“The time was to the day what spring is to the year. The diurnal revolution of the earth round its own axis corresponds with the annual revolution of the earth round the sun, and the different periods of the day--morning, noon and night--therefore resemble the different seasons of the year--spring, summer, autumn, and winter. According to this beautiful analogy, the spring of the day embraces the early hours after sunrise. Nowhere is the spring of the day so delightful as in Palestine, for later on it becomes oppressively hot. The people do all their travelling and most of their work in the early morning. Saul commenced that, fateful journey homeward from the hill village of the prophet which led to the throne of Israel in the spring of the day. Ah! what difference that first setting out in life, from the hill of Juph in the spring of the day from the dark closing of his life on Mount Gilboa in the dreary winter of the day.” (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.)
