The boat schedules—and they can not be ignored on the Palestine coast—compelled us to reserve Galilee for the conclusion of our tour, and it was an inappropriate ending, for while Jerusalem was the scene of the crucifixion and ascension, the greater part of Christ's life was spent in Galilee, and it was there that "most of His mighty works were done." Nor is its history confined to the New Testament, for it has its Carmel associated with the life of Elijah, and Mount Tabor where Deborah's victory was won. Haifa, the seaport of Galilee, is built along the front of Carmel on the edge of a bay which the mountain helps to form, for Carmel, instead of being a peak, is really a long ridge but a few hundred feet in height, jutting out into the sea at this point and extending several miles to the southeast. A Roman Catholic monastery is erected over a cave overlooking the Mediterranean, where Elijah is said to have lived.
To the north of Carmel lies the plain of Esdraelon through which the Kishon river flows. The road to Nazareth follows the south side of this valley to a point some seven miles from the shore where the hills of Galilee approach so near to Carmel as to leave but a narrow pass for the river. Here the road crosses over to the north side of the valley, and for the remainder of the distance winds upward over the hills, giving a commanding view of Esdraelon. The upper part of the plain is as beautiful a country as can be imagined—well watered, fertile and thoroughly cultivated. The land is not held in severalty, as in America, but by communities. The cultivators live in villages, built at intervals around the edge of the valley, and the land is apportioned each year by the village chief, no one receiving the same tract two years in succession. As we looked down upon the valley we could distinguish the different allotments as they lay in long strips of equal width. Wheat is the chief product of the valley, although there are a few olive orchards, and the mulberry tree is being planted. Oxen are the animals usually employed in cultivation, but we occasionally saw a horse and an ox yoked together or a camel and an ox, and once a camel and a donkey.
Jezreel is on this plain, at the foot of Mount Gilboa, where the middle plain connects with the plain leading down to the Jordan between Gilboa and Little Hermon. This is historic ground, for it was here at a great spring which flows out from under Gilboa that Gideon selected his gallant band.
The village of Nazareth, nestling among the hills of Galilee, must always be a place of supreme interest to the Christian. Its location was probably determined by the presence here of an unfailing spring, now known as Mary's fountain. Dr. George Adam Smith, in his "Historical Geography of the Holy Land," points out the relation between the springs and the routes of travel and emphasizes the prominence of Nazareth in the Bible times. Christ's boyhood and young manhood were spent near a great highway, for the old Roman road from Damascus to Egypt ran through the town. Caravans passed to and fro laden with the riches of the Euphrates and the Nile; princes passed that way on their royal journeys, and in time of war it was on the route of armies. From a high hill just outside the town Christ could look to the west and see the surf line on the shore of the Mediterranean, to the east He could survey the walls of the chasm in which lay the sea of Galilee, while to the northeast rose Hermon, the pride of the mountains. Several of His parables fit quite naturally into the scenes upon which He looked, and those parables were the more effective because they were taken from the everyday life of the people. The stony ground, the rocky roadways and the narrow strips of fertile soil were woven into the Parable of the Sower, and some acquaintance of His youth, following the merchantmen into Egypt or Mesopotamia, may have been the original of the Prodigal Son.
Rev. Selah Merrill, our consul at Jerusalem, has refuted the statement so frequently made that the Nazarenes were held in contempt. He shows that there is no just foundation for the aspersions cast on this section of Galilee. Mr. Merrill's book, "Galilee in the Time of Christ," is, I may add, a very useful preparation for a trip through this part of Palestine.
Chapels have been erected to mark the home of Joseph and Mary, the carpenter shop and the rock where Christ met His disciples after the resurrection, but one never feels certain about the identification of places selected so long after the death of Christ and having no permanent physical marks.
A few miles to the east of Nazareth is a village called Cana which claims to be the "Cana of Galilee" where the first miracle was performed, and a church has been erected over a well from which, it is argued, the water was taken that was turned into wine, but two other villages with similar names contest the honor with this Cana.
