TIIORN-HEDGE
386
THORN WELL
The A'i(6A;, or Dhom {Zizyphus spina Christi).
the psalmist alludes, " Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall sweep them away as with a Whirlwind" (Psa. Iviii, 9) ; where "the brightness of the flame, the height to which it mounts in an instant, the fury with which it seems to rage on all sides of the vessel, give force and even sublimity to the image, though taken from one of the commonest occurrences of the lowest life — a cottager's wife boiling her pot" (Horsley, adloc). Explodhig so quickly, they are as speedily quenched (Psa. cxviii, 12); and there is small result from their noisy crepitation (Eccles. vii, 6). " Kidicule is a facul- ty much prized by its possessors, j-et, intrinsically, it is a small faculty. A scoffing inan is in no lofty mood for the time; shows more of the imp than the angel. This, too, when his scoffing is what we call just and has some foundation in truth. While, again, the laughter of fools — that vain sound — said in Scripture to resemble 'the crackling of thorns under a pot' (which they can- not heat, but onl}' soil and begrime), must be regarded in these later times as a very serious addition to the sum of human wretchedness" (Carh'le, M'iscdlanies, ii, 119). Dr. Tristram further remarks, "I have noticed dwarf bushes of the zizi/phus growing outside the walls of Jerusalem in the Kedron valley; but it is in the low plains that it reaches its full size and changes its name to the dhom tree. It is sometimes called the lotus-tree. The thorns are long, sharp, and recurved, and often create a festering wound. The leaves are a very bright green, oval, but not, as has been said, of the shape of the ivy. The boughs are crooked and irregu- lar, the blossom small and white, and the fruit a bright- yellow berry, which the tree continues to bear in great profusion from December to .June. It is the size of a small gooseberry, of a pleasant, subacid flavor, with a stone like the hawthorn, and, whether fresh or dried, forms an agreeable dish, which we often enjoved. mix- ing the berries with khen, or sour milk. There is no fence more impervious than that formed of mihk ; and the Bedawin contrive to form one round their little corn- plots with trifling labor. They simply cut <lown a few branches and lay them in line as soon as the barley is sown. No cattle, goats, or camels will attempt to force it, insignificant as it appears, not more than a vard high ; and the twigs and recurved spines l)Pcome so interwoven that it is in vain to attempt to pull the branches aside" {Xat. Hist, of the Bihlp, p. 4-29). See Tiioun.
The fences of prickly pear or Indian fii; (Opwifia rul- ff<t7-is), now so common in the lauds of the Bible, were unknown iu Bible times, the plant having only found its
way to the Old World after the discovery of America (Tristram, Xat. Hist, of the liiblc, \). 4,'J2). At present, however, it forms the common hedge-thorn of Palestine, especially in the villages of the jdain of Sharon. It grows to the size of a large shrub, the stem of which is as thick as a man's body. The leaf is studded with thorns, and is of oval shape, about ten inches long, six wide, and three fourths of an inch thick: the stem and branches are formed by the amalgamation of a certain number of those succulent leaves that grow together the year after their first appearance, when each is laden with fifteen or twent\' yellow blossoms, which are rapid- ly matured into a sweet and refreshing fruit of the size and shape of a hen's egg. See Hei>ge.
Thornton, Thomas C, D.D., a minister of the ^Methodist Episcopal Church. South, was born in Dum- fries, Va., Oct. 12, 1790; graduated in his native place, and began to preach when sixteen years old. In 1813 he entered the Baltimore Conference; and was trans- ferred to the Mississippi Conference to take charge of Old Centenary College in 1841. From some misunder- standing, he left the Methodist and joined the Protes- tant E|)iscopal Church, but refused onlination. not ac- cejiting the doctrine of uninterrupted apostolical succes- sion. In 1850 he returned to the Methodist Church, and was readmitted into the Mississippi Conference in 1853. He died March 23, 18(i0. He wrote Theohujicul Colloquies and Slavery as it Is in the United States, in reply to Dr. Channing. See Simpson, Cyclop, of Meth- odism, s. V.
Thornton, "W. L.. an eminent English Wesleyan minister, was born in Yorkshire about 1810. and was a pupil of the venerable James Sigston, Leeds. He was accepted at the Conference of 1830. receiving as his first circuit an appointment to Glasgow, where he re- mained but a year, and in 1831 was stationed at Hull. After a three years' residence in that north-eastern sea- port, he was removed to the First London Circuit in 1834, from thence to the Leeds East Circuit in 1837, and to Bath in 1838, After a three years' location at Bath, Mr. Thornton's itinerant career terminated, and in 1841 he became the resident classical tutor of the first theological institute established in Methodism, which, commencing at Hoxton. was afterwards divided between Richmond and Didsbury ; and in 1S42 he %vent to its northern branch, near Manchester. He remained there till 1849, when he was appointed editor of the Wesleyan periodicals. In 1864 Jlr. Thornton repre- sented the British Conference at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; he then proceeded to Canada, and presided over that conference, and also over that in Eastern British America. On his return home, he was elected president of the British Confer- ence, but died very suddenly, in his presidential year, JIarch 5, 1865. Mr. Thornton was a man of fine talents and thorough culture. In early life he had given him- self to hard and systematic study. As a preacher he was eloquent, his style finished and elegant; as an ed- itor he was industrious and successful.