To this I turn with deeper interest, because it has been denied.
Voltaire, for example, describes Palestine as one of the worst countries
of Asia, comparing it to Switzerland, and says it can only be esteemed
fertile “when compared with the desert.” (KEITH, p. 106.) There cannot
be one moment’s doubt that in such statements he exceeded fact. But
others have pointed to the desolate hillsides, and asked the question
whether such a country could ever have supported a population as dense as
that of Norfolk or Suffolk. Now let there be no mistake on this subject;
for we are fully prepared most freely to admit that the hill country, as
we now see it, could not possibly support a large population, and that
there is a dreary, barren desolation about it which is wholly unlike the
descriptions of rich fertility which abound through the Scriptures. One
of these descriptions will be sufficient; viz., Deut. viii. 7–9: “For the
Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water,
of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of
wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of
oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without
scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” Now I am not in the
least afraid of saying plainly that such a description as that is not
true of _modern_ Palestine. It is not a good land flowing with milk and
honey; it is not a land of vines and oil olives; it is not a land from
which a large population could eat bread without scarceness. I read that
there is not a vine to be seen between Eschol and Beersheba, and that
there are very few olives to be found anywhere. What then are we to say?
Was the historical description true, or was it not? Were the people
deceived, or was God true to His Word? “Let God be true, but every man a
liar.” On this point let us ask the stones, and let us take the
testimony of the rocks. But in doing this we must not be content with
taking a tourist’s ticket, and hurrying as fast as possible along the
beaten tracks; but we must accompany our scientific men in their
investigations; and if we do so, what shall we find? In the first place
we shall find scattered through the country the ruins of an enormous
number of villages. The Exploration Fund have actually entered on their
map no less than 2,770 names. It is perfectly clear therefore that there
was once a very large and densely-packed population. Then in the next
place the careful observer will perceive that those hills which are now
so barren were once covered with terraces so as to preserve the soil.
Dr. Keith says that on one hill he counted no less than sixty-seven such
terraces one above another. Then if you examine these terraces you find
a countless number of cisterns and water-courses cut in the rocks,
proving clearly that there was once a careful system of irrigation; and
then, in conclusion, near many of the villages there is found an
olive-press, apparently used by the whole village, while up amongst the
terraces there are multitudes of smaller wine-presses, apparently cut in
the rocks by each proprietor for his own use. In confirmation of this
evidence I have been informed by one for many years a resident in
Jerusalem, that the inhabitants are dependent for firewood on the roots
of the vines and the olives still found on the desolate hillsides. The
roots remain, though the trees are gone, and those roots unite in their
testimony with the rocks amongst which they are found. The evidence
therefore of the rocks is irresistible. The people are scattered through
the nations, and the rain has washed down the toil from the broken
terraces; but the rocks remain; and the proof is as clear as any proof
can be of anything, that there was once a teeming population and a high
state of cultivation, that the country was once a land of vines and oil
olives, and that it was a land maintaining a prosperous, thriving, and
painstaking people. Thus the rocks agree with the Book. Those barren
hills themselves supply the evidence of their former fertility, and the
stones cry out that the grand old Pentateuch is historically true.