The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-14

where the winds whisper His parallels and
mlracles-you come to where the hill of
safed Cthe Sepphoris of Pontius Pilate)
rises above the basin of the Lake of Tiber-
las Climbing this, you suddenly behold
His lake, the sea of Chinerreth,
| The waves He loved. the waves W hich kissed
His feet
So many blessed days" What waters
IN all the world can inspire thoughts and
reflections more absorbing or profound
than the sheet of sleeping silver thus be-
heid between the desert hills of Gadara
and the plains of Bethsaida and Gennes-
aret: Many and many well known in
land sea, renowned for its beauty or its
scenes of history, have | visited in all
parts OF the world, from Lakes Superior
ana Michigan to the meres of Bulgaria
and Greece and the inland waters of Sean
olnavia and Japan, and candid
traveller must call the Lake of Gal
lice we'll nigh the least imposing and
attractive of them all as regards outward
scenery and surroundings. The range
which bounds it on the east is bare, arid
and sadly colored. The highlands to the
westward are rugged and stripped of soil
and foliage by the storms of many GEN.
turtles, while southwark toward Tiberias
the sheet of lifeless and ill-shaped water is
seen to narrow off under unlovely shores,
TO let Jordan pass forth again, for the
completion OF its gloomy course into the
Dead sea.
Yet that diminutive, unprepossessing
and picturesque expanse Of Syrian hill
drainage counts in the annals of mankind
for more than all the lakes and many
oceans. Swifter and stronger than the
flood of the impetuous Jordan, which
breaks southwark through the dry nebbuk
bushes from Its extremity, and not des-
tined, like that. to be lost in the oblivion
OF q ''Sea OF Lot, stream, of divine and
mighty influence has poured over Chris
tendon from this little Syrian sea, and
frsm the words spoken on those shores
has transformed the face of the world.
AS you sit on Safed amid chattering Jews
and Arabs, ignorant or needless of the i'm
mortal recollections of the scene. it appears
TO you, and very truly appears that no other
locality in the world can crowd together
such commanding, such overwhelming as
sociatlons. If you know where to look for
them, in the WIDE hot, sterile champaign
lying at your feet, gray with desolate, IN
cultivated rocks, yellow with desert sand
and only sprinkled here and there with
green ribbons and partial patches of
verdure where water course meanders or
swamp moistens the thirsty plain; if
you have good map and good memory,
what prospect! Near at hand below you
is Tell Hum, .Hls City " of Capernaum.
Opposite the ruins of that memorable site,
beyond the lake, steam in the sun the cragS
of Gadara, the region of the possessed
swine; OF the demoniacs; of the man in the
tombs, who was exceeding fierce" That
small. verdant oasis of reeds and tamaracks,
and oeanders, with few scattered palms.
]utting into the lake, is Bethsaida. the
house of fish, and beyond 1t, where the
ancient Roman road cuts deep into the
limestone rock, at the cluster of huts, is
FL Mejdel, the village of Mary Magdelene.
Think only for moment what the world
owes to that one parched, obscure, sand
buried Syrian hamlet, where Mary of
Meldel was born. who came to be Christ's
nearest and most faithful of friends, and
who heard from His lips-aione among
women, alone of all the world-her own
name spoken at the door of the empty
sepulchre by one who uttered it from the
farthest side of the gateway of DEATH
"Conqueror for US OF the unconquer-
able
Beyond Bethsaida and Ell Mejdel, upon
the western border of the lake, opens the
plain of Gennesaret, where spring of
water renders cultivation possible, and
then southwark still, among the peaks and
points, where every rock has record of
surprising interest, you pass under the
"Horns of Hattin," by the VALLEY of the
Doves" over the foot of the mount of the
Sermon" Yes, there above your path on
this green headland, where the crocus, the
anemone and the amaryllis are alone left
to tell of it, He pronounced those won
derful words which are the eternal code of
Christian ethics, the immortal pandects of
mans highest morality. There, amid
those thorn bushes, armed with the saw
age tricuspid spikes which were to make
His crown, and among the juniper clumps
creeping dark along the grass, and the
deep green, glossy nebbuk thickets, lit
here and there with a rosy CLEAN of
oleander blossoms, lie gave the whole
world that simple PRAYER to pray which
makes us the family of Que Father and
which binds US all 20 forgive trespasses as
we ask to be forgiven.
There, with His sacred hps, speaking
mild and holy wisdom Of heaven, he
abolished those old. hard laws of Mosaic
hatred, revenge and retaliat op, and sub
stituted for them that guiding rule of lite
golden" as the, sunlight upon the lake,
and just as plain TO SO and follow-which
the prophets. and which. with love and
fear of God, fuliiis the whole duty of ex-
istence. There, amid those lilies and
cycIamens, He tenderly praised the match
less beauty of the flowers, and lightly
smiled at the want of faith which fears
dear to the universe as the grass
of the field" What fame in
all the world can be visited, what
famous site of ancient or modern annals,
what sumptuous cathedral, Spacious pal
ace. stately capitol or splendid or power
mind and heart must becomeso enthralled
and meditative az here, where the very
camels seem to 90 wistfully, swinging you
up to the Mount of the Sermon, and you
draw the nose string of your long-necked
beast and dismount that you may not pre-
walked and taught and opened to all man.
kind the Light of the woridP'
4 little way further, among those rough
but wonderful pathways of Galiiee, You