22 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. waters would very naturally ooze through the sandy soil, and, in fact, other wells of fresh water are found in the neighbourhood at a depth of from sixteen to twenty feet. The tradition also says that the Holy Family, having rested and refreshed themselves, directed their journey over the ground we have just travelled, and made their permanent abode during the lifetime of Herod at Musr el Atéekeh, or Old Cairo, about three miles south from the modern Cairo, and the site, or near the site, of Babylon in Egypt. Here, in the Greek monastery dedicated to St. Sergius, is shown the chapel which, it is said, stands upon the place where they dwelt. On each side of the high altar, a flight of some ten or twelve steps leads to a subterraneous cave or grotto about twenty feet long and twelve wide; and this, the tradition says, was their abiding-place, until " an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel," most probably through the tract of country over which is to be our pilgrimage. The route we are upon for the Holy Land may, therefore, be the same, and certainly is in the same direction, with that which the sons of Jacob took on their going down to buy corn in Egypt. But THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 23 what gives it a far deeper interest to us at this time from the course of thought suggested by the traditions of which I have just spoken, is, that this pathway may once have been trodden by Joseph and the humble animal that bore the blessed Virgin with the infant Saviour resting in her arms. Or the Flight into Egypt, the briefest possible account is given us by the sacred historian; and there remains no other authentic record of this remarkable event in the life of the child Jesus, except that which is left us, in few words, and by only one of the evangelists. The circumstances of the sacred journey, therefore, are almost as great a mystery to us, as the wonderful command from the skies, "Behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt." A thousand interesting thoughts cluster around the Holy Family on their way, and in this weary banishment from their native land; but it is the sacred love within us for every spot once blest by the earthly presence of the Lord, rather than actual history, which must guide us here. From the fountain of our own souls we must be fain to 24 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. quench our thirst, since there is here no broad river to make glad the city of God. And, perhaps, it is a fitting thing that we should know little of so sad an event as the early exile of the only-begotten Son of God from the only chosen land of God. How touching a commentary upon the words of the beloved disciple, is this flight from the Land of Promise, back again, as we may almost feel, into the Land of Bondage! "He came unto his own, and his own received him not;" "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." He who gave to the foxes their holes, and to the birds of the air their nests, had not where to lay his head; but while even vile ones of the dishonourable world had vast possessions upon its surface, there was not a spot upon it which its Maker and Master could call his own. The plan of mercy seems indeed a mystery, and the cross a contradiction; unto the Jew a stumbling-block, and unto the Greek foolishness. Yet, how many Christian hearts have since mused upon the flight into Egypt, until the sacred fire was kindled within them; till burning thoughts demanded utterance of the tongue, and devout and glowing pictures in the soul sought their pious expression from the pencil! Who has not seen, in thought, this humble but holy band going forth upon their exile, with sorrow indeed, but chastened by a lively hope? In his mother's THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 25 heart lies a rich treasure of promises and prophecies, which she has heard from the lips of aged saints on the earth and archangels from heaven, from Simeon and from Gabriel. The one announced, and the other waited for, the consolation of Israel. What matter, then, if He who shall purchase our redemption from a worse than Egyptian slavery, is himself, for a short period, brought into the house of bondage? It was necessary that the Captain of our salvation should be made perfect through sufferings; and the Sun of Israel must shine forth from the night of Egypt. By the same way that the child Joseph was taken a slave into Egypt, that he might go before the people of God to preserve the lives of many, by that way must the child Jesus be carried, on the threshold of a life into which he entered, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to supply the famine of the world with bread from heaven. On these things ponders the faithful and affectionate heart of the mother of our Lord, consoled by the thought, that as one of the great ancestors of Israel went through the desert of exile and suffering to his glory in Egypt, so shall the infant on her bosom, fulfilling in patience his period of banishment from home and heaven, return to his purchased possession of glory in the paradise of God. These footsteps of suffering let us trace and follow: to this reward let us also aspire, until our exile in the land of bondage being ended, we may gird up our loins, take our staff in our hand, and march gladly out of Egypt for the Land of Promise. Beliopolis-Goshen. THE site of Heliopolis is indicated by considerable mounds of rubbish, smoothed over by time, and containing quantities of crude brick, and reddish fragments of earthenware vessels. These evidences of once peopled cities we observed in many places on our route; and here, as the only vestiges of the habitations of a people once famous for arts and learning, for wealth and luxury, but sunk in gross idolatry, they brought to mind the prophet's denunciation : "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? They shall be ashamed and confounded, all of them they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols." As the brittle potsherds of these heaps have been broken to pieces, so the works of idolatrous man— massive, well-founded, and beautiful as they wereare now so utterly destroyed, that scarce a trace of them can be found. There is, indeed, one remarkable monument remaining, as if to prove what |