rth ever trodden by His feet, the longest distance from
Jerusalem that He ever travelled. Here in this exquisite garden of
Nature, in a region of the Gentiles, within sight of the shrines devoted
to those Greek and Roman rites which were so luxurious and so tolerant,
four of the most beautiful and significant events of His life and
ministry took place.

He asked His disciples plainly to tell their secret thought of Him--whom
they believed their Master to be. And when Peter answered simply: "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus blessed him for the
answer, and declared that He would build His church upon that rock.

Then He took Peter and James and John with Him and climbed one of the
high and lonely slopes of Hermon. There He was transfigured before them,
His face shining like the sun and His garments glistening like the snow
on the mountain-peaks. But when they begged to stay there with Him, He
led them down to the valley again, among the sinning and suffering
children of men.

At the foot of the mount of transfiguration He healed the demoniac boy
whom his father had brought to the other disciples, but for whom they
had been unable to do anything; and He taught them that the power to
help men comes from faith and prayer.

And then, at last, He turned His steps from this safe and lovely refuge,
(where He might surely have lived in peace, or from which He might have
gone out unmolested into the wide Gentile world), backward to His own
country, His own people, the great, turbulent, hard-hearted Jewish city,
and the fate which was not to be evaded by One who loved sinners and
came to save them. He went down into Galilee, down through Samaria and
Perea, down to Jerusalem, down to Gethsemane and to Golgotha,--fearless,
calm,--sustained and nourished by that secret food which satisfied His
heart in doing the will of God.

* * * * *

It was in the quest of this Jesus, in the hope of somehow drawing nearer
to Him, that we made our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And now, in the
cool of the evening at Caesarea Philippi, we ask ourselves whether our
desire has been granted, our hope fulfilled?

Yes, more richly, more wonderfully than we dared to dream. For we have
found a new vision of Christ, simpler, clearer, more satisfying, in the
freedom and reality of God's out-of-doors.

Not through the mists and shadows of an infinite regret, the sadness of
sweet, faded dreams and hope