The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-12-17
thoughtful traveller in Palestine,

or sails rs We now 10 tneo0 WaGerS! Slue
by side are the two great characters of
this lake region: Jesus and Herod An
tipas. And did any age produce any
such antipodes, any such antitheses,
any such opposites? Kindness and
cruelty, holiness and filth, generosity
and meanness, self-sacrifice and selfish
ness, the supernal and the internal, mid
noon and midnight The father of this
Herod Antipas was genius at assassina-
ton. He could manufacture more reas.
ons for putting people out of this life
than any man in all history. He sends
for Hycranus to come from Babylon to
Jerusalem to be made High Priest and
Stays him. He has his brother-in-law
while in bathing with him drowned by
the Kings attendants He Stays his
wife and his wife's mother, and two of
his sons and his uncle, and filled vol.
ume of atrocities, the last chapter Of
which was the massacre of all the
babes at Bethlehem. With such father
as Herod the Great you are not surprised
that this Herod Antipas, whose palace
stood on the banks of this lake we now
sail, was a combination Of wolf, reptile
and hyena. While the Christ who
walked yonder banks and sailed these
waters was so good that almost every
rood of this scenery is associated with
some wise word or some kindly deed,
and all literature, and all art, and all
earth, and all Heaven are put to the ut
most effort in trying to express how
grand and glorious and lovely He was,
and is, and is to be. The Christly and
Herodic characters, as different as the
two lakes we visit and not far apart,
Galilee and the Dead Sea; the one
flower-banked and the other bituminous
and blasted; the one lowered over by
the mercy of Christ, the other blasted
by the wrath Of God; the one full Of
finny tribes sporting in the clear depths,
the other forever lifeless; the waters Of
the one sweet and pleasant to the taste,
the other bitter and sharp and disgust
ing Awful Dead Sea! Glorious Gen
nesaret!
We will not attempt to cross to the
eastern side of the lake, as I had
thought 10 do, for those regions are in
habited by thieving and murderous
race, and one must 60 thoroughly armed,
and as never shot any one and have nc
ambition to be shot, said: Let us
stay by the western shore" But we
look over to the hills Of Gadara, on the
other side, down which 1000 swine after
being possessed by the devil ran into
the lake, and bringing down on Christ
for permitting it the wrath Of all the
stock-raisers of that country, because
Of this running of the pork business.
You see that Satan is spirit Of bad
taste. Why did he not say: "Let me
60 into those birds, whole fiocks Of
which fly over Galilee" No; that would
have been too high. "Why not let me
60 into the sheep which wander over
those hills?" No, that would have been
too gentle. "Rather let me 60 into these
swine. want to be with the denizens
Of the mire. want to associate with
the inhabitants Of the filth. Great Il
mud! / prefer bristles to wingsS j
would rather root than fly like snout
better than wing"
Infdelity SCOTS at the idea that those
swine should have run into the lake
But it was quite natural that under the
heat and burning Of that demoniac pos
session they would start for the water
to get cooled off. Would that all the
swine thus possessed had plunged tt
the same drowning, for to this day the
descendants of some OF those porcint
creatures retain the demons, and as thu
devils were cast out of man into them
they now afflict the human race with
the devils Of scrofula that comes from
eating the unclean meat. The health
lest people on the earth are the Israel
ties, because they follow the bill of fare
which God in the book OF Leviticus gave
to the human race, and our splendid
Frenchman (Dr. Pasteur), and our glor
ious German CDR. KOCH, may 60 on will
their good work of killing parasites IN
the human system; but until the worli
corrects its diet and goes back to thu
divine regulation at the beginning, thu
human race will continue to be pos
sessed of the devils of microbe and par
asite. But did not mean to cross owe
to the eastern side OF lake Galilee evel
in discussion.
Pull away, ye Arab oarsmen! And W
come along the shore near by which
stand great precipices of brown and re,
and gray limestone crowned by basalt
in the sides Of which are vast caverns
sometimes the hiding-place of bandits
and sometimes the home of honest sher
herds, and sometimes the dwelling-plac
Of pigeons and vultures and eagles
During one of Herod's wars his enemie
hid in these mountain caverns, and tn
sides were too steep for Herod's army
descend, and the attempt to climb
the face of armed men would have cal
ed down ex termination.
So Herod had great cages of woot
iron-bound, made and filed with tho,
soldiers and let them down from the to
Of the precipices until they gave sign,
that they were level with the cavern
and then from these cages they steppe
out to the mouth Of the caverns, an
having set enough grass and wood Q
fire to fill the caverns with smoke an
strangulation the hidden people woul
come forth to die; and If not comm
forth voluntarily Herod's men woul
pull them out with long iron hooks, ar
Josephus says that one father rath'
than submit to the attacking party fur
his wife and seven children down IL
precipice and then leaped after them
his own death.
Now, We Arab oarsmen, row on wit
swifter stroke, for we want before noe