e most fertile valleys in Palestine, with its orchards and
corn-fields. On its eastern height is the spot which gives it to this
day perhaps its most sacred interest--the cave of Machpelah, where the
dust of the patriarchs has reposed for four thousand years. It must have
been outside its walls that the angels appeared to Abraham, when he was
seated at his tent door. The adjoining height is pointed out as the
place from which the patriarch saw the smoke of burning Sodom rising
from its own deep valley. It was in Hebron David was anointed king over
Israel. It was amid its vineyards and mountain-slopes that John the
Baptist grew up as a little boy, before he appeared in the wilderness of
Judea, to tell of One mightier than he, "whose shoe-latchet" he was
"not worthy to unloose."[33]

What does the name HEBRON tell of Christ?

In Hebrew it means "_fellowship_," "_society_," "_friendship_." JESUS
has brought guilty man into fellowship with God. On account of sin we
had forfeited this fellowship. We had made God not our friend, but our
enemy. We were cut off from communion with all that is holy and happy.
Angels, in their errands of mercy through the universe, passed by our
world; they could hold no intercourse with those who had rebelled
against their Creator. Can none bridge this wide gulf which separates
between earth and heaven? Can no ladder be let down by which happy
angels can descend once more on their visits of love, and fallen man
once more be raised up to hold "fellowship" with God and holy creatures?

JESUS is the true HEBRON--the true ladder of Jacob let down from heaven
and reaching to earth. Jesus has "reconciled things on earth and things
in heaven,"[34] He hath "raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places."[35] We who were once "afar off" have been "brought
nigh by the blood of Christ."[36]

I trust many who read this will love often to visit in thought the old
city of the patriarchs, and to dwell on its name and meaning,
"_fellowship_." Think of what _you_ would have been without Jesus, your
Hebron-City of Refuge,--a poor outcast in creation, an alien from all
that is holy and happy. But by Jesus all is changed. God is your
Father--Christ is your elder Brother. In Him, God loves you,--angels
visit you,--the Holy Spirit teaches you,--heaven is open for you. You
are enrolled as a citizen of the great _Hebron_ above--"the city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." C