UC-NRLF 
 
 2fl7 
 
 
 OUNTA 
 BIBLE 
 
 HBH 
 
GIFT OF 
 
MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 BY 
 J. J. SUMMERBELL 
 
 Author of " Scripture Doctrine," " Life and 
 Writings of N. Summerbell," "Outline 
 of Church History of the First 
 Six Centuries," etc. 
 
 BOSTON 
 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1912 
 
 . . .SlfERMANj FjiJE^CH & COMPANY 
 
 
 .' 
 
 1 t * * I 
 
 :;,,:A-..' 
 
TO 
 
 MY WIFE 
 
 ISABELLA F. V. SUMMERBELL 
 
 WHOSE INCENTIVE AND ASSISTANCE MADE 
 
 THE WORK OF THIS BOOK A DELIGHT 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 A few weeks ago I was reading a late address 
 of the great mountain climber of the Himalaya 
 Mountains, and was fascinated by the charm of 
 his modesty, as well as that natural attraction 
 which the overcoming of difficulties always pre- 
 sents. He stated that he believed that the top 
 of the highest peak there could never be reached 
 by climbing. 
 
 It is unnecessary to repeat his convincing 
 scientific reasoning. But the mere statement 
 of his opinion excited the desire to prove that 
 it could be done; that is, that he was in er- 
 ror in announcing that anything was impos- 
 sible, that depended on endurance of suffering 
 or on foresight and endeavor. 
 
 There are mountains more important than 
 the Himalayas ; some of those mentioned in the 
 Bible. They have interest from their height 
 and from their associations. And some of them 
 are very hard to climb. But when the summit 
 of a certain one of them is reached, the spirit- 
 ual athlete is nearer the Great White Throne 
 than he may be who first reaches the top of Ev- 
 erest. 
 
 Let us take a trip to these mountains of the 
 Bible, without leaving our quiet, comfortable 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 homes ; taking down a book here and there from 
 our library shelves,, and studying the maps and 
 the records of travel and history. It is an age 
 of excursions. This trip will not cost us any- 
 thing worth saving; only that which it is ad- 
 vantageous to lose. The best guide book may 
 be the Holy Bible. Let us yield to the gentle 
 influence, and subdue somewhat the desire for 
 mere adventure. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ARARAT .1 
 
 HOREB 3 
 
 MOUNT HOR . 11 
 
 MOUNT NEBO 18 
 
 MOUNT HERMON FIRST CHRISTIAN PRAYER 
 
 MEETING . . . 26 
 
 LEBANON 36 
 
 MOUNT CARMEL DOGMA IMPORTANT .... 40 
 
 THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES 4*8 
 
 MOUNT GILBOA 52 
 
 MOUNT MORIAH 54 
 
 OLIVET JESUS' GREATEST TEMPTATION . 58 
 
 CALVARY CAUSE OF THE CRY, "ELOI" . . 74 
 
ARARAT 
 
 We need not stop at Ararat: for the Bible 
 itself does not speak of any single mountain as 
 that memorable stepping stone from the ante- 
 diluvian world to the new; the language of the 
 Bible describing the ark as resting "upon the 
 mountains of Ararat" ; as if Ararat were then 
 a region, rather than a mountain. 
 
 And this wise arrangement of Providence has 
 so well prevented the idolatry that would prob- 
 ably have resulted from certainty as to the 
 peak, that mountains as far apart as those of 
 the Caucasus, Ceylon, Armenia, Afghanistan 
 and northern India, have been selected as the one 
 from which Noah's family descended. 
 
 But if we accept the double peak in Armenia, 
 whose highest point is 17,230 feet above the sea, 
 capped with eternal ice and snow, not scaled 
 until 1829 by Dr. Parrot, as the right moun- 
 tain, we will have legend and tradition to sup- 
 port us. The conical symmetry and sunlight 
 glory of this mountain, looking from whose sides 
 other mountains seem like hills, make it appear 
 like a landmark ; and we can easily imagine that 
 from its foothills the tide of migration natur- 
 ally flowed early southward to the fertile plains 
 of Babel. 
 
; | / ; 
 
 2 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 But "Ararat," on which the ark of Noah 
 rested, was not a single mountain, and is not 
 so referred to in the Bible. I believe the word 
 "Ararat" occurs in but one other place (Jer. 
 51: 27), reading thus: 
 
 "Call together against her the kingdoms of Ara- 
 rat, Minni and Ashkenaz." 
 
 Since writing the foregoing I looked into a 
 great religious cyclopedia for the word, and 
 find that it is not treated at all. 
 
HOREB 
 
 Let us now go to Horeb, the "Mount of 
 God," between the two arms of the Red Sea, 
 one of which the Israelites crossed by the help 
 of God in their escape from the bondage of 
 Egypt. It was there that God gave the ten 
 commandments to men, by the hand of Moses. 
 It is the mountain to which Elijah went forty 
 days and forty nights, in his great flight from 
 the land where his duty lay. And it was there 
 that God asked him, "What doest thou here, 
 Elijah?" Generations earlier, Moses, who also 
 had fled from the land of duty, after having 
 killed an Egyptian, led his flocks nearer the 
 foot of this mountain, and saw a bush that 
 burned with fire and was not consumed. 
 
 It is distinguished as no other height in the 
 history of the world, except Mt. Calvary, and 
 that other elevation where Jesus delivered the 
 discourse called the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 How strange it is that the exact location of 
 these mountains is somewhat uncertain; al- 
 though events happened on them that have in- 
 fluenced the destinies of the world more than any 
 other ! It must be that the same Jehovah that 
 has ever veiled his face, the same Jehovah that 
 
 3 
 
4 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 prevented any likeness of his Son Jesus from 
 being preserved by his disciples, has carefully 
 kept uncertain to us the exact places of the 
 ratification of the Old Covenant and the New 
 Covenant; influenced by the same motives that 
 caused him to keep secret the grave of his serv- 
 ant Moses. 
 
 But the tract in which Horeb of Sinai must 
 have stood is a wild, dreary and barren region. 
 There are crags and precipices, separated by 
 sandy defiles so narrow that they seem to make 
 the opposing cliffs frown on each other; all 
 desolate and terrific. There are springs and 
 streams flowing among the crags, where, 
 probably, the thousands of Israelites, while 
 waiting for the law, secured water for their 
 flocks and herds. Some traveler, whose name 
 I have forgotten, without doubt concerning this 
 part of Arabia Petraea, said, "It would seem as 
 if Arabia Petraea had once been an ocean of 
 lava, and while its waves were running moun- 
 tains high, it was suddenly commanded to stand 
 still." 
 
 Thus, blackened peaks of naked granite, 
 stand sentinel over sheer precipices more than a 
 thousand feet in height. In one place we may 
 pass through a wild defile into a level plain, two 
 miles long by two-thirds of a mile wide. Here 
 we may assume that Sinai frowns down : for the 
 conditions of the Bible history may here be 
 
HOREB 5 
 
 met. The plain comes to the foot of the ab- 
 rupt mountain, that might be "touched," or 
 not, according to the commandment of the Lord. 
 The desolate cliffs surrounding this space, so 
 suitable for a camp for many thousands, must 
 have lent help to Moses in his effort to bring 
 the Israelites into the disposition of awe and 
 reverence, suitable for receiving the law that 
 has become the "constitution of the civilized 
 world." 
 
 Since writing the foregoing, I have found, 
 in the pages of the "Common People" portion 
 of the "Christian," of Boston, in its issue of 
 April, 1911, probably from the pen of the son 
 of my friend, H. L. Hastings, the following 
 matter, which may further illustrate the pe- 
 culiarities of the mountain : 
 
 "THE MOUNT OF GOD. ... Few spots 
 on the face of the earth are invested with such 
 deep and solemn interest as that barren mountain 
 peak where Moses talked with God, 
 
 'When he proclaimed his holy law, 
 
 And struck the trembling tribes with awe.' 
 
 "Nearly in the center of the now desolate penin- 
 sula which stretches between the projecting horns 
 of the Red Sea, stands a triangular ledge of gran- 
 ite, griinstein, and porphyry rocks, rising between 
 8,000 and 9,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 and stretching over an extent of from twenty to 
 
6 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 thirty miles, rising at different points into lofty 
 peaks. In the northwesterly portion there are 
 the five peaks or heights of Serbal, 6,342 feet 
 above the level of the sea. Eastward of this, some 
 twenty miles, is Jebel Katherin, rising to the 
 height of 8,163 feet above the sea level. Beside 
 this is Jebel Musa, or Moses' Mount, about 7,000 
 feet above the level of the sea; and a little to the 
 north of this rises Ras-es-Sufsafeh, one of the 
 grandest of all the desert peaks. 
 
 "There have been differences of opinion as to 
 the particular mountain on which the law was 
 given, but the doubts seem now well nigh dispelled, 
 and travelers recognize one mountain which pos- 
 sesses all the natural features described in con- 
 nection with the giving of the law. It was a 
 'mount that might be touched,' or to the base of 
 which the multitude could approach, unless fenced 
 away; and it must have been a mountain having 
 an area in front of it sufficiently large to give room 
 for the vast multitude of the Israelites who gazed 
 upon the tremendous scene, when the mountain 
 was 'altogether on a smoke/ " 
 
 The mountain in which we are interested is 
 probably that now called by the Arabs Ras-es- 
 Sufsafeh. 
 
 From the higher parts of these mountains 
 can be seen arms of the Red Sea, a part of 
 Egypt, whose mighty army had so lately dis- 
 appeared in the waters, and territory within 
 a few days' journey of Jerusalem. I have 
 
HOREB 7 
 
 sometimes wondered if Moses, when looking 
 from those high peaks, did not gaze fixedly and 
 long into Egypt (with that eye that even forty 
 years afterward was "not dim"), to discover 
 the movements of new Egyptian armies that 
 might be mobilized and hurried this time to 
 compass the Gulf of Suez, and fall upon the 
 Hebrews while still in this desolate region be- 
 tween the two arms of the Red' Sea, to bring 
 them back again into bondage. For on these 
 heights Moses spent days and weeks, during 
 which the Egyptians might have gathered fresh 
 troops for a new pursuit of the Israelites, had 
 not the terrible calamity to the military related 
 in the book of Exodus awed the nation into 
 deep fear of their escaped slaves lingering mys- 
 teriously so long so near their borders. 
 
 On these peaks, from which Moses might 
 look into Egypt, he lingered long and often. 
 But probably it was only now and then that he 
 looked into the land of bondage: for around 
 him the trumpet was sounding, the lightning 
 was flashing, and the thunder of God was 
 rolling. From the midst of scenes of sublimity 
 the ten commandments were coming. Here 
 probably was Sinai; no forest or villages 
 among its black crags, towering upward 7,500 
 feet, or more. The mountain rose abruptly 
 from the plain; but must not be "touched." 
 The awe of the Israelites, caused by that com- 
 
8 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 mandment combined with the trumpet blasts, 
 the lightning flashes and the thunder roars of 
 the mountain, gradually died away in the long 
 waiting for Moses to come down. Though the 
 mountain smoked and trembled, and the glory 
 of the Lord covered it, imperceptibly the feel- 
 ings of fear in the hearts of the Israelites died 
 away, and the merely carnal sense asserted it- 
 self in the thought that all the impressive 
 phenomena of the mountain were only the effect 
 of natural causes ; an(i it may have seemed to 
 the people that possibly Moses himself, in the 
 mountain's convulsions (that might reasonably 
 be attributed to volcanic activity, as far as 
 they knew), might have lost his life. 
 
 At least, the Israelites wearily said, "As for 
 this Moses, the man that brought us up out of 
 the land of Egypt, we know not what is become 
 of him." The time had been so long! They 
 forgot that before Moses brought them to 
 Horeb, he had smitten the rock at Rephidim, 
 not far away, and water had come for them and 
 their flocks in time of need. They did not 
 reason that the God who had been their salva- 
 tion in distress, would continue to protect 
 them; they "knew not what had become of" 
 Moses. They had trusted in man, and the 
 man had disappeared. Man will always dis- 
 appear, if he is our final reliance. If we trust 
 in man, or his sciences, or his achievements, or 
 
HOREB 9 
 
 his riches, or his intellect, or his prestige, the 
 time will come of weariness, of loss and bewil- 
 derment. The Israelites had lost Moses. 
 They made a golden calf, and worshiped it at 
 the foot of Horeb, on whose heights Moses was 
 communing with the Lord. 
 
 But Moses returned. He ground the calf 
 to powder. The fury of the prophet subdued 
 the people again. And there they stayed, at 
 the foot of the mountain, though they had 
 made a god to go before them. They stayed 
 at the foot of that mounain ; they who wanted 
 to travel; they who were progressive and mod- 
 ern. They knew that the most learned men of 
 Egypt honored calves. They felt like being 
 learned and cultured; and desired to escape 
 from the superstition of honoring God, whose 
 existence they could not prove by material dem- 
 onstrations. To honor an invisible God seemed 
 so much like believing in ghosts and fairies ; and 
 they chose to worship something material. 
 That was the real reason why they had made a 
 golden calf. 
 
 But Moses ground it to powder, and made 
 them drink it. He gave them solid (liquid) 
 proof that they had just had a god. And then 
 he left them again and went up into the moun- 
 tain. And they had nothing that they could 
 see, that they could worship: for Moses in his 
 anger at their making a god, whose existence 
 
10 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 could scientifically be proved, dashed against 
 the rocks the tables of divine law he had 
 brought down. 
 
 But later, Moses came again down from that 
 mountain with law on stone ; "a law cloud-em- 
 broidered ; a law fire-begirt" ; a law stony in 
 terms, angular with negatives, like a bullet in 
 its directness of piercing. It did not carry 
 along in itself the proof that it had come from 
 God ; but it was not unworthy of God. And if 
 that law of Horeb were everywhere obeyed the 
 human family would live on a level not far be- 
 low the angels, and the world would again be- 
 come the garden of Eden. 
 
 And Mount Horeb, with all its desolation, 
 shines with the glory of the decalogue. The 
 earth is illuminated with Sinai's stony bright- 
 ness. Its beams and rays shine over all Chris- 
 tian lands, made softer and sweeter year by 
 year and century after century by the radiance 
 descending from Calvary's lowly height, that 
 somehow seems to mingle and temper and sub- 
 due Horeb's stony glare; so that the law of 
 stone becomes a commandment of affection. 
 And we can more easily walk in heaven's light 
 shining through the loving death of Jesus. 
 
 Now let us go to Mount Nebo and Mount 
 Hor ; and go more slowly and tread more softly ; 
 for they are the death chambers of two proph- 
 ets, Aaron and Moses. 
 
MOUNT HOR 
 
 If a traveler wished to go from Mount Sinai, 
 or Horeb, to visit the mountain where Moses 
 died, he would probably arrange his journey in 
 such a way as to pass by M,ount Hor, where 
 Aaron, the brother of Moses, died, no matter 
 which one of the two mountains in our time 
 named by critics be accepted as the correct 
 one. For both mountains claimed by the 
 critics to be Mount Hor fulfill the conditions 
 of the Bible history as closely as would be 
 reasonable after the lapse of thousands of 
 years. Both mountains have bold and strik- 
 ing appearance on approaching them; and the 
 modern traveler, moving through ridges of 
 light drifting sand, or over surfaces made un- 
 even by stones, would frequently ask himself if 
 the Hebrews in the time of Aaron endured such 
 hardships. 
 
 We do not stop to discuss which of the two 
 mountains is the correct one : for in either case 
 Mount Hor is the conspicuous one for a long 
 distance. 
 
 As the Christian traveler would approach, 
 he would draw forth his pocket Bible, and read 
 the following dignified and impressive account, 
 in Numbers 20: g-9, of the death of Aaron: 
 
 "And they journeyed from Kadesh: and the 
 11 
 
12 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 children of Israel, even the whole congregation, 
 came unto Mount Hor. And Jehovah spake unto 
 Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of 
 the land of Edomj saying, Aaron shall be gathered 
 unto his people; for he shall not enter into the 
 land which I have given unto the children of Is- 
 rael, because ye rebelled against my word at the 
 waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his 
 son, and bring them unto Mount Hor; and strip 
 Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Elea- 
 zar his son, and Aaron shall be gathered unto his 
 people, and shall die there. And Moses did as 
 Jehovah commanded : and they went up into Mount 
 Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And 
 Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put 
 them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there 
 on the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar 
 came down from the mount. And when all the 
 congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept 
 for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.'* 
 
 Aaron was at his death one hundred and 
 twenty three years old. It does not appear 
 that he died of old age, nor of nervous prostra- 
 tion; but at the command of the Lord; like a 
 child falling asleep in the arms of its mother. 
 He went up into the mountain to die, and died. 
 His high priest's garments he would need no 
 more; and he suffered Moses to remove them. 
 Possibly with his own fingers he adjusted them 
 on Eleazar becomingly; while doing so, giving 
 advice concerning their care. 
 
MOUNT HOR 13 
 
 He had served as priest a full generation. 
 He had been ready of tongue, when Moses was 
 slow of speech. He had gone with his brother 
 into the land of Egypt before the greatest mon- 
 arch of what was then the western world, and 
 demanded that a race of slaves be allowed to 
 escape. But yet he had been so dependent on 
 the integrity of Moses, his younger brother, 
 that when he had been deprived of his help for 
 a time, as at Sinai, he had yielded to the ma- 
 terialistic reasonings of the Hebrews, who had 
 already lost their belief in the miracles and 
 providence of an invisible God, and made them 
 a golden calf. In all ages human beings easily 
 lose their touch with invisible truth. This is 
 what is to be expected of the animal life, or the 
 carnal. Dogs do not believe in God. Swine, 
 as far as we understand them, do not have 
 prophets. Saloon-keepers do not keep open 
 Bibles on the bar. And the nearer man comes 
 to living the life of the brute, the less inclined 
 he is to obey the prophet, ; though more inclined 
 to superstitions based on the direction of the 
 new moon from his right shoulder, or the hedge- 
 hog's shadow on February 2d. . . . Yes; 
 Aaron had made for the Hebrews a golden calf : 
 for Moses their prophet had disappeared, and 
 their Jehovah was invisible. 
 
 But it does not, from the narrative in Num- 
 bers, appear that the Lord treasured up for 
 
14 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 vengeance the idolatry of the golden calf; but, 
 at the waters of Meribah, Moses and Aaron 
 had possibly assumed to themselves a power in 
 bringing water from the rock for the people 
 to drink that obscured the glory that should 
 have gone solely to that One who is really able 
 to work a miracle. The divine act was not 
 emphasized, and Moses and Aaron seemed as 
 if bringing water from the rock by some physi- 
 cal blow of their own. 
 
 Seldom, in the history of mankind, has any 
 man who has had the help of God ignored that 
 help and allowed the people to believe that the 
 wonderful work was human. Usually men 
 do the reverse: and attribute to the divine that 
 which is merely human. But in this connec- 
 tion we are reminded of that other class of 
 mankind: those who do not have the help of 
 God because of their worldly spirit, or real sin- 
 fulness. In their malice, or hate of spiritual 
 forces, these real enemies of righteousness, 
 when a great and good work is done for human- 
 ity by the Spirit of God, attribute it to evil 
 agencies. This is the sin against the Holy 
 Ghost; in its very nature an insult to God. 
 It says to God, This wonder is not the gift of 
 thy love, but is the work of the devil. It is 
 easily seen that this is a dangerous sin. 
 
 But it is always dangerous to ignore the dig- 
 nity or honor of the Most High. And at the 
 
MOUNT HOR 15 
 
 waters of Meribah when Aaron seemed to the 
 Israelites to perform the wonder, which realty 
 God's mercy had given to the thirsty people, 
 he did not immediately turn the thought of the 
 people to their divine Deliverer. This was dis- 
 pleasing to heaven. God demands his own 
 honor. Everything, in the final analysis, de- 
 pends on God. Everything, in the beginning, 
 has sprung from God. Such reasons made it 
 necessary for God to make the first command- 
 ment to refer to himself: "Thou shalt have no 
 other gods before me." "In the beginning, 
 God I" 
 
 But Aaron was neglectful of the divine 
 Helper. Therefore he was forbidden to enter 
 the promised land. What a sweet privilege it 
 would have been for him to have gone in with 
 the people he loved, and seen the land flowing 
 with milk and honey ; where long before Abra- 
 ham had led his flocks and fought his battles. 
 It was in that land, on Mount Moriah, that 
 Abraham, in obedience to the mysterious com- 
 mand of God, had been about to offer his son 
 Isaac as a sacrifice, when his hand was stayed, 
 and God provided the victim. How strange it 
 has been that some of the most exalted experi- 
 ences of the most spiritual servants of God 
 have been connected with the mountains ! 
 
 And Aaron was to die on Mount Hor. He 
 was a man of quick speech and ready tongue; 
 
16 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 but he made no reply when he heard the sen- 
 tence of Jehovah. 
 
 There was another time when Aaron held his 
 peace under judgment of the Most High: 
 
 At the time of the consecration of the taber- 
 nacle, his sons, Nadab and Abihu, had offered 
 strange fire before Jehovah, "which he had not 
 commanded them." And fire came forth from 
 before Jehovah and killed them. Then Moses 
 uttered words explaining the punishment of 
 Aaron's sons. But Aaron made no reply; he 
 "held his peace." So now he is silent. 
 
 Clad in his dignified robes of office as high 
 priest, serene and composed, with his brother 
 Moses, and his own son Eleazar, he ascends the 
 mountain, in the sight of all the people. His 
 life has proved to him one thing ; that God must 
 be obeyed. The ascent of the mountain is ex- 
 ceedingly steep and toilsome ; but Aaron makes 
 no protest, though he is one hundred and twenty 
 three years old, and now going to his own fu- 
 neral. He makes no plea to die at ease in his 
 tent ; but obedient now as a child he goes with 
 Moses and Eleazar to the top of the mountain. 
 There his garments are removed and placed on 
 the son. In the camp of Israel many hearts 
 must have ached as he climbed the mountain, 
 and many lips must have blessed him. With 
 all his faults he was their own priest. Many 
 of his faults were their faults. Nothwith- 
 
MOUNT HOR 17 
 
 standing them, he was one who a generation be- 
 fore had boldly entered the palace of Pharaoh, 
 to demand their freedom. He had been on their 
 side all the way along, from the time when 
 Moses undertook to deliver them. Their grief 
 for their great high priest was made more in- 
 tense at the foot of Mount Hor by the thought 
 that in the years now ending there had been 
 times when they had been so impatient with 
 him that they were ready to stone him. But 
 now the multitudes gazed at the sides and top 
 of Mount Hor in deep silence, with earnest 
 grief, and reverential awe. For Aaron is dy- 
 ing is ascending. His death-bed is a moun- 
 tain. His canopy is the sky. Stripped of his 
 official garments, his last look is not from some 
 human window, asking relatives to stand aside 
 to let him see once more the green meadow and 
 the winding river; but he looks from the moun- 
 tain top over a barren desert south of the 
 Dead Sea. If he sees, west of the Dead Sea, 
 the low lying mountains of the south of Judea, 
 it is not mentioned : for Mount Hor is the more 
 interesting this day, since Aaron dies there. 
 Mount Hor is his death-bed and his tomb. 
 
MOUNT NEBO 
 
 If Mount Hor, where Aaron died, attracted 
 a languid interest, notwithstanding the uncer- 
 tainty as to the identity of the elevation up 
 which the Israelites saw him go with his brother 
 and son, that interest will possibly be greater 
 when we search for the peak from which the 
 great Moses viewed the promised land before he 
 died. On almost any expedition from Mount 
 Hor to Mount Nebo, or Pisgah, which is over 
 against Jericho, among frightful, rocky, precip- 
 itous hills, we might leave the Dead Sea at our 
 left. That body of water must be mentioned, 
 as an important part of the landscape, with 
 all its depressing influence. Lying 1,300 feet 
 below the level of the Mediterranean, no re- 
 freshing breeze helps the traveler. Its water is 
 so salt that the spray kills ordinary vegetation, 
 notwithstanding the great heat. Desolation is 
 the appropriate word for most of the scenery 
 here. The effect of it can be understood from 
 the following description of Lieut. Lynch, of 
 one of his experiences during his exploration : 
 
 "A light air from the south induced me to aban- 
 don the awning, and I set the sail, to save the men 
 from laboring at the oars. A light tapping of the 
 18 
 
MOUNT NEBO 19 
 
 ripple of the bow, and a faint line of foam, and 
 bubbles at her side, were the only indications that 
 the boat was in motion. The other boat was a mile 
 astern, and all around partook of the stillness of 
 death. The weather was intensely hot, and even 
 the light air that urged us almost insensibly, had 
 something oppressing in its flaws of heat. . . . 
 "The glitter from the water, with its multitude 
 of reflections (for each ripple was a mirror), con- 
 tributed much to our discomfort; yet the water 
 was not transparent, but of the color of diluted 
 absinthe. The black chasms and rock peaks, em- 
 bossed with grimness, were around and above us, 
 veiled in a transparent mist, like visible air, that 
 made them seem unreal; and 1,300 feet below, our 
 sounding lead had struck upon the very plain of 
 Siddim, shrouded in slime and salts. While busy 
 with such thoughts, my companions had yielded to 
 the oppressive drowsiness and now lay before me 
 in every attitude of a sleep that had more of stu- 
 por in it than of repose. In the awful aspect 
 which this sea presented, when we first beheld it, I 
 seemed to read the inscription over the gates of 
 Dante's Inferno, 'Ye who enter here leave hope 
 behind/ Now, as I sat alone in my wakefulness, 
 the feeling of awe returned: and as I looked upon 
 the sleepers, I felt the hair of my flesh stand up 
 as Job's did" . . . (Lynch was wrong; this 
 was Eliphaz the Temanite) . . . "when a 
 spirit passed before his face; for to my disturbed 
 imagination, there was something fearful in the 
 expression of their inflamed and swollen visages. 
 The fierce angel of disease seemed hovering over 
 
20 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 them, and I read the forerunner of his presence in 
 their flushed and feverish sleep. The solitude, the 
 scene, my own thoughts, were too much; I felt, as 
 I sat thus steering the drowsily moving boat, as if 
 I were Charon ferrying not the souls, but the 
 bodies of the departed and the damned, over some 
 infernal lake, and could endure it no longer; but 
 breaking from my listlessness, ordered the sails 
 to be furled and the oars resumed; action seemed 
 better than such 1 unnatural stupor." (Travels and 
 Adventures, pp. 219-220.) 
 
 Along such depressing scenes, or among 
 rocks and hills appropriately encompassing 
 such waters, Moses may have passed during the 
 last days of his earthly life. And such scenes 
 may have served to increase his mental or 1 
 spiritual depression, caused by God's sentence 
 upon him for his sin at the waters of Meribah ; 
 that he should not enter the Promised Land 
 with the beloved people whom he had led to its 
 border. 
 
 Moses felt deeply this sentence of his God. 
 Like a child, petted by a loving father, he plead 
 with God to change the decree. How often he 
 importuned his heavenly Father we do not 
 know ; but it was so often that God at last told 
 him to quit, to cease ; like a mother wearied by 
 the teasing of a petted child. For we read the 
 following complaint of Moses about it, to the 
 children of Israel, when he attributes his mis- 
 fortune, in part, to them : 
 
MOUNT NEBO 21 
 
 "And I besought Jehovah at that time, saying, 
 O Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to show thy 
 servant thy greatness, and thy strong hand: for 
 what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can 
 do according to thy work, and according to 
 thy mighty acts? Let me go over, I pray thee, 
 and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, 
 that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But Jeho- 
 vah was wroth with me for your sakes, and heark- 
 ened not unto me; and Jehovah said unto me, Let 
 it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this mat- 
 ter. Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah, and*lift 
 up thine eyes westward, and northward, and south- 
 ward, and eastward, and behold with thine eyes: 
 for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But 
 charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen 
 him; for he shall go over before this people, and 
 he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou 
 shalt see" (Deut. 3:23-28). 
 
 Thus his teasing of God had no success, al- 
 though God loved him so. God told him to 
 stop talking about it; but he comforted his 
 child, by promising 1 to let him see the land from 
 a distance. 
 
 We may easily understand that Moses 
 stopped talking about it, when he received from 
 God the command we have quoted; that is, 
 stopped talking to God about it, although he 
 told his sorrow to the people. 
 
 And when the time came for the people to 
 cross over, and for Moses to die, he received 
 
22 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the following stern, final command from God: 
 "Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto 
 Mount Nebo which is in the land of Moab, that is 
 over against Jericho, and behold the land of Ca- 
 naan, which I give unto the children of Israel for 
 a possession: and die in the mount whither thou 
 goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as 
 Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was 
 gathered unto his people: because ye trespassed 
 against me among the children of Israel at the 
 waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of 
 Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of 
 the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land 
 before thee; but thou shalt not go thither into the 
 land which I give the children of Israel" (Deut. 
 32:49-52). 
 
 Moses had been a lawgiver to the Israelites ; 
 their commander in chief in battle ; the ambas- 
 sador at Pharaoh's court ; the messenger of 
 God in miracles ; their bard of almost divine 
 imagination ; their preeminent statesman in 
 administration; their judge when they sinned; 
 their uncrowned king, , whose scepter was the 
 rod that parted the waves of the Red Sea. 
 For forty years he had been their leader and 
 savior. Often they had rebelled against him, 
 and as often been subdued to humiliating sub- 
 mission. His tongue had lashed them in re- 
 buke ; and had more sweetly commanded them 
 to teach his law to their children. With a 
 prophet's confidence he had assured them of 
 
MOUNT NEBO 23 
 
 the Promised Land, and for a generation had 
 led them to and fro in a wilderness, where their 
 hopes were encouraged or disappointed, only in 
 less degree than his own. 
 
 And now, as the time approaches when they 
 are about to enter, Moses is commanded to 
 look and die. 
 
 Does this mean, that for the truly great, life 
 is a tragedy? Does it mean, after John the 
 Baptist has clearly pointed out "the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world," 
 and proved himself the greatest of men, that he 
 must die in prison on account of the hatred 
 of an insignificant woman whom he had ac- 
 cused of sin? Does it mean that when Paul 
 has fought the good fight he must be "ready 
 to be offered?" Does it mean that when 
 Stephen has borne his great witness he must 
 fall "asleep" under a shower of stones? Does 
 it mean that as soon as Jesus has fully founded 
 his kingdom he must be crowned with thorns 
 and throned on a cross? 
 
 No ; it only means that God knows of better 
 things than earthly triumphs. God can af- 
 ford to let his children suffer for a time, be- 
 cause he is great enough to set things right, no 
 matter what the disaster of earth may be. 
 God is wise enough to make "our light afflic- 
 tion, which is but for a moment, work out for 
 us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
 
24t MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 glory." God says, "Let there be light." 
 Therefore, knowing the greatness of God as 
 few men of earth have done, Moses obeyed 
 without a murmur. His sister, Miriam, the 
 prophetess, is dead. His brother, Aaron, the 
 high priest, is dead. Moses, 120 years old, 
 but with eye undimmed and his natural 
 strength unabated turns to the children of 
 Israel and blesses them, assuring them that 
 "under them are the everlasting arms." From 
 the plains of Moab, where they are encamped, 
 he goes with steady step to Nebo, over against 
 Jericho, and Jehovah shows him the land of 
 Canaan, north and south, east and west ; from 
 the Waters of Merom to the brine of the Dead 
 Sea; from the "palm trees" of Jericho and 
 east of there, to the vineyards of Ashkelon on 
 the west. 
 
 I have often imagined that Moses' un- 
 dimmed eye had greater help than physical 
 keenness: for in vain so far have travelers 
 sought a peak over against Jericho, whence 
 they could see all Canaan, even to Merom and 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 When Moses told the awestruck Israelites 
 that he was going to the top of Pisgah to sur- 
 vey the length and breadth of the Promised 
 Land, of which he had so often talked to them, 
 and that God would give him a vision of Ca- 
 naan before they could see it, and that God 
 
MOUNT NEBO 25 
 
 would give clear sight of all the land to his six 
 score years old eyes, and then tenderly close 
 them in death, because he had sinned at Meri- 
 bah, many a stalwart soldier must have felt his 
 heart beat with dread, and many a maiden must 
 have caught her breath in pity. 
 
 They saw him go away from the camp; they 
 saw him climb the heights. They knew that 
 all he had told them would come to pass: for 
 his every prediction for two score years had 
 been fulfilled. 
 
 And so Moses looked at Canaan. Then God 
 closed his eyes, kissed away his breath, and 
 buried him. 
 
MOUNT HERMON 
 FIRST CHRISTIAN PRAYER MEETING 
 
 Going northward from Mount Nebo, where 
 Moses died, all the time keeping the River 
 Jordan, the Sea of Galilee and the Waters of 
 Merom at our left, we reach the city of Goes- 
 area Philippi, near which Jesus was deter- 
 mined to question his disciples concerning his 
 greatness. The heavenly answer sprang to 
 the lips of Peter, that Jesus was "the Son of 
 the living God," the Christ. 
 
 When at the baptism of Jesus a similar 
 heavenly statement was made as he was coming 
 up out of the water, he was immediately driven 
 into the wilderness by the Spirit, and was 
 tempted by Satan. After the statement of 
 Peter at Csesarea Philippi, Jesus was again 
 tempted; but this time by that disciple who 
 opposed Jesus' prophecy of the coming cruci- 
 fixion so dangerously that Jesus rebuked him 
 and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan"; prob- 
 ably thinking of that former temptation of the 
 wilderness following the baptism, and the same 
 doctrine there stated. From Csesarea Phi- 
 lippi Jesus went northward, practically to the 
 extreme of the Holy Land, to one of its high- 
 est mountains, Mount Hermon, and there 
 96 
 
MOUNT HERMON 27 
 
 prayed and was transfigured before his three 
 favorite disciples, who now heard from the 
 glory cloud the statement of Peter made a 
 week before. (The opinion that he was trans- 
 figured on Mount Tabor is a mistake.) 
 
 On this Mount Hermon, at the edge of the 
 Promised Land, two great characters appeared 
 and talked with Jesus of the "departure which 
 he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Moses, 
 on another mountain, Mount Nebo, during one 
 of the sweetest seasons of his life, had been 
 with God, preparing for his own departure 
 from earth. Now on Mount Hermon he talked 
 with the Son of God concerning his departure. 
 Another great prophet also was at Mount 
 Hermon : Elij ah, who at Mount Horeb had 
 talked with God; Elijah, who at Mount Car- 
 mel had fought his great duel with the prophets 
 of Baal; Elijah, who took his departure from 
 earth by the whirlwind, with horses and char- 
 iot of fire, tempestuously, according to his 
 disposition, from the same mountainous re- 
 gion, over against Jericho, where Jehovah 
 gently nursed Moses to sleep. These two men, 
 of high ecstatic experiences on mountains, and 
 of singular departures from earth, on Mount 
 Hermon talked with the Son of God of his 
 departure which he was to accomplish from 
 Mount Calvary. 
 
 And here they were talking on a mountain, 
 
28 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ami talking in glory. And Jesus was 
 clothed in glory. Jesus had gone up there to 
 pray, possibly against temptation. Whether 
 he had gone beyond the snow line of the eleva- 
 tion rising more than 9,000 feet toward the sky 
 we have no way to know; but he certainly in 
 spirit came near to> heaven: for they all heard 
 a voice, a heavenly voice, saying, "This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
 There was another time when Jesus was on "an 
 exceeding high mountain," but there he was 
 tempted ; being shown the "kingdoms of the 
 world and the glory of them," and was offered 
 them as a bribe to compromise and use his 
 powers in harmony with popularity and 
 worldliness. And his only companion on that 
 "exceeding high mountain" was the devil. 
 
 But on Mount Hermon the company was 
 more delightful: Peter, James, John, Moses, 
 Elijah, and the Shekinah, from which came 
 the heavenly Voice announcing the sonship of 
 Jesus. Blessed company ! a company the most 
 select of the universe ! a company gathered 
 from heaven and earth, come to the Christian 
 prayer-meeting! Not very many of them, only 
 seven; but Jesus was "in the midst of them!" 
 
 Again consider that company on Mount 
 Hermon. 
 
 There was the great apostle, Peter. He was 
 a type of one class of Christians: the impul- 
 
MOUNT HERMON 29 
 
 sive, the emotional, the ready; ready at one 
 hour to fight for Jesus, and at another hour 
 ready to curse and swear, denying him; but 
 yet in the end dying for him. We cannot 
 spare the Peters of Christianity, even though 
 they may sometimes backslide. For it was 
 Peter who said, "God is no respecter of per- 
 sons ; but in every nation he that feareth him, 
 and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
 him." 
 
 And there was the apostle James. He was 
 a type of another kind of Christian: the 
 steady, the faithful, the burden-bearer; the 
 kind that can always be relied on, the pillar 
 in the church. We need such men as James, 
 to sustain the work of the church when the 
 Peters grow cold or lukewarm in the service. 
 It was James, probably, who said, "Blessed is 
 the man that endureth temptation; for when 
 he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, 
 which the Lord hath promised to them that 
 love him." 
 
 The third type of Christian there was John, 
 the beloved disciple; the loving, affectionate 
 Christian; drawn to the service of the Master 
 by his heart; preserving for humanity those 
 tender words of Jesus, "God so loved the 
 world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life." John was the man, 
 
30 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 the humble fisherman of Galilee, who antici- 
 pated by many centuries the vaunted discov- 
 ery of modern theologians concerning the dis- 
 position or character of God, and said, "God 
 is love." 
 
 Those three living men, apostles of Jesus, 
 were types of the Christian world. They had 
 not yet departed from the earth; and in 
 amazement were listening to the conversation 
 of two other men, who appeared in glory, and 
 were talking with Jesus of his departure, 
 "which he should accomplish from Jerusalem." 
 
 And those two men, Moses and Elijah, were 
 types also, as well as the three apostles. 
 
 Moses was the great lawgiver of the world; 
 Elijah the great prophet. 
 
 Moses' departure from the world had been 
 peculiar, and here on Mount Hermon he talked 
 about Jesus' departure, so different from his 
 own, when on Mount Nebo he was alone with 
 God, quietly falling asleep in Jehovah's arms. 
 I wonder if Jesus told him of the coming cruci- 
 fixion, as he had told his disciples, of the 
 slanders hurled against him, of blasphemy, or 
 treason; of the ribald gibes of the Jews about 
 his "making himself the Son of God, and com- 
 ing down from the cross that they might be- 
 lieve on him." If so, Moses must have recalled 
 his own sweet departure, cared for so tenderly 
 by Jesus' Father, on quiet Pisgah, after he 
 
MOUNT HERMON 31 
 
 had looked over the Promised Land, while 
 God's only Son died on a cross, in the midst of 
 jeering enemies, with no one to say a kind 
 word to him except a dying thief. 
 
 And Moses was a favored one of God; a 
 favorite; one so petted by the Almighty that 
 he sometimes spoke to God in resistance or 
 opposition to the revealed divine purposes. 
 
 Once God asked Moses to let him alone in 
 his anger with the Israelites on account of 
 their sin, announcing to Moses his plan to de- 
 stroy them, promising to raise up of Moses 
 himself "a great nation." Moses was so 
 familiar with the eternal Monarch that he 
 dared to resist this purpose, expostulating, and 
 appealing to God's mercy. And a little later 
 he cried out, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive 
 their sin," .... and in his grief for 
 Israel could not finish that prayer, but broke 
 down ; and as soon as he could recover himself 
 he cried, "If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of 
 thy book which thou hast written." Thus 
 Moses, in the familiar affection of an intimate 
 friend, dared God to destroy the sinners, pro- 
 fessing desire to share their fate. What could 
 God do to the Israelites but spare them, when 
 Moses loved them so? How this spirit of love 
 for sinners reminds us of Jesus' own prayer 
 on Calvary, "Father, forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do." And now this Moses, 
 
32 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 this lawgiver, who left the world in a peculiar 
 way, is talking 1 on Mount Hermon with Jesus, 
 of "his departure which he should accomplish 
 at Jerusalem." 
 
 Peter, James, John, Moses . . . four. 
 
 There was another typical man on Mount 
 Hermon, Elijah the prophet. 
 
 He was also a man whom God loved so much 
 that he bore with his failings indulgently; like 
 a father with a petted child. Once he ran 
 away from the land of Israel, from the coun- 
 try where his duty lay, down to Horeb in the 
 wilderness. On the way he became tired, and 
 lay down, and wished to die. God's angel 
 woke him, showed him food; and without re- 
 proving him for running away from Jezebel 
 when God was taking care of him, told him to 
 rise and eat, for the journey was too great for 
 him. When he got down to Horeb, and con- 
 sidered himself safely hidden from the wrath 
 of the wicked queen, whose theologians and 
 doctors of divinity he had killed, the voice of 
 conscience translated to him the question of 
 God, in the "still small voice," "What doest 
 thou here, Elijah?" 
 
 Petulantly, like the spoiled child that he 
 was, he answered, that he had done nothing 
 wrong, that he had a right to be there in 
 Horeb, excusing himself, saying, "I have been 
 very jealous for the Lord, God of hosts: be- 
 
MOUNT HERMON 33 
 
 cause the children of Israel have forsaken thy 
 covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain 
 thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I 
 only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it 
 away." 
 
 But still conscience speaks to him, "What 
 doest thou here, Elijah?" And he knows that 
 "still, small voice" to be the question of God 
 to him ; whether he stands at the entering in 
 of the cave, or hides in its thick darkness. 
 And wherever he replies to God, it is with the 
 cry of the petted child, claiming that he is 
 afraid for his life; that he has been a good 
 boy, that he "has been jealous for the Lord, 
 God of hosts," and that they seek his life, to 
 take it away. He is the "pet" of Jehovah. 
 How like a child he talks to God ! 
 
 But when God tells him to "Go, return on 
 thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and 
 when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king 
 over Syria," Elijah, again being given some- 
 thing to do, makes no protest, but obeys his 
 God, starting on the dangerous mission. 
 
 And when it came to the time of his depar- 
 ture from the earth, he did not die at all, he 
 who had been so afraid to die, but ascended 
 from the presence of Elisha in a whirlwind, 
 with a chariot and horses of fire. God did not 
 
 let him die at all ; he loved him so 
 
 And now on Mount Hermon this loved servant 
 
34, MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of God is talking with that other loved one, 
 Jesus, of Ms departure. 
 
 Peter, James, John, Moses, Elijah . . . 
 five. And of the five, two are pets of the Lord. 
 
 And while those two, Moses and Elijah, are 
 talking with Jesus , . . Oh! Jesus; that 
 makes six, so far, at this prayer-meeting on 
 Mount Hermon, where Moses and Elijah talk 
 with Jesus of his coming singular departure 
 from earth's activities, joys and sorrows. 
 
 And there comes another one . . . God ; 
 making the sacred number, seven, at this first 
 Christian prayer-meeting. 
 
 For a bright cloud overshadowed the six, 
 and a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is 
 my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; 
 hear ye him." 
 
 And this voice makes us know that there 
 were three favorites of God there, Moses, Eli- 
 jah and Jesus, all having singular departures 
 from earth; to which each one was directly 
 commanded by God. 
 
 And the impression of that meeting fell upon 
 the hearts of the disciples like showers of 
 divine blessings, to make them fruitful and 
 strong in later life; so that Peter, long after- 
 ward, said, "And this voice we heard out of 
 heaven, when we were with him in the holy 
 mount" (2 Pet. 1 :18.) 
 
 Even material Mount Hermon was a locality 
 
MOUNT HERMON 35 
 
 where physical dews descended in such fullness 
 as to attract the attention of travelers in 
 modern times. Mr. Maundrel says : "With 
 this dew, even in dry weather, their tents were 
 as wet as if it had rained the whole night." 
 But nineteen centuries ago a tent was there, 
 made of the glory of the Father's presence, 
 from which the comforting and refreshing 
 dews of divine grace sank into the hearts of 
 those who "entered into the cloud"; Peter, 
 James, John, Moses, Elijah, Jesus; that 
 blessed company, reminding us of the 153d 
 psalm : 
 
 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is 
 For brethren to dwell together in unity! 
 It is like the precious oil upon the head, 
 That ran down upon the beard, I 
 Even Aaron's beard; 
 
 That came down upon the skirts of his garments; 
 Like the dew of Hermon, 
 
 That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: 
 For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, 
 Even life forevermore." 
 
LEBANON 
 
 Let us leave Mount Hermon, with its great 
 height made sacred by the transfiguration of 
 Jesus ; let us cross the valley, going westward, 
 still refraining from entering the heart of the 
 Holy Land. While at a distance, looking at 
 the range commonly called Mount Lebanon, 
 we become mildly interested in it from its 
 splendor of color, notwithstanding its monot- 
 ony of form. The control of the full range, 
 of possibly one hundred miles, must largely be 
 assigned to the land of Tyre and Sidon ; al- 
 though its glory depends on the sacred writers 
 of the following books of the Bible: 
 
 Deuteronomy ; Isaiah ; 
 
 Joshua ; Jeremiah ; 
 
 Judges; Ezekiel; 
 
 Kings (1st and 2nd); Hosea; 
 
 2d Chronicles; Nahum; 
 
 Ezra; Habakkuk; 
 
 Psalms ; Zechariah. 
 
 Canticles ; 
 
 Singularly, Lebanon is not mentioned in 
 the New Testament by name; although Jesus 
 had one of the most pleasant experiences in 
 the borders of Tyre and Sidon, where he said 
 to the Syro-Phoenician woman, who had plead 
 
 36 
 
LEBANON 37 
 
 with him for only a crumb dropped "under the 
 table" by the children (the healing of her 
 daughter), "O woman, great is thy faith: be 
 it unto thee even as thou wilt." Yet great 
 crowds came from Tyre and Sidon into Israel 
 to hear his word. 
 
 The word Lebanon signifies white, and may 
 have been given to the range, from the tint of 
 the walls of chalk or limestone rocks, or the 
 snow which remains on the summits even in the 
 summer: for some peaks rise 10,000 feet. But 
 when we speak of Lebanon we never now think 
 of white, but of green; because of "the cedars 
 of Lebanon." These cedars were so appreci- 
 ated in ancient times that the kings of Assyria 
 when making expeditions into Palestine, cut 
 them and bore them to their far distant capi- 
 tals ; where, even in modern times, this wood 
 transported so far has been found. 
 
 But the destruction of these trees in Leb- 
 anon through the ages was so cruel, that as 
 early as the sixth century of our era the 
 Roman emperor, Justinian the Great, the cruel 
 persecutor of truth (in the name of truth) and 
 destroyer of the church (in the name of the 
 church), "found it difficult to secure cedar tim- 
 ber enough for the roof of a single church" 
 building. These trees are now so few that 
 travelers count them, and cyclopedias tell how 
 many are left at different dates : In 1550, only 
 
38 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 28; in 1573, only 24; in 1696, only 16; in 
 1749, only 15, when the traveler measured 
 twelve of them, and found their circumfer- 
 ences from 22 to 40 feet, and the diameters of 
 some of the largest about 16 feet. I have for- 
 gotten where I read it ; but one traveler's re- 
 port is that but five of these giants now re- 
 main. So destructive has man been of the 
 wonderful "cedars of Lebanon," among whose 
 groves Solomon had 80,000 men at work when 
 he built the temple at Jerusalem. (However, 
 one cyclopedia represents these trees as now 
 increasing in number.) 
 
 The beauty of these cedars, before the rav- 
 ages of civilization had laid the mountain 
 slope comparatively desolate, may be imagined, 
 or inferred, from the following words of the 
 Psalmist (92:12^15): 
 
 "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: 
 He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, 
 They are planted in the house of Jehovah; 
 They shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
 They shall bring forth fruit in old age; 
 They shall be full of sap and green: 
 To show that Jehovah is upright: 
 He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in 
 him." 
 
 If you read 1st Kings, 5th and 6th chap- 
 ters, you will see how the "cedars of Lebanon" 
 
LEBANON 39 
 
 entered into the building of the temple. If we 
 were living in ancient times, undoubtedly we 
 might mingle with the workmen of Hiram and 
 Solomon in the mountains of Lebanon; we 
 might observe their skill in cutting the tim- 
 bers and boards for the temple; we might at- 
 tend them in transporting this material to the 
 seaport; we might then take passage on one 
 of the rafts or floats by which the lumber was 
 transported to the port of Japho, west of Jeru- 
 salem. If so, we would pass with idly curious 
 eye the celebrated Mount Carmel, jutting out 
 into the Mediterranean; where Elijah, years 
 later, sent his servant to look out over the sea, 
 in expectation of the cloud that would betoken 
 rain in answer to his prayer, after he had 
 conquered the prophets of Baal. 
 
 But on our present excursion, having knowl- 
 edge of events which the builders of the tem- 
 ple at Jerusalem could not foresee, happening 
 nearly a hundred years later, we will simply 
 depart from Lebanon by land, making our way 
 southward to Mount Carmel. 
 
MOUNT CARMEL 
 DOGMA IMPORTANT 
 
 Mount Carmel, although the learned writers 
 in cyclopedias seem to labor to lure us away 
 from the tremendous events related in the 18th 
 chapter of First Kings, to this day, for us 
 derives its chief interest from those events. 
 
 And here the reader should refresh his 
 memory, by reading again that thrilling 
 record. 
 
 Some years before that time, Elijah the 
 Tishbite had met Ahab, the king of Israel, and 
 said, "As Jehovah, the God of Israel liveth, 
 before whom I stand, there shall not be dew 
 nor rain these years, but according to my 
 word." 
 
 The prophet fled immediately, and hid from 
 the king and the people of Israel. 
 
 Years passed, and there was no rain. 
 
 Necessarily the matter became one of na- 
 tional importance. The threat of the prophet, 
 and his prediction that rain would not come 
 except according to his word, made the king 
 and the statesmen desire to meet him. The 
 drouth and Elijah became subjects of domi- 
 nating interest. 
 
 But the years passed, there was no rain, 
 40 
 
MOUNT CAKMEL 41 
 
 famine came, and in vain did the king seek for 
 the prophet. Ambassadors were sent to for- 
 eign lands, and kings were questioned. The 
 famine became more and more grievous, but 
 Elijah could not be found. God was taking 
 care of him, commanding ravens to feed him 
 when in the wilderness for a time, and a poor 
 widow woman in Zarephath afterward. 
 
 That famine was brought on Israel because 
 the people had forsaken Jehovah, their true 
 God, and joined in the idolatrous worship of 
 the Baalim. 
 
 It is not necessary for us to enter into a 
 description of the theology of the worshipers 
 of the Baalim, or the various aspects, or mani- 
 festations, under which Baal was adored. But 
 his service was popular, harmonizing with 
 carnal appetites. The prophets who wor- 
 shiped him had received their instruction from 
 the filthy nations of heathendom; and, having 
 respect for the instruction they had received 
 in the schools of Baal, and from their Gentile 
 ancestors, were undoubtedly sincere. 
 
 If, even in our time, we go to the wrong 
 source of knowledge, turning from the law of 
 Moses and the word of Jesus to "the doctrines 
 and commandments of men" for instruction 
 concerning the true God, we are in danger of 
 religious disaster. God has made the firsit 
 commandment teach his own unity, because it 
 
4 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 is the commandment most important of all. 
 Its violation leads to all other sins; poisoning 
 the intellect, and making the victim unable to 
 reason correctly. Its violation, vitiates \thie 
 daily life ; making the sources of moral author- 
 ity uncertain or vile. Its violation debases 
 the spiritual nature: for God is spirit; and 
 they who worship him must worship him in 
 spirit and truth. In no other way can he be 
 truli/ worshiped, or truly be worshiped. 
 
 It is astonishing that Christians should 
 neglect this commandment, both in theory and 
 practice. But they do. And in this age, when 
 "covetousness is idolatry," Alexander Mc- 
 Laren D. D., in the Sunday School Times 
 of May 28th, 1887, used the following lan- 
 guage: 
 
 "The first commandment bears in its negative 
 form marks of the condition of the world when it 
 was spoken, and of the strong temptation to poly- 
 theism which the Israelites were to resist. Every- 
 where but in that corner among the wild rocks of 
 Sinai, men believed in gods many. Egypt 
 swarmed! with them. . . . All these many gods 
 were on amicable terms with one another, and 
 ready to welcome new comers. But the monothe- 
 ism which was here laid at the very foundation of 
 Israel's national life, parted them by a deep gulf 
 from all the world, and determined their history. 
 
 "The prohibition has little force for us," etc. 
 
MOUNT CARMEL 43 
 
 Oh! that there could have been an Elijah 
 looking over McLaren's shoulder, when he 
 wrote, "The prohibition has little force for 
 us," to rebuke him, notwithstanding all the 
 fine words which followed endorsing the first 
 commandment. If Elijah had been there, he 
 might have predicted to McLaren that there 
 would be a famine in Christendom of the Word 
 and Spirit of God for a quarter or half a cen- 
 tury; that the pastors of churches would be 
 unable to reach the masses of the working peo- 
 ple in the cities ; that so-called "revivals" 
 would become a product of human machinery ; 
 that instead of the Spirit's working as the 
 breathing of the wind, so that we would not 
 know "whence it came and whither it went," 
 we would know all about it; that the profes- 
 sional "evangelists" would tell us whence they 
 would come, how long they would stay, and 
 whither they would go ; that instead of leaping 
 on the altar, crying unto Baal, and cutting 
 themselves with knives, they would cut out all 
 church services but their own, make the rafters 
 tremble with grand music, and have the con- 
 gregations bow their heads and shut their eyes 
 while sinners bravely raised their hands to con- 
 fess their sins against God,, or secretly signed 
 the cards admitting that they had been serving 
 Ashtaroth. 
 
 In all ages and in all lands, Jehovah is neg- 
 
44 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 lected, except by those who walk with him and 
 keep his commandments. 
 
 In the time of Israel's idolatry, God brought 
 the famine on the land at the word of his 
 prophet. At last God commanded Elijah to 
 show himself to Ahab, to tell him that he would 
 bring rain on the earth. The meeting of the 
 king and prophet was stormy; but the king 
 obeyed the prophet, who said to him, 
 
 "Now therefore send, and gather to me all Is- 
 rael unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of 
 Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of 
 the Asherah four hundred, that eat at Jezebel's 
 table. 
 
 "So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, 
 and gathered the prophets together unto Mount 
 Carmel. And Elijah came near unto all the peo- 
 ple, and said, How long go ye limping between the 
 two sides? If Jehovah be God, follow him; but 
 if Baal, then follow him. 
 
 "And the people answered him not a word" (1 
 Kings 18:19-21). 
 
 Then came that duel, lasting for hours, on 
 Mount Carmel. The king, Ahab, had obeyed 
 the orders of Elijah, to gather the false proph- 
 ets and the people together there, near the 
 coast of the Mediterranean, about due west 
 from the sea of Galilee. . 
 
 Mount Carmel consists of a range of hills, 
 perhaps 1,500 or 1,600 feet high, adorned 
 
MOUNT CARMEL 45 
 
 with verdure, of fragrant wild flowers of many 
 kinds, pines, oaks, olive and laurel trees, with 
 brooks of clear water emptying into the 
 Kishon. The outlook from the graceful and 
 verdant summit is said to be beautiful, includ- 
 ing the sea and its fertile shores, the pastures 
 and fruit trees of the valleys, and the distant 
 blue of the mountains of Lebanon. 
 
 On what elevation of these hills, which jut 
 out into the Mediterranean like a promontory, 
 the people gathered at the word of Elijah, is 
 not known. 
 
 But there came that duel, lasting from the 
 forenoon till the evening, in the beginning of 
 which, when Elijah had called on the people 
 to choose between Jehovah and Baal, "the peo- 
 ple answered him not a word." 
 
 It was the prophet against the king; one 
 theologian against eight hundred and fifty; 
 one man against all Israel; one agitator 
 against a government; duty against popular- 
 ity. 
 
 But it was truth against error; it was right- 
 eousness against sin ; it was Jehovah against 
 Baal. And God took care of Elijah. 
 
 There are times when God visibly and very 
 plainly takes care of his children. Why will 
 men be so narrow that they cannot believe in 
 miracle? It is not breadth of mind that 
 sophists use to keep the infinite Chemist out 
 
46 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of his laboratory, the infinite Engineer away 
 from his machine, the infinite Father from 
 pleasing his faithful child. It is narrowness 
 of intellect that denies the possibility of mir- 
 acles. It is also narrowness of heart: for it 
 rejects the testimony of fellow men, unless the 
 sophist knows the event related (or something 
 like it) independently of the witness. But he 
 is unwise, whose only lamp is that of experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Elijah prayed to God, and fire fell from 
 heaven and consumed the sacrifice that lay on 
 the altar that Elijah had built; the fire burnt 
 up the stones of the altar; the fire licked up 
 the water that was in the trench about the 
 altar. The miracle was evident, and the peo- 
 ple accepted Jehovah as the true God. 
 
 And Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel. He 
 prayed for rain. The drouth had brought 
 the famine, and the people were suffering. 
 Elij ah prayed, with his face toward the earth ; 
 and would not look out toward the west, from 
 where the rain would come. He sent his serv- 
 ant to look ; but the servant reported no sign 
 of rain. But Elijah sent him back seven 
 times. Ah ! this favored child of God, this pet, 
 will not let Jehovah alone. He keeps on ask- 
 ing, and asking, and asking, and asking, and 
 asking, and asking, and asking for rain. 
 
 At last the servant reports the cloud of the 
 
MOUNT CARMEL 47 
 
 size of a man's hand; and Elijah knows that 
 God will answer this prayer also ; and he hur- 
 ries to A!iab, to tell the king to hasten to his 
 capital. And they leave Mount Carmel, racing 
 furiously to escape from the drenching rain. 
 But from this time forward, Mount Carmel 
 will be remembered with Mount Nebo, with 
 Mount Horeb, with Mount Hermon and other 
 heights, where the earth came near to the skies, 
 because God's petted children there prayed to 
 him; they who "feared God and worked right- 
 
THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 
 
 Although willing to tarry among the trees 
 and flowers of Mount Carmel, made sacred by 
 the faith of Elijah, we realize that we have not 
 yet entered the heart of the Promised Land, 
 where there are two or three mountains of 
 deep interest to the follower of the Savior ; and 
 we turn our faces eastward, bearing slightly to 
 the north; and off to the northwest of the Sea 
 of Galilee, only a few miles west of Capernaum, 
 there is a mountain that meets the conditions 
 required for the Mount of Beatitudes, where 
 the Sermon on the Mount was delivered by 
 Jesus. 
 
 Elijah was not the only servant of God who 
 had felt the hatred of sinners. 
 
 The animosity of Jesus' enemies had so 
 grown that he needed his Father's help, and 
 he went out into a mountain, where he con- 
 tinued all night in prayer. In the morning he 
 called to him his disciples, chose from them 
 twelve, and then descended to a lower plateau 
 on the mountain, where travelers tell us there 
 is a level space that might accommodate about 
 2,000 people ; and there he delivered that series 
 of "blessings," commonly called the beatitudes. 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount, of which they 
 48 
 
THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES 49 
 
 are the opening sentences, is one of the most 
 remarkable productions preserved by human 
 beings. Merely from the intellectual point of 
 view, it makes that mountain shine with eter- 
 nal splendor; and men have been for centuries 
 picturing the disciples and the multitudes 
 crowding around Jesus and breathlessly listen- 
 ing to utterances that have nothing like them, 
 even in feeble degree, since the old Hebrew 
 prophets closed their lips, except the stirring 
 words of John the Baptist. Any of the follow- 
 ing points of the Sermon on the Mount would 
 have made any literary writer or platform ora- 
 tor, of any age, immortal : the beatitudes ; 
 the parable of the two builders (on rock and 
 sand) ; the Golden Rule ; the doctrine of moral 
 perfection; the defense of the "law and the 
 prophets"; the "Lord's Prayer"; "love your 
 enemies" ; "swear not at all" ; give and pray 
 secretly; "lay up for yourselves treasures in 
 heaven"; "consider the lilies"; "judge not"; 
 "by their fruits ye shall know them" ; sonship 
 to the Most High; narrow is the gate that 
 leadeth unto life; "ask, and it shall be given 
 you" ; the burden of riches ; the Fatherhood 
 of God. 
 
 Obedience to this one sermon would make a 
 man prayerful, loving, spiritual, and "perfect, 
 even as our Father in heaven is perfect." It 
 reveals the brotherhood of man, and our kin- 
 
50 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 ship to heaven. The disciple that obeys it has 
 a flight higher than that of the "birds of the 
 heaven," and a raiment more golden than that 
 of the "lilies of the field." He learns that 
 "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"; 
 and that the heavenly Father knows what man 
 needs. 
 
 The Mount of Beatitudes may not be snow- 
 capped ; but it is in one sense so high that only 
 the perfect man can climb it. It is so high 
 that he who has mastered the principles of its 
 great sermon is so near to the heavenly Father 
 that he can feel the beating of the dlivine 
 heart. 
 
 The Mount of Beatitudes is so high that he 
 who reaches its top has risen out of the boggy 
 swamps or lonely wastes of selfishness forever; 
 he has passed out of the stupefying and poi- 
 sonous carbonic acid gas of infidelity ; he has 
 escaped from the metaphysical fogs ; and with 
 clear vision and a "pure heart he sees G-od." 
 
 On Mount Sinai only Moses might see God. 
 On the Mount of Beatitudes any one may look. 
 
 Mount Sinai spells law. Mount of Beati- 
 tudes spells love. 
 
 The law of Mount Sinai bristles with nega- 
 tives, was stony ; but would, if obeyed, make the 
 earth a Paradise. The law of the Mount of 
 Beatitudes is mellow with the music of af- 
 firmatives, is alive with heavenly pulsations, 
 
THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES 51 
 
 and would take earth's paradise, prepared by 
 stony law, and transform it into a spiritual 
 heaven. 
 
 Mount Sinai, the mount of Moses' law, was 
 near the Red Sea, the dividing gulf from 
 heathen darkness and sinful oppression ; and 
 in a wilderness ; and only glared to the Israel- 
 ites for a short time with deterring lightnings. 
 But the Mount of Beatitudes was in the 
 Promised Land, and shines to this day with 
 the winning smiles of Jesus' love. 
 
MOUNT GILBOA 
 
 We leave the Mount of Beatitudes and go 
 southward, leaving the Sea of Galilee on our 
 left. Then we may pass Mount Gilboa, made 
 famous by the death of Saul, the king of Israel. 
 It is this event which prompted the poet Byron 
 to write the "Song of Saul before His Last 
 Battle," in such a way that the poet's genius 
 casts a kind of glamour over the character of 
 this king, who, to the end of his long reign, 
 was like an artless boy, either self-willed and 
 stubborn, or superstitious and chivalrous. 
 Byron makes him speak as follows to his troops 
 before his last battle with the enemies of his 
 country, notwithstanding his flight in Mount 
 Gilboa, and his suicide there : 
 
 "Warriors and chiefs ! should the shaft or the 
 
 sword 
 
 Pierce me in leading the hosts of the Lord, 
 Heed not the corse, tho' a king's in your path : 
 Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! 
 
 "Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, 
 Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the 
 
 foe, 
 
 Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet ! 
 Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet. 
 52 
 
MOUNT GILBOA 53 
 
 "Farewell to others, but never we part, 
 Heir to my royalty, son of my heart ! 
 Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway, 
 Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day." 
 
 But the romantic touch of Lord Byron could 
 not make Mount Gilboa even seem to be the 
 scene of events that turned the destinies of 
 mankind, like other mountains mentioned in the 
 Bible. And we tarry only long enough to 
 find in our Bible the curse uttered by David 
 against Mount Gilboa, because of the death 
 there of Saul and Jonathan: 
 
 "Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places ! 
 How are the mighty fallen! 
 Tell it not in Gath, 
 
 Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; 
 Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
 Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 
 Ye mountains of Gilboa, 
 Let there be no dew or rain upon you, neither 
 
 fields of offerings: 
 For there! the shield of the mighty was vilely cast 
 
 away, 
 The shield of Saul, as of one not anointed with 
 
 oil." 
 
MOUNT MORIAH 
 
 We resume our journey to the southward, 
 bearing 1 a little to the west, that we may pass 
 Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, celebrated as 
 the mountains over against each other where 
 the Hebrews assembled. Almost between them, 
 in the valley, was probably the well where Jesus 
 met the Woman of Samaria. When she talked 
 about worshiping God in that mountain (Ebal 
 or Gerizim,) Jesus insisted that locality was 
 not the chief element in worship, but "truth 
 and spirit" ; for God is spirit. 
 
 But let us go down (or up, as the ancients 
 would say) to Jerusalem. It was a city of 
 mountains. The Psalmist l&5:l- said: 
 
 "They that trust in Jehovah 
 Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but 
 
 abideth forever. 
 
 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 
 So Jehovah is round about his people 
 From this time forth and forevermore." 
 
 There we find Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, 
 Mount Calvary and the Mount of Olives. But 
 let us imagine and meditate concerning Mount 
 Moriah. 
 
 The name is said to signify that Jehovah 
 54 
 
MOUNT MORIAH 55 
 
 provides, or sees, or chooses. And we fancy 
 that the name may have been given, because on 
 that mountain God provided the victim for the 
 faithful Abraham, whom he had commanded to 
 offer his son as a sacrifice. 
 
 Destructive critics have taught that Abra- 
 ham was mistaken in thinking that God had 
 given this commandment; that Abraham was 
 rather infected by the contagion of the sur- 
 rounding idolatrous influences ; and they have 
 thus done away with revelation in what they 
 call "the story." But we do not follow them. 
 Let those whose lives are comparatively barren 
 in spiritual effectiveness be modest in contra- 
 dicting statements of spiritual giants concern- 
 ing experiences and events recorded in honest 
 records preserved by a race of mankind that 
 has produced not merely one religious leader, 
 but a procession of mighty prophets through 
 the ages. They have done things, and known 
 things, and felt things, that critics can no more 
 understand than common mosquitos can com- 
 prehend of the working of a steam engine. 
 
 On Mount Moriah Abraham, in obedience to 
 God, was about to sacrifice his son, when the 
 angel's call stayed his hand, and another vic- 
 tim was provided. How often God provides 
 for the needy! It could not have been far 
 from Mount Moriah that God provided the 
 "Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world." 
 
56 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 But on that spot where Abraham's hand was 
 stayed, the Jews think, stood the altar of 
 burnt offerings of their temple in later years. 
 There was the temple of Solomon. There was 
 the threshing floor where David offered the 
 sacrifice, after he had sinned in numbering the 
 children of Israel ; refusing to take the place 
 as a gift from the owner. It is supposed that 
 there stood the temple of Herod, that caused 
 the Jews to boast to Jesus, "forty and six years 
 was this temple in building." The historical 
 associations that may be connected with Mount 
 Moriah, if we have correctly identified the 
 place, are so many that they forbid us to 
 gratify our imagination; and all that we do is 
 to recollect that here trod the feet of Abraham, 
 Isaac, David, Solomon, and generations and 
 generations of worshiping Hebrews, until 
 finally Jesus came and showed the world that 
 God was not confined to a Holy of Holies in a 
 tabernacle or temple, but might be found in 
 the hearts of his children anywhere. And 
 when we think of Jesus as treading and teach- 
 ing on Mount Moriah, we look over to the east- 
 ward, across the Brook Kedron, and see the 
 Mount of Olives, from which Jesus ascended to 
 heaven, from the sight of his wondering dis- 
 ciples. And we will go there before we go to 
 Calvary. 
 
 But as we go, thinking of Mount Moriah, the 
 
MOUNT MORIAH 57 
 
 Mount of Olives, and of Calvary, and how the 
 nations of the earth have sought the law from 
 Jerusalem, we cannot avoid recalling the words 
 of the prophet (Micah 4:l-&) about it, which 
 are yet only in part fulfilled, though they are 
 made the foundation of many Christian an- 
 thems sung by choirs in our modern sabbath 
 services to this day: 
 
 "But in the latter days it shall come to pass, 
 that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be es- 
 tablished on the top of the mountains, and it shall 
 be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow 
 unto it. And many nations shall go and say, 
 Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Je- 
 hovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and 
 he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in 
 his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
 and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; and he 
 will judge between many peoples, and will decide 
 concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall 
 beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears 
 into pruninghooks ; nation shall not lift up sword 
 against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
 more.'* 
 
OLIVET 
 
 JESUS' GREATEST TEMPTATION 
 
 So little does the Holy Land now look like 
 the closely populated country of our Savior's 
 time, that the traveler of our own generation 
 must lose some of the realism of his imagina- 
 tion based on the impressions concerning it de- 
 rived from the Bible. However, the accounts 
 of modern travelers may help us who do not 
 visit the land, in some degree. How different 
 Jerusalem must seem now from that time when 
 it was so beautiful ; before it rebelled, and while 
 a Roman procurator was executive ; when Jesus 
 visited the temple that had been forty and six 
 years in building; and where he predicted 
 Jerusalem's overthrow during that generation, 
 so that the disciples, remembering his direc- 
 tions (Luke 21:21), escaped from the Roman 
 maneuvering armies to the mountains, while 
 the thousands of fanatical Jews were cooped 
 up in the city, and during the siege were killed, 
 starved, captured, and crucified! 
 
 In the time of Jesus, if one were to go from 
 
 Mount Moriah down across the Brook Kedron 
 
 toward the east, he would ascend the Mount 
 
 of Olives, on whose eastern slope at Bethany 
 
 58 
 
OLIVET 59 
 
 the Savior was a welcome guest on the nights 
 of the last week of his life. 
 
 From the summit of the M;ount of Olives the 
 Dead Sea may be seen, even the water of it, 
 though distant nearly a day's brisk riding. It 
 is at a level of more than 3,900 feet below: 
 for the Dead Sea lies lower than the ocean. 
 Looking to the westward from the mountain, 
 which is a low ridge of hills, the whole of 
 Jerusalem may be seen. We may easily under- 
 stand how Jesus, on looking at the city of the 
 Great King, calling to mind the stubborn un- 
 belief of the ecclesiastics there and the coming 
 desolation of the city, would be touched with 
 tender pity. He wept over the coming de- 
 struction of Jerusalem, and the self-sufficient 
 egotism of its cultivated citizens. In their 
 times they were "modern" and "progressive," 
 interpreting away the law of God, and making 
 it void by their traditions. The Sadducees 
 even contradicted the prophets, and denied the 
 possibility of a resurrection. They were so 
 learned. But Jesus knew more about human 
 nature than they did, and could see farther 
 into the future than they could; and on the 
 Mount of Olives he wept over Jerusalem. 
 
 But it was fitting that the king, whose com- 
 ing the prophets had foretold, should "sud- 
 denly come to his temple," though the prophet 
 (Mai. 3:1) had said a "messenger" would pre- 
 
60 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 cede and "prepare the way before him"; and 
 that in some way he should have a triumphal 
 entry into his earthly capital. And this event 
 is described by the Dean of Westminster as 
 follows : 
 
 "Two vast streams of people met that day. 
 The one poured out from the city (John 12:12- 
 13); and as they came through the gardens whose 
 clusters of palm trees rose on the southeastern 
 corner of Olivet, they cut down thd long branches, 
 as was their wont at the feast of tabernacles, and 
 moved upward toward Bethany 1 with shouts of wel- 
 come. From Bethany streamed forth, crowds 
 who had assembled there on the previous night, 
 and who came testifying to the great event 
 at the sepulchre of Lazarus. In going toward 
 Jerusalem the road soon loses sight of Bethany. 
 It is now a rough but still broad and well-defined 
 mountain track, winding over loose rocks and 
 stones, and here and there deeply excavated; a 
 steep declivity below on the left, the sloping shoul- 
 der of Olivet above it on the right; fig-trees be- 
 low and above, growing out of the rocky soil. 
 Along the road the multitudes threw down the 
 branches which they cut as they went along, or 
 spread out a rude matting formed of the palm 
 branches they had already cut as they came out. 
 The larger portion . . . those perhaps who 
 had escorted him from Bethany . . . un- 
 wrapped their loose cloaks from their shoulders 
 and stretched them along the rough path to form 
 
OLIVET 61 
 
 a momentary carpet as he approached (Mat. 
 21:8). The two streams met. Part of the vast 
 mass, turning round, preceded; the other half fol- 
 lowed (Mar. 11:9). Gradually the long proces- 
 sion swept round the little valley that furrows the 
 hill, and over the ridge on its western side, where 
 first begins the descent of the Mount of Olives 
 toward Jerusalem. At this point the first view is 
 caught of the southwestern corner of the city. 
 The temple and the more northern portions are 
 hid by the slopes of Olivet on the right; what is 
 seen is only Mount Zion, now for the most part 
 a rough field, crowned with the mosque of David 
 and the angle of the western walls, but then cov- 
 ered with houses to its base, surmounted by the cas- 
 tle of Herod, on the supposed site of the palace 
 of David, from which that portion of Jerusalem, 
 emphatically the city of David, derived its name. 
 It was at this precise point, 'as he drew near, at 
 the descent of the Mount of Olives' (may it not 
 have been from the sight thus opening upon 
 them?) that the shout of triumph burst forth from 
 the multitude, 'Hosanna to the Son of David. 
 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord' (Mat. 21:9). There was a pause as the 
 shout ran through the defile; and as the Pharisees 
 who stood by in the crowd complained, he pointed 
 to the stones, which, strewn beneath their feet, 
 would immediately cry out if 'these were to hold 
 their peace.' Again the procession advanced. 
 The road descended a slight declivity, and the 
 glimpse of the city was again withdrawn behind 
 the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments 
 
62 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 and the path mounts again; it climbs a rugged as- 
 cent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in 
 an instant the whole city bursts into view. As 
 now the dome of the Mosque El Aksa rises like a 
 ghost from the earth before the traveler who 
 stands on the ledge, so then must have risen the 
 temple tower; as now the vast enclosure of the 
 Mussulman sanctuary, so then must have spread 
 the temple court: as now the gray town on its 
 broken hills, so then the magnificent city with its 
 background . . . long since vanished away 
 . . . of gardens and suburbs on the western 
 plateau behind. Immediately below was the Val- 
 ley of the Kedron, here seen at its greatest depths 
 as it joins the valley Hinnom, and thus giving 
 full effect to the great peculiarity of Jerusalem, 
 seen only on its eastern side ... its situation 
 as of a city rising out of a deep abyss. It is 
 hardly possible to doubt that this rise and turn 
 of the road . . . this rocky ledge . . 
 was the exact point where the multitude paused 
 again, and 'he, when he beheld the city, wept 
 over it.' " 
 
 O mount of sadness, thou mount of Olives ! 
 
 It would be vain to trust the traditions 
 brought down to our day by ignorant monks 
 concerning the locality of the grave of Laz- 
 arus. But the Bible history makes us know 
 nearly the location of Bethany ; and we may 
 well reason that somewhere about this mountain 
 was the grave of Lazarus, where "Jesus wept." 
 
OLIVET 63 
 
 But the resurrection triumph, to follow so 
 soon, did not lift the burden off Jesus' heart: 
 for when they made a feast for him in the rich 
 man's house, where Lazarus was a guest of 
 honor, where "Martha served," and Mary 
 brought an alabaster box of precious spike- 
 nard, and anointed Jesus and broke the box, he 
 affectionately and sadly said that she had come 
 to anoint him beforehand for his burying ("to 
 prepare me for burial"). Thus he spoke on 
 this Mount of Olives, on whose western side he 
 "wept" over Jerusalem. 
 
 Our affections are near our sorrows, and our 
 sorrows are near our affections. On the lower 
 slope of this Mount of Olives, on the Jerusalem 
 side, was the Garden of Gethsemane, where, a 
 few nights later, Jesus began to be "exceedingly 
 sorrowful, even unto death" ; and he was 
 "greatly amazed, and sore troubled"; and he 
 "was in agony . . . and his sweat became, 
 as it were, great drops of blood falling down 
 upon the ground." And there he asked his 
 disciples to watch with him; but they fell 
 asleep. He awoke them,; but they fell asleep 
 again. 
 
 Of course, no one would contend that we are 
 qualified adequately to appreciate the suffer- 
 ings of Jesus in Gethsemane. But there is 
 more than that to be said: it is likely that few 
 of us can even understand them. As the toad- 
 
64 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 stool cannot comprehend the beauty of the 
 rose, or the lion's whelp the patriotism of Wil- 
 liam Tell, so we sinners cannot understand the 
 horror of the Son of God at being classified as 
 a "blasphemer" by the judgment of his Father's 
 chosen people, and the verdict, "worthy of 
 death," which he received from their high priest 
 and regular officials. Jesus mentally foresaw 
 it all, and in Gethsemane he began to realize its 
 close approach. 
 
 In Jersualem he had a few hours before given 
 the bread and the cup to the disciples. And 
 one of them was a traitor. Another was to 
 deny him. All were to forsake him and fly. 
 He was to be "despised and rejected of men." 
 And that he was to "taste death for every 
 man," so mastered his feelings that his disciples 
 partook of his depression, and he felt com- 
 pelled soon to say to them, "Let not your heart 
 be troubled, ye believe in God ; believe also in 
 me." Possibly there were signs even then visi- 
 ble to his keen perception, that the disciples 
 were some of them hesitating in their allegiance, 
 in harmony with his own prediction about them, 
 that they should all be "offended in him that 
 night." 
 
 Was it to strengthen their waning allegiance 
 that he advised the buying of a "sword" (Luke 
 22: 36), and they replied, "Lord, behold, here 
 are two swords?" You remember that he said, 
 
OLIVET 65 
 
 "It is enough." Undoubtedly, if Jesus had al- 
 lowed his disciples to fight for him at Gethse- 
 mane, "two swords" would have been enough. 
 For when the Jewish officers came to arrest him 
 at the entrance to Gethsemane, and he asked 
 them, "Whom seek ye?" his very look and voice 
 as he informed them that he was Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, and demanded that they let the disciples 
 "go their way," made his enemies shrink back- 
 ward and fall to the ground. . . . There 
 can be no question that Jesus as a military com- 
 mander would have led armies to splendid vic- 
 tories. 
 
 Then was there a lingering hope in the heart 
 of Jesus that his Father would allow him to 
 make the fight for heaven and righteousness 
 by those agencies that would inspire his dis- 
 ciples with courage? They would have fought 
 for him like lions. If he had allowed them to 
 use the "two swords" his enemies would have 
 fled, and the populace on the morrow would 
 again have acclaimed him "king" ; again they 
 would have cried, "Hosanna ; blessed is the king 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna 
 in the highest." If his Father had allowed him 
 to use the swords, he could have made Israel 
 the dominant civil power of the earth. He 
 could have subdued Rome, destroyed pagan 
 temples, proclaimed the one Jehovah, turned 
 all worldly agencies and influences to the side 
 
66 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 of righteousness, and made the world again in 
 outward appearance like Paradise. "The 
 kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," 
 would have been on the side of Jesus, with the 
 devil's help hardly visible. 
 
 And as Jesus may have thought of these 
 things, although he knew well that to continue 
 such a reign his visible miraculous leadership 
 would (from the human point of view) be 
 needed forever, so that the kingdom within you 
 would not so well have developed, he : may have 
 thought that his Father's wisdom would in 
 some way overcome that spiritual difficulty; 
 God undoubtedly knowing of some other way to 
 whip the world than for "lambs" to conquer 
 "wolves," and for "doves" to conquer "ser- 
 pents." 
 
 Possibly with such lingering hope he may 
 have departed from Jerusalem for Gethsemane, 
 knowing his own tremendous influence with his 
 Father in prayer. 
 
 And yet it was with sad depression of spirit 
 that he crossed the brook Kedron, began to 
 ascend the Mount of Olives, and entered the 
 Garden of Gethsemane, followed by a band of 
 half-believing, half-skeptical men, who had for 
 years been enthusiastic adherents, but, after 
 all, were only human, and were likely to for- 
 sake him when his power or popularity would 
 seem to wane. In vain he said to them, "Let 
 
OLIVET 67 
 
 not your heart be troubled." They were 
 troubled. 
 
 But though they were men, they seemed to 
 be the only companions available for him that 
 evening, until he gained his great spiritual vic- 
 tory over his greatest temptation; that in the 
 Garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 He left the most of them, telling them to 
 take their seats, while he went still further 
 into the Garden to pray. As he thus went 
 away he asked Peter, James and John to go 
 with him. Sometimes he had gone apart by 
 himself to pray to his Father, not desiring any 
 one with him. He would abide all night in 
 prayer to God. But a greater trial was now 
 before him, and he desired the presence of those 
 he loved. Having loved his own, "he loved 
 them unto the end." And he told them his 
 heart was troubled, that it would be so till his 
 death. He asked them to stay there and 
 watch with him. It was only a little thing for 
 him to ask. 
 
 Then he went and prayed that prayer that 
 has penetrated the hearts of his followers for 
 two thousand years : "Father, if thou be will- 
 ing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not 
 my will, but thine, be done." 
 
 But how few of us realize the great burden 
 of that prayer! How the most of us put our 
 interest on the undeniable fact that Jesus was 
 
68 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 offering to submit his will to God's will ! That 
 is true, of course; no one could deny it. But 
 that was not what Jesus was especially pray- 
 ing for. He was praying to be freed from 
 drinking the cup of death, and all the rest of 
 the fatal struggle with sin. Jesus was tempted. 
 How often before this he had prayed to his 
 Father for the same relief we do not know : for 
 he often prayed alone. 
 
 We know that God did not grant his prayer : 
 for though he prayed for the "cup" to be "re- 
 moved," when some time later Peter would have 
 defended him against arrest, Jesus said, "Put 
 up the sword into the sheath : the cup which the 
 Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" 
 
 This shows that he was compelled by God 
 to drink the cup; that his prayer was not 
 granted. He was not permitted to use the 
 "swords." 
 
 Possibly this "cup" was what he referred to, 
 when he asked the sons of Zebedee, "Are ye 
 able to drink the cup that I am about to drink ?" 
 when they asked for prominence in his king- 
 dom. And the blood of the new covenant he 
 had typified by the "cup" containing the fruit 
 of the vine, only a few hours before; and that 
 "cup" comes down to us. 
 
 The temptation that Jesus was going 
 through in the Garden of Gethsemane was the 
 same one, only now it was far more intense 
 
OLIVET 69 
 
 because of the nearness of the time of drinking 
 the "cup," which he experienced at the advice 
 of Peter, shortly after Peter had asserted that 
 he was the Son of the living God. For when 
 Jesus showed his disciples that he "must suf- 
 fer many things of the elders . . . and be 
 killed," Peter took him and began to rebuke 
 him, saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this 
 shall never be unto thee." The temptation to 
 Jesus was so sore that he said to Peter, "Get 
 thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling 
 block unto me." 
 
 That cup God had put to his lips: for he 
 was to be tempted in all points. And in Geth- 
 semane he prayed for the removal of the cup. 
 
 Gradually the consciousness oppressed him 
 that God was not granting the prayer. And 
 he "began to be greatly amazed," and sore 
 troubled. Hitherto God had always answered 
 his prayers ; so that at the grave of Lazarus, 
 when he was about to ask that "Lazarus come 
 forth," he prayed to his Father saying, "Father, 
 I thank thee that thou heardest me. And I 
 knew that thou nearest me always." 
 
 But men's prayers are not always answered: 
 for they ask for things that God does not de- 
 sire, or that may not be for human good. 
 
 Jesus was now asking for something that was 
 not for human good, and that God did not de- 
 sire; because, if granted, Jesus could not be 
 
70 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 so "highly exalted." And God loved Jesus so 
 much that he wished "that in all things he 
 might have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18). 
 
 Hence Jesus prays in vain : a new experience. 
 
 To pray to his Father in vain is torture to 
 the Son of God ; and he sweats great drops of 
 blood. The disciples see the crimson sweat, 
 from their little distance, before they fall 
 asleep. For Jesus keeps on praying and ag- 
 onizing. He knows how to pray: to ask for 
 the things he needs; that he desires the most. 
 His suffering becomes so grievous that he prays 
 to be delivered from the hour itself. He cries 
 out, "Abba, all things are possible unto thee; 
 remove this cup from me." It was the "be- 
 loved Son," God's boy, saying, "Papa, please" ; 
 or, "Please, Papa." ("Though he was a Son, 
 yet he learned obedience by the things which he 
 suffered." Heb. 5: 8.) 
 
 The disciples enter into his sorrow, though 
 they do not understand its cause ; but his 
 prayer is repeated so monotonously, so wearily, 
 that their eyes grow heavy, and they fall 
 asleep, though he had asked them to watch. 
 Heaven seems distant. He comes for com- 
 panionship to the disciples, and finds them 
 sleeping. He wakes them, and reproaches 
 them. He had only been praying an hour ; and 
 could they "not watch one hour" ? It was only 
 a little thing he thought he was asking of men. 
 
OLIVET 71 
 
 They neglected him. He had been asking a 
 little thing of his Father. And God seemed to 
 neglect him. 
 
 But one hour is not long to pray to God. 
 Jesus had often prayed all night. So he goes 
 back and prays again : the same monotonous 
 prayer. How his holy spirit revolted at the 
 coming accusations against him ! How his 
 heavenly experience abhorred the earth ex- 
 perience! In agony he asks if "his soul must 
 be poured out unto death, and he be numbered 
 with transgressors. " Must he "be led as a 
 lamb to the slaughter"? Must his soul be 
 "made an offering for sin"? Must he bear so 
 much; must God make him suffer a burden so 
 heavy that it seemed as if all the sinners and 
 criminals of all mankind, for all the ages, had 
 been combining and concentrating their malig- 
 nant depravity in the coming crime to be 
 worked on him ; "the iniquity of us all" ? 
 
 "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
 from me." 
 
 But the two beings in this case were of like 
 nature; they were divine. Therefore the Son 
 says, "not my will, but thine, be done." 
 
 He returns to his disciples. He is bewil- 
 dered at the dullness of the ear of his Father. 
 A third time he goes to pray. He gives it up. 
 He fully surrenders his will to God, as he said, 
 and as he intended if God would not yield, and 
 
72 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 as God knew he would. And how quickly an 
 angel comes to strengthen him for drinking 
 the cup, to be the Lamb of God, the heavenly 
 victim furnished by heaven in the "new cove- 
 nant," made strong and mighty by his blood! 
 
 O mount of sadness, thou Mount of Olives! 
 There Jesus had to pray and watch alone. 
 
 But Mount Calvary was hospitable ; there 
 thieves suffered along with Jesus ; and there a 
 centurion kept guard; there the citizens of 
 Jerusalem "gaped upon" him ; there the riff-raff 
 of the city and the rabble of the country, as 
 they passed by, reviled him ; and the priests sat 
 down "and watched him there." But on the 
 Mount of Olives Jesus had to pray and watch 
 alone. Elijah was "left alone" (Rom. 11:3). 
 
 O mountain of sadness, thou Mount of 
 Olives ! 
 
 Does this mean that every great life is a 
 tragedy ? 
 
 No: for God is good. Unto Jesus, the 
 Mount of Olives became the mount of ascen- 
 sion. Because weeks after he rose from the 
 dead he led his disciples out to the Mount of 
 Olives, and while he was instructing them, and 
 reproving them, and commanding them, and 
 loving them, and restraining them, and bless- 
 ing them, he ascended from their midst to a 
 better home than earth; and angels explained 
 to them that he would come again. They 
 
OLIVET 73 
 
 should see him once more, when their eyes 
 would not be sleepy. 
 
 Thou Mount of Olives, thou art not a moun- 
 tain of sadness. Thou art a mountain of ex- 
 planation. During the weeks that had passed 
 since the rising of Jesus from the dead, so near 
 the walls of Jerusalem, surely his pierced, but 
 healed and immortal, feet must often have been 
 attracted to the accustomed and loved paths of 
 the mountain where some of his joys and sorrows 
 had been felt. And if, O Olivet, near thy lower 
 slope on the western side, his disciple Judas 
 betrayed him, on thy height he ascended from 
 the midst of his faithful apostles ; which made 
 the Mount of Olives no longer a mount of sad- 
 ness, but a mount of illumination. 
 
CALVARY 
 
 CAUSE OF THE CRY, "ELOI" 
 
 No man knows the exact location of Mount 
 Calvary. We only assume that it was a hill, 
 because of the word Golgotha, mentioned by 
 Matthew, Mark and John, as meaning "the 
 place of a skull." And yet that word may re- 
 fer only to some protruding rock, or to some 
 association of thought created by executions 
 of criminals at that place. The phrase 
 "Mount Calvary" is not Biblical; but came 
 into use in the sixth century. 
 
 It is not surprising that the exact location 
 is unknown : for a generation later the city was 
 destroyed by the Romans; and centuries later 
 the Emperor Hadrian took care to inclose the 
 reconstructed city with walls built along lines 
 different from the former ones, with a view to 
 obliterating traces of historical localities. 
 
 Therefore all that we can reasonably say as 
 to the location of Calvary is that it was prob- 
 ably on the northwestern side of the city of 
 Jerusalem, close to the city entrance, and by a 
 highway leading in from the country. 
 
 This obscuring of the location of the ma- 
 terial Calvary harmonizes with the administra- 
 tion of God concerning some other material 
 74 
 
CALVARY 75 
 
 things. Of Jesus himself, no picture was left. 
 No description of his person, or physical 
 habits, was attempted by either Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, or John. Even concerning the 
 crucifixion we are left in ignorance as to some 
 physical points. Not one of the writers makes 
 any attempt to describe, or comment on, the 
 scene. They simply relate the history as wit- 
 nesses. They make no appeal for pity for 
 Jesus. They do not even hint that the place 
 was sacred. 
 
 Have you ever noticed how God concealed 
 the grave of Moses, how even the mountain 
 where he died cannot positively be identified? 
 how, also, we are not sure of the place of 
 Mount Hor, where Aaron died? how the gar- 
 den of Joseph of Arimathea, the place of Jesus' 
 burial and resurrection, though said to be near 
 to Calvary, is not truly identified? Have you 
 ever noticed how the bread and wine of the 
 communion, which Jesus himself made symbolic 
 of Calvary's central event, so little resemble a 
 dying body and flowing blood, that we natu- 
 rally, and without effort to reason upon it, 
 recognize the symbol as symbol? Have you 
 noticed how the Mount of Beatitudes (where 
 the Sermon on the Mount was delivered) and 
 the Mount of Transfiguration are not geo- 
 graphically located by the Gospels? Have 
 you noticed that not one of the Bible writers 
 
76 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 mentions how tall Jesus was? what was his 
 weight? or what his complexion? or the tone of 
 his voice? or its music, or power? 
 
 Why have you not noticed these things* if 
 you are familiar with the second command- 
 ment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee 
 any likeness of anything that is in 
 heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath: 
 thou shalt not bow down thyself to them* nor 
 serve them"? 
 
 Is it not evident that God was guiding his 
 historians, often preventing their leaving data 
 for relic worship and other forms of idolatry? 
 
 If you have never thought of these things in 
 their mutual relation, then be impressed with 
 the following: (1) For 500 years from the 
 death of Christ, the followers of Jesus had no 
 such thing as a modern crucifix. WSth all 
 their love of the cross, they placed no image of 
 Jesus on it; () The early Christians were so 
 superior to the physical idolatry of our age, 
 that the first known painting of the crucifixion 
 of Christ appears not before the year 586. 
 And about that time, under the decrees of the 
 Roman Emperor Justinian the Great, the true 
 church of the Lord disappeared from civiliza- 
 tion, and "fled into the wilderness." The 
 sculptures of the crucifixion* the picturing of 
 the tortured Lord, or the picturing of the 
 descent of the dead body, as well as the pictur- 
 
CALVARY 77 
 
 ing of his fainting under the cross previously, 
 are all foreign to the spiritual practices of the 
 early Christians. And yet they felt that the 
 cross had been transformed by what happened 
 on Calvary, from an emblem of shame to a sign 
 of glory. They worshiped in spirit. It was 
 not necessary for them to bow down before an 
 image, however impressive to a beholder the 
 simulated crown of thorns might be. They 
 made no pilgrimages to Pilate's judgment seat, 
 to the Mount of Beatitudes, nor Mount Cal- 
 vary. They worshiped in spirit. 
 
 They realized that the only way to get to 
 Calvary was to deny themselves, and bear the 
 burdens of practical life, under the influence 
 of the Spirit of God. And now to get to Cal- 
 vary, you must bear your cross. 
 
 Calvary may have been only a "place of a 
 skull" to the thronging Jews in Bible times, 
 hardly as high as the city walls ; but it was so 
 high historically, morally and spiritually, that 
 its physical proportions never seem to have 
 been measured by the disciples, who alone 
 would have cared to tell us the truth. It may 
 then have been only a "place of a skull," in 
 passing which, the travelers entering the city 
 were accustomed to jeer the executed victims 
 of Roman justice or Jewish cruelty; but near 
 it was a garden all glorious with flowers of 
 love, faith and hope, because there Jesus rose 
 
78 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 from the dead. Death was on the way to the 
 resurrection; the "skull" was on the way to 
 the lilies ; Calvary was on the way to the gar- 
 den; the "darkness over the whole land until 
 the ninth hour" was on the way to the resur- 
 rection brightness ; the evening was on the way 
 to the morning. 
 
 Calvary was a peculiar mountain. Its top 
 might be called "a skull," or a cross, or a bed, 
 or a throne. Jesus' cross became a symbol of 
 character ; and though it was a grievous dying 
 bed, it really became a throne. So that the 
 disciples of the Lord were never heard plead- 
 ing for pity for him as crucified victim; but 
 Paul exultingly exclaimed, "God forbid that 
 I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
 unto me, and I unto the world." And the 
 throne room of this crucifixion glory was Cal- 
 vary. 
 
 Jesus himself imparted this spirit unto his 
 disciples. When he was going to Calvary, he 
 said to the Jewesses of the city, "Daughters 
 of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep for 
 yourselves and your children." And after he 
 had passed Calvary, to Mary, in the garden of 
 resurrection, who did not yet know that he had 
 risen, he said, "Woman, why weepest thou?" 
 And that afternoon, to the disciples dismally 
 wending their way to Emmaus, he said, 
 
CALVARY 79 
 
 "Ought not Christ to have suffered and to enter 
 into his glory?" 
 
 Break away for a moment from the spiritual 
 attraction of Calvary, and look at it as a ma- 
 terial, historical mountain. 
 
 Calvary is remarkable, as we have pointed 
 out, in that no man knows its exact spot ; al- 
 though it is most intimately connected his- 
 torically with the success of the great founder 
 of a great religion. 
 
 Calvary is peculiar, as a place of forgive- 
 ness. Jesus said, of the impenitent, "Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they 
 do." He said, to the penitent, "To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise." 
 
 Calvary was an assembly place of mixed so- 
 ciety. There were priests there ; soldiers ; 
 countrymen ; women, who had followed Jesus 
 from Galilee, ministering to him ; gamblers ; 
 members of the sanhedrin (the most dignified 
 and celebrated religious body of the world) ; 
 loafers, loungers along the highway, deriding 
 the victims they saw at the "place of a skull" ; 
 Mary, the mother of the Lord ; criminals, cru- 
 cified with him ; rich men, who buried him ; high 
 ecclesiastics, who were watching against fraud 
 or rescue ; timid disciples ; scribes ; pagans ; 
 Jews ; Christians ; and the "Lord of glory." 
 
 Calvary was a place of peculiar family 
 grouping as to relation. Jesus said to John, 
 
80 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 "Son, behold thy mother"; and to Mary, 
 "Woman, behold thy son." A few hours later, 
 Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "It is fin- 
 ished. Father, into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit." From that day John took care of 
 Mary, and God took care of Jesus. (We men- 
 tion this, because from that hour there was 
 no more humiliation for Jesus. He was even 
 taken down from the cross and buried by 
 wealthy men, and they richly embalmed his 
 body.) 
 
 Though Calvary is on the way over the 
 "great divide" separating earth from the River 
 of Life, and though on mountain sides there 
 are usually springs of water and gurgling 
 brooks, the traveler on this "narrow way," 
 climbing the heights toward the crown of im- 
 mortality, finds the mountain parched and 
 desert. Jesus said, "I thirst." (I think he 
 said it in Greek. Notice the contraction, and 
 the one word.) Calvary was harder for Jesus 
 to climb, than Nebo was for Moses. In his 
 journey the Christian will find some spot, close 
 to the center of popular interest, with the ad- 
 vantages of civilization, where art and culture 
 are at hand, but where the thirsty sufferer, 
 needing something more refreshing than ecclesi- 
 astical organization, grand organ music, es- 
 say sermons, operatic anthems, stained glass 
 windows, impressive liturgy, and prestige of 
 
CALVARY 81 
 
 wealth or society, will have nothing better of- 
 fered to him than the sour drink of official 
 proclamation, commandment, provision, or 
 call: for when Jesus said, "I thirst," we lemrn 
 that "soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, 
 offering him vinegar." 
 
 Ah! Calvary is a barren spot. It is wise to 
 come to it with spiritual provisions, or with 
 strength based on the food of God's truth. 
 
 But if Calvary is a barren spot as to earthly 
 supplies, it is a mountain so lofty, so near to 
 Him who sees the end from the beginning, that 
 it was long visible to seers, though they could 
 not understand it all. Calvary was so high 
 that the Sweet Singer of Israel, looking for- 
 ward a thousand years, saw it, foretold it, and 
 described it. But I think that even he did not 
 understand it. As historians look back on it, 
 the prophet looked forward to it. We do not 
 understand it all yet. 
 
 When Jesus heard the mockery of the chief 
 priests and scribes (learned in the Scriptures) 
 on Calvary, crying up to him, "If thou art the 
 Son of God, come down from the cross," he 
 answered at the proper moment in Scripture 
 language, not in pitiful wail, but with thunder 
 voice, in the Hebrew language, "Eloi, Eloi, 
 lama sabachthani." . . . Thus Jesus by 
 four words transformed Calvary into the 
 needed key to unlock the mystery of prophecy. 
 
82 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 But mere translation does not unlock it. 
 Soon he died; but his thunder cry, "Eloi, 
 Eloi, lama sabachthani," still echoed in the 
 hearts of the Jews familiar with their Scrip- 
 tures : for he had quoted "with a great sound" 
 in their own Hebrew language the first words 
 of the &2d psalm, containing the language of 
 David in prophecy, which they all believed re- 
 ferred to the Christ that, when the prophecy 
 was written, David saw in the distant future. 
 And many of the scribes, priests, and Jews, of 
 that vast multitude must have recalled the 
 words of that psalm: 
 
 "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. . . . 
 
 "All they that see me laugh me to scorn. . . . 
 
 "There is none to help. . . . 
 
 "Many bulls have compassed me. . . . 
 
 "They gape upon me with their mouths. . . . 
 
 "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. . . f . 
 
 "Dogs have compassed me: 
 
 A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; 
 
 They pierced my hands and my feet. 
 They look and stare upon me. 
 They parted my garments among them, 
 And upon my vesture do they cast lots." 
 
 And when the younger priests and scribes re- 
 called those words of the psalm, written con- 
 fessedly (even in our day) a thousand years 
 previous to the event on Calvary, . . . . 
 
CALVARY 83 
 
 those words of the psalm, brought to their rec- 
 ollection by the great voice of Jesus before 
 his death, they knew that Calvary was only a 
 station on the great highway of righteousness, 
 which their Messiah was traveling straight 
 from the desert of earth to the metropolis of 
 God. And when the rich men, Joseph and 
 Nicodemus, took the body down and buried 
 Jesus, the older hardened priests went to Pilate 
 and warned him against any possibility of 
 blunder by leaving the grave unguarded; in 
 which case, as they said, "The last error will be 
 worse than the first." 
 
 That showed that they then knew they had 
 made a mistake. 
 
 That cry of Jesus made Calvary a mountain 
 of prophecy; so that the Jews recognized that 
 they had crucified their Christ. And when, a 
 few days later, the report spread about the 
 city that the disciples claimed that he had risen 
 from the dead, and that they had seen him, 
 Jerusalem was stunned; and honest people 
 waited in dread. They feared lest Calvary 
 had become for the Hebrew nation the portal 
 to Sheol. 
 
 More days and weeks passed. If there had 
 been the least dishonesty on the part of the 
 disciples, that would have been the time when 
 vigorous concerted movement on their part for 
 
84 MOUNTAINS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 their own benefit would have been made. They 
 would have made effort for place, position, or 
 advantage. They might have worked on the 
 fears of the superstitious Pilate, to secure po- 
 litical preferment. Other efforts might have 
 been exerted for their own worldly interest. 
 
 But there was no fraud on their part. And 
 it is evident that they had no plan of campaign 
 whatever. Nothing had been done by them for 
 effect. Running to the sepulchre on the resur- 
 rection morning, when they heard the reports 
 of the women ; gathering that night in a closed 
 room for fear of the Jews ; going off about 
 their business to Emmaus ; or, half dazed, go- 
 ing fishing to Galilee or elsewhere, they were 
 like sheep, fleeing here and there: and were 
 only rounded up by the voice of their risen 
 Shepherd, expostulating, "O fools, and slow of 
 heart to believe," proving to them his bodily 
 presence, and finally commanding them to 
 "tarry in Jerusalem, till they were endued with 
 power from on high." 
 
 They were thus to "tarry" near to Calvary ; 
 near to Gethsemane ; near to the Mount of 
 Olives ; near to the Roman barracks ; near to 
 the headquarters of the priesthood; near to 
 the garden where Jesus had been buried; near 
 to all the sources of information for investiga- 
 tion, and near to the commanding influences of 
 opposition. 
 
CALVAY-., 
 
 And the sheep obeyed their shepherd. 
 They stayed right there, near the wolves, near 
 to Calvary, where the wolves had mangled the 
 Lamb of God. 
 
 But now mark : A few days more, and these 
 frightened disciples, on the streets of Jerusa- 
 lem, proclaimed the victim of Calvary to be the 
 Christ of the Jewish race. And the effect of 
 their preaching, following the thunder-cry of 
 Jesus from his Calvary throne, "Eloi, Eloi, 
 lama sabachthani," was that three thousand 
 Jews, on the first day of the preaching, ac- 
 cepted him as their Lord, Savior, King and 
 Christ. 
 
 There is no explanation of this tremendous 
 change, except the truth, accepted under the 
 influence of the great prophecy called to their 
 recollection by Jesus* dying cry, deepened by 
 the rumor of his resurrection from the dead, 
 and the investigations concerning it for more 
 than a month. 
 
 And yet all of them, preachers and converts, 
 were under the shadow of Calvary. 
 
 Ah! Calvary, thou art a lowly hill; but thy 
 summit is not far from the garden of Joseph, 
 the "counselor of honorable estate, who also 
 himself was looking for the kingdom of God." 
 . . . . Calvary, thou art a lowly hill ; but 
 thou art the vestibule to Paradise (the garden 
 of God.) 
 
"And it shall come to pass in the last days that 
 the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab- 
 lished in the tops of the mountains and be exalted 
 above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." 
 
 Amen. 
 
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