GALILEE
Valleys and hills of sacred Palestine,
Dear land of heavenly thought and glorious deed;
The center and the glory of all realms,
The earthly home of God's incarnate Son—
Praise ye the Lord our God!
HAVING gratified our heart's desire of a night's ramble on the Mount of Beatitudes, we read by the glorious light of the moon and sun the most marvelous sermons of the Greatest Preacher (Matt. 6:25, 6:1; Luke 5:17-2017And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. 19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. 20And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. (Luke 5:17‑20)). What wonderful and awful scenes have taken place here since Christ trod the hill! It was here, or very near this mount, that the Crusaders suffered their most crushing defeat from the arms of Saladin. Here the battle decided that no longer should the Crusaders be masters of the land of Israel. From that day idolatry, under the garb of Christianity, disappeared from the Holy Land. The Crescent triumphs until the Cross shall be established, not by warriors with bloody hands, but by the power of the Son of God, the Prince of Peace and Righteousness.
We now bade farewell to the Mount of Beatitudes, and went onwards towards Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. We were very weary, and yet determined to proceed during the whole of the night, so that we might spend the day in the tent, protected from the terrible heat of the sun, and enjoy our rest on the shore of the famous sea. Our beasts were tired, poor creatures! Our Arabs took no trouble in looking after them when we dismounted, and had no pity on them when burdened. During the whole of the previous day the poor horses were exposed to the sun, and now they carried their burdens the whole night. I felt sorry for my poor horse, but what could I do? The poor thing seemed for a while too weary to go any further, and, with the determination of an English donkey, would not move. I could not help showing compassion. I requested all our servants to dismount for a few minutes' lounge about, and allow our horses and mules a few minutes' rest. "Very good." Said, the dragoman, complimented me on my Christian charity. Suddenly a mule, heavily burdened with the kitchen utensils and other things of great importance to travelers, ran off. At once every Arab servant yelled, shouted, and ran after the beast. The noise seemed to frighten all the other animals, and there was a sudden stampede of horses, donkeys, and mules. The noise of the pursuers was so great that the stillness of the night was disturbed. I became alarmed lest any Bedouins should hear the noise, and, thinking that robbers had invaded their territory, fall upon us with their swords and spears. We did our best to await patiently the return of our mutinous beasts. After much running, one or two donkeys were captured, but they had lost their luggage from their backs. The captives were soon secured, and we waited for the others to be made prisoners. At last the mule with the kitchen on his back fell down and could not get up. Thus secured, he was assisted to rise; then received his chastisement from his angry master. Others were still chasing their horses, until at last our efforts were crowned with success. My white horse was brought to me after receiving the reward of a deserter, and I was soon on the saddle, and determined not to rest again that night until we reached the Sea of Tiberias.
On, on we went; the rough, rocky road was most exhausting. The Sea of Galilee suddenly came to our vision. It seemed a distance of ten minutes' ride under the hills before us. We counted the moments, but found that ten minutes had gone more than ten times, and still the sea seemed about a distance of ten minutes' ride. It was most perplexing! The scenery we now passed was grand-majestic, but wild, rough, rugged, and lonely. The ride was now becoming monotonous. For years past I had longed for the day when my eyes would gaze upon the sea on which the Lord walked. Now it came to pass!-I saw it! I looked upon it, and yearned to get to it, and the eye seemed 'weary of looking upon the lake which so much distressed us as we felt that we should never get to it. The distance which seemed ten minutes' walk really took several hours' ride. The moon was gone. Onward we went, and about seven o'clock in the morning we arrived at Tiberias; our tents not yet pitched. We dismounted-could no longer wait-laid down our rugs, and prostrated ourselves, covering ourselves with what we could lay hands on to shield our heads from the sun, and soon we slept. Hours passed, and on we slumbered until the unutterable nuisance of flies began, and continued in spite of our coverings. Once awake we could sleep no more, but were kept hard at work to drive from us the army of flies. We were now a little hungry-wanted breakfast, but our muleteers were all asleep. The tent was ready, bed made, but every servant asleep. I therefore had compassion on them, and left them to enjoy their sleep, and had a bath. It was very refreshing, but another difficulty presented itself. My clothes, which I left on the beach, were infested with myriads of insects. After a considerable amount of trouble I was happily dressed in my nightgown and sand shoes, and had on my blue spectacles to protect my eyes from the sun. Then I entered my tent, but alas! breakfast was not yet ready. It was now late in the day, and my cook was asleep. I had to wake my dragoman and complain of the neglect. Soon he mustered them all. With his long cane he managed to wake them, and what excitement! My young cook soon came to me with a load of salaams, begging my pardon, and swearing by the beard of the Prophet that such neglect should not occur again. Swiftly he attended to his duties—so unlike his countrymen—and soon I had a good repast before me. My tent was not comfortable. My cook and a muleteer were sitting at my side, one on the right and another on the left of me, each with a branch of palm driving off the flies from me as I was enjoying my breakfast. Having finished, I retired, and walked by the seaside. The associations of the place were interesting to think about, but it was so hot that we had to seek shelter in the tent. For hours we lay on a bed; all power to rise seemed gone; life and vigor seemed as if forever passed away.
Late in the afternoon, however, as the sun was withdrawing his tormenting rays, we 'rose. Another bath in the sea, and all was well. I felt as if I had just got up after a long illness.
We now took a walk through the city, so famous to Jewish history, the city where the most valuable and sacred books of Judaism were written and published, the city that became a second Jerusalem after the destruction of the City of David.
The wretched and dirty condition of this place, like most Oriental towns, did not inspire us with admiration. The situation is most unhealthy; the inhabitants look objects of misery. The population is nearly six thousand, about five thousand of whom are Jews, almost all of whom live entirely on the Halukah or alms from their European co-religionists.
Many of the Jews here are from Russia and Poland, spending their time, like their brethren in Jerusalem, reading the Talmud, fasting, and praying, still hoping for Messiah's advent.
I took a walk to the only place of interest to me in and about Tiberias. It was the Jewish cemetery, a place of great sacredness to all Talmudical Jews. Rabbis who have been famous in Jewish history are buried there. Rabbi Johachannan and the world-renowned Maimonides there sleep the sleep of the just. Here Jews often come to weep and pray over the graves of the righteous rabbis; here with broken hearts they cry for help, mercy, and often for the coming of the Messiah. From here we visited several synagogues. There are as many as seven, all of which are constantly attended for worship and study of the Talmud.
I conversed with several Israelites, who afterward visited me at my tent. I had much pleasure in conversing with them about the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, of whom, alas! they knew nothing. We spent several hours, in our tent, conversing about the Messiahship of Christ.
One or two seemed very reserved in their conversation, and frequently asked questions, but would answer none. Presently an animated discussion was opened, when one of them demanded of me proofs that Jesus of Nazareth was of the seed of David on the side of His mother. I was charmed with the interest they showed. Not until late at night did they leave, the most friendly accepting portions of the New Testament Scriptures and Hebrew tracts.
Now weary again, I was glad to lie down, and heavy sleep was upon me during the whole of the night.
How pleasant to me thy deep blue wave,
O sea of Galilee!
For the glorious One who came to save
Hath often stood by thee