f his children
were as they looked on; and how pleased they were with the _bakhshish_
which they received, including a couple of baithooks for the eldest boy!

* * * * *

I remember the place where we ate our lunch in a small grove of
eucalyptus-trees, with sweet-smelling yellow acacias blossoming around
us. It was near the site which some identify with the ancient Bethsaida,
but others say that it was farther to the east, and others again say
that Capernaum was really located here. The whole problem of these lake
cities, where they stood, how they supported such large populations (not
less than fifteen thousand people in each), is difficult and may never
be solved. But it did not trouble us deeply. We were content to be
beside the same waters, among the same hills, that Jesus knew and loved.

It was here, along this shore, that He found Simon and his brother
Andrew casting their net, and James and his brother John mending theirs,
and called them to come with Him. These fishermen, with their frank and
free hearts unspoiled by the sophistries of the Pharisees, with their
minds unhampered by social and political ambitions, followers of a
vocation which kept them out of doors and reminded them daily of their
dependence on the bounty of God,--these children of nature, and others
like them, were the men whom He chose for His disciples, the listeners
who had ears to hear His marvellous gospel.

It was here, on these pale, green waves, that He sat in a little boat,
near the shore, and spoke to the multitude who had gathered to hear Him.

He spoke of the deep and tranquil confidence that man may learn from
nature, from the birds and the flowers.

He spoke of the infinite peace of the heart that knows the true meaning
of love, which is giving and blessing, and the true secret of courage,
which is loyalty to the truth.

He spoke of the God whom we can trust as a child trusts its father, and
of the Heaven which waits for all who do good to their fellowmen.

He spoke of the wisdom whose fruit is not pride but humility, of the
honour whose crown is not authority but service, of the purity which is
not outward but inward, and of the joy which lasts forever.

He spoke of forgiveness for the guilty, of compassion for the weak, of
hope for the desperate.

He told these poor and lowly folk that their souls were unspeakably
precious, and that He had come to save them and make them inheritors of
an