SACRED PLACES.

were the guests of monks at a convent.

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The next morning

we examined the various places of interest; aud while we have with good reason—a respect for many traditions upon which the traveller in this land is frequently dependent, the result of our visit to the various cells and rooms was a general impression not altogether favourable to the intellectuality nor to the piety of those who display so many relics and deal in so much minutiæ in respect to them. However, it is not well to pass them by entirely. We visited the church-which possesses, according to tradition, the veritable room where the angel appeared to Mary-and were conducted to the back of the altar, where the singing of matins was accompanied by an organ which sounded pleasantly to us, and then down some steps by a monk carrying a taper. Soon we entered a circular chamber with a dome-roof, where was an altar. Here was a spot of peculiar sanctity, but about which nothing but the

wines vary in appearance, in strength, and refinement. The wines of Helbon (Ezek. xxvii. 18) were characteristically different from the wines of Lebanon (Hos. xvi. 7), and these from others (Isa. xxv. 6). This difference may have been in strength, as well as in other peculiarities. But it is evident that the natural strength of the wines of ancient and Biblical times was not sufficiently great to suit the tastes of wine-bibbers of that day; or they would not have had recourse to the mixtures which in the time of the Saviour were common throughout the Roman empire, and in use in the times of Solomon (Prov. xxiii. 30). The habit of tarrying long at wine, and that of drinking to excess, referred to by the apostles (Eph. v. 18; 1 Peter iv. 3), existed in St. Paul's time to such an extent that Tiberius, the Roman Emperor, according to Suetonius, spent whole days at his excesses, and in one instance spent a night and two days at the festal table without leaving it (see Sueton. in Vit. Tiberii, c. 42, 43, 44 and 45); so also did Vitellius to a most shameful extent (idem, in Vit. Vitel.) This was the state of things with the rulers during the lives of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which also corrupted the morals of the wealthy citizens. It is related of one Claudius, the son of a player by the name of Esop-himself an extravagant epicure-that, among other extravagances, he dissolved pearls in the liquors which were served up at his table (Plin. lib. ix. c. 35, and Macrob. lib. iii. c. 14). It was to these excesses in drinking that the commands of the Scripture particularly referred, and not to the temperate use of the wines of the country.

U

sanctity was stated. Then we ascended a little and entered another room, where it was said Joseph and Mary had lived; and the iron catch was shown us still in the wall, and the hole where the wooden bolt or bar had entered, and then the little window. These are apparently very old; and the square stones in the wall and roof show that, though Joseph and Mary may never have been blessed with so comfortable a residence, they are quite as antique as anything seen at Rome. We then visited a small, low room, where is an altar and a light kept constantly burning. This room is said to have been the workshop of Joseph; and a picture hangs over the altar representing Joseph at a "very respectable" modern work-bench with the latest improvements, and the infant Jesus by his side. We next expected to be shown some of Joseph's tools, and began to look about for them, as the impression gains upon the visitor that they will come next on the catalogue; but on inquiry our sacristan gravely considered, as more eminent antiquaries have done before him, "that it was doubtful." There was still another place to be seen; and, resigning ourselves to the guide, we were led through the arch spoken of before into a yard, and then into a building where we were told that the Saviour partook of the Supper before and after his resurrection and death. A large rock is seen in the middle of the chapel, ten and a half feet in diameter and thirty-two feet nine inches in circumference, a little higher at one side than at the other, and at that place three feet from the floor. This is the rock upon which our Lord, it is said, partook of the Supper; and there are several holes in which the bread was put.

So a new fact in the history of the Saviour is discovered, and this rock is visited, and Ave Marias and Paternosters are said over a stone which we have no reason but from tradition to believe was ever visited by the Saviour or any of his disciples. Immediately back of the church is a bluff or cliff some fifty or sixty feet in height, to the edge of which it is very probable that the Saviour was led when

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the enraged crowd intended to cast him down, but he "passed through the midst of them." Other places are

spoken of, each as the mountain of precipitation, and at a distance from the town; but the gospel narrative says it was a hill" whereon their city was built” (Luke iv. 29).

Of the many localities pointed out (all of which it never harms the intelligent traveller to visit if inclination permit), one may be looked upon with interest. It is the Fountain

of the Virgin, at the entrance to the town. In 1306 it was described as the fountain from which Jesus when a child brought water to his mother, and that, "the pitcher being broken with which he was accustomed to carry it, he conveyed it in his bosom" (in gremio), by which I suppose, if anything definitely is meant, that he carried it in the apron or dress of skin sometimes worn at that time. This may be simply an imaginative story; but there can be little doubt that this fountain once supplied the holy family; and as Jesus "was subject to his parents" in this town for years, doubtless his cheerful steps, in obedience to a lofty filial affection, were often directed to and from this very fountain.

The church built over the house of Joseph is mentioned by writers in the seventh century; and, though there are doubtless many things exhibited therein which rather pain than please, there is no reason to disbelieve the assertion that at this place was the residence of Mary and Joseph. In 1263, the town of Nazareth and the church formerly erected here, together with the Church of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, were laid in ruins. In 1620, under Fakir ed Din, the Franciscan monks obtained permission to rebuild the church; but Nazareth has been generally represented as a small village, though it contains about twenty-five hundred inhabitants. About 1801, Djezzar Pacha, "the Butcher," ground down the people here to such an extent that many left their homes and farms to avoid his heavy taxes and his robberies.

From the hill on the north of Nazareth may be seen the

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SIGHTS FROM THE HILL OF NAZARETH.

Mediterranean and the little village Yafa, two miles distant, consisting of about thirty houses-perhaps the JAPHIA of Joshua; Semunieh, nearly west-the Simonias of Josephus; Jebata, south-west and near the plain of Esdraelon -the Gebatha of Eusebius and Jerome; and the more interesting village Sefurieh, north by west about four miles -the Sepphoris of Josephus, with its ruined castle on the isolated hill near by. It was called Diocæsarea by the Romans. Josephus, an architect (sometimes confounded with Josephus the historian), obtained permission to erect a church here in the time of Constantine.

North, about eight miles distant, is CANA of Galilee (Kenna Jelil). Between Sepphoris and Nazareth is the fountain of Sepphoris, at which the armies of the Crusaders assembled in their glory before the fatal battle (A.D. 1187) with Saladin at Hattin, about ten miles north-east of Nazareth. Mount Carmel is seen south-west, Mount Tabor south-east, Jebel es Sheik on the north, and Jebel ed Duhy south-south-east, with Mount Gilboa in the same direction. East of us are seen several hills across the Lake of Galilee. Mount Carmel presents from this hill its long line of ridges slightly descending toward the shore. It does not exhibit a "peak or sugar-loaf height," as some might imagine who view it from the sea. Suddenly springing up near the coast, it runs in a south-east direction for about ten miles, apparently rising all the distance. It then breaks and commences gradually to descend and takes a more southerly course, gradually descending in numberless hills to the plain on the coast. After actual measurement, it is often found that calculations of a level at a distance are incorrect, from the fact that we judge of distances and comparative level by simple perspective, which often itself depends upon distance. A ridge may have an apparent and a real diminishing line, as when it actually sinks at the end of the line, when at the same time that end approaches the observer. Then it may assume the apparent form of a straight line and yet be in reality a circular ridge. So also when

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one end of the line actually rises, but appears from its retrocession into the distance to keep its perspective line horizontal. A good spy-glass will often correct this mistake; but nothing but practice will enable the observer to avoid an error into which many travellers fall in judging of the comparative level of ridges from a distant position.

We leave Nazareth with feelings of regret. We cannot in so short a season realize the facts which history has recorded of this city. One needs some time, after visiting all that will be shown him if he chooses to be led about, before he is in a state of mind to enjoy the calm, clear light of truths which halo this place with such solemn and such affecting interests. Here the earliest days were spent of One who, as Napoleon once said, "founded an empire, not upon force, but love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him." No place in Palestine is to my mind so suggestive of lively, mysterious, and rapturous thoughts as this. Not Bethlehem nor Jerusalem knew so much of Jesus during the years of his social and early life, and the days of his early friendships, as Nazareth. The very fact that so few tales of his earlier years have reached us even in the pages of tradition contains a lesson that should charm us with the thought of that unobtrusive majesty which veiled itself in Jesus' childhood, to teach our noisy and pretentious religion that the value of the little stream which has irrigated some field of earth is only known by the verdure which springs up long after it has hidden itself in the limitless ocean.