power, without any corresponding enlightenment as to the divine nature, led to a religion of terror, which finally became a terrible scourge of humanity. Gradually, however, an increased acquaintance with the laws of nature enlarged the mind of man. He first supposed that the Deity fashioned the earth, raising it out of the water and preparing it as a dwelling-place for man, and subsequently realised the idea that land and water were alike created by divine power. After regarding spirits as altogether evil, he rose to a belief in good as well as in evil deities, and, gradually subordinating the latter to the former, worshipped the good spirits alone as gods--the evil sinking to the level of demons. From believing only in ghosts, he came gradually to the recognition of the soul. At length, uniting this belief with that in a beneficent and just Being, he connected morality with religion—a step the importance of which it is scarcely possible to overestimate. Thus we see that, as men rise in civilisation, their religion rises with them—that, far from being antagonistic to religion, without science true religion is impossible. The Australians dimly imagine a being spiteful and malevolent, but weak, and dangerous only in the dark. The negro's deity is more powerful, but not less hateful; invisible, indeed, but subject to pain-mortal, like himself, and liable to be made a slave of man by enchantment The deities of the South Sea Islanders are some good, some evil; but, on the whole, more is to be feared from the latter than to be hoped from the former. They fashioned the land, but are not truly creators, for earth and water existed before them. They do not punish the evil, nor reward the good. They watch over the affairs of men; but if, on the one hand, witchcraft has no power over them, neither on the other can prayer influence them-they require to share the crops or the booty of their worshippers. Thus, then, every increase in science—that is, positive and ascertained knowledge-brings with it an elevation of religion. Nor is this progress confined to the lower races. Even within the last century, science has purified the religion of Western Europe by rooting out the dark belief in witchcraft, which led to thousands of executions, and hung like a black pall over the Christianity of the Middle Ages. Yet in spite of these immense services which science has confessedly rendered to the cause of religion, there are still many who look on it as hostile to religious truth, forgetting that science is but exact knowledge, and that he who regards it as incompatible with his religion, practically admits that his religion is untenable. No; the true spirit of faith looks on the progress of science, not with fear but with hope, knowing that science can influence our religious conceptions for good only it may purify and elevate, it has no tendency to destroy. Whether, then, science is destined, as some suppose, to modify the present religious views or not—a question into which I do not now wish to enter-no one ought on that account to regard it with apprehension or with distrust. Far from it. We must be prepared to accept any conclusions to which the evidence may lead; not in the spirit of resignation or of despair, but in the certain faith that every discovery of science, even if it may conflict with our present opinions, and with convictions which are dear to us, will open out to us more and more the majestic grandeur of the universe in which we live, and thus enable us to form grander and therefore truer conceptions of religious truth. So far, indeed, from being hostile to religion, we need only study history to perceive the important service which science has rendered to the cause of religious truth—to satisfy ourselves that a better acquaintance with the beautiful world in which we live would not only diminish the physical evils from which we suffer, and thus add to the general happiness and comfort, but would also tend to raise our moral and spiritual nature, to elevate and purify the whole character cf man. Palestine Exploration: THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WATER SUPPLY OF JERUSALEM. A LECTURE, delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, on BY MAJOR WILSON, R.E., F.R.S. HE subject upon which I have been asked to address you this evening-" Palestine Exploration "-is so large that I could not possibly do justice to it in the time at my disposal. I have, therefore, selected one particular branch of the exploration, the water supply of Jerusalem, and I hope to be able to add a few words on the nature and object of the excavations which have been made in the Holy City. Some ten years ago the sanitary state of Jerusalem attracted considerable attention. That city, which the Psalmist had described in loving terms as "the joy of the whole earth," had become one of the most unhealthy places in the world, and it was known that this change was due, partly to the vast accumulation of rubbish within the city, and partly to the inferior quality of the water supply. With the rubbish it was hardly possible to deal, but the water supply seemed an easier matter, and several schemes were proposed for its improvement. Before, however, any of these could be carried out, it was necessary to obtain an accurate plan of the city; and this, having been represented to the Lady Burdett Coutts, who is ever ready to promote good works, she at once placed the requisite funds in the hands of a committee of gentlemen interested in Jerusalem. The survey was made by myself and a party of Royal Engineers from the Ordnance Survey, under the direction of Major-General Sir Henry James, and I am able to show you this evening some of the published results. The success of the survey, and certain discoveries which we were fortunately able to make during its progress, aroused considerable interest in England, and led to the formation of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which is now engaged in making a complete survey of the whole country. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to explain that Palestine is a narrow tract of country lying along the extreme eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and that a range of hills from 2,500 to 4,000 feet high runs through it, in a direction parallel to the sea, from Lebanon on the north, to the desert on the south. In the midst of these hills lies Jerusalem, situated on a spur or plateau, which is bordered by two ravines bearing the familiar names of Kedron and Hinnom. The ravines rise within a short distance of each other, and encircling the plateau, the Kedron on the north and east, the Hinnom on the west, run together south of the city, not far from the well of Joab. Both valleys are at first mere depressions of the ground, but after running about a mile and a half they fall more rapidly, and at Joab's well are 670 feet below their starting point. A third valley, known as the Tyropœon, rises well up in the plateau, and, after passing through the city and dividing it into two unequal halves, joins the Kedron at Siloam. On the eastern of these two halves, Mount Moriah, once stood the temple, and on the western, which is 120 feet higher than Moriah, were situated Herod's palace, with its three great towers, and what Josephus calls the upper city. A short ravine, along the side of which the first or most ancient wall of the city was built, runs down to the Tyropoon from the west (Jaffa gate); and there is also a fourth distinct valley, which, rising in the eastern portion of the plateau, joins the Kedron, after receiving a small tributary from the west that has an important bearing on the site of the temple. The sides of the valleys of Kedron and Hinnom are now encumbered with rubbish, but they are sufficiently steep to be difficult of access, and every here and there places are found where the rock has been scarped or cut perpendicularly downwards to give additional security. It was possibly in these natural defences, which protect the city on the south, east, and west, that the Jebusites trusted when they boasted to King David, "Thou wilt not come in hither; the blind and lame shall drive thee back." The only side upon which Jerusalem could be attacked with any chance of success was on the north; and here, as Josephus informs us, it was defended by three walls of great strength. The present bed, or bottom of the Kedron valley, is 38 feet above its true one; the Tyropcon is filled up to a depth of 107 feet; whilst in the fourth valley-the very existence of which escaped the notice of travellers until recent years-there is no less than 125 feet of rubbish. 66 The plateau on which the city is situated slopes uniformly to the south-east, and contains about 1,000 acres ; it is composed of white, yellow, and buff limestones, of the age of our English chalk; and the arrangement of the strata, which dip to the E.S.E. at about 10°, has an important bearing on the water supply. The upper beds, from 1ft. 6in. to 4ft. in thickness, provide an extremely hard compact stone, which I will call for convenience by its Arab name, Missae," whilst the lower, some 40 feet in thickness, consist of a soft white stone, called "Malaki," and it is in this latter bed that most of the ancient tombs and cisterns at Jerusalem have been excavated. The strata are much broken and cracked, so that the rain readily sinks into the ground, and finds its way downwards through a thousand hidden channels, to be given out at a lower level. The general direction of this underground flow, and of the surface drainage of the plateau, is, as you will see by the map, towards Joab's well, below the junction of the two principal ravines, Kedron and Hinnom. 66 It was at one time supposed that the quantity of rain which fell at Jerusalem each year was very large, from fifty to eighty inches, but the average annual rainfall is really about nineteen inches-not more than half that of Manchester-and the rainy season is spread over the winter months from November to March; during the remaining months even a slight shower is of the rarest occurrence, and the heavens become, to use the graphic language of the Bible, as 'brass," and the earth as "iron." Every three or four years there is a fall of snow, which lies on the ground for a day or two; and, on the other hand, there is occasionally an almost total failure of rain. The number of cisterns and reservoirs which were excavated or built for the collection of the rainfall, and the skill exhibited in the construction of the conduits that brought water into the city, show pretty clearly that there has been no material change in the climate or in the quantity of rain since the days of the Jewish monarchy. The modern supply of water is derived from springs, wells, cisterns, pools or reservoirs, and aqueducts. Springs. There is only one true spring at Jerusalem, the "Fountain of the Virgin," on the west side of the Kedron ravine; and it has this peculiar feature that, in addition to a constant though small flow, there is an intermittent flow which consists in a sudden increase to the ordinary one. In winter there are from three to five flows each day in summer two; later on, in autumn, : |