The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-05

ting out into the sea at this point and extending several miles to the south east. A Roman Catholic monastery Is erected over a cave overlooking the Mediterranean, where Elijah is said to have lived
 TO the north of Carmel lies the plain of Esdraelon, through which the Kishon river flows. The road to Nag areth follows the south. side of this valley to a point some seven miles from the shore where the hills of Galilee approach so near to Carmel as to leave but narrow pass for the river. Here the road crosses over to the north side of the valley. and for the remainder of the distance a commanding view of Esdraelon.
 The upper part of the plain is as beautiful country as can be imag aned-well watered. fertile and thor oughly cultivated. The land is not held in seyeralty as in America but by communities. The cultivators live in villages built at intervals around Is apportioned each year by the vil-1 lage chief; no one receiving the same tract two years In succession, As we looked down upon the valley we could distinguish the different al1otments as they lay In long strips of equal width. Wheat is the chief product of the valley, although there are a few olive orchards, and the mulberry tree is being planted. Oxen are the ani- mals usually employed in cultivation. but we saw horse and an OK to- sether or camel and an OK. and once a camel and a donkey.
 Jezreel is on this plain, at the foot of Mount Gilboa. where the middle plain connects with the plain lead ing down to the Jordan between Gll- boa and Little Hermon. This Is his toric ground, for it was here at a great spring which flows out from un- der Gilboa that Gideon selected his gallant band.
 The village of Nazareth, nesting among the hills of Galilee must al- ways be Nplace of supreme interest to the Christian. Its location was probably determined by the presence here of an unfailing spring, now known as Mary's fountain. Dr. George Adam Smith in his Historical Geog- raphy of the Holy Land" points out the relation between the springs and the routes of travel and emphasizes the prominence of Nazareth In the Bible times. Christ's boyhood and young manhood were spent near a great highway, for the old Roman road from Damascus to Egypt ran
 
 to and fro laden with the riches of the Euphrates and the Nile: princes passed that way on their royal jour- Inaykg. and in time of war 1t was an
 the route of armies. From a high hill just outside the town Christ could look to the west and see the surf tine on the shore of the Mediterran- can, to the east he could survey the walls of the chasm in whieh lay the Sea Of Galilee, while to the northeast rose Hermon. the pride of the noun tains. Several of his parables fit quite naturally into the scenes upon which he looked. and those parables were the more effective because they were taken from the everyday life of the people. The stony ground the rocky roadways and the narrow strips of fertile soil were woven into the parable of the sower. and some &C., quaintance of his youth, following the merchantmen into Egypt. or Mesopo- tamia, may have been the original of the prodigal son.
 Rev Selah Merrill. our consul at Je- rusalem. has refuted the statement so frequently made that the Naza- renes were held in contempt. He shows that there is no just founda- ton for the aspersions cast on this section of calilee. MT. MerrilTs book, ''Galilee In the Time of Christ" is, I may add, a very useful preparation for trip through this part of Pales- tine.
 chapels have been erected to mark the home of Joseph and Mary. the car- penter shop and the rock where Christ met his disciples after the res urreetion. but one never feels certain about the Identification of the places