INSECURITY OF PALESTINE.
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."—Psalm cxxvi. 5.
The farmer in Palestine had frequently to sow with an armed man attending him, to prevent his being robbed of his seed. A similar state of danger appears still to prevail. Tristram, in his "Land of Israel," says:—
"In descending the hill from Bethany we saw an illustration of the wretched insecurity of the country, in a drove of donkeys laden with firewood for Jerusalem. Each ass was attended by a man armed to the teeth with pistols, sword, and a long gun; and in one little valley—the only one beyond Bethany where there was any cultivation—each ploughman was holding his firelock in one hand while he guided the plough with the other."