Chapter III (2)

A contemporary philosopher,[206] developing further the thesis of conciliation and relation between the two orders of existence, adds:

"Matter has at bottom no other substantial element than spirit.
The essence of both is active force, consequently materialism
has no reason to exist; there is no longer in nature any thing
but spiritualism, or, to speak more correctly, dynamism. This
dynamism has nothing which attacks the dignity and preëminence
of the soul. The soul alone is capable of thinking or willing,
because it alone is a simple force, whereas the smallest body
is a compound of simple forces."

Such are the theories which, according to their supporters, are sustained by the most recent discoveries of science.

As for us, we admit that from a scientific stand-point there have been many new and curious observations collected; that the analysis of matter has exposed to view the most astonishing phenomena; that the material element has been almost apprehended, its depths investigated; that it has been stripped of extension as an essential property, its mode of action and constituting principle discovered; that it has been reduced to a unity as sovereign as it is marvellous; and we follow with the most lively interest these results of disinterested and impartial science. We go further; according as the plan gains in unity and grandeur, appearing at the same time more imposing and probable, it brings us nearer to Him who has conceived it, who has given it order and completion. The more of mystery we discover in the universe, the more we bow with admiration, but without astonishment, before the thought and will of the Sovereign who is the origin and reason of the existence of these wonders and of their laws.

But our reason cannot go beyond its limits, and the metaphysical consequences which some have attempted to draw from these phenomena, we have not up to the present been able to admit.

The theory which reduces all to force, which recognizes in bodies an intrinsic mode of acting, whether it divide these forces in the mass of matter, or cause them to mount up to the primitive element, to the atom, indivisible point, or monad, seems to us in every case to beg the question. What is in fact a force, and especially a force attributed to any object? It is undoubtedly neither a being, since it is joined to a first element, nor a substance, since it is considered as an attribute. It is only a manner of indicating an action, the cause of which is unknown. To say that matter acts because it bears in it the power of acting, is simply to say that it acts because it acts; to reply by asserting the fact itself which is in question. Therefore we have only one of those words, new or old, which may cause illusion for an instant, but which do not stand a serious analysis.

Moreover, to attempt to compare and assimilate matter and spirit by giving to both the name of force, and attributing to them the properties attached to this name, is merely to use a word without a definite meaning; for if they were both forces, they would be forces of entirely different, if not opposite action. And if we say that force, being half body and half spirit, is the link which unites them to each other, we create, merely to suit our purpose, a third being which is discovered nowhere, a mere phantasmagoria without reality, which the imagination itself is incapable of representing to us.

Finally, in the parallel and assimilation between body and soul, to reserve, with the power of thinking, preëminence to the mind because it is a simple and unique force, while the smallest body is a compound of these same simple forces, amounts to saying that a body could think if it were only decomposed and reduced to its simple elements, and to the unity of force. There is such a difference in act, mode, and aim between what is called the force of resistance, attributed to bodies, and designated, we know not why, by the name of active force, and between the faculty of thinking, that no common appellation, no matter how specious it may be, can ever confound or identify them.

We would not be able to comprehend how the soul, considered as a monad or simple element, should have by this fact the faculty of thinking, and yet two or several monads united and forming a body would not possess the same power. Why, in the latter case, should there be absence of thought instead of a union of two or several thoughts, concordant or contrary? How could we say that, because there is an assemblage of forces, there is an impossibility of thinking, and that the part is capable of doing what the whole cannot do? It is useless to choose and isolate the most delicate and ethereal element in a body; we can never imagine the soul to be really one of its parts, no matter how pure that part may be.

The notion of force, for the soul as well as for the body, must be put among those appellations which explain nothing, and only serve to cloak our ignorance.

Science itself begins to renounce this name of force; and the first theory which we have exposed, that which recognizes only motions in matter combats the theory of forces with energy, and considers it as vain and illusory. It is not here, consequently, that we shall find the philosophical explanation of phenomena, nor the reconciliation between the two orders of spirit and matter.

The theory of motions rests on a more solid foundation; at least, it employs a word having a precise signification and resting on a real fact, motion. It is only by induction and reasoning that it ascends to ether and the atom. It has never seen either of them, although it affirms their existence. It makes a synthesis. It admits in the universe something else besides atoms and movement, since the thought which it expresses implies the idea of being, of substance and cause. It has seen motions, vibrations, radiations, currents, and it has concluded from them that there is something which moves, vibrates, radiates; thus it has mounted up to a second cause, to ether, to the atom. But this is not sufficient. If it has seen that there is no motion without an object which moves, logic compels it to acknowledge that there is no change without an agent, no movement without a mover; and if the atom exists and moves, this atom also has an origin, a reason of being, a principle from which it has received the gift of existence and the power of motion.

If an admirable plan embraces the universe, if a sovereign unity directs and governs all phenomena, there must be a cause for them. The plan appears more manifestly, and the cause shows itself more necessarily in the very simplicity of the work, in its grandeur in this double quality raised to a higher power.

If the world be, as it is acknowledged to be, the work of thought; if a general and supreme reason presides over the universe, this thought lives in a spirit, this reason belongs to a soul.[207] Can there be a thought without a thinking subject and being? A thought implies a thinking being; reason means a living intelligence; or it must mean nothing, and then there is no sense in words, no reality in things.

It is useless to object; the human mind will have it so; it is the law of its conscience, it is the result of its profound conviction that it does not derive all from itself, and that nothing can produce nothing.

Now, can we say of the atom and motion combined, behold the universe? Yes, the mechanical universe, perhaps. But the mechanical universe is not self-sufficing; for we can always say, Who has made the atom? who has created motion? And then we have the right to propose another affirmation and to conclude: the notion of causality is the entire world--the physical, intellectual, and moral world.

This has been true from the very beginning of thought and the commencement of human reason. This has been true from the days of ancient philosophy, proclaiming through its greatest logician that whatever is in the effect ought to be found in the cause, that the cause must really exist before the effect, and that the perfection of all effects supposes the existence of a primary cause which contains them--a living, spiritual, and perfect cause, which cannot be produced by what is imperfect, inferior, material, or deprived of life, but which is and must be necessarily its generating principle and producing power.

III.

Thus the two systems of motions and of forces, brought before the metaphysical world, for they call themselves syntheses, fall short of the mark and do not reach the true principle. The one assigns no cause for the elements and phenomena which it represents. The other attributes to these same elements and phenomena, a word and a name which cannot be a cause. The former does not give, and does not pretend to give, a real explanation. The latter formulates an explanation, but presents nothing satisfactory.

It appears, however, that all the tendencies of modern science are toward the idea of unity in the universal system, toward a simplification and spiritualization in the plan; and the belief of some goes so far as to admit that this plan offers parallel lines more or less similar in both the material and the spiritual world. But here again the rock rises and the danger appears. In making bodies so like spirits, we run the risk of making the spiritual too much like the material, and, in both cases, by such confusion we almost touch on pantheism, the theory of which, consisting in the admission of but one substance, is equally dangerous whether this one substance be material or spiritual. We will allow matter, therefore, to raise itself toward unity, purify itself more and more, and disentangle its essence from its innumerable and marvellous combinations, provided that it be admitted that it possesses a real existence, that it is really matter, that it can never become spirit or thought, and that it is not its own force or cause or reason of being. What would be gained for it from a spiritualist point of view, to admit in matter an immediate power, to clothe it with intrinsic qualities which nothing either in ideas or facts manifests or demonstrates? No problem would be solved thereby, no mystery cleared up; it would be necessary to establish why and how the same substance, at the same time and alternately, feels and does not feel, wills and is inert, thinks and is devoid of intelligence, is immovable in the stone, awakes in the plant, and is organic in the animal, and finally creates and vivifies the genius of man.

There must be logic in the assertion that the essence of matter is found in an atom or in a force, that it is inactive or endowed with movement, that there is in bodies unity or variety of substance, that the different kingdoms are united by greater affinities or separated by more marked distinctions; these properties, comparisons, and differences must have their logic and their reason of being, and do not derive the laws which govern them from a spontaneous or fortuitous formation.

Nothing, consequently, in the secondary explanations which are given to us, can satisfy our metaphysical wants. The mind of man will never stop at the mere properties of things or their effects. Its instinct of causality does not accept incomplete theories and theses which do not sound the depths. Casting aside all idea of confusion and of inexact comparison, the human mind wishes to rise higher; it wishes, in its admiration for order and the harmony of phenomena, to ascend to the very summit of being. Yes, it admits and recognizes the fact that every thing which exists has a single and sovereign cause, and this cause is itself the most spiritual of spiritual substances--God the creator and ordainer of worlds. Author of all things, God causes with the qualities which belong to him the different manifestations of nature; he acts on matter, possesses it, causes it to subsist, gives it the power of producing its phenomena, is its force, its order, its law; and thus, if we may say so, he animates the world, not indeed in the same manner as the human soul animates the body, because we cannot compare essences and actions so unlike each other, but with a certain superior and divine power of animation which produces the being, motion, and life of all that exists in the universe, moves or breathes, as the soul is the source and focus of the life of the body.

To destroy this supreme cause is to degrade at the same time the material and the intellectual world; it is to renounce the notion of perfection and of the absolute; it is to condemn, together with one of the mother-ideas, one of the axioms of the human mind, that logic which can never see aught complete or satisfactory in mere effects or phenomena; it is to attack one of the most beautiful faculties of the intelligence, of that intelligence which the contingent cannot content, which will not allow itself to be restrained by the mere limits of time and space, which, from the present which it studies, from facts which it investigates, and peculiarities which it admires, ascends to the infinite, to the all-powerful, to the Eternal.

Thus we consider that the most recent discoveries of science, in their rational and superior interpretation, lead us naturally to God, and we have at the same time the belief and the hope that materialism will be involuntarily stricken down, and will perish perhaps by the very hands of those who study and search after matter alone.

No doubt the considerations which might be actually drawn from the results obtained do not lead to definite theories nor do they offer any thing but premature conclusions. The majority of the _savants_, moreover, properly refuse to touch on the domain of the supernatural and metaphysical; they confine themselves to facts; some so veil their opinions and philosophical doctrines as even to cause us to doubt whether they follow the standard of spiritualism or of materialism. They do not arrogate to themselves either the right or the power of drawing conclusions; and the synthesis which results from their experiments can only be a premature conjecture, more or less plausible.

But since their researches already give occasion to perceptions so simple and so grand, since they open horizons in the distance where light certainly exists, since there is from the stand-point of truth a serene and unalterable confidence in the final and definite results of modern discoveries, we may be permitted even now to describe them for the elevation and the encouragement of the mind, for the justification and the honor of human science, for the revindication of the grandeur and of the glory of God.

FOOTNOTES:

[196] _La Physique Moderne. Essai sur l'Unité des Phénomènes Naturels._ Par Emile Saigey. Paris: Germer-Baillière. 1867.

_Les Problèmes de la Nature--les Problèmes de la Vie._ Par Laugel. Paris. 1867.

_De la Science et de la Nature. Essai de Philosophie première._ Par Magy. 1867.

_Eléments de Mécanique Moléculaire._ Par le P. Bayma.

_Physique Moléculaire._ Par l'Abbé Moigno. 1868.

_Revue des Deux Mondes: la Nature et la Physiologie idéaliste._ Par Ch. Lévêque. 15 Janvier, 1857.

_Le Spiritualisme Français au dix neuvième siècle._ Par P. Janet. 15 Mai, 1868.

[197] See for further details: _Recueil des Rapports sur les Progrès des Lettres et des Sciences; la Philosophie en France au dix-neuvième siècle_. Par Felix Ravaisson. _Revue des Cours Littéraires_, No. 24; art. by M. E. Beaussire.

[198] This system has been formulated with great talent by M. Emile Saigey, who advocated it, first in several very remarkable articles in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_; and afterward in his book, _La Physique Moderne. Essai sur l'Unité des Phénomènes Naturels_.

[199] The swiftness of molecules and the vibratory motion of ethereal atoms are astonishing, and surpass all imagination. The former, measuring two thousand metres, give eight millions of collisions in a second; while the latter, within the same space, produce every second several hundreds of millions more of undulations.

[200] M. Saigey.

[201] According to the very curious experiments of M. Hirn, the unity of heat or caloric in man, as well as in inorganic matter, corresponds to four hundred and twenty-five unities of mechanical labor--that is to say, to four hundred and twenty-five kilogrammes raised one metre high. Man gives in work twelve per cent of the heat produced, which is almost equal to the labor of our most perfect machines.

[202] _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 15 Mai, 1863.

[203] _Ibid._ 15 Janvier, 1867.

[204] _Elements de Mécanique Moléculaire._

[205] M. Magy, _De la Science_, etc.

[206] Ch. Lévêque, _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 15 Janvier, 1867.

[207] Ch. Lévêque, _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 15 Janvier, 1867.

NAZARETH.

After a residence of two months in the holy city of Jerusalem, the writer of this sketch left the shrines of the Cross and the Tomb to visit the sacred localities of Palestine. Going northward, and passing by Jacob's well and Samaria, our party came to Jenin, on the borders of the plain of Esdrælon, where we encamped for the night; and on the next day, which was Thursday, April 5th, 1866, went to Jezreel, to the great fountain which springs from the base of the mountain of Gilboa, on which Saul and Jonathan were slain; then passed through Nain, where our Lord raised the widow's son, and Endor. Leaving Mount Thabor on our right, we came to the foot of the steep hill on the other side of which is Nazareth. After a wearisome ascent, in the middle of the afternoon, we saw the city of the annunciation at our feet.

Nazareth is in a valley about one mile long, running east and west, and only a quarter of a mile wide. Fifteen hills inclose this small space. The whole of this valley, not occupied by the houses, is filled with gardens, corn-fields, and small groves of olive and fig-trees. The houses are irregularly placed, and are evidently more comfortable than many others in the Holy Land. Being all constructed of white stone, they have a substantial appearance. But the streets cannot be praised. Irregular in their course, they are the filthiest we had anywhere seen. This wretched condition of the streets is the more noticeable because the people are superior to other dwellers in the land, and apparently more intelligent, well-fed, and housed. Several buildings were in the course of erection; and it seemed that the village was prospering. The houses stand on the lower slope of a hill about four hundred feet high, and on the adjacent ridges. About four thousand people make up the population, all Christians except seven hundred Mohammedans. Of the Christians, the schismatic Greeks number about one thousand, and the Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics have each about five hundred persons. There is an air of independence and relative comfort about all the people here which contrasts with the sad and desponding manners of the residents in other eastern places. Wherever Turks rule, cheerfulness is unknown.

On entering Nazareth, we rode to the further end of the village, and encamped in a pleasant spot quite near the fountain of the Virgin, a place to which all travellers who remain in their tents resort, as it is usual to encamp in the vicinity of water. Besides this, the fountain is the best place to see the people of the village, it being the common place of resort, especially for women. This spring is the only one in the place; and for that reason it has many visitors. From early dawn until late in the afternoon, women of every age come here with jars or pitchers on their heads or shoulders. The streams of water are not copious, and there is often delay in obtaining the supply, especially in seasons of drought. While waiting here to fill their jars, the women gossip and chat, and thus each one hears the news of the day. Women of every rank go to the fountain for water--partly that they may not appear to be above their neighbors, and partly, it may be surmised, to hear what is going on. Little girls are trained to carry the water-jar on the head--for them, of course, the jar is small--and every person has a small pad or cushion on her head to support the jar and prevent injury. From this habit of so bearing these jars, all the women of Nazareth are straight and erect in their carriage, and have much grace and dignity of motion. Not only are they finely formed, but their faces are the most beautiful in Palestine; and there is a pleasing tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary left the gift of beauty to the women of her city. Their dress is also graceful, consisting of large, short trowsers, a close-fitting jacket, and a long white veil which does not cover the face. For ornament they use a string of silver and gold coins around the head and chin, many of which are very heavy and valuable--uncomfortable decorations at the best, but showing the dowry of the wearer.

I thought that the water of the fountain of Nazareth was the best I had ever tasted; perhaps this was fancy, but certainly the water is most pure and excellent, and is renowned for those qualities. To this fountain, without doubt, the Blessed Virgin came hundreds of times, being trained like other children to bear the water-jar from early years. Here she talked with her neighbors, and lived in a manner undistinguished from other poor girls. And whoever will go to-day to that fountain in Nazareth, or to the one near the shrine of the Visitation in the hills of Judea, will see young women looking just as Mary did eighteen hundred years ago; for habits of life and dress have scarcely changed in the east during that long time. The water at Nazareth rises about eight or ten rods from the place where it is poured into the jars, being conveyed to the latter place in an aqueduct; and the schismatic Greek Christians have built a church at the spot where it issues from the ground, on account of an old tradition that the annunciation took place at the spring when the Blessed Virgin went there for water. There is this great advantage resulting from the error of the Greeks, that, on account of their belief in it, they leave the spot where the annunciation really took place in the quiet possession of the Catholics, the Franciscan monks being the custodians of the shrine.

Now let us walk to the most holy place, which is at the other end of the village, and some distance from our tents. The premises are extensive, and consist of large buildings, surrounded by a high wall. Passing through the gate, we come to a court, around which are the school-rooms, the pharmacy, the quarters of the superior and other monks; from this larger area we go to a smaller one immediately in front of the church The church itself is about seventy feet square, and the roof is supported by four very heavy piers or square columns. These piers, and much of the walls, are covered with tapestry hangings, with embroidery and paintings; and the whole edifice, though not very large, has a fine, rich, and cheerful appearance, as if arranged for a perpetual festival. As we enter the church, immediately before us is a flight of fifteen very broad steps, leading down to the shrine. At the foot of these stairs is a vestibule, about twenty-five feet long by ten wide, and a low arch, opening in the middle of this space, admits to the holy place. There is a marble altar, and under the altar is a marble slab, four inches above the floor; it has the Jerusalem cross in the centre, with the Franciscan coat of arms on the right, and the sacred stigmata, or five wounds of the crucified Saviour, on the left. This marble marks the spot where the Blessed Virgin stood at the time of the annunciation. On the back wall, under the altar, is the inscription, "VERBUM CARO HIC FACTUM EST," (_Here the Word was made flesh_,) the most wonderful and important inscription in the world. That at Bethlehem, where it is written that "HERE, OF THE VIRGIN MARY, JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN," could never have been engraved but for the event commemorated in the words of the shrine at Nazareth. Above the altar is a picture well painted and old, but spoiled by the flat gold crowns which have been fastened to the canvas over the heads of the Blessed Virgin and the angel. Below the table of the altar, and over the marble slab, hang several silver lamps which burn continually. Immediately behind this altar and picture are another altar and picture, back to back with those of the shrine. The second altar has the inscription, "HIC ERAT SUBDITUS ILLIS," (_Here He was subject to them_.) Behind these, and reached by a narrow rock-hewn stairway, is the kitchen of the Blessed Virgin, where the fireplace and chimney are shown.

As we come into the church by the chief entrance, a most cheerful and pleasant scene welcomes the pilgrim. The gay decorations, the many paintings, the statues and silver lamps, with other objects, make a contrast with the dreariness of the ride to Nazareth, which seems to the Christian like a glimpse of heaven. He raises his eyes, and sees the choir where the Franciscan monks chant their office. Here is an altar with a large statue of the Blessed Virgin and the Infant Jesus, surmounted by a canopy. There are two large organs in the choir, one at the right, the other at the left. This choir is raised about sixteen steps above the floor of the church, and is immediately over the most holy place, of which it may be said to form the roof. As the shrine is about fifteen steps below the level of the church floor, the distance between the spot of the annunciation and the choir above it is about thirty steps. It gives the idea of three churches--the first being the main building, the second that of the holy place, which is below, and the third that of the monks' choir, which is immediately over the shrine. As we look down the broad stair which leads to the shrine, we see that the walls are cased with marble and adorned with paintings. Before us is the holy place, to which the eye is at once drawn; but before we reach it, in the vestibule, on the right and left hand, stand beautiful marble altars, each with a painting over it. In the whole arrangement there is a dignity and propriety which strike the pilgrim most favorably, and he recognizes it as planned by men who had a vivid realization of the event which is the glory of Nazareth. To the left of the altar of the shrine is the upper two thirds of a large granite column suspended from the roof, with a fragment of a marble column under it; though these are both of dark stone, and of nearly the same color and size, it is easy to note the difference in the material of which they are composed.

It was on Friday, April 6th, that I first said mass at the shrine of the annunciation. The interest of this spot is very great, even when compared with other places in Palestine; and I had looked forward, with great hope and expectation, to the day when I would be permitted to kneel and pray here. At last my wish was realized, and I offered the holy sacrifice on the very spot where the incarnation of God took place. By a concession of the holy see, the mass of the annunciation may be said on this altar nearly every day in the year; so that the pilgrim, coming at any season may have the consolation of being present at the same mass as is said on the 25th of March. Of course, every priest avails himself with eagerness of this privilege; and no words can express the emotion of his soul as, when reading the last gospel, in speaking the words ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST, he kneels down on the very spot where that mystery took place, where the incarnation of God began. For it was to Nazareth that God sent his holy Archangel Gabriel:

"to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
being come in, said to her, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is
with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she had
heard, she was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself
what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said
to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.
Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth
a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he
shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom
there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How shall
this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering,
said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore also the
Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of
God.... And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it
done to me according to thy word. (St. Luke i.)

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." (St. John i.)

After having prayed a long time, prostrate at the shrine, I sat down at the side of the broad flight of steps leading to the holy place, and meditated for an hour. Before me was the spot where all these things occurred, and where man's redemption was begun. It was easy to go back one thousand eight hundred years, and picture the scene. The lowly maiden in her humble home, engaged, it may have been, in the ordinary occupations of the day, or perchance resting for a time from them, and meditating on God, when suddenly the room was filled with light, and the angel appeared and delivered his august message. Then in the house which once stood here the child Jesus lived, and grew in favor with God and man. He ran about the humble but sacred home in his boyhood, and wandered among the hills that are so close around Nazareth. Many a time did he go with Mary to the fountain when she brought water for the use of the family. By her side he kept in his early years, as children are wont to cling to their mothers. When he had grown older, he helped Joseph in the work of carpentry, and went with him as he journeyed to the various places where he found work. No doubt the employment was humble, the tools rude and few; and it is reasonable to suppose that such work as a humble carpenter might find among poor villagers or fishermen at the Lake of Tiberias was not of the most elegant and costly kind. Even to this day there is great simplicity and rudeness in all the mechanic arts, which is noticed by the traveller, and it must have been equally so in the country places in the days of our Saviour.

Thus for thirty years did Jesus dwell in Nazareth, undistinguished from others by any external appearance, and leading a hidden life of contemplation and communing with his heavenly Father.

When his ministry had begun, after his baptism in the Jordan and his temptation of forty days in the wilderness, he came to Nazareth, and went into the synagogue, according to his custom, and read out of the book which was handed to him the words of Isaias,

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me; wherefore he hath anointed
me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal
the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
of reward. And he began to say to them, This day is fulfilled
this Scripture in your ears."

When they had rejected his teaching, he went to Capernaum, on the borders of the Sea of Galilee, fifteen miles east from Nazareth, and the people there were astonished at his doctrine and the miracles which he performed. Subsequently he visited Nazareth a second time, and was taunted by the people of the place, who regarded him as only one of their neighbors. They said, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Jude and Simon? are not also his sisters here with us? And they were scandalized in regard of him." The greater portion of our Lord's life, during the three following years, was passed in the neighborhood of the Lake of Tiberias, or near Jerusalem.

Nazareth has one or two other places of interest, yet they are of small note in comparison of the shrine of the annunciation. One of these is the place where stood the workshop of Joseph; a chapel is built here. Another is the rock called _Mensa Christi_, or Table of Christ, which is venerated as the place where our Lord often ate his food. It projects three feet above the ground, and is about twelve feet long and eight feet wide. A new church is over it.

The hill back of Nazareth is always ascended by travellers for the sake of the fine view which may be had there. The whole country for miles around is visible--Mount Hermon, Mount Carmel, the Mediterranean Sea, and the great plain of Esdrælon. Just around Nazareth the hills are rather bare; but everywhere else they are wooded, and sink down into green valleys. We see how the city lies off all the great routes of travel in former days, and is shut up by the hills, and thus _separated_ (as the name Nazareth implies) from other places. Its isolated position, and the resulting obscurity, is the reason why it was unknown to ancient writers, and there is no mention made of it in the Old Testament. From the Gospel narrative we learn that the contemptuous inquiry was made "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" To this the Christian answers from the depth of his soul, Yes! all good cometh thence. The Child of Nazareth has passed from obscurity and a hidden life to a prominence which no description can adequately portray. He who was conceived of the Virgin Mary in this little village is our Lord and our God, and in him centre all our hopes. He who condescended to be subject to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and now and for ever reigneth in the heaven which is his home.

THE YOUNG VERMONTERS.