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JLamt of 1 roniise
(TO AND FROM.)
By Rev. C. O’N. Maktindalk.
ARTICLE XXX.
TURKEY [Continued]
(IS). PALESTINE: Hy Jcbet Tur
(Mount Tabor), to Nain and
Shunem (near Endor) on Nebi
Dahe (Little Hcrmon), over the
Meij ibn 'Atnir (the Plain of
Esdraelon or Valley of Megiddo
or Valley of Jezreel) to Zer ’ain
[Jezreel] and 'Ain Jalud [Gide
on’a Fountain and the Well of
Ilarodj on the Jebel Fuku’a
[Mount Gilboa| to Jenin [En
Ganniml.
Kishon, going along nsar the river or
brook Kishon. Afrer passing^ unmber
of small villrges and ruins wo came In
sight of that portion of Mount Oarmel
near which Elijah's slaughter of the
prophets of Baal is said to have taken
place. • The Mountain of Carmel is, as
is well known, a lengthened promdntory
or ridge stretching from the mountains
of Samaria iu a long lino to the north
west toward the sea, and is frequently
mentioned in the Bible period. It is of
limestone formation and is es]»cially
rich in vegetation, due to its proximity
tc the sea and the heavy dews that fall
ui>ou it. Its highest jioint is 1,810 feet,
opposite Haroshoth whore our road
hranohcH off toward Nazareth. Back
toward the sea the mountain slopes
down to a height of about 600 feet, and
on a shelving promontory at 480 feet
elevation is the famous Carmelite mon
astery, from which the Carmelite order
of monks received its name, The nbor
iginal inhabitants regarded this uioun
tain as sacred, and at a very early period
iu Jewish history it was denominated
‘The Mount of God.’ Its beauty is of
ten extolled in the Bible, as when Isaiah
prophesies of the Church, ‘The glory ol
Lebanon shall be given unto it, the ex
cellency of Carmel and Sharon;' or, as
in Solomon's Song, magnifying the
Church’s graces, ‘Thine head upon thee
is like Carmel.’ It does not seem to
have been thickly populated ill ancient
times, as it certainly is not now, but it
wits frequently sought as an asylum hy
tlie persecuted, on account of its ninny
natural grottoes iu the soft limestone
Ere we (mss from the magnificent
view of Mount Carmel to he seen from
the mount above Nazareth, per Imps we
had better describe it and Haifa, the
sea|Nirt of entry for Nazareth and the
surrounding region, ns though we were
approaching from the seaward side. I
will let another set it before you : “ We
are facing the east. Yonder on the left
are the lulls of l.elmuoii. running back i ris k, iu some of which are still seen in
fo the lowering mountains whence King ! soriptions placed there hy hermits and
.Solomon obtained cedar trees, llr-trees, | religious refugees. In the twelfth cun-
aud algtim-trees for the temple in Jeru- I tury the hermits here leguil to be re-
salem (!) Chron. li:M IS). To our right i garded us a distinut order, iui'1 in 1334
is Mount Carmel, jutting out into the they were set apart as such hy the Fojs 1
sea ami sloping upward and eastward j ft t Romo. There are now some 18 or 20
toward the mountains ol Samaria, .lust monks there living in a large,olean, and
in front is the Plain of Aero and the airy building, and they make a business
mouth of thorivor Ivishon,on the hanks ol „f entertaining pilgrims on an extensive
which we see the waving palm-trees and
green guldens. In the distance, at the
the northern end of the sickio-shaped
liny, seemingly rising right out of the
sea, is the oily of Aero, called Auoho in
Judges l:!ll,ono of the oldest and lus-
loru ally most interesting cities in the
world, whose early inhabitants, the
Hhonnioiuns,nru given the credit ol hav-
nuiiIo. * * Within four miles of Nazar
eth wo stopped a few moments at the
rather pretty little village of Yafn, or
the Japliiu which is mentioned in the
tilth chapter of Joshua.” (Dr. O. B. F.
Hal lock )
We arose at 5 and started off from
Nazareth by 6:15 a.m. and descended
the steeps toward the Plain of Esdrao
ing invented the alphabet, discovered |on, passing not far from Yafa, and n
how to make dyes, au<l of having been j photograph of our entire i>urty was t«k-
thu Hint to umnutaoturo glass, it is
possible that some of the teur bottles
members of our party bought on shore
were s|Hiciiuuus of their ancient work.
In apostolic times there were Christians
hero, and Panl once visited them, Acts
ill :7. Porhnps no city of the same size
in the wide world has had mi strange
and chequered a history. Kiohnrd 1 of
England, and Philip of Frnueo, par-
chased its conquest once ut the sacrifice
of 100,(XX) troops. They gave it to the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who
named it St. Jiau I)'Acre. But they
could not hold it. Napoleon Bonaparte
once besieged it for sixty-one days. Ho
failed, and nftorwards said: ‘My failure
to take it changed the destiny of the
world.’ At last, in 1840, the united
Heels of England, Aurtria, ami Turkey,
sailed into its beautiful harbor, and,
after a bombardment <>f three hours,
left it utterly demolished. From this
downfall it is but very slowly recover
ing. As wo look again shoreward, I'ar
in tiie distance to the northeast, we see,
plainly iu sight, snow-capped and over
majestic Mt. Hermou, while nearer, yet
iu (lie same general direction, are the
n just before wo got off the slopes.
Mount Tabor to our east is passed on
the way. Near it is a place called De-
buvieh. site of Daberath (Josh. 111:16;
31:28; I Chron. 0:73). a Lovitioal city,
atul having some relation perhaps with
Deborah the prophetess, who with
Barak set Israel's forces in array at Mt.
Tabor before joining battle with Bisera
and tiis hosts (Jud. 4:6-16), ns the
name Tabor would also seem to indi
cate. Some have located the soone of
our Lord’s Transfiguration on
Mouut Tabor, but the concensus of
scholarship today hold that this hon
our belongs to Mount Hertuon near
Caesarea Philippi, os wo have already
shown. Still Tabor is full of interest,
for its striking aud remarkuble, round,
large, knob-like sliaiw aud its ancient
ruins ou the summit (Jewish, Byzan
tine, Crusading, aud Saracenib), its
early having three churches therefore,
in memory of the three tabernacles
Peter promised to erect for Jesus, Moses
ami Elijah ( Matt. 17:4). Here the bro
thers of Uideou were slain (Jud. 8:18-16).
Hereafter the battle of Hattin in 1187,
the Saraceu Saladin laid wnste the
hills that lie round about the vicinity of ( mountain, and destroyed the monaster-
Nazareth (twenty throe amt a half miles j ies of the Crusaders. It is also referred
distant from Haifa). * * The oity cou-1 to iu Psa. 80:13; Jer. 46:18; Hos. 6:1.
tains about 12,000 inhabitants, uinnu- In Scripture its majesty and grace is
l'aotures soap, olive-oil and wine, which | alluded to; aud indeed it is a pretty
with wheat, maize, sesame, and wool j sight, risiug from the northeastern end
are largely exported. It has two Mu- of Esdraelon 1800 feet from base to top
tianimadan mosques, several Christina j and 1865 feet above sea level, in suoli
churches, schools, a hospital and a I symmetrical proportions, and covered
thriving German colony, known as the ! with pistaehias, oaks and other trees
Templars. A little distance up on Mt. j aud shrubs. "As Tabor is amoug the
Carmel is a sanitarium, a hotel, aud j mountains, aud as Oarmel by the sea.”
further up, the famous Carmelite Mon- ' "The north and the south Thou hast
astory. * * Tholirst surprise that greet- created them; Tabor aud Hermou shall
tid our eyes*ut Haifa was the sight of a rejoice iu Thy name!" Two monaster-
railway tmok*uiteuded to go troui Haifa
to the Jordan and the Lake of Galilee
uml from thence to the uuciout city ot
Damascus. Thu track is laid about live
miles, but the road is graded, ami the
bridges built as tar as we went toward
the Jordan. \Vo must say that it looked
strangely out of place in Palestine, aud
yet wo may well hope that it will soon
be completed. Ativ one who iius gone
over the so-called roads ot Palestine, as
ies—a Greek aud a Latin—crown the
top at this time.
Almost in a straight line southward
from Tabor is Eudur (Endor) where
Saul consulted the witch and talked
with Samuel aud returned to Gilboa
doomed. Still further on this line is
the Hill of Morel) or Little Hermou, and
just across the Yale of Jezreel is Mount
Gilboa. iu plain view.
Proceeding on tile beautiful Plain of
they now are, will see the reason for | Esdraelou we came to the edge of tlie
this wish. We were all preiwrod to ap : foot-hills of Little Hermou, stopping at
preciate the frontier farmer's descrip
tion of a road m his country, which
■was, he said, tirst a wagon track, then a
Naiu tirst aud then at Shunem. Nain
is in a fine situation, overlooking a
splendid landscape, and hence perhaps
bridle path, then a squirrel traok, and the name which denotes "beauty.” At
thou ran up a tree! Olio tiling is cer-' one time, as the ruins about it show,
tain, that the roads are quite generally
notable for their absence. * * At one
mile troiu Haifa (Caita, or Kliaifa) we
Nain was a considerable place; but to
day it is anything but a towu of con
sequence. Here are nothing but a lot of
left the gardens aud euternl the plain of I mud and dung-oovered huts, a small
Moslem mosque (known to the Arabs
under the name Mukam Sidna 'Alaa
the shrine of our Lord JeeuH”), and a
Franciscan church with a fine picture
therein representing our laird restoring
the young man—the widow’s only sou—
to life as they wore carrying him in a
bier out of the oonfiues of the village
(Lk. 7:11-18.) We could realize this
all the more as afterward in riding
away we passed iu sight of a cemetery.
There ore two springs iu the vicinity,
near one of which are a number of rock-
cut tombs. Endor is just two miles
from here, but aside from its mud cab
ins, cuves ih the mountain, and a curi
ous circle of rocks near the mouth of
one of the caves, find its association
with Saul and the witoh and Samuel's
appoarauce there is nought here worthy
of a visit (l Sam. 38:7 25). Hence we
didn’t tarry for a visit thither.
Again ooming on the fertile plain and
slightly skirting the mountain-side to
the west and south wo arrive ere long
at Solam, the site of Shunem, a plate
well watt-red by perennial springs, and
with a flue brood view of Esdraelon.
Only a traveller iu summer going over
this Plain iu the burning noontide snu
at harvest can take in the meaning of
the ride of the bereaved Shunamite
mother across the plain from Shunem
to Carmel—about 13 miles—to secure
the assistance of the prophet Elisha for
her sun-stricken child (3 Kgs. 4:8-87).
The view aud the bent brought it homo
to our party ns never before. If was
hen- also that by the jiower of God a
woman’s son was raised to life. Hore
too is jioiiitod out to the traveller a lit
tle square-roomed lint on top of a hut of
the Syrian typo and called "a prophet’s
chamber.” Ah. how wo wonder and
wonder and wonder that living men and
women and children survive such mud-
entombment and dung-encasement and
dirt-defilement as is prevalent in the
make-up of well-nigh every Oriental
village! Truly tln-y need and that sore
ly a "British cleaning-up" or an
"American cleaning out.” Who can be
surprised that there is no interest in liv
ing and in labour whilo this state of
affairs lasts. These people in "the Lund
of the Bool." need God to work within
them and liiati to work on the outside of
i them to make them what they ought to
i lie and to enable them do what is right.
Thank God, Protestant Christians are
accomplishing something along these
lines. It is more like the beast of the
field than a man of moral nature to live
iu these squalid huts surrouuded with
pricklypear plautk 6 to 10 feet high,with
nothing l ore worth mentioning save a
fountain of water, and that used ap
parently for drinking aud cooking pur-
jioses.
Most of our travelling now is on the
Plain of Esdraelon, one of the world-
fumed battle-fields of Scripture and his
tory. Tlio Great Plain lias five en
trances. The Pass of th^ Kishon at Toll
ol Kasis, first, the way of advance from
the Plain of Acre; Harosheth of the
Gentiles, from which Sisera advanced
lies upon it. Second, the glon between
Tabor and the Nazareth hills, the road
down from tho plateau above Tiberias
and Northern Galilee generally; it is
commanded by Tabor, on which there
was always a fortress. Third, the val
ley southward behind Jenin, the pas
sage towards that series of meadows
which lead up from Esdraelon into the
heart,of Samaria—the Atmboseis of the
Hill-country. Fourth, Megiddo, guard
ing the natural approach of Philistines,
Egyptians, and other enemies from the
south. Fifth, Jezreel, guarding that of
Arabs, Midiauites, Syrians of Damascus,
and other enemies from the east- We
owe mncli to Dr. George Adam Smith
for the realistio maimer in which he
mnkes the events ocurriug on this plain
pass before us iu review iu his epoch-
making work on "the Historical Geo
graphy of the Holy Land,” to which we
refer the interested reader for the
minutiae, since time and space forbid us
here touching its great battles. Suffice
it to say with this scholar:
• What a Plain it is! Upon which not
I only the greatest empires, races, and
j faiths, east and west, have contended
: with each other, but each lias come to
judgment—on which from the first,with
all its splendour of human battle, men
; have felt that there was fighting from
heaven, the stars in their courses were
fighting—on which panic has descended
so mysteriously upon the best equipped
and mosi successful armies, but the
humble have been exalted to victory in
the hour of their weakness—on which
false faiths, equally with false defend
ers of the true faith, have been exposed
and scattered—on which since the time
of Saul wilfuluess and superstition,
though aided by every human excellence,
have come to nought, and since Josiah's
time the purest piety has not atoned for
rash and mistaken zeal. The Crusaders
rejieat the splendid folly of the kings of
I Israel: aud, alike under the old and the
j new covenant, a degenerate church suf
fers hore her judgment at the hands of
the infidel. ‘They go forth unto the
kings of the earth and of the whole
world to gather them to the battle of
the great Day of God Almighty • * and
He gathered them together unto a place
called in the Hebrew tongue Har Ma-
geddou.' ”
It was over this cultivated plain that
the watchman ou the tower of Jezreel
saw the wild ana furious driving of
Jeha, the son of Nimshl. Directly south
of Shunem aud across the Vale of Jez
reel we travel until we climb the ridge
aud come to the rock well near Zer 'ain,
the site of ancient Jezreel, upon quite a
high place, aud the identity of the two
has uever been doubted. In the centre
of the present large aud miserable mud-
hut village is a modern watch-tower,
whioh probably stands on the very site
of tiie aucieut watch-tower iu Jezreel in |
3 Kgs. 2:17, from which one can see far |
down the valley to Beisan (Bethshan). !
See 1 Sam. 31:8-13. Here we had our
noon-hour luncheon spread out on
blaukets on the grass by our camp-at-
teudaats. Hot up there iu the sun? you
ask. Well, I should say so. Yet hardly
had lunoh ended bofore some of us were
off under the lead of our dragoman
Shukrey Hishmeh down the mountain
side to the plain as far as the foot of the
western side of Mount Gilboa to 'Ain
Jalud, ideutifled almost beyoud perad-
venture as the Well of Harod, or Gid
eon’s Fouutaiu—bursting ‘‘some 16 feet
broad and two feet deep from the very
teet of Gilboa, and mainly out of it, but
also fed by the other two springs, flows ]
a stream considerable enough to work |
six or seven mills. Tiie deep bed aud i
sott banks of this stream constitute a
formidable ditch in front of the position
on Gilboa, and render it possible for the
defenders of the latter to hold the spring
at their feet iu face of nil enemy on the
plain; aud the spring is indispensable to
them, for neither to the left, right, nor
rear is there any other living water.
Thus the conditions of the narrative in i
Judges vii arc all present. ” Under the!
screen of overhanging rocks huddled up j
together in tho water were a lot of cat- !
tie. Animals no less than human be
ings suffer from the heat in this land
and take to shelter whenever possible at
midday.
As we climbed back np to Jezreel, we
heard a distant and prolonged whistle
out ou the plain, aud lo! a modern lo
comotive was flying along a railway
traok, would you believe it? Yes, tho
growth erf Westernism is hero, this is an
evidence of it. Just as we reached tiie
summit again, we hearda moaning kind
of sound, and saw not far off from whore
we lunched a newly made grave sur
rounded by ten women, some with ba
bies iu arms, others still in aii outer cir
cle, all sitting witli legs crossed iu
Turkish style, and children standing in
numbers all about lhem. These people
mourn their dead for 8 days, and if a
sheikli for thirty days. The dead one here
was a husband, and the widow led iu
the lamentation, and I assure you it
was genuine sorrow, tears being accom
panied by a rocking back and forth of
the body, a waving of the hands to and
fro as if to keep off evil spirits, and the
oliaut in Arabic: "Why have yci gone
away so soon from us?” ‘Why have
you gone away so far from us?” “You
were so kind to us!” Over and over
again they wout thus with their strange
dirge. Some of our party in their
eagerness to see all came too close to the
circle, aud were stonod for their onri-
osity. It doesn’t pay to be over-ourious
abroad any more than at home. Oh
that these and their dead one had known
the Saviour who came te bring life aud
immortality to light in the gospel! Tiie
most pitiful sorrow is that without the
hope of the gospel.
Away behind us lies Little Hermou,
so-called probably because on a small
scule its outline resembles that of great
Herman. We press oil over the ridges of
Gilboa and the plain southward to Jenin
(Eli Ganiiim) which forms the lowest
apex of the Esdraelon triangle and guards
the hill-country' of Samaria. On the
way the entrance to the Plain of Sharon
is pointed our. To our right, midway
of the distance from Jezreel to Jenin,
stands the site of Ta’ aimak < Taanach).
A Muhammadan farmer elad in white
and ploughing an ass and an ox stopped
his work, spread his outer garment on
tiie ground and went through his pray
ers atul genuflexions at his regular sea
son as though no one saw but God. One
of the party must needs take the man in
tiie act of prayer with a camera. N. B.
—God forbids animals no less than peo
ple being unequally yoked together
I ( P eV, . f ^ " :10: cf ’ 3 ° or - 6:14 >: an d we
I should respect a man’s worship of God
! even though his way be not ours or the
I true way. Our camp is in sight. It is
in a lonely spot just outside the town of
No One But Yourself
if You Don't Get
Well When SicK.
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Of course that’s easy.
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Colds
It should be borne in mind that
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Jenin.
[To be continued.
The best way to have a
time is to do good.
SEXTON, the Plumber,
does expert sanitary plumb
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es estimates on steam and
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Shop on Depot Street,
£ next door to Dr. Jones’
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Newnan, Ga.
good The bird on the hat sings
songs to spring,
