pared to enjoy what perhaps was the greatest treat I had had during the whole excursion. Before me, and beyond the town of Nazareth at my feet, lay a considerable plain stretching from east to west, and bounded on the south by a long irregular chain of lofty hills, the plain itself being broken towards the east by two small parallel ranges of hills, with an interval between them; three valleys being conspicuous on the nearer sides of these ranges. In the east was the

round top of a limestone hill appearing over the nearer brows; in the west was a long range rising gradually from the plain, and terminating abruptly over the sea, which could be seen shining in the sun in the distance beyond. Behind was an irregular and broken hilly country dotted with villages, the extreme north-east being surmounted by the snowy crest of a distant mountain. This was in brief the general character of the view, which simply as a view was striking, although deficient in some elements of the picturesque, viz. trees and water, if we omit the distant sea, which, being behind, is not included in the main prospect.

But when it was borne in mind that here, in this open space under the eye, was the scene of many of the chief and most noteworthy events of Old Testament history-when it was remembered that at my feet was the sacred town of Nazareth-when the imagination seizes the probability that a thoughtful boy and young man, such as our Lord was, must often have directed His steps to the very spot where I am now sitting, and contemplated from it the great spiritual truths of which these scenes were the types and shadows,-then must it be allowed that no slight feeling of interest enchained my attention, as my eyes followed the course of the ancient events of sacred history as though over a map, with the difference that here was no picture, but the veritable lands, hills, plains, and towns in which these events occurred. For that plain before me is the plain of Esdraelon, the great battle-field of the Israelites; the plain of Megiddo, celebrated from Barak to Josiah; probably, too, that place of conflict present to the spiritual eye of St. John, in the Apocalyptic vision, as Armageddon (Rev. xvi. 16), where the great combat between truth and falsehood was hereafter to take place. Across it flows a streamlet, which is no other than that ancient river the river Kishon. Those distant mountains to the right are the hills of Samaria; those to the left are the mountains of Gilead, on the other side of the Jordan. Those small parallel ridges interrupting the plain are, the nearest, the Little Hermon, dotted with the white houses of Nain and Endor

the further one, the hills of Gilboa, with the royal city of Jezreel upon their declivity. That round-topped hill to the left is Mount Tabor, that long ridge to the right is Mount Carmel, and that snowcapped mountain behind is Mount Hermon; while the Great Sea (Mediterranean) is behind, and one of the villages between me and it is Cana of Galilee.

Let us now glance with the mind's eye, as I was then able to do with my bodily eyes, at the events which have rendered all these places so interesting, beginning with the battle between Barak the son of Abinoam and Jabin king of Hazor, who had nine hundred chariots of iron; an event which occurred nearly 3200 years ago, and which took place in the valley at my feet. Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel at that time, and she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah. From where I sit I can almost see, near the foot of Mount Tabor, the village of Deburieh or Daberath, said to be the place where the prophetess dwelt. Here too, at the foot of Mount Tabor to the left, were assembled by Barak ten thousand Israelites; while Sisera, learning that the enemy were thus assembled, gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles (near Hazor, in the vale of Uleh) unto the river Kishon. Then, in that valley at my feet, took place that struggle, when the Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet. And all the host of Sisera fell upon the sword of Barak; there was not a man left (Judges iv.).

A little farther afield, between the intermediate ranges of Little Hermon and Gilboa, took place also, nearly fifty years later, another great battle, in which the Lord again fought for Israel, and gave them a decisive victory over their enemies. This time it was against the Midianites and the Amalekites, and the sword of Gideon prevailed. In the valley between these two hills, which we shall cross to-morrow, the Midianites and the Amalekites, and all the children of the east, lay like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude. Thirty-two thousand men were in arms to repel them, encamped on the southern side of the vale, near the well of Harod, when the word of the Lord came to Gideon, commanding him to reduce his host to a handful of three hundred men, who should, by God's special assistance, be sufficient to conquer the vast array of the enemy; "lest Israel vaunt

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themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." Then in the darkness of night occurred, yonder, that curious scene, when Gideon, with his three hundred chosen men, each having in one hand a trumpet, and in the other a torch concealed in a pitcher, came stealthily in the middle watch to the outside of the enemy's camp. "And they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! And all the host ran, and cried, and fled. And the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled" (Judges vii.).

Nearly two hundred years after this, the same valley was the scene of another catastrophe of a different kind, when the Lord suffered the enemies of Israel to prevail against them; when the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. Samuel the prophet was dead, and Saul the king was abandoned by God, who had for his sins given his kingdom to another. The wretched son of Kish, knowing his desperate position, no longer having any trust in God, when he saw the host of the Philistines gathered together and pitched in Shunem, himself gathered Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. The spot is fully in view, while Shunem is just hidden by the projecting spur of the Little Hermon. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. His inquiries of the Lord were unanswered, and disguising himself, putting on other raiment, he went and two men with him, and came to Endor by night, to consult a woman there who had a familiar spirit. I can trace from where I sit the direction of this nocturnal journey, when the disguised king with his two attendants, keeping along the base of the hills of Gilboa and passing the well of Harod, avoided the outposts of the Philistine army, and creeping round the southern end of the Little Hermon, arrived at Endor, whose white houses I can see just on this side the hill. There the upbraiding spirit of Samuel gave him no hope or encouragement; and returning by the way he had come, the Philistines fell upon him the following day, and the battle went sore against Saul, his three sons were slain, and himself sore wounded by the archers; when, hopeless and deserted, he fell upon his sword and died, his blood streaming upon yonder hill to which my gaze is now directed. "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!" (1 Sam. xxviii. xxxi.)

Another one hundred and fifty years, and the same hill is crowned by a royal city, the city of Jezreel, the residence of the wicked Ahab and the atrocious Jezebel. The village is conspicuous from where I am now sitting the place where, adjoining the royal demesne, was the coveted vineyard of Naboth-the place where Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah met their deaths from the avenging Jehu, and where the painted Jezebel looked out from a window, and was thrown down to be devoured by dogs. And this place also is connected with another event, for which I must turn my eyes to the right, upon the ridge of Mount Carmel, which stretches obliquely for eighteen miles from the plain of Megiddo to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1 Kings xviii. we have an account of the great contest of Elijah the prophet with the false prophets of Baal, when, by command of Ahab, the contending parties were assembled upon Mount Carmel, and Elijah said, "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him but if Baal, then follow him." The precise spot where this great struggle took place is tolerably well identified, "under the shade of olives, and round a copious fountain vaulted and built up with ancient masonry, which may have supplied the water for the trench round the altar" (Stanley). I can carry my eyes pretty well to the exact spot, and see where, after Elijah had prayed for rain on the top of Carmel, and had sent his servants seven times to look towards the sea, it was announced the seventh time, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." And as the heavens became black with clouds and wind, and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab; and I can trace beneath me the whole extent of this wondrous course of the prophet, from the summit of Mount Carmel even to the entrance of Jezreel.

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Almost the same journey was made by another, under widely different circumstances. When Elisha had succeeded Elijah in the prophetic office, he rewarded the kindness of the Shunammite woman with the promise of a son, which son while yet a child died in her arms from a stroke of the sun. And the man of God was gone to Mount Carmel. And the woman said to her husband, "Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again." So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. And the man of God said to Gehazi his servant, "Behold, yonder is that Shunammite." And when he had learned her errand, he said to Gehazi, "Gird up thy loins, and take my

staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child" (2 Kings iv.). But she would not be content unless the prophet himself went, and she caught him by the feet and said, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her."

It was in the valley of Megiddo also that the good king Josiah met his death (2 Chron. xxxv.) when he hearkened not unto the words of Necho, king of Egypt, from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah, and the king said, "Have me away, for I am sore wounded;" and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers.

One more scene presents itself to my imagination as enacted at yonder cluster of white huts upon the side of Little Hermon. That hamlet was once dignified as "the city called Nain;" but more dignified by the Divine exhibition of power over life and death, when our Saviour (as related in Luke vii. 11-18), coming nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Then was performed one of those rare miracles, even of our Lord's, of raising from the dead. For when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and He said unto her, "Weep not. And He came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother."

Surveying this most remarkable scene, and reading the chapters in the Bible which illustrated the various histories with which it is so indissolubly connected, I passed a delightful and never-to-be-forgotten afternoon. I was surrounded by Scriptural associations. Even the Psalmist had illustrated the view, for as I looked around and saw the rounded summit of Tabor, and the snowy peak of Mount Hermon, I recalled the 12th verse of the 89th Psalm, where it is said, "The north and the south Thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name." Not a rock, not a hill, not a valley, not a village but was intimately connected with the history of God's chosen people, and carried some spiritual lesson to those who could understand it. And the crowning consideration was, that here had probably ofttimes meditated and pondered the Author of all-the Deliverer of Barak, the Avenger of Gideon, the Rejecter of Saul, the