The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1890-12-05

cesses, and I'liny and Josephus describe
the spurtings out OF these volcanic
heats, and Joshua and Moses knew
about them. and this moment long
hi.,s of pilgrims from all parts OF the
earth are waiting for their turn to ster
into the stealning restoratives,
Let the boat, as far as possible and
not run aground, hug the western shore
of the lake, that we may see the city OF
Tiberias, once great capital, OF the
architecture of which a few mosaics
and fallen pillars and pedestals, and
here and there broken and shattered
friezc remain. nightly suggestive OF
the time when Herod Antipas had a
palace here and reigned with an opu'
lence and pomp and cruelty and
abomination that paralyzes the fingers
of the historian when he comes to
write it and the fingers of the painter
when he attempts to transfer it to can
vas. suppose he was one of the worst
men that ever lived. And what II con-
trast of character comes at every mo.
ment to the thoughtful traveller in Pal
sstine, whether he walks the beach of
this lake or sails as we now do these
waters!
TWO GREAT CHARACTERS OF THE RE
GION.
Side by side are the two great char.
acters of this lake region. Jesus and
Herod Antipas. And did any age pro
duce any such antipcdes, any cuch an
titheses, any such opposites9 Kind
ness and cruelty, holiness and filth,
generosity and meanness, self sacri
fee and seltishness, the supernal and
the Internal, midnoon and midnight
The father of this Herod Antipas was
genius at assassination. He could
manufacture more reasons for putting
people out of this life than any man in
all history. He sends for Hyrcanus 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 at
tendants He Stays his wife and his
wife's mother. and two of his sons and
his uncle, and filled volume of atroci-
ties. the last chapter of which was the
massacre of all the babes at BethIe
hem.
With such father as Herod the
Great you are not surprised that this
Herod Antipas, whose palace stood Oh
the banks of this lake we now sail, was
a combination of wolf, reptile and ny
ena, 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 utmost 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
ChRst, 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 disgusting.
Awful Dead seal Glorious Gennesa.
ret
NO DESIRE TO SHOOT ANY ONE.
We will not attempt to cross to the
eastern side of this lake, as had
thought to do, for those regions are in
habited by thieving and murderous
race, and one must 60 thoroughly
armed. and as never shot anyone and
have no ambition to be shot, | said
Let us stay by the western shore
But we look over to the hills of Ga
dara, on the other side, down which
two thousand swine after being pos
sessed by the devil ran into the lake,
and bringing down on Christ for per
uniting 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 go into those
birds, whole focks of which fly over
Galilee" No; that would have been
too high. why not let me 20 into
the sheep which wander over these
hills?' No; that would have been too
gentle. Rather let me go into these
swine. want to be with the denizens
Of the mire. want to associate with
the inhabitants of the filth Great is
mud! prefer bristles to wings.
would rather root than fly. I like
snout better than wing"
Infidelity 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
possession they would start for the wa
-er to get cooled off Would that all
The swine thus possessed had plunged
% the same drowning, for to this day
he descendants of some of those por
zine creatures retain the demons and
Is the devils were cast ont of man