Narrative of the Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea

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J. Blackwood, 1855 - Dead Sea (Israel and Jordan) - 414 pages

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Page 48 - Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
Page 75 - The grand transition, that there lives and works A soul in all things, and that soul is God.
Page 341 - ... makes life a discipline of goodness — creates new hopes, when all earthly hopes vanish ; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights ; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity : makes an instrument of torture and...
Page 341 - I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness — creates new hopes, when all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity...
Page 238 - ... conspicuous pillar, which reminded us at least of the catastrophe of the plain ; on the other were the lofty and barren cliffs of Moab, in one of the caves of which the fugitive Lot found shelter. To the south was an extensive flat intersected by sluggish drains, with the high hills of Edom semi-girdling the salt plain where the Israelites repeatedly overthrew their enemies ; and to the north was the calm and motionless sea, curtained with a purple mist, while many fathoms deep in the slimy mud...
Page 304 - The inference from the Bible, that this entire chasm was a plain sunk and " overwhelmed" by the wrath of God, seems to be sustained by the extraordinary character of our soundings. The bottom of this sea consists of two submerged plains, an elevated and a depressed one; the last averaging thirteen, the former about thirteen hundred feet below the surface.
Page 208 - The surface of the sea," says Lieutenant Lynch, " was one wide sheet of phosphorescent foam, and the waves, as they broke upon the shore, threw a sepulchral light upon the dead bushes and scattered fragments of rock.
Page 202 - But here, - above, around, below, On mountain or in glen, Nor tree, nor shrub, nor plant, nor flower, Nor aught of vegetative power, The weary eye may ken. For all is rocks at random thrown, Black waves, bare crags, and banks of stone...
Page 235 - The upper or rounded part is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval pedestal, from forty to sixty feet above the level of the sea. It slightly decreases in size upwards, crumbles at the top, and is one entire mass of crystallization. A prop, or buttress, connects it with the mountain behind, and the whole is covered with debris of a light stone colour. Its peculiar shape is doubtless attributable to the action of the winter rains.
Page 199 - And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel : and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.

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