dan at its best. Imagine the dull green of the tangled
thickets, the ragged clumps of reeds and water-grasses, the sombre and
silent flow of the fulvous water sliding and curling down out of the
jungle, and the implacable fervour of the pallid, searching sunlight
heightening every touch of ugliness and desolation, and you will
understand why the Hebrew poets sang no praise of the Jordan, and why
Naaman the Syrian thought scorn of it when he remembered the lovely and
fruitful rivers of Damascus.

_A PSALM OF RIVERS_

_The rivers of God are full of water:
They are wonderful in the renewal of their strength:
He poureth them out from a hidden fountain._

_They are born among the hills in the high places:
Their cradle is in the bosom of the rocks:
The mountain is their mother and the forest is their father._

_They are nourished among the long grasses:
They receive the tribute of a thousand springs:
The rain and the snow are a heritage for them._

_They are glad to be gone from their birthplace:
With a joyful noise they hasten away:
They are going forever and never departed._

_The courses of the rivers are all appointed:
They roar loudly but they follow the road:
The finger of God hath marked their pathway._

_The rivers of Damascus rejoice among their gardens:
The great river of Egypt is proud of his ships:
The Jordan is lost in the Lake of Bitterness._

_Surely the Lord guideth them every one in his wisdom:
In the end he gathereth all their drops on high:
He sendeth them forth again in the clouds of mercy._

_O my God, my life runneth away like a river:
Guide me, I beseech thee, in a pathway of good:
Let me flow in blessing to my rest in thee._

VIII

A JOURNEY TO JERASH

I

THROUGH THE LAND OF GILEAD

I never heard of Jerash until my friend the Archaeologist told me about
it, one night when we were sitting beside my study fire at Avalon. "It
is the site of the old city of Gerasa," said he. "The most satisfactory
ruins that I have ever seen."

There was something suggestive and potent in that phrase, "satisfactory
ruins." For what is it that weaves the charm of ruins? What do we ask of
them to make their magic complete and satisfying? There must be an
element of picturesqueness, certainly, to take the eye with pleasure in
the contrast between the frailty of man's works and the imperishable
loveliness of nature. There must also