Bidding the savage beast depart, and being instantly obeyed, Saba felt that this lion's den was the proper place for him to choose; so, entering into possession of his estate, he made the lion's bed in the rock his home. Tapping the ground for water, a spring leapt forth at his feet; a spring of soft, sweet water, which flows, in proof of the miracle, to this very day, under the convent wall. Many anchorites are said to have gathered round the saint, that they might live in the odour of his sanctity; some had probably been there before his arrival; for we are told that when Saba died in yon den up the rocky stairs, he left a population in this desolate ravine and on the stony heights above it, equal to that of Jerusalem in the present day.

Essenes

Some members of the Jewish schools and Pharisees were residents here in the reign of Herod the Great; the place having all the best qualities which the sterner Jews, of whatever rite, would desire in one of their holy retreats. It was not far from Jerusalem, the Temple of which could be seen from a neighbouring height. It was a lonely spot, having nothing in its soil and climate to attract either the Arab robber or the Roman lord. It was too dry to admit of fields and gardens, too hot to allow of a luxurious life. Yet there was some little moisture for man and beast, and a patch of mould on the rocks here and there enabled the anchorites to grow a mouthful of lentils and barley. Of one such recluse from the world we get a parting peep in a Jewish scribe. Banus, a Pharisee of the hardest rule, was a man who dwelt in a cave, who

wore a shirt of leaves, who ate no other food than herbs and roots of the desert, who soused his body in cold water day and night, to render himself clean and chaste. Banus drew to his cave the young men of rank and credit from Jerusalem. Josephus, the historian, is said to have lived with him in the desert for upwards of three years.

His cell may have been at this present Mar Saba; for a cave, and a spring, and a savage nook, were all here ready to his hand, within three hours' ride of the Bethlehem gate.

Some part of the same glen was probably the abode of John the Baptist, cousin of our Lord.

Of John's early life, before he went down to the Jordan ford in his camel's-hair shirt, and began to call in a loud voice on the Jews to repent of their sins and be baptized, we have only a glimpse. He is said in the Syrian legends to have been born at Ain Karim, a pretty and verdant spot in the hills, about five miles west of Jerusalem. Some say he was born at Jutta, a town or hamlet six or seven miles to the south of Hebron. Either way, his family was of saintly race; his father Zachariah being a priest of the Temple, his mother Elizabeth a daughter of the house of Aaron, and a kinswoman of the Virgin Mary. From his birth John had been vowed, like Samson and Samuel, to live as a Nazarite; that is to say, he had been pledged just as a baby in Sicily and Andalusia may be pledged to the convent - to the observance of certain ancient and ascetic rites: to drink no wine, to eat no grapes, to abstain from fermented juices and from dainty

food, to pass no comb through his beard, to use no razor on his head, to dress in the coarsest garb, to indulge in no warm baths, to touch no dead body, not even that of either father or mother, wife or child. Thus, from his birth upwards, he was a holy man, set apart for the service of God.

the

At an early period of his life, he retired, like Banus, into the wilderness; which, whether his home were at Jutta or Ain Karim, lay near at hand; retiring from the sight of Jewish corruption, of Grecian luxury, and of Roman might. The Zion from which he fled was that city of Herod and Pilate which the new palaces, theatres, and baths, the soldiers, ensigns, eagles, and inscriptions, had transformed into something more like Athens and Antioch than the city in which David dwelt; a change unbearable to a pious Jew, who counted the subtleties of Greek art as so many abominations in the sight of God. Going out into the wild country, John put away robe of his family and his order, to don the garb which had been worn by Elijah and the prophets; a sack of camels'-hair cloth, caught in at the waist by a leathern zone; the dress still worn by the children of Abu Dis. It was the habit of all the holy men of old, from the days of Elijah, the man of God, who stood before Ahab and his Sidonian queen, clothed in his shaggy locks, his shirt and girdle, and his mantle of sheep-skin. For the ancient prophets, like the more recent Essenes, setting their faces against crowded streets, and warning their countrymen how much their virtues had decayed in towns, exhorted them, even more by dress and picture than

by words, to appease the wrath of God by returning to the simplicities of Arab life. "To your tents, O Israel!" had been the cry of reformers in every age.

All the great teachers had practised what they taught. Moses retired from the people into Mount Sinai. Elijah lived apart from the world at Cherith. Some sort of retreat, accompanied by prayer and fasting, was the needful preparation for a holy and active life.

John followed in the wake of Elijah, JESUS in the wake of John.

To his cave in this desert wady, John drew multitudes of people from Jerusalem, Jericho, and the cities of Judah and Samaria. Many Jews were inclined to believe that the Shiloh whom they expected had come in John. His voice, his garb, his unshaven crown, his abstinence from wine and grapes, his fiery eloquence, calling on the people to repent and live, inflamed the imaginations of a suffering, superstitious, and expectant race. Some said he was Elijah come again. For the Jews, in exercising a poetical instinct which is the common spoil of conquered yet unbroken races, dreamed that Elijah, the most popular figure in their history, would come to life again; just as our ancient Britons expected Arthur to revive, and the modern Portuguese imagined Sebastian would awake.

Among the men who came to see and question John, hoping that he would prove to be their Messiah, were a knot of young friends from the lake country of Galilee; very strict Jews; enthusiasts for their creed and race. Two of these young men were

The Holy Land. I.

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brothers, Andrew and Simon, sons of Jona of Capernaum. The third young man was John, son of Zebedee, also of Capernaum. Jona and Zebedee were boatmen and fishermen on the lake; men doing well in the world; having boats of their own, and hiring servants to cast out their nets. Old neighbours in Capernaum, and partners in their humble craft, they had seen their sons grow up as companions from the cradle, playing on the beach, handling the tackle, sitting in the same synagogue, until they were young men. The youths listened to the same Galilean preachers, talked with each other about the Messiah and the holy war, and went up to Passover in the same caravan. As the caravan in which they travelled came down to Bethabara, they would hear of John the Baptist; and being full of hope for a priest and king who could drive out the stranger and restore David's kingdom, they attached themselves to his side, receiving baptism at his hands, and expecting every day that he would declare himself the Son of God.

John told his eager audience that he was not Elias come again; that he was not the Messiah whom they sought; that he was but a man who had been chosen to announce God's coming, and prepare His way. The Deliverer, then, had not yet come; a needful warning to declare; since the two martial sects of the Herodians and the Galileans taught that the Lord had already lived and died. John told his people that the true Christ was still to come; that he would come soon; the kingdom of heaven being nigh at hand.