Why is it called the Dead Sea? Because the water is so salt that no fish live in it. It looks very clear and beautiful as it lies in the sunshine, but no one can drink it, it is so salt. Sometimes people bathe in it. It is so heavy that no one can sink. No towns were ever on its shore. Not a single person lives near it. Few people have ever sailed on its waters. The valley in which it lies is so deep that it is much lower than the ocean. All these things make it the strangest lake in the world.
[Illustration] ON THE SHORES OF THE DEAD SEA
From a photograph in the possession of Rev. Louis F. Giroux of the American International College, Springfield, Mass., and used by his kind permission.
"The water is very nauseous to the taste and oily to the touch, leaving on the skin when it dries a thick crust of salt. But it is very brilliant. Seen from far away no lake on earth looks more blue and beautiful. Swim out upon it, and at a depth of twenty feet you can count the pebbles through the transparent water. It is difficult to sink the limbs deep enough to swim; if you throw a stick on the surface it seems to rest as on a mirror, so little of it actually penetrates the water. No fish or any living thing can exist in its waters."--_Smith_ [End illustration]
Glean To follow after the reapers and pick up what they have left behind.
The "little town of Beth-lehem," as it lies among the hills of Judaea, is one of the most famous places in all the world. But it is not famous because of its wealth or its size, it is famous because of the people who lived there. Beth-lehem means in the Hebrew language, "House of Bread," and it was in the fields of Boaz about Beth-lehem that the beautiful Ruth of Moab gleaned.
Then it was David's home. In the pastures beyond the town he used to feed his father's flocks. Sometimes it has been called "the city of David."
But what makes it more famous than all else is the fact that in "Beth-lehem's manger" the little child Jesus was born, and over the old town hung in the night the star of Beth-lehem. It was here that the shepherds { 230} who were keeping their flocks outside the town came to see the newborn child, and it was here that the Wise Men came to worship him and bring him gifts. It is true that Jesus did not stay here long. The wicked King Herod wished to kill him, and Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt. When they came back they lived in the town of Nazareth. But all the world loves the little town of Beth-lehem because it was Jesus' birthplace.