The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1903-05-20

LETTER KIN.
BLUE eALrLrE, WHERE JESUS LOVED
so MUCH TO BE"
LITTER kun.
SEA OF GALlLEE,

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the gentle coquetry of the stars
Such is its unique beauty. such the
singularity of its combination of
heights and depths, of balmy win
ter and snow. clad summer, of veg
citation of almost every zone, the
visible anthem of colors-tints and
shades of every land--that with in
cessant and harmonious mutation
play on land and sea and sky, that
no man of refined susceptibilities
can view the scene from the lofty
western plateau thousand feet
above, or contemplate this strange
creation on the pebbly beach. and
remain long unsubdued by its en-
chantmeDt. But now there is add
ed to 1t the facination of history
as unique as the lake itself, and it,
very name thrills the noblest hearts
over all continents and on all seas
When God promised Abraham to
make his children peculiar people
he had already prepared for them
land that never had parallel on
this earth. He pushed Hermon up
two miles into the sky and crowned
it with perpetual snow, III an
atmosphere through which its
majestic form is visible hundred
miles. The Arabs say this noun
tain ''bears winter on its head,
spring on it's shoulders, and autumn
in its lap, while summer lies at Its
feet" On this lofty mountain
Moses, who died 1900 years before,
and Elijah, translated nearly a
thousand years before, met the Son
of God who went up from this lake
with his bewildered deciples to be
examined on the first half of their
three years curriculum, and to be-
gin the second. The subject of the
first was: Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. The second: Jesus
must die at Jerusalem for the sins
of men. Three of the deciples
heard Moses and Elijah discuss
this second lesson with Jesus on
Mount Hermon, but not one of
them believed it until they saw him
dying, and none of them understood
it until their incredulity was con-
quered by the risen Christ on Sun
day after the crusifixion.
From the vast reservoir of Her
mon, the God of Israel brought
down the pure, sweet waters that
fill the deep basin of Galilee. Start
ing LOO feet above sea level and
gathering great streams of foun-
tains 26 miles north from the lake,
the accumulated waters reach the
sacred basin $50 feet below the
level of the Mediterranean. The
length from north to south, from
the entrance to the exit of the Jor-
dan, is 124 miles. From the home
of Mary Magdelene, near where l
rest, to the eastern shore where
1000 hogs possessed by demons
rushed into the sea, the widest part,
is distance of 81 miles. Its depth
is 156 feet. From the beautiful
beach that encircles the lake, wild
ening out often into plains of trop-
ical fertility, the ground ascends
thousand feet to wide plateaus,
and towards the northwest to
mountains 5000 feet above the
lake. Here within an hour they
could gather fruits and flowers
peculiar to every land, from the
4 oI tchhern walnut to the southern
orange, fig, date and banana. The
waters of the lake swarm with thir-
ty.seven different kinds of fish, one
of which is found no where else
except in Lake Tanganyika, Africa.
The male fish cares for the young.
In times of danger the whole shoal
of little fishes rush through the
gills and mouth of the male into a
safe fortress provided by nature
for their safety. Your opossum,
especially the male, can boast of no
such refuge as this.
In the years of the Savior's min
istry nine populous cities flourish
ed along the beach of this little
lake, and the valleys and mountains