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4 (962) THE 1
Family I
TO REFLECT HIS GLORY.
Oh Christ, auolnt my stammering lrps
With thine own power divine;
Fill Thou my heart with Chrlstly love
That makes Thy mission mine.
This life of mine make mirror bright
Thy glory to reflect,
And may thy glory through me shine
Onto thine own elect.
The wandering seek in earthly face
The image of thy grace;
So may thy image find in me
A radiant dwelling place.
Because of which the world around
May seek at Jesus feet
Thy mercy flowing through thy wounds,
And thy forgiveness sweet.
FestUB, Mo. ?S. E. Paxson.
FOOTPRINTS OF THE MAN OF
GALILEE.
DR. W. B. PALMOR IN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.
With the close of the earthly footprints of
Moses, we left our readers on the summit of
Mount Nebo, to which we rode from the M'oab
side on horseback. In early life we committed
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which immortalized the name of its author,
Mrs. Alexander. To a large extent it had seemingly
faded from our memory, but as we sat
in our saddle and looked upon the marvelous
panorama of Palestine, on which Moses was
gazing when the angels arrived for his burial,
our faculties were so stimulated and excited
that we were enabled to so recollect that we
repeated aloud every line of every stanza.
We were under the impression that it was
by a miracle that Moses was enabled to see
the entire extent of the Promised Land. We
wore surprised to find that with our unaided
eye we could see from Dan to Beersheba, from
Mount Hermon to the Dead .Sea, or from its
sources to the mouth of the Jordan river. Of
course Moses was not able to see all of the valleys
and low lands of the Promised Land, but
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wiiii iuh unnirai jorce unauaiea ana nis eye
not dim he could see about all of high lands
of Palestine. He had already stood on Mount
Sinai, where the Law was given, and on Mount
Hor, on which Aaron died and was buried, and
from the summit of Mount Nebo in the last of
his earthly visions he could see the mountains
of the temptation, crucifixion and ascension of
Jesus, and also the mountain on which he and
Elijah stood with him when he was transfigured.
The regions where Jesus was
BORN AND BAPTIZED
were also a part of this last vision from Nebo.
Later we stood on an elevation above the
ruins of the city of Dan, in the far north, near
the foot or on the instep of Mount Herraon,
with its snow covered head reaching into the
clouds. Near to where we stood was the confluence
or junction of two beautiful streams of
water, as clear as crystal. Each of these
streams came from a great spring or fountain,
one near the old city of Dan and the other
from near Cesarea Phillipi. The coming together
of these two streams form the Jordan
river. As we looked far down the Jordan val4
ley at the wending and winding of this stream,
and then turned our eyes to the mountain out
of which it comes, it seemed to us a striking
picture of human life. Mount Hermon, with
*KESBY??RlAtt OF THfc 8G
headings
no summit lost in the clouds, suggested the lnriuite.
The two springs or streams gushing
out of it, suggested the material and immaterial
coming together,, to form human life. In
a little while this hislorie stream continues
through six or eight miles, like human life,
lingering in childhood through six or eight
years. Out of Lake Merom the Jordan tlows
on about ten miles, like human life flowing on
through the years of adolescence or youth.
Next the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee,
where it lingers about fourteen miles, like human
life remaining about fourteen years at the
zenith of manhood and womanhood. The Hebrew
word
JORDAN,
which we translate Jordan, means descender.
This is from the fact that from the point where
the river leaves the Sea of Galilee it so rapidly
descends, winding into little Lake Merom,
where it flows througii oleanders, rocks, cascades
and falls, until it Anally enters the Dead
bea, from which there is 110 outlet or exit, except
by the power of evaporation. Lifted by
the great god of Day. llow much this is like
human life! After it passes the years of meridian
strength it continues to descend until it
enters the grave, from which there is no exit,
except through the Power of Resurrection 1
Here is one of the most remarkable formations
anywhere to be found on the surface of our
globe. The Dead Sea is thirteen hundred feet
lower than the surface of the Mediterranean,
and the Sea of Galilee is seven hundred feet
lower than the Mediterranean. If a ship canal
could cut through, the Valley of Esdraelon
from the bay of Acre on the Mediterranean to
the Sea of Galilee, it would raise the level of
the latter seven hundred feet, and the level of
the Dead Sea thirteen hundred feet. It would
make an inland sea of the whole Jordan valley
of great depth, especially over the point where
the Dea Sea now is. The vegetation around
the
SEA OK GA1JLEE
is semi-tropical, from the fact of being so low
and surrounded by mountains. The midday
sun shines with great power down into this
basin, so as to very much rarify the air. Immediately
to the north is Mount Hermon, lifting
its snow-crowned head ten thousand feet
above the level of the Mediterranean. When
the cold air from this snow rushes down
through the funnel-shaped canyons into the
rarefied air above the sea, the suddeness and
severity of the storms are astounding and terrifying.
The boats still used on this sea are
enormously large and clumsy, doubtless very
much as they were in the days of the Man of
Galilee. The moon changes here just as it
does in Amerien hut little oloo
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feminine fashions.
We paid six dollars in gold for the use of
one of these boats from two o'clock in the afternoon
until late bed time, with six stalwart
men to row it. Not one of our six oarsmen
could speak one word of English. So we had
to make our itinerary out for the whole voyage
and have all .the minute instructions given
before we started. Our plan was to follow the
footprints of the Nazarene when he crossed
over to visit the land of Qadara on the east
side, where the swine ran down into the sea.
Then to go around the north coast, see the in
> T lfc t August 21, 1912
How of the Jordan and the ruins of the old
cities of the north and east, and then return
by midnight to our point of departure. When
we started from the town of
TIBERIAS
on the west, the temperature was ideal and the
sea was as calm as a mirror. As we sat in the
lear holding the rudder, with the six stalwarts
at the oars, we never before felt moro
serenely and sublimely self-complacent. We
bad paid six dollars in gold, and the entire
outfit was ours until late bed time. We felt
something as if we were monarch of all we surveyed
! A few minutes after the sun had
passed below the high crest ot the mountains
in the west one of those phenomenal storms
seemed to drop right down out of the sky on
po our boat, and all of our serene self-complacency
went to the winds! The ends of our
boat would rise up and fall upon the water
with the boom of a cannon! Our oarsmen
were .lumping from side to side of the boat to
keep it from turning over! They were very much
amused and were evidently enjoying the discomfiture
of the Christian. They were all
well acauainted with the sea and could swim
like fish. Whether the boat capsized or not
they were in no great danger. Our prayer
was about as direct and straight to the mark
as those of Peter and John on a similar occasion
when they were trying to awake the sleeping
Christ!
We had one sail up which seemed to so eaten
the whirl of the wind as to turn our boat to
the rear of the storm and into almost an immediate
calm. By this time our boat was nearly
full of water, but our oarsmen lighted their
cigarettes for a deliberate smoke before they
attempted to bail out the water. This gave
us an opportunity to watch a long caravan ot
loaded
CAM EES AND DONKEYS
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waue aim swim me uuruuxi just auuvc wnere u
Hows inro the sea. This caravan was going
from Damascus to Tyre and Sidon. There are
rew places in all Palestine so intimately identified
with the life of Jesus, or where he made
more enduring footprints than on and around
the Sea of Galilee. From the lofty pulpit from
which he preached his Sermon on the Mount we
looked down upon the sea, its entire environment
and a large part of Palestine. The little
white-walled city of Safed is on a mountain,
too, and can be seen from every part of Galilee.
He was doubtless pointing out this in his sermon
when he said: "A city that is set on an
hill cannot be hid." When we went down this
mountain to our carriage our driver had gath
ered us an enormous bouquet of very many
varieties of beautiful wild flowers.
On our way to Nazareth we halted an hour
at Cana, the scene of his first miracle. Around
the old spring or water fountain, in Nazareth,
mothers with their water jars and little boys
were gossiping as they have done for thousands
of years. Along the way farmers were sowing
their grain, some falling in the beaten paths
and some in stonv crround. There are few of
his earthly footprints where we realized so vitally
his spiritual presence as at
Jacob's well,.
* %
at the mouth of the valley which separates
Mounts Ebal and Gerezim. No Christian
doubts that he stood by this well and preached
that far-reaching sermon to a fallen woman, in
which he announced the great truth that "God
is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship
in spirit and in truth."
Since His birth in the Bethlehem manger the
bow of hope arches every cradle in Christenfe
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