n
all this world,--where Jesus lived and walked, and prayed and
died, and will come again,--I doubt not you will be anxious to
hear how we come on. I am thankful that ever He privileged us to
come to this land. I heard of my flock yesterday by a letter from
home,--the first I have received, dated 8th May.... We are living
in one of the missionaries' houses on Mount Zion. My window looks
out upon where the Temple was, the beautiful Mount of Olives
rising behind. The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee
out of Zion.--Yours," etc.

One evening, after our visit to Sychar, he referred to the Bible which
I had dropped into Jacob's Well. We were then resting from our journey
in our tents. Soon after he penned on a leaf of his note-book the
following fragment:--

My own loved Bible, must I part from thee,
Companion of my toils by land and sea;
Man of my counsels, soother of distress,
Guide of my steps through this world's wilderness
In darkest nights, a lantern to my feet;
In gladsome days, as dropping honey sweet.
When first I parted from my quiet home,
At thy command, for Israel's good to roam.
Thy gentle voice said, "For Jerusalem pray,
So shall Jehovah prosper all thy way."
When through the lonely wilderness we strayed,
Sighing in vain for palm-trees' cooling shade,
Thy words of comfort hushed each rising fear,
"The shadow of thy mighty Rock is near."
And when we pitched our tents on Judah's hills,
Or thoughtful mused beside Siloa's rills;
Whene'er we climbed Mount Olivet, to gaze
Upon the sea, where stood in ancient days
The heaven-struck Sodom--
Sweet record of the past, to faith's glad eyes,
Sweet promiser of glories yet to rise![14]

[14] It is a somewhat curious occurrence, that the remnants of
this Bible were found and drawn up from the bottom of the well,
in July 1843, by Dr. Wilson and his fellow-traveller, who
employed a Samaritan from Sychar to descend and examine the well.

At the foot of Carmel, during the seven days we were in quarantine
under the brow of the hill, we had time to recall many former scenes;
and in these circumstances he wrote the hymn, _The Fountain of
Siloam_.

Here, too, he had leisure to write home; and most graphically does he
describe our journey from Alexandria onward.