ich is followed to this
day through Ginaea and Shechem.[4] From Shechem to Jerusalem the
journey is very tiresome. But the neighborhood of the old sanctuaries
of Shiloh and Bethel, near which the travellers pass, keeps their
interest alive. _Ain-el-Haramie_,[5] the last halting-place, is a
charming and melancholy spot, and few impressions equal that
experienced on encamping there for the night. The valley is narrow and
sombre, and a dark stream issues from the rocks, full of tombs, which
form its banks. It is, I think, the "valley of tears," or of dropping
waters, which is described as one of the stations on the way in the
delightful Eighty-fourth Psalm,[6] and which became the emblem of life
for the sad and sweet mysticism of the Middle Ages. Early the next day
they would be at Jerusalem; such an expectation even now sustains the
caravan, rendering the night short and slumber light.

[Footnote 1: Luke ii. 41.]

[Footnote 2: Luke ii. 42-44.]

[Footnote 3: See especially Ps. lxxxiv., cxxii., cxxxiii. (Vulg.,
lxxxiii., cxxi., cxxxii).]

[Footnote 4: Luke ix. 51-53, xvii. 11; John iv. 4; Jos., _Ant._, XX.
vi. 1; _B.J._, II. xii. 3; _Vita_, 52. Often, however, the pilgrims
came by Peraea, in order to avoid Samaria, where they incurred dangers;
Matt. xix. 1; Mark x. 1.]

[Footnote 5: According to Josephus (_Vita_, 52) it was three days'
journey. But the stage from Shechem to Jerusalem was generally divided
into two.]

[Footnote 6: lxxxiii. according to the Vulgate, v. 7.]

These journeys, in which the assembled nation exchanged its ideas, and
which were almost always centres of great agitation, placed Jesus in
contact with the mind of his countrymen, and no doubt inspired him
whilst still young with a lively antipathy for the defects of the
official representatives of Judaism. It is supposed that very early
the desert had great influence on his development, and that he made
long stays there.[1] But the God he found in the desert was not his
God. It was rather the God of Job, severe and terrible, accountable
to no one. Sometimes Satan came to tempt him. He returned, then, into
his beloved Galilee, and found again his heavenly Father in the midst
of the green hills and the clear fountains--and among the crowds of
women and children, who, with joyous soul and the song of angels in
their hearts, awaited the salvation of Israel.

[Footnote 1: Luke iv. 42, v. 16.]

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST SAYINGS OF JESUS--HIS ID