whether made by Phoenicians, Greeks, or Romans, it was an admirable work, CHAPTER and a great blessing to Beirût. The entire length cannot be less than twenty miles, and the starting-point is at least two thousand feet above the sea CHAPTER III. BEIRUT-Continued. Roofs of Houses- Battlements. Worship on House-tops. January 26th. houses. THE roofs of these houses afford such a delightful promenade, and the pro- Roofs of spect is so beautiful, that I can scarcely keep away from them, day or night. So absorbed was I just now in gazing about, that, if it had not been for the parapet, I should have walked quite off, and then have found myself on the ground with a broken limb or neck, I suppose. As it was, I made a desperate stumble, and was excessively frightened. ments. A very practical illustration, that, of the wisdom and humanity of the command in Deut. xxii. 8: "When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence." This ordinance ought still to be enforced by law Need of wherever the roofs are flat, and resorted to for business, relaxation, or for sleep- battleing. In Syrian cities the roofs are a great comfort. The ordinary houses have no other place where the inmates can either see the sun, "smell the air," dry their clothes, set out their flower-pots, or do numberless other things essential to their health and comfort. This is particularly true within the city walls; but even in villages the roof is very useful. There the farmer suns his wheat for the mill, and the flour when brought home, and dries his figs, raisins, etc., etc., in safety both from animals and from thieves. During a large part of the year the roof is the most agreeable place about Morning the establishment, especially in the morning and evening. There multitudes and evening on the sleep during the summer, in all places where malaria does not render it dan- roof. gerous. This custom is very ancient. Though according to our translation of 1st Samuel ix. 25, 26, Samuel calls Saul to the top of the house, that he might send him away, instead of from it, yet, taking the whole passage together, there can be no doubt but that the process should be reversed. The Arabic has it thus :-" And Samuel conversed with Saul upon the top of the house, and spread his bed for him, and he slept on the roof; and very early in the morning Samuel called Saul from the top of the house," etc., etc. This is natural, and doubtless the correct history of the case. Saul, young, vigorous, but weary with his long search, would desire no better place to sleep than on the roof. But there should always be battlements, and commissioners should be ap- CHAPTER pointed to see that they are kept in proper repair. The Moslems generally build very high parapets, in order to screen their women from observation; but the Christians are very negligent, and often bring blood upon their houses by a sinful disregard of this law of Moses. Your remark about the Moslems suggests the thought that if Uriah's house had been thus protected, David might have been saved from a long series of dismal crimes, and Israel from dreadful calamity. True; but then the roof of David's palace was probably so high that he could King look directly down into the courts of the neighbouring houses. There are such David's in all cities, and you can scarcely commit a greater offence than to frequent a terrace which thus commands the interior of your neighbour's dwelling. Isaiah has a reference to the house-tops in the 22nd chapter, which I do not quite understand. He says, verse 1st, "What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the house-tops?" For what purpose did the inhabitants of Jerusalem thus go thither? roof. explained. favourable for a view. This is a remarkable passage. Verse 2d goes on to say, "Thou art full of Passage in stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city;" from which one might suppose that the Isaiah people had gone to the roofs to eat, drink, clap hands, and sing, as the Arabs at this day delight to do in the mild summer evenings. But, from verses 4th and 5th, it is plain that it was a time of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity; which naturally suggests the idea that the inhabitants had rushed to the tops of the houses to get a sight of those chariots and horsemen of Elam The roof and Kir, with whom their choice valleys were full, and who were thundering ́against the gates of the city. And, as Oriental houses generally have no windows looking outward into the streets, or, if there are such, they are closely latticed, there is no place but the roofs from whence one can obtain a view of what is going on without. Hence, when anything extraordinary occurs in the streets, all classes rush to the roof and look over the battlements. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, at the time of this Persian invasion, were probably seized with frenzy and madness, as they were long after, at the siege of Titus. According to Josephus, some revelled in drunken feasts, and kept the city in alarm by their stirs and tumults; some were engaged in plunder and murder, when the slain were not dead in battle; some wept bitterly, like Isaiah, and refused to be comforted "because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people;” in a word, it was a day of universal and utter confusion. Nobody could sit still, but all hurried to the house-tops, either to join in untimely riots of fanaticism and drunken despair, or to watch with fear and trembling the dreadful assault upon their walls and gates; no wonder they had wholly gone up to the house-tops. Was it customary in the time of our Saviour to make public proclamations from the tops of the houses? Such an inference may fairly be drawn from Matthew x. 27, and Luke xii. Proclama3. Our Lord spent most of his life in villages, and accordingly the reference tions fro.n bere is to a custom observed only in such places, never in cities. At the pre the roof PART I. Worship. sent day, local governors in country districts cause their commands thus to be published. Their proclamations are generally made in the evening, after the people have returned from their labours in the field. The public crier ascends the highest roof at hand, and lifts up his voice in a long-drawn call upon all faithful subjects to give ear and obey. He then proceeds to announce, in a set form, the will of their master, and demand obedience thereto. It is plain that the roofs were resorted to for worship, both true and idolatrous. We read in Zeph. i. 5, of those who worshipped the host of heaven on the house-tops; and from Acts x. 9, we learn that Peter at Joppa went up to the roof to pray about the sixth hour. All this is very natural. The Sabeans of Chaldea and Persia could find no more appropriate place for the performance of their idolatrons worship of the heavenly bodies than these open terraces, with the stars shining down upon them so kindly. And, as very few Oriental dwellings have closets into which the devout can retire for prayer, I suppose Peter was obliged to resort to the roof of Simon's house for this purpose; and when surrounded with battlements, and shaded by vines trained over them, they afford a very agreeable retreat, even at the sixth hour of the day-the time when Peter was favoured with that singular vision by which the kingdom of heaven was thrown open to the Gentile world. III. Our Lord says, "Let him that is on the house-top not come down to take any- CHAPTER thing out of his house."1 Is it a correct inference from this that the stairway landed on the outside of the house? The stair Outside of the house, but within the exterior court. It would not be either way. agreeable or safe to have the stairs land outside the enclosure altogether, and it is rarely done, except in mountain villages, and where roofs are but little used. They not unfrequently end in the levan, but more commonly in some part of the lower court. The urgency of the flight recommended by our Lord is enhanced by the fact that the stairs do lead down into the court or lewan. He in effect says, Though you must pass by the very door of your room, do not enter; escape for your life, without a moment's delay. No traveller in Syria will long need an introduction to the sparrow on the The sparhouse-top. There are countless numbers of them about you. They are a tame, troublesome, and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you don't want them. They stop up your stove and water pipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them. They are extremely pertinacious in asserting their right of possession, and have not the least reverence for any place or thing. David alludes to these characteristics of the sparrow in the 84th Psalm, when he complains that they had appropriated even the altars of God for their nests. Concerning himself he says, "I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the house-top."2 When one of them has lost its mate-a matter of every-day occurrence- he will sit on the house-top alone, and lament by the hour his sad bereavement. These birds are snared and caught in great numbers, but as they are small and not much relished for food, five sparrows may still be sold for two farthings; and when we see their countless numbers, and the eagerness with which they are destroyed as a worthless nuisance, we can better appreciate the assurance that our heavenly Father, who takes care of them, so that not one can fall to the ground without his notice, will surely take care of us, who are of more value than many sparrows.3 row on the house-top. 1 Matt. xxiv. 17. 2 Psalmi cii. 7. 3 Matt. x. 29, and Luke xii. 7. |