powerful than the sword of the enemy, at last causes her to yield--the walls are scaled--but her sons, preferring death to submission, assembled in the temple, and set fire to their last refuge, mingling their ashes in its smoldering ruins. Deserted city! once the seat of God's purest worship, renowned by the glories of thy kings, and extolled by the lofty songs of thy prophet bards, how art thou fallen! how art thou become the prey of the spoiler! Fallen though thou art, thy name and the names of thy children shall be remembered when the finger of cold oblivion shall have erased the names of thy proud destroyers from the records of time.

      We have thus briefly presented before our readers the most distinguishing features of these famed lands. To the one we look as the home of those [228] sciences which we may, with propriety, call mental, the greatest achievements of which, when considered by themselves, have been to puff up the mind, and to increase the natural pride of the human heart. There was nothing in them which possessed a moralizing influence; which the greatest of the apostles knew, when he exhorted his brethren to beware lest any man should spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit. Her greatest men were her heroes, her wisest those who propounded doctrines altogether unsuited to man's moral capacity: many of which, like their authors, are now forgotten.

      But to the other we look as to the land from whence we have derived laws which are perfectly consonant with man's fallen and degenerate nature--to which we are indebted for all that is noble or ennobling in his character--for the purest lessons and brightest examples of virtue--from whence, also, we have received that Volume which opens to our mind the relations we bear to another state of being, and the means by which our eternal interests may be finally secured. Indeed, we are compelled to say, that to this more than all lands beside, we are indebted for the elevation and improvement which at present distinguishes the civilized part of our race. And its history, if properly studied, is calculated to teach us lessons of infinitely more value than all the varied stores of learning which ever emanated from ancient Greece.

[The Ladies' Repository 4 (August 1844): 225-229.]

      William Baxter's "Greece and Palestine" was first published in The Ladies' Repository, and Gatherings of the West: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 4, No. 8, August 1844, pp. 225-229. This volume, edited by E. Thomson, was published in Cincinnati by L. Swormstedt and J. T. Mitchell for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 5 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.