Interior of the Church at Nain
At the foot of Little Hermon, looking northward, lies the little mud village that marks the site of the city of Nain, where our Lord raised the widow’s son to life. The town lies on a spur of the mountain, fifteen hundred feet below the summit, and the road to Nazareth ascends in a hollow to the west of it. After the Sermon on the Mount our Savior returned to Capernaum and found there a centurion, an officer of the Roman army, whose servant he healed. “And it came to pass the day after that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and much people.” It was at this time that He stopped the funeral procession, and said to the dead body: “Young man! I say unto thee, arise! and he that was dead sat up and began to speak, and He delivered him to his mother.” Nain is at present a miserable village, but there are many ruins round about. The Arabs have a mosque here with the curious name, “The Shrine of Our Lord Jesus.” It is said to stand upon the site of an early Christian chapel. There is another small church in Nain of which we give above a view. There is nothing very remarkable about it, except that the walls, floors, pictures and furniture are arranged with neatness and taste. Lieutenant Conder says: “The procession bearing the young man’s body would have come down the slope toward the little spring westward, meeting our Lord on the main road. The mud hovels on the gray tongue of limestone have no great marks of antiquity, but the surrounding ruins show the village to have been once longer than now.”
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