The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-02-06
JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.
Tho Sacred and Famous Waters of Pal,

The Sacred and Famous Waters of PaIes
tine.
The following extract is from "Syrian
Sunshine" by T. g. Appleton: The
Nile is sacred river, and the Tiber is
famous, but the most sacred and most
famous river of the world is the Jordan.
From the beginning to the end, it has
that mystical character which BELTS
such lofty pretensions; its life is the
most vivid and complete, and it's death
the most sudden and mysterious that
can be imagined. 1t is torrential, and
it leaves the banks of the Hermon and
the many fountains of it's tributaries
with an eager precipitation, as if it bore
mission. From its greatest height,
some hundred feet above the sea level,
it leaps downward till it disappears
in the Dead sea some thirteen hundred
feet below it. It hides itself among
oleander, tamarisk and willow, and many
an unfamiliar Oriental tree, as if wish
ing to keep from profane eyes the secret
OF its errand. It does not stop long to
overflow its banks and fertilize the val
ley, for it has purpose too mystical to
waste itself even upon acts of benevo-
lence. 1t is only willing to become
living barrier between the desert tribes
and the favored nation which loved it.
No boat lives on it's bosom. No fisher
men dwell by its margin; but it moves,
one headlong column of sacred waters
from its cradle of snow and cloud, high
in the heaven, till it dies in fatal lake
marked by the finger of God, and for
ever subject for mans curiosity and
reverence.
1t would seem thing apart and not
to be confounded with vulgar waters,
which lose their personality in the bosom
OF the mighty sea. but exhaling to
heaven like some holy messenger
who perished in the fulfllment of bis
duty. Its birth and its death alike
separate it from it's sister rivers of
earth, and only the voiceless mounds
of perished and nameless cities, tribes
stationary as if hidden to halt by some
supreme destiny of the past, or the awed
and questioning stranger from the many
Christian lands whose baptism drew its
waters, are seen upon its banks.
And then we wandered through many
whispering reeds, through kind of
Jungle where sterility and the river had
fought for mastery, and which showed
traces OF both; a tangle of bushes as it
were, fighting their wayI up, and great
spaces of barrenness which the summer
would scorch to lifelessness.
And at last the Dead sea. Though
we know that it is OF volcanic origin,
and fed by mines of salt, the imagina.
tion now, as ever, is content to see in i,
thing accursed. There was a fresh
breeze; and reluctant lift and heavy
tumble Of it's tiny breakers made then
unlike other waves, but rather like
those of Dante's Internal sea. There
was breath heavy with doom in tn,
, air, and we were fortunate it was no
. more sitting. Was it the breath o
those lost or tortured there2 And be
meath that saline sheet, did we not see
as in the picture of Delacroix, the ago
nizing and twisted figures of the con
q demned?
We did not bathe in the Dead sea
3 Others have done 80, and report of it
buoyancy the same tales that are told ol
our own Salt lake. There is whimsi
e cal coincidence in the geographical re
lation of the Dead sea and the home O
, the earlier prophets, and Mr.. Brigham
: Young's personal continuation of th'
old dispensation, with private Deal
sea OF his own, in his immediate neigh
= borhood. The poorest swimmer keep
4 his head above water; and persons hav
J. said to me that their legs seemed to fl
a up from under them. All speak of il
Q waters as refreshing after the grea
f heat of that tropical valley. Birds al
said never to fly over it, which is th
% merest superstition, for they are reall
: often seen to do SO. This lake certainl
q has brand upon it, as of divine yer
geance. The waters are heavy wit
, sin, the shores around blessed, and th
= = very site of destroyed cities upon il
u banks unknown. And here are still see
% the apples of Sodom, smooth and prett
to the eye and touch, of a pale yelloy
k like small orange, but within, {
Is Josephus says, still retaining the asht
d of Sodom in living perpetuity of IL
divine punishment. They are like Ii
W tie oranges to the eye and touch, bl
3. when pressed are like oak apples, nj
,r explode like these, puff of air leavin
v the shell hollow, with only a slend
= pouch holding fine filaments like sill
4 which the Arabs use as matches fl
W their guns.