They were going into a good land, a land of
milk and honey and oil olive; a land of vines and figs and
pomegranates; a rich land; but a most uncertain land--a land which
might yield a splendid crop one year, and be almost barren the next.
It was not as the land of Egypt--a land which was, humanly speaking,
sure to be fertile, because always supplied with water, brought out
of the Nile by dykes and channels which spread in a network over
every field, and where--as I believe is done now--the labourer
turned the water from one land to the other simply by moving the
earth with his foot.
It was a mountain land, a land of hills and valleys, and drank water
of the rain of heaven; a land of fountains of water, which required
to be fed continually by the rain. In that hot climate it depended
entirely on God's providence from week to week whether a crop could
grow.
Therefore it was a land which the Lord cared for--a land which
needed his special help, and it had it. 'The eyes of the Lord God
were always upon it, from the beginning of the year unto the end of
the year.'
Beautiful, simple, noble, true words--deeper than all the learned
words, however true they may be (and true they are, and to be
listened to with respect), which men talk about the laws of Nature
and of weather.
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