aces in the night. Haifa, situated at the
base of Mount Carmel, has no Biblical history, but is one of the two
places along the coast of Palestine where ships stop, Jaffa being the
other. Mount Carmel is fourteen miles long, and varies in height from
five hundred and fifty-six feet at the end next to the sea to eighteen
hundred and ten feet at a point twelve miles inland. There is a
monastery on the end next to the Mediterranean, which I reached after a
dusty walk along the excellent carriage road leading up from Haifa.
After I rested awhile, reading my Bible and guide-book, I walked out to
the point where the sea on three sides, the beautiful little plain at
the base of the mountain, Haifa, and Acre across the bay, all made up
one of the prettiest views of the whole trip. Owing to its proximity to
the sea and the heavy dews, Carmel was not so dry and brown as much of
the country I had seen before.

By the direction of Elijah, Ahab gathered the prophets of Baal,
numbering four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah, four
hundred more, at some point on this mountain, probably at the eastern
end, passed on my way over to Nazareth later in the day. "And Elijah
came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between
the two sides? If Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow
him" (1 Kings 18:21). He then proposed that two sacrifices be laid on
the wood, with no fire under them; that the false prophets should call
on their god, and he would call on Jehovah. The God that answered by
fire was to be God. "All the people answered and said, It is well
spoken." The prophets of Baal called upon him from morning till noon,
saying, "O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered.
And they leaped about the altar that was made. And it came to pass at
noon that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god:
either he is musing, or he is gone aside, or he is on a journey, or
peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and
cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the
blood gushed out upon them. And it was so, when midday was past, that
they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening oblation;
but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded."
The sincerity, earnestness, and perseverance of these people are
commendable, but they were _wrong_. Sincerity, although a most desirable
trait, can not ch