of the common good. John's camel's hair and food of the wilderness were well enough; his stern morality and burning zeal in reforming his people were commendable; but not all of them revealed his true nobility as did the reply of this unsectarian leader to his sectarian disciples: "I am not the Christ. I am sent before him. He must increase, I must decrease." Thus John yielded up his place, even as a flower falls and dies that it may give place to the fruit that swells beneath it. Nor ought we to lose the beauty of that figure which John employed: "The friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice this my joy therefore is fulfilled." Jesus is the true bridegroom, I am only his groomsman; but I make his happiness my own!

The time had come for Jesus to leave Judæa. Warned by these disputes of the danger of a useless controversy, and perceiving as well that his opportunity was not yet ripe, he prepared to go home to Galilee. He felt the access of a larger power. He had thus far pursued his work in a tentative way, and without displaying those wonderful influences which so often afterward swept everything before him. But as when he came up from the Jordan the Spirit of God descended upon him; so a second time, now on the eve of his great missionary circuit, his soul was wonderfully replenished and exalted. He rose to a higher sphere. He took one more step back toward his full original self. A portion of that might and majesty which had been restrained by his mortal flesh was unfolding, and he was to work with a higher power and upon a higher plane than before.

By weaving together from the four Evangelists the account of his departure, we shall get a clear view of the grounds on which the above remarks are founded.

"Now after that John was put in prison, and Jesus had heard that he was cast into prison, and when the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judæa, and departed again, and returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee."

CHAPTER XI.

THE LESSON AT JACOB'S WELL.

ROM Jerusalem to Galilee the shortest and in many respects

FRO

the most interesting road ran directly north, along the highest ridge of the Judæan hills. This table-land was comparatively narrow. On the east, its flank was cut by deep ravines running down to the Jordan. On the west, another system of ravines ran down to the great maritime plain. Along the upper line between these gorges and valleys, the table-land was of variable breadth, and in the time of our Lord was clothed with trees and vines to an extent that can hardly be imagined by one who views it in its present barren and desolate state.

This region, including the ravines and valleys shooting down. on either hand from the ridge, may be called the military ground of Palestine. At almost every step one might here recall some famous conflict. It was along this plateau that Joshua fought his chief battles. Here Saul triumphed, and here he was finally overthrown and slain. Over this ground the ark went in captivity to Philistia. David fought over every inch of this territory, hid in its caves, wandered in its wilderness, and at length secured peace from his enemies through their final overthrow and subjugation. In his day Jerusalem, wholly wrested from the Jebusites, became the capital of the nation, which reached the summit of its prosperity under the brilliant but delusive reign of Solomon. The glory of that reign was autumnal, and presaged decay.

The very names of towns and cities on either side of this great road are histories. Ai, the first city conquered by Joshua, Gibeah, Mizpeh, Michmash, Gibeon, Beth-horon, Bethel, Gilgal, Shiloh, Shechem, and many others, could hardly fail to call up to any intelligent Jew a host of historic remembrances.

At

Bethel (Luz) Abraham pitched his tent, finding then, as is still found, excellent pasturage; and here he and Lot separated. This place was the annual resort of Samuel to judge Israel. Here Jeroboam set up the golden calf, when he designed to draw away the ten tribes from the worship of Jehovah. It was a place of eminent sacredness in Jewish history, and the prophet Amos (v. 5) sadly and solemnly predicts its ruin.

Under the palm-trees between Rama and Bethel, on the mount of Ephraim, the prophetess Deborah sat and judged Israel (Judges iv. 4, v. 12). It was hard by Bethel, but eastward, that our Saviour, near the close of his life, took refuge in the city of Ephraim - Ephron and Ophrah of the Old Tes tament from the malice of his enemies in Jerusalem, and thence crossed over Jordan to Peræa. The names of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Joseph, whose grave is near to Shechem, -are associated with every step of the way. The lapse of time has obliterated for us a thousand monuments and landmarks which must have been fresh and vital in the day when our Lord passed by them. Each bald rock had its tale, every ravine its legend, every mountain peak its history. The very trees, gnarled and lifted high on some signal hill, brought to mind many a stirring incident. This was the road over which Jesus himself had gone in his childhood with Mary and with Joseph.

All modern travellers are enraptured with the beauty of the vale in which Shechem stands. Coming down from the Judæan hills, from among rocky passes and stinted arboreous vegetation, the contrast at once presented of luxuriant fields of wheat and barley, the silvery green of olive-trees, the fig, the oak, together with the company of singing birds, would fill the sensitive mind. with delight. Van de Velde presents a striking picture, not only of the beauty of the vale of Shechem, but of the atmospheric appearance of Palestine in general, which is worthy of preservation.

"The awful gorge of the Leontes is grand and bold beyond description; the hills of Lebanon, over against Sidon, are magnificent and sublime; the valley of the hill of Naphtali is rich in wild oak forest and brush-wood; those of Asher and Wady Kara, for example, present a beautiful combination of wood and