the usual barrenness of the hills and vales of Palestine. There, on the highest point of the mountain, may well have stood, on its sacred "high place," the altar of the Lord which Jezebel had cast down. Close beneath, on a wide upland sweep, under the shade of ancient olives, and round a well of water, said to be perennial,2 and which may therefore have escaped the general drought, and have been able to furnish water for the trenches round the altar-must have been ranged, on one side the king and people, with the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Astarte, and on the other side the solitary and commanding figure of the Prophet of the Lord. Full before them opened the whole plain of Esdraelon,3 with Tabor and its kindred ranges in the distance; on the rising ground, at the opening of its valley, the city of Jezreel, with Ahab's palace and Jezebel's temple distinctly visible ; in the nearer foreground, immediately under the base of the mountain, was clearly seen the winding stream of the Kishon, working its way through the narrow pass of the hills into the Bay of Acre. Such a scene, with such recollections of the past, with such sights of the present, was indeed a fitting theatre for a conflict more momentous than any which their ancestors had fought in the plain below. This is not the place to enlarge

1 The spot is marked by the ruin of a square stone building, amongst thick bushes of dwarf oak; which might be of any age, and in which, as stated above, the Druses come to sacrifice. M. Van de Velde (i. 321) describes it more particularly as "an oblong quadrangular building, of which the great door and both side walls are still partially standing." The large hewn stones suggest an older date than that of the Crusades. The place is probably the site of Vespasian's sacrifice. (Tac. Hist. iii. 78.) The rocky fragments lying around, as Van de Velde well suggests (i. 423), would naturally afford the materials for the "twelve stones" of which the natural altar was built. 1 Kings, xviii. 31, 32.

2 So we were told by our guide from Asfyah. The exact spot is marked by an old olive tree, isolated from the olive grove which studs this lower plain, and which has been bought by

the monks. M. Van de Velde was more fortunate in being able to examine this well for himself. He describes it (i. 325) as "a vaulted and very abundant fountain, built in the form of a tank with a few steps leading down to it, just as one finds elsewhere in the old wells or springs of the Jewish times."

3 It is the best view of the plain that we saw.

4 1 Kings xviii. 40. On the descent from Carmel to the plain of Esdraelon a knoll was pointed out both to Mr. Williams and M. Van de Velde (i. 330) called "Tel Kishon," or "Tel Sadi," or "Tel Kasis." The latter name ("hill of the Priests") naturally suggests the memorial of the massacre of the priests of Baal. It is possible (as Schwarze suggests, 49-74) that the modern name of the Kishon, Nahar Mukatta (" river of slaughter") may have the same derivation, though it may also refer to the bloody history of the whole plain.

upon the intense solemnity and significance of that conflict which lasted on the mountain-height from morning till noon, from noon till the time of the evening sacrifice. It ended at last in the level plain below, where Elijah "brought" the defeated prophets "down the steep

sides of the mountain "to the torrent' of the Kishon and slew them there."

The closing scene still remains. From the slaughter by the side of the Kishon, the King "went up" at Elijah's bidding once again to the peaceful glades of Carmel, to join in the sacrificial feast. And Elijah too ascended to "the top of the mountain," and there, with his face upon the earth, remained wrapt in prayer, whilst his servant mounted to the highest point of all, whence there is a wide view of the blue reach of the Mediterranean Sea,2 over the western shoulder of the ridge. The sun was now gone down, but the cloudless sky was lit up with the long bright glow which succeeds an eastern sunset. Seven times the servant climbed and looked, and seven times there was nothing; the sky was still clear, the sea was still calm. At last, out of the far horizon there rose a little cloud-the first that had for days and months passed across the heavens-and it grew in the deepening shades of evening, and at last the whole sky was overcast, and the forests of Carmel shook in the welcome sound of those mighty winds which in Eastern regions precede a coming tempest. Each from his separate height, the King and the Prophet descended. And the King mounted his chariot at the foot of the mountain, lest the long hopedfor rain should swell the torrent of the Kishon,3 as in the days when it swept away the host of Sisera; and "the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah," and he girt his mantle round his loins, and, amidst the rushing storm with which the night closed in, "ran before the chariot," as the Bedouins. of his native Gilead still run, with inexhaustible strength,

1 1 Kings xviii. 41.

2 This was also observed by M. Van de Velde (i. 326). From the place where Elijah must have worshipped, the view of the sea is just intercepted by an adjacent height. That height, however, may be ascended in a few mi

nutes, and a full view of the sea obtained from the top.

3 M. Van de Velde (i. 327) considers the apprehension to have been, lest, the "deep layer of dust, in the dry plain of Esdraelon, should have been converted into thick mud."

to the entrance of Jezreel, distant, though still visible, from the scene of his triumph.

VI. Almost all the recollections of the plain of Esdraelon belong to the Old Testament. Yet we are now on the verge of the chief scenes of the New Testament, and the battle-field of Israel may have suggested to Him who must have crossed and re-crossed it on His many journeys to and from and through Galilee, those "victorious deeds" and "heroic acts" which Milton has ascribed to His early meditations:

"One while

To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,

Then to subdue and quell o'er all the earth
Brute violence, and proud tyrannic power."

But it is the poet only, not the Evangelist, who has
ventured to throw even this passing thought into that
peaceful career, and the one incident which connects Him.
with the plain of Esdraelon is remarkable for the striking
contrast which it presents to all the other associations of
the region.

On the northern slope of the rugged and barren ridge Nain. of Little Hermon, immediately west of Endor, which lies in a further recess of the same range, is the ruined village of Nain. No convent, no tradition, marks the spot. But, under these circumstances, the name is sufficient to guarantee its authenticity. One entrance alone it could have had that which opens on the rough hill-side in its downward slope to the plain. It must have been in this steep descent, as, according to Eastern custom, they "carried out the dead man," that, "nigh to the gate" of the village, the bier was stopped, and the long procession of mourners stayed, and "the young man delivered back" to his mother. It is a spot which has no peculiarity of feature to fix it on the memory; its situation is like that of all the villages on this plain; but, in the authenticity of its claims, and the narrow compass within which we have to look for the touching incident, it may rank amongst the most interesting points of the scenery of the Gospel narrative.

1 Luke vii. 11-15.

CHAPTER X.

GALILEE.

Matt. iv. 13-16. "And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."