the inhabitants give to the graceful slope on which it looks down, the
name of the "Musical Valley." I don't know if the streets in the olden
time resembled what they are now. The following is the recent
description of a traveller familiar with them:--"The streets are narrow
and vaulted over, and in the winter time it is difficult to pass along
many of them on account of brooks, which rush over the pavement with
deafening roar.... It has mulberry, orange, pomegranate, and other trees
mingled in with the houses, whose odoriferous flowers load the air with
delicious perfume during the months of April and May."[21] You do not
require to be told that _Shechem_ is a very ancient city, and that many
interesting events in sacred story took place in connexion with it. The
earliest mention made of it is when the patriarch Abraham slept under
its oaks, (the Terebinths of Moreh,) when he came to Canaan from distant
Chaldea, and erected his first altar under their shade;[22] and one of
the last Bible notices regarding it, is in connexion with the woman of
Samaria, when Jesus sat with her at "the well of Sychar," and spoke to
her of the better fountain, "springing up to everlasting life."[23]

What does the name SHECHEM tell of Christ?

It is a word which means "SHOULDER."

Jesus, our Refuge, bore a guilty world upon His shoulder. The ancients
had a fabled Atlas, who was supposed to carry the earth on his
shoulders. Jesus Christ is the true ATLAS. "_Surely He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows!_"[24] All the sins of all His people
Jesus bore for ever away. Think of that heavy load which bowed Him down
to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, and caused drops of blood to
fall from His brow! No other one _but_ Jesus could have carried such an
awful load and burden as this. No angel or archangel could have done so.
Jesus, being God, was alone "able to save unto the uttermost."[25] He is
the only "sure foundation" that could sustain all the building.[26]
With any other, it would have fallen into a mass of ruins.

But I love not only to visit the old city of _Shechem_, and to think of
Jesus bearing the guilt of His people on His _shoulders_, but I like to
think of Him as the true SHECHEM _now_. He is our _Shechem_ at God's
right hand. "The government is upon His SHOULDER."[27] The Church and
the world are upheld by Him. Believers--the poorest, the weakest, the
humblest--are on the _shoulders_ of Jesus. He is bearing the