NAZARETH IN SPRING AND IN SUMMER. 83 being lined with the well-washed white limestone walls of the houses, intervened with fresh green trees and foliage, present a fine appearance. "No wonder that in spring-time this should have been called a paradise, or that it should have been spoken of as, perhaps, the only spot in Palestine where the mind feels relief from the unequalled desolation that reigns nearly everywhere else."-M. Renan's Life of Christ, p. 18. Later in the season the charm will be broken. Dust, dust, dust! Everything will be covered with dust, from the lowly flowers, drooping and fading in the valleys, to the trees and fruit on the hill-sides; the streets will present a cloud under the donkeys' feet; dust will fill the air and cover the house-tops, and the town, which looked more "like a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald" so recently! Now it is a white city (Bonar). The white rocks all around give it a peculiar aspect. It appears dry and tame, and this effect is increased by the trees being powdered over with dust during the summer season. The heat is very great and the gleam from the rocks painful to the eye. These rocks are very soft, and easily go to decay, and Dr. Thomson says, "I am most happy to believe that there is not a fragment of the ancient Nazareth itself which can be identified. It is nearly certain that every stone of the small hamlet where the Saviour spent so many years has long ago dissolved back into the white marl of the hills from whence it was quarried. This kind of stone disintegrates with great rapidity, and as the place was repeatedly almost, or quite, destroyed and forsaken, the soft stones thus exposed would not last fifty years." Of this there can be little or no question. Nevertheless, two churches existed there during the 7th century, one on the site of Joseph and Mary's house, the other on the very spot where the angel appeared to Mary. It is now, the present building, called "Church of the An * Land and Book, Eng. Ed. 430. Nazareth was not visited by Christian pilgrims till the 6th century (Dr. Robinson, II., 341). It was destroyed A. D. 1200, by Saracens (Early Travels). Dr. Thomson, who was during many years a mis sionary here.-L. and B., 430. 84 ON THE MOUNTAIN'S TOP. nunciation." This with "the cave, the kitchen of Mary, the workshop of Joseph, the dining-table of our Lord and His apostles, the synagogue where Jesus read the prophet Isaiah, and the very precipice over which His enraged fellow-villagers were about to cast Him headlong, are now shown (and) are all fabulous, apocryphal, and have no claims to my veneration or respect." “The everlasting hills" remain around the spot where He lived on earth. His works remain. This we feel assured of. These remain the same. Its present inhabitants are variously estimated :-Dr. Thomson, "over 3,000;" Dr. Robinson, "3,000;" Dr. Porter. "4,000;" Captain Lynch (later), " 5,000." It is gradually on the increase. Jesus was a lover of nature and nature's solitude. His first appointment with the twelve was on a mountain; His last meeting with the five hundred was also on a mountain. The transfiguration was on the highest mountain of Palestine. Day and night often found Him communing upon the mountain's height, therefore there may be no doubt but that His feet have often trod these present mountain paths about Nazareth, and His blessed eyes gazed from this highest mountain's top.* The highest of these "thirteen hills" is nearly 500 feet, at the west and north of the village. From here Galilee is spread like a map before one's view. Looking eastward towards the rising sun, first Mount Tabor rises before our vision, six miles distant. It is thirteen hundred feet above the valley of Esdraelon, on the west. In Christ's time it was well wooded almost to the top, and crowned by fortifications (Josephus). Below, at the right, lies the city of Nain, on the western slope of Little Hermon, and on the south lies Endor. Over these and the hidden Jordan lie, like a blue wall, the mountains of Gilead. Southward, over the great plain of Esdraelon, is seen the hill Samaria,† purchased by Omri "for two talents of Little Hermon is 2,013 feet "He went up into mountain."- Matt. 5: 1. above the sea level.-Kiepert. †A "watch mountain." There seems no evidence that Jesus ever entered the heathen city, "Samaria.”—Matt. 10: 5. SEASHORE TO MOUNTAIN. 85 silver." Farther to the right hand is traced, even at this distance of 25 miles, the ridge of Mount Carmel to where its very headland plunges into the Mediterranean sea. "The blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, speckled with its white sails, stretch far away beyond to the distant horizon. The whole Bay of Acre is (also) seen, though the town itself lies too low to be visible."-Geikie. By and by we shall follow Jesus and the twelve on His journeyings to the beautiful sea, which, I have no doubt, He longed so much to visit. I refer to His journey to Tyre and Sidon.-See illustration. Cana of Galilee, famous as being the place where the first miracle was wrought, lies on the slope of a hill just above the green and fertile plain of Battauf, not above eight miles distant, beyond which is a continuous sea of hills and mountains "the highlands of Galilee." Elevating the gaze, the eye rests a moment on still higher mountains, the hills of Safed, twenty miles to the northeast, almost in the range of Hattin -mount of the Beatitudes-Capernaum, Chorazin, and on farther, Lake Merom, from whence flows the Jordan, to the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. But, what is that on the same line, far away in the northeast, which looks like a snow-bank? That is the top of Mount Hermon-" the chief mountain." It towers above the sites of ancient Dan and Panias, Banias, or Cæsarea Philippi, over which it stands an everlasting sentinel, while the cities themselves have faded into dust and ashes. Its height is variously estimated from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. Since "its top is covered with snow throughout the summer, it must, therefore, rise above the point of perpetual congealation, which in this quarter is about 11,000 feet. It might be safe to add another thousand feet, perhaps, making it 12,000 feet."-Dr. Kitto. When all else of Syria is parching under the mid-summer *It is now called “Fabel esh-Sheikh, the chief mountain," and also Fabel ethThelj, "mountain of snow." (Dr. Wm. Smith.) "It is thought to rival Mount Blanc."-Encyclop. Kitto. 86 OBSCURITY OF NAZARETH. sun, it is really refreshing to turn one's eyes to that one cool spot far away at the north.* By and by our "Journeys" will bring it nearer. We marvel greatly at the obscurity of Nazareth. When we notice her central position, it seems truly wonderful that nothing is known of her until the time of Christ. It seems to me that Nathaniel referred rather to this obscurity than to the evil reputation of the place, in his exclamation, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?” 'So small and hid in a basin!" There were no Roman highways or other roads, save one leading to her. Farrar says, “Along the one narrow mountain-path which I have described His feet-the feet of the boy Jesus-must have often trod, for it is the only approach by which, in returning northward from Jerusalem, He could have reached the home of His infancy, youth and manhood." And here He remained in utter obscurity during nearly all of thirty long years, and, save one bright momentary glimpse, all history relative to Him is as silent as the tomb in yonder hill-side. One thing more is remarkable. During His after life, in none of His sermons did He ever revert to anything relative to the scenes of His boyhood's home. *When King Richard, "the lion-heart," on his crusade, lay sick and tossed on a bed of fever in the lower hot country, his gallant foe Saladin sent him ice from yon mountain's top to cool his fevered brain, and fresh grapes from Damascus to nourish his wearied body. A deed worthy the vicinity of the home of Jesus. |