The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-06-09
WHOLE NO.,.l59
|. ; PALESTINE.
FROM NAZARETH TO THE SEA
sg7alea o. OF GALILEE. -,,t 49,

PLATT, AT THE CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH, JUNE 4, 1882. - 'sa1' ~ u.
The approach to Nazareth from
the west is through solitary valley.
You ride on mile after mile between
walls of rock, and there is no human
habitation in sight, no human being,
no scampering fox even, no singing
bird, no tree, no bush. You rein up
your horse and listen if you can hear
any sound of life. But you hear
nothing; only the click and echo of
your horses hoofs upon the stones as
you ride on again. And yet the soli-
tude does not impress you with that
sense of utter desolation, mingled
with dread and horror, which you
cannot help feeling in the wilderness
of Judea. A feeling which made the
Jews believe that all the grave yards
were emptied into it and the evil
spirits groaned in its rock-caverns
and went signing up and down
on its dreary winds. There
is. a feeling of pleasure in the
solitude of this valley. the pleasure
of absolute quiet and unbroken rest
sacred, Sabbath!stillness as if some
time it had been pressed by the
wandering feet of the Son of God,
seeking in his childhood, the wild
flowers of the hills, or in his young
manhood a place of silent withdrawal
and communion with His Father,
and from that time, nature had
solemnly proclaimed, "This is my
temple. This is my holy of holes" 4"
So that the foxes had left their holes
and the birds of the air their nests,
and gone elsewhere, and even the
trees might not stay to break the
stiffness, with their rustling branches
and their dropping fruits, only the
grass growing silently and Christ's
lilies of the field which toiled not
neither did they spin. There are
many places in Palestine which are
called sacred and holy, worn with the
feet and the kisses of Pilgrims. But
none of them except Calvary has
made SO deep and abiding an impress
sion upon me as this deserted valley
where, apart from the noise and hurry
of the city and in the intervals OF
labor the Lord Jesus found compan-
ionship with nature and the presence
Of God.
We have all had experience of in.
tense anticipation. We expect a
friend on the train whom we have not
seen for years, and how eagerly we
watch for him in the crowd that
passes out of the depot. We read oi
England from our childhood, until il
becomes as familiar to us as our own
country-but when we are on the
ocean sailing toward it, and the shout
of land ho! comes down from the
masthead how we crowd forward,
full of excitement and wonder to get
the first view of it. But imagine
yourself, if you can, climbing hill
YOU are believer in the christian re-
ligion, you have no doubt that there
lived once upon this earth man
named Jesus, who was divine, who
was God Himself manifest in the flesh,
that 20 years of his life he spent in
the city of Nazareth in Galilee, and
then to be told that when you reach
the top of that hill you shall see lying
down at your feet that self same city
of Nazareth don't know how 1
shall feel when come to step out of
this life into the eternal world, but /
can family imagine from the intense
and restless curiosity of those few
moments which made it seem as if
couldn't wait, I could hardly stay on
the ground-I wanted wings to fly
fast and get over the crest of that hill
and see Nazareth. But when reached
the top and looked down, / almos,
! wished that | had never seen it. Be
cause / had read somewhere that Naz
areth was beautiful, and with child
like innocence and credulity hac
. believed it. had believed grea
many other things which I had reas