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

caVern}, sOIueUiiioS l''c HHuiilg place OF
bandits, and sometimes the home of
honest shepherds. and sometimes the
dwelling place of pigeons and vultures
and eagles, During one of Herods
wars his enemies hid In these mountain
caverns, and the sides were too steep
for Herod's army to descend, and the
ATTEMPT to climb In the face of armed
men would have called down exter.
mination. So Herod had great cages
of wood, ironbound, made and filed
them with soldiers and let them down
from the top of the precipices until
they gave signal that they were level
with the caverns, and then from these
cages they stepped out to the mouth OF
the caverns and having yet enough
grass and wood on fire to fill the cav.
ems with smoke and strangulation, the
hidden people would come forth to die
and If not coming forth voluntarily,
Herod's men would pull them out with
long iron hooks, and Josephus says that
one father rather than submit to the
attacking army flung his wife and seven
children down the precipice and then
leaped after them to his own death.
Now, We Arab oarsmen, row on with
swifter stroke, for we want before noon
to land at Capernaum, the three years
home of Jesus. But before arrival there
we are to have new experience. The
lake that had been smooth surface
begins to break up into roughness The
air Which all the morning made our sail
almost useless suddenly takes hold of
our boat with grip astonishing, and
our poor craft begins to roll and pitch
and tumble. and in five minutes we
pass from a calm to violence. The
contour of this lake among the hills is
an invitation to hurricanes. | used to
wonder why it was that on SO limited a
sheet of water bestormed boat in
Christ's time did not put back to shore
when hurricane was coming. won
der no more. On that lake an atmos
pheric fury gives no warning, and the
change we saw in five minutes made me
feel that the boat in which Christ sailed
may have been skillfully managed when
the tempest struck it and the wild i'm
Fortunate cry went up, Lord save us
or we perish!" had all along that
morning been reading from the New
Testament the story of occurrences on
and around that lake. But our Bible
was closed now, and it was as much as
we could do to hold fast and wish for
the land.
If the winds and the waves had con-
tinued to increase in violence the fol
lowing fifteen minutes in the same ra-
ito as in the first five, and we had
been still at their mercy, our bones
would have been bleaching in the bot
tom of L, Ike Gennt saret instead of our
being here to tell the story; but the
same Power that re scued the fishermen
of old today safely landed our party.
What Christ for rough weather. All
the sailor boys ought to fly to him as
did those Galilean mariners All you
in the forecastte, and all you wh4rln
up and down tie slippery ratlines, take
to sea with you him who with quiet
word sent the winds back through the
mountain gorges. Some of you Jack
Tars to whom these words will come
need to tack ship" and change your
course if you are going to get across
this sea of life safely and gain the
heavenly harbor. Delay there. Ready
about Helms a-lee! Mainsail haul
Star of peace! beam DER the bow.
Bless the soul that signs for thee;
Bless the sailors lonely pillow.
Far far at sea
Here at Capernaum, the Arabs hav
ing in their arms carried us ashore to
the only place where our Lord ever
had pastorate, and we stepped amid
the ruins of the church where he
preached again and again and again,
the synagogue, whose rich sculpturing
lay there, not as when others see it in
spring time covered with weeds and
loathsome with reptiles, but in that De-
cember weather completely uncovered
to our agitated and intense gaze. On
one stone of that synagogue is the
of a pot of mamma, an
artistic conlmemoration of the time
when the Israelites were fed by mamma
in the wilderness, and to which sculp-
turing no doubt Christ pointed up
ward while he was preaching that ser
mon on this very spot in which he
said: mot as your fathers did eat
mamma and are dead; he that eateth
Of this bread shall live forever" Won.
derful Capernaum. Scene of more
miracles than any place in all the
earth! Blind eyes kindling with the
morning. Withered arms made to pull
safe. Lepers blooming into health
The dead girl terminated
These Arab tents, which on this De,
,ember day l find in Palestine. disap-
pear, and l see Capernaum as it was
when Jesus was pastor of the church
lere Look at that wealthy home, the
the marble front, the up
1olstery. the slaves in uniform at the
doorway. 1t is the residence of