The Jordan Valley and Petra . reby a sharp, deep notch, whose sides were those ofa precipice and not the slopes of a mountain. Thisnotch marked the valley of the Jordan, whose coursewe could trace almost from end to end. The watersof the Dead Sea lay below the line of sight but itscleft was clearly visible. Galilee sparkled like an emerald in its setting ofgray mountains, while the Upper Jordan and Meromlay almost at our feet. East of the Jordan the sky-line was as straight as though made with a ruler,and long we tarried in trying to make out whereAjlun, Gilead, Moab, and Edom joined and melte
The Jordan Valley and Petra . reby a sharp, deep notch, whose sides were those ofa precipice and not the slopes of a mountain. Thisnotch marked the valley of the Jordan, whose coursewe could trace almost from end to end. The watersof the Dead Sea lay below the line of sight but itscleft was clearly visible. Galilee sparkled like an emerald in its setting ofgray mountains, while the Upper Jordan and Meromlay almost at our feet. East of the Jordan the sky-line was as straight as though made with a ruler,and long we tarried in trying to make out whereAjlun, Gilead, Moab, and Edom joined and meltedinto each other—for these were the lands of lawless-ness and mystery, toward which we were eagerlymaking our way. Eastward the horizon was covered by MountHermon, grand old sheikh of the mountains. Wehad obtained a distant view of Hermon from Da-mascus and had enjoyed it, but now the mountain,even though many miles away, seemed apparentlywithin a stones throw. From where we stoodHermons hoary head, crowned with a diadem of. ?J From Seacoast to Jordan Valley 75 snow dazzlino- in its spotless purity, towered aboveus into the crystalline atmosphere. Earth with itscares, its tragedies, and its meannesses seemed far,far away from that flood of everlasting history like the landscape seemed glorified;the near and the far crowded the line of vision, melt-ing into each other in that upward trend which islifting our race upward in spite of individualfailures. Sidon and the Phoenicians, Sarepta and thewidow, Tyre and Alexander the Great, Acre andthe Crusaders, Carmel and Elijah, Esdraelon andNapoleon, Shunem and the Shunemite, Jordanand John the Baptist, Galilee with Christ and Hisdisciples, Merom and Joshua, Gilead, Moab, andEdom with Moses, Aaron, and the Children ofIsrael, Hermon and the Transfiguration,—the eyesweeping from ancient Phoenicia through theHoly Land, over Jordan, and up to Hermons sum-mit,—from the dawn of history through forty centur-ies of Gods dea
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