cut to let in the water from the Mediterranean it would rise to the hill-tops where we stand.

It is a beautiful green plain wherever it is watered by springs and streams. By our side where we stand there is a chasm, between the brightly colored cliffs, so deep that we can hardly see the brook which we hear running in the bottom. This brook is the Kelt, supposed by some to be the Cherith of the old time, by which Elijah was hid when the ravens brought him food. Where the brook runs out into the plain just at our feet, the city of Jericho stood in the New-Testament days, surrounded by its gardens and orchards. As we go down the hill to cross the plain towards the Jordan we see some ruins of the city.

Turn a little towards the north across the sunny meadows. As we draw near the river the ground breaks steeply

down to a lower level. This lower plain, a mile or so in width, is filled with a thicket of trees among which the Jordan runs. It is a swift stream about one hundred feet in width, and there are places where it usually may be forded. Here and there is an opening among the trees with a stony beach by the water's side. At a place called Bethabara-perhaps at the ford a little below the Sea of Galilee -the people, long ago, were gathering from Jerusalem and Judæa, and the country round about Jordan. They had come to hear a man of the desert, who preached repentance.

John the Baptist was a man with weather-beaten face

and with uncut hair; for he was a Nazarite, one set apart to the service of the Lord. He wore a garment of coarse camel's hair cloth bound with a leathern girdle. His home had been in the deserts bordering the Dead Sea, and his food had been the great brown locusts (grasshoppers, the children would call them), and wild honey. Even to-day the poor Arabs eat the locusts, drying their bodies and stewing them or mixing them with other food. The wild honey was plentiful in the wilderness, for in the rainy winter there were many flowers from which the bees gathered it and laid it away in the caves of the rocks.

John had lived in the desert, but now he was sent to baptize and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Read the story, and how the Lord Himself came to be baptized by John in the Jordan.

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord,

Make his paths straight.

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all

Judæa, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he

will throughly purge his floor,* and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.— Matthew III.

THE LORD'S TEMPTATIONS.

THERE are some days when we are unhappy; when things go wrong and people seem unkind; even the sunshine and beautiful flowers and trees do not seem beautiful. We are unhappy, and the trouble is in ourselves. No matter what is around us, there are no bright happy thoughts and feelings in our minds. We are in a wilderness. At such times bad and selfish feelings come out from their hiding places like wild beasts. When the Lord was on earth He had unhappy days. He was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He never did what was not good, and never said what was not true, but there were days when unhappy feelings came to Him, days when evil spirits tried with all their power to overcome Him. Then He was in the wilderness and with the wild beasts. We read of such a time of trial soon after the Lord was baptized by John.

This was not the only time of temptation in the Lord's life. When it was ended, we read that the devil departed from Him for a season. And as we read the story of the Lord's life we shall find that He spent nights in prayer, and that as long as He lived on earth there were times of trial greater than ever come to us. Besides what is told

The

* There are threshing-floors near every little town in Palestine. earth is made level, and when the grain is cut it is brought here to be threshed out by driving the cattle around and around over it, sometimes drawing a drag with sharp points in the bottom. Then the farmer takes his "fan," a large wooden shovel, and throws the grain up into the air, till the chaff is blown away and the good grain is thoroughly cleaned.

us in the Gospels about the Lord's temptations, they are described in other parts of the Scriptures; the Psalms of sorrow and the accounts of famines and of wars have this deeper meaning.

At the side of the Jordan valley, a mile to the north from the road by which we come down from Jerusalem, there is a stern barren cliff, very rough and wild. At its foot is a spring and the ruins of an old city, the Jericho of the OldTestament time. The cliff is stained and seamed and full of caves. Many hermits have lived in these caves, and some

live there to-day; for there is an old tradition that the Lord was tempted in this mountain. We may well believe that in His temptation He turned aside among these bare and lonely hills. They would be a picture of His unhappy state of mind.

Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,* and

The angle of the temple wall rose high above the Kidron valley.

saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written,

He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:

And in their hands they shall bear thee up,

Lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and

(By permission of Palestine Exploration Fund.)

Wilderness of Judæa, looking south from Masada.

worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.-Matthew IV. 1-11.

serve.

THE FIRST FOLLOWERS.

THE temptation in the wilderness was passed, and the Lord came again to the place where John was baptizing. People of every kind had come together to see and hear John, questioning whether he were the Messiah, the great