The Raven and the Dove at the Deluge.
"We shall quote the interesting account which the Sacred Volume supplies us, of the singular messenger employed by the patriarch, to procure information as to the state of the diluvial waters;—'And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro (in going forth and returning), until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground: but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark: for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her and pulled her (caused her to come) in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: and the dove came into him in the evening; and lo! in her mouth was an olive leaf, plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him any more.' This narrative, though simple in its style, is expressive and beautiful. There is an eloquent charm which, while it touches the chords of truth, makes the heart respond to the tale. The raven would find sufficient for its carnivorous appetite in the floatage of the animal remains, on the briny flood, and would return to roost on the ark; but it was far different with Noah's bird, so long as the waters prevailed, there could be no pause for her weary wing, and the messenger would return to the ark. So soon, however, as the subsidence of the waters had permitted the olive to emerge, a sprig was plucked off, and borne to the patriarch in triumph. Emphatic symbol of peace! Commemorated through ages, it is still the symbol of peace. Along with the fig tree and vine, it is associated, as the emblem of man's inheritance, and in the geography of its locality, the patriarch would hail the plain on which it flourished, and from which it was borne, as the place of his former abode. The dove would return, though the olive had emerged, because no food had as yet been provided. How long this ambassador of peace was absent, we cannot tell: we are only informed that the dove returned in the evening. If the winged messenger was despatched early in the day, it is not improbable that the delightful trophy was obtained from Mount Olivet, where, according to the late Dr. Clarke, 'the olive still vindicates its parental soil.' In considering the question of the geographical distribution of plants, this would likely be the nearest olive plane from the mountains of Armenia. It may be remarked also, that the olive remarkably synchronizes with the habits of the dove; since, according to Dr. Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, as soon as the olive matures its berries, vast numbers of doves, among other birds, repair for food to the olive groves. It cannot be irrelevant to remind our readers of the habits of the columba tabellaria, or the carrier pigeon, so called from the office to which it has been applied, viz. that of carrying letters, in the Levant, &c. Those of Mesopotamia are the most famous in the world, and the Babylonian carrier pigeon is employed even on ordinary occasions at Bagdad. The geographical locality, therefore, of the carrier pigeon, it is interesting to remember, is in the vicinity of those very mountains where the ark finally rested. With us the carrier pigeon is an exotic, and is now acclimated, or naturalized. Carrier pigeons fly at the rate of fifty miles an hour.—'Napoleon,' the name of one of the carrier pigeons which was despatched from London a short time ago, at four o'clock A.M., reached Liege, in France, about ten o'clock in the day. Mr. Audubon states his having shot the passenger pigeon (columba migratoria) in America, and found in its stomach, rice, which could not have been obtained within a distance of eight hundred miles."
Parable of the Good Samaritan.
"Our readers will remember the beautiful parable of the good Samaritan, and his kindness and compassion for the wounded stranger 'who fell among thieves,' on his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. Sichem or Sychar, the district of the Samaritans, and which they now inhabit, is about forty miles from Jerusalem. Jericho is about nineteen miles from the capital of Judea; and, as it was in the first century, so the intervening country still remains infested by banditti. Sir Frederick Henniker, as late as 1820, on his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho, was way-laid, attacked by a band of predatory Arabs, and plundered. He was stripped naked, and left severely wounded; and in this state was carried to Jericho."
David and Goliath.
"David's encounter with Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, is mentioned in I Samuel xvii.: and in the 40th verse is described the simple armour with which the shepherd boy, Jesse's son, repaired to the contest. Many a thirsty pilgrim, as he passes through the valley of Eluh, on the road from Bethlehem to Jaffa (Joppa), has drunk of 'the brook in the way'—that very brook from whence the minstrel youth 'chose him five smooth stones.' 'Its present appearance,' says a recent traveller, 'answers exactly to the description given in Scripture; the two hills on which the armies stood, entirely confined it on the right and left. The valley is not above half a mile broad. Tradition was not required to identify this spot. Nature has stamped it with everlasting features of truth. The brook still flows through it in a winding course, from which David took the smooth stones.'"
The Willows of Babylon.
"In reference to the willow and the streams of Babylon, where the Hebrews remembered Zion so mournfully, Sir Robert Ker Porter states, that 'the banks of the Euphrates were hoary with reeds, and the grey osier willows were yet there on which the captives of Israel hung their harps,' and wept in the land of the stranger. The salix babylonica, or the weeping willow, in its geographical range, sweeps through the plains of Judea, and by the ruins of Babylon, from the verge of the Mediterranean to the frontiers of Japan—a lovely line of beauty—the Niobe of vegetation! Sad memorial of the mournful march of the captive Hebrews. It is, we think, a very striking circumstance, that these countries should even now retain such unchanged lineaments of their ancient history. Time seems to linger, or move slowly on; as if the wheels of nature stood still, and paused at the mournful sight of departed grandeur and buried magnificence—BABYLON in ruins! 'MENE!—GOD hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it!' Mr. Rich has given us a sketch of a spade copied from a Babylonian brick found near El Kasr, and detached from a mass of ruin, in all probability, on the very site of Nebuchadnezzar's pensile gardens; and he remarks, that it is almost a fac simile of the spade used at this very day in Chaldea."