Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-12-01

something to talk about and pray
about and sing about, until the lips
with which we now describe it can
neither talk, nor pray, nor sing.
THE PLANETS PET LAKE
As sometimes beautiful child in a
neighborhood has IL half dozen pet
names, and some of the neighbOrs call
her by one name and others by an
other, SO this pet lake of the planet has
a profusiOn of names Ask the Arab
as he goes by what this sheet of water
is, and he will call it Tabariyeh. Ask
Moses of the Old Testament, and he
calls it Sea of Chinnereth. Ask Mat
thew, and he calls it Sea of Galilee.
Ask Luke, and he calls it Sea of Gen
nesaret. Ask John, and he calls it Sea
of Tiberias. Ask Josephus and Fuse
bus, and they have other names ready.
But to me it appears a child of the
sky, a star of the hills, rhapsody of
the mountains, the baptismal bowl of
the worlds temple, the smile of the
great God. Many kinds of fish are
found in these waters, every kind of
grow in the torrid zone to those in the
frigid, from the palm to the cedar.
Of the two hundred and thirty war
ships JOsephus unanswered on these
waters-for Josephus was a warrior as
well as a histOrian-there remains not
one piece of a hulk, or one patch of
canvas, or one splinter of an oar. But
return to America we never will until
we have had a sail upon this inland
sea. Not from a wharf, but from a
beach covered with black and white
pebbles we go on board a boat of
about ten or twelve tons, to be pro-
PEELED partly by sail and partly by
oar. The mast leans so far forward
that it seems about to fall, but we find
it was purpOsely SO built, and the rope
through a pulley manages to hoist and
let down the sail. 1t is a rough boat,
and as far as possible removed from a
Venetian gondola or a sportsman's
yacht. With common saw and ham
mer and ak many of you could make a
better one. Four barefooted Arabs,
instead of sitting down to their oars,
stand as they always do in rowing, and
pull away from shore / insist on help
ing, for there is nothing more exhiIa-
rating to me than rowing, but l soon
have enough of the clumsy oars and
the awkward attempt at welding them
while in standing posture
A FRAGMENT OF THE FALLEN SKY.
We put our overcoats and shawls on
a small deck in the stern of the boat,
the very kind of a deck where Christ
lay on a fisherman's coat when of old
a tempest bounced upon the fishing
smack of the affrighted disciples Os-
preys and wild duck and kingfishers fly
overhead or dip their wings into the
lake, installing it for a fragment of
fallen sky. Can it be that those Bible
stories about sudden storms on this
lake are true? Is it possible that a sea
of such seeming placidity of temper
could ever rise and rage at the heav-
ems? 1t does not seem as if this happy
family of elements could have ever had
a falling out and the water strike at
the clouds and the clouds strike at the
water.
Pull away, oars1nen! On our right
bank are the hot sulphur baths, so hot
they are scalding, and the waters must
cool off a long while before hand or
foot can endure their temperature.
Volcanoes have been boiling these
waters for centuries. -Four springs roll
their resources into two great swim
ming reservoirs. King Herod there
tried to battle off the results of his ex-
cesses, and Pliny and Josephus describe
the spurtings out of these volcanic
heats, and Joshua and Moses knew
about them, and this moment long
lines of pilgrims from all parts OF the
earth are waiting for their turn to step
into the steaming restoratlves.
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
Liberals, once a great capital, OF the
of which a few mOsalcs
and fallen pillars and pedestals, and
here and there a broken and shattered
frieze remain, nightly suggestive OF
the time when Herod Antipas had a
palace here and reigned with an opu-
!ence and pomp and cruelty and
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 con-
trast of character comes at every mo-
ment to the thoughtful traveller in Pal
estine, 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
1uce any such antipodes, any such an
itheses, any such opposites2 Kind
ness and cruelty, holiness and filth,
generosity and meanness. self sacrI-
foo orl coIHchnoe, @l,O ~,,nornaI and