fied rather than softened by sparse and dingy olives. Along the sides of many valleys the strata run in many-coloured parallel bands, giving the effect of a gigantic but faded mural decoration ; while the plateau on the heights round Jerusalem and on to the north lies bare in whitish grey. Galilee has more woodland, and some thin remains of what may once have been forests, but it also owes its general eti'ect to rock rather than to ^ege- tation. Allowing for the denudation caused by so many centuries of war and neglect, it is likely that even at its best the prevalent note of the land was that of sharp outline in faint colour, and its general impression that of hvige-scale sculpture- work. Arriving from the West upon the edge of the hillside above Tiberias, the traveller catches his first sight of the Sea of Galilee. The writer may be permitted to quote a former description of his impression :
' This is not scenery ; it is tinted sculpture, it is jewel-work on a gigantic scale. The rosy flush of sunset was on it when we caught the first glimpse. At our feet lay a great flesh-coloured cup full of blue liquor ; or rather the whole seemed some lapi- dary's quaint fancy in pink marble and blue-stone. There was no translucency, but an aggressive opaqueness, in sea and shore alike. The drj- atmosphere showed everything in sharpest out- line, clear-cut and broken-edged. There was no shading or variety of colour, but a strong and unsoftened contrast. To be quite accurate, there was one break — a splash of white, with the green suggestion of trees and grass, lying on the water's edge directly beneath us — Tiberias.'
Of course, the colour changes with the seasons, and we know that Jesus sat upon green grass ujjon the slopes at the north end of the Lake. Wild flowers of all shades cover the land with richest colours in their season. By the shore, close to Capernaum, lies the wonderful garden of Gen- nesaret, a reserve of shelter and of fountains filling a level fold of the hills, some three miles by one and a half in area, with exirberant fertility.
Such were the fields where the feet of Jesus trod. His speech of Nature has no landscape in it, but much clear vision of detail. There is singularly little mention of colour. He speaks of white sepulchres and a red sky (^It 16-). He refers to the purple in which the rich man is clad (Lk 161") ; and those lilies of the field of which He said that Solomon in all his glory was not arraj-ed like one of them (Mt 6^^ etc.), were purple irises. In the East every shadow turns to this colour, and it may j^erhaps have been a favourite of His. If so, the robe with which Herod's soldiers mocked Him gains a new and pathetic irony. His refer- ences to flowers (cf. art. Poet) are pre-Raphaelite in their detail and delicacy. No Greek nymph was ever conceived more daintily than Christ's lily. He often refers to single trees, such as the fig-tree, but especially to the vine, from which He draws symbolic lessons in great detail (Jn 15^). Thus He is true to that characteristic of Palestine which has given to it the true and happy epithet of ' the land of the single tree.'
But it was as a stage for human activities that Jesus chiefly viewed the earth. His delights and His interests were with the sons of men. Some- times the exigencies of His own life force thoughts of Nature upon Him, as when the stones of the wilderness suggest loaves of bread (Mt 4'), or tlie holes of foxes and the nests of birds are contrasted with His own homelessness (8^"). He speaks much of those trees which grow fruit for the use of man, and acquiesces in their doom when they are barren. Yet there is a note of compassion in the parable of the Barren Fig-tree (Lk 13^) which reminds us of Jonah's ' pity' for his withered gourd (Jon 41°), and there is a sudden and striking description of a tree bursting into the full glory of its leafage. These, however, are exceptions. Man is almost always doing something to Nature as Jesus sees it, — ploughing, sowing, reaping ; fishing, tending sheep,
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protecting them against wolves. Hot joumej'ing and refreshing cnjjs of cold water, wayside inci- dents of all kinds, abonnd in His parables. He .sees tlie operations of tlie husbandman and tisher in minute detail, touches of nature everywhere telling of the keen eyes that let Jiothing escajte their observation. Gennesaret (Mk 6^, Mt 14**) itself may have furnished Him with manj- of those vivid pictures cf agricultural life and its- occupa- tions in which His 3>arables abound.* He notes the robbers lurking by the highways (Lk Ki*'), and the places where He stands are sometimes crowded with sick folk laid there of an evening for His healint: (Mk P-). His world is always 'a field full ot'^folk.'
The open-air character of His ministry lends a sense of freedom and of roominess to much of His thought. There is a feel of wandering in it, and a clean scent of cornhelds and flowery meadows. There are references to the weather (Mt 16"-), and He overhears His disciples remarking that in four months it will be harvest time (Jn 4^*. In such phrases as ' the birds of the air ' (Mt S"-'') and ' the lilies of the field ' (6-*), there is the delight in sky- space and field - breadth. Nothing could better express the leisurely and detached mood of the wanderer, in sympathy with wide oi>en spaces, than such words as ' sutficient unto the day is the evil thereof ' (6^^). While His days were spent in crowded thoroughfares of men. He felt the need of retreat and the refreshment of solitary places (14^^). When no wider space was available. He frequented the Garden of Gethsemane. But that was at a time when the world had closed in upon His life, shutting Him in with men and human tragedy. There, in full view of the lights of Jeru- salem, and with its murmur in His ear. He still found among olive trees a certain solitude. Earlier, there must have been many quiet days of retreat among the mountains or across the lake, when He felt the soothing and healing effect of Natm-e in all its ])ower.