the stream,--close together, so that when I stretched myself out in
my weariness, as I did before we started, my head rested on his
legs. Ah, me! one does not take such liberties with new friends in
England. It was a place which led one on to some special thoughts.
The mountains of Moab were before us, very plain in their outline.

"Moab is my wash-pot, and over Edom will I cast out my shoe!" There
they were before us, very visible to the eye, and we began naturally
to ask questions of each other. Why was Moab the wash-pot, and Edom
thus cursed with indignity? Why had the right bank of the river
been selected for such great purposes, whereas the left was thus
condemned? Was there, at that time, any special fertility in this
land of promise which has since departed from it? We are told of a
bunch of grapes which took two men to carry it; but now there is not
a vine in the whole country side. Now-a-days the sandy plain round
Jericho is as dry and arid as are any of the valleys of Moab. The
Jordan was running beneath our feet,--the Jordan in which the
leprous king had washed, though the bright rivers of his own
Damascus were so much nearer to his hand. It was but a humble
stream to which he was sent; but the spot probably was higher up,
above the Sea of Galilee, where the river is narrow. But another
also had come down to this river, perhaps to this very spot on its
shores, and submitted Himself to its waters;--as to whom, perhaps,
it will be better that I should not speak much in this light story.

The Dead Sea was on our right, still glittering in the distance, and
behind us lay the plains of Jericho and the wretched collection of
huts which still bears the name of the ancient city. Beyond that,
but still seemingly within easy distance of us, were the mountains
of the wilderness. The wilderness! In truth, the spot was one