fort," the "rocky hold," of Jerusalem-the refuge where first the Jebusite, and then the Lion of God, stood at bay against the hunters.

This brings us to the second feature which tends to account for its early selection or future growth as the capital of Palestine. As the traveller advances toward Jerusalem from the west and south, over the featureless undulating plain, two deep valleys suddenly appear in sight. The deepest and "The Black darkest of the two was known as Valley" (Kedron), in former times probably deeper and darker than at present, when the accumulation of ruins and rubbish from above must have raised its ancient level. The other, wider and greener, was "the ravine" (Ge), in which probably some ancient hero had encamped," the son of Hinnom;" and from the name thus compounded, "Ge Ben-Hinnom," "Ge-Hinnom," was formed the word "Gehenna,"* which has through its late associations given its name to the place of future torment. These deep ravines, which thus separate Jerusalem from the rocky plain of which it forms a part, are a rare feature in the general scenery of the IIoly Land. But in Palestine, Jerusalem alone is so entrenched, and to this cause owes, in great measure, her early strength and later greatness. When David appeared under the walls of Jebus, the "old inhabitants of the land," the last remnant of their race that clung to their mountain home, exulting in the strength of those ancient "everlasting gates" which no conqueror had yet burst

open, looked proudly down on the army below, and said, "Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither; thinking David cannot come in hither." The blind and the lame, they thought, were sufficient to maintain what nature had so strongly defended. It was the often-repeated story of the capture of fortresses through what seemed their strongest, and therefore became their weakest, point. David turned to his host below, and said, "Whoever smiteth the Jebusites first, and dasheth them on the precipice,' ... and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain." Joab first climbed that steep ascent, and won the chieftainship of David's hosts; and the "ancient everlasting gates" "lifted up their heads," and "David dwelt in the stronghold of Zion, and called it the City of David."

The mountains in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem are of unequal height, and only in two or three instances rising to any considerable elevation. Even Olivet is only 180 feet above the top of Mount Zion. Still, they act as a shelter; they must be surmounted before the traveller can see, or the invader attack, the Holy City; and the distant line of Moab would always seem to rise as a wall against invaders from the remote east. It is these mountains which must be intended in the Psalm, as "standing round about Jerusalem," and which are mentioned by Josephus as surrounding the city on the night of the assault of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, they "echoed back" the screams of the inhabitants of

the captured city, and the victorious shouts of the soldiers of Titus.

In every approach to the modern Jerusalem, the first and most striking feature is the long line of walls and towers. Most Eastern cities are entered gradually. But Jerusalem is in the singular position of a city of sufficient importance to have deserved a circuit of walls, whilst it is, at the same time, so exposed to the assaults of the wild villagers and still wilder Arabs of the neighbourhood, that it has not ventured to pass beyond its fortifications. The same terror which has collected the entire population of Palestine from isolated houses into villages, has confined the population of its capital within the city walls. With the exception of the caves and hovels of the almost savage inhabitants of Siloam, no ordinary habitation can be fixed outside; the town is entirely enclosed, the gates locked at night, and the present walls thus become a principal feature in every view of the place from within or from without.

This to a certain extent must have been the case always: Jerusalem must at all times have been in a state of insecurity too great to allow of any neglect of her fortifications. From first to last, we hear mention of her walls and gates, and towers. "Walk about Zion, go round about her, tell the towers thereof; mark well her bulwarks."* David, Solomon, Hezekiah, are all concerned in the fortifications of the city of the Monarchy. To have raised the walls of the city of the Restoration was the chief glory of