y
here and there a place where a man on horseback can scramble down the
rocks into the valley.

Why is it called the Dead Sea? Because the water is so salt that no
fish live in it. It looks very clear and beautiful as it lies in the
sunshine, but no one can drink it, it is so salt. Sometimes people
bathe in it. It is so heavy that no one can sink. No towns were ever
on its shore. Not a single person lives near it. Few people have ever
sailed on its waters. The valley in which it lies is so deep that it
is much lower than the ocean. All these things make it the strangest
lake in the world.

{227}{228}

[Illustration]
ON THE SHORES OF THE DEAD SEA

From a photograph in the possession of Rev. Louis F. Giroux of the
American International College, Springfield, Mass., and used by his
kind permission.

"The water is very nauseous to the taste and oily to the touch,
leaving on the skin when it dries a thick crust of salt. But it is
very brilliant. Seen from far away no lake on earth looks more blue
and beautiful. Swim out upon it, and at a depth of twenty feet you
can count the pebbles through the transparent water. It is difficult
to sink the limbs deep enough to swim; if you throw a stick on the
surface it seems to rest as on a mirror, so little of it actually
penetrates the water. No fish or any living thing can exist in its
waters."--_Smith_
[End illustration]

{229}

BETH-LEHEM

Moab
A country east of Palestine.

Glean
To follow after the reapers and pick up what they have left behind.

The "little town of Beth-lehem," as it lies among the hills of Judaea,
is one of the most famous places in all the world. But it is not
famous because of its wealth or its size, it is famous because of the
people who lived there. Beth-lehem means in the Hebrew language,
"House of Bread," and it was in the fields of Boaz about Beth-lehem
that the beautiful Ruth of Moab gleaned.

Then it was David's home. In the pastures beyond the town he used to
feed his father's flocks. Sometimes it has been called "the city of
David."

But what makes it more famous than all else is the fact that in
"Beth-lehem's manger" the little child Jesus was born, and over the
old town hung in the night the star of Beth-lehem. It was here that
the shepherds {230} who were keeping their flocks outside the town
came to see the newborn child, and it was here that the Wise Men came
to worship him and bring hi