The Ford of the River Jordan
After the conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus, with His newly selected disciples, made a pilgrimage from Jerusalem to the Jordan. These were days of preparation, the beginning of that great itinerant school of theology in which the plain but naturally gifted men were students and Jesus, the great Teacher, “who spake as never man spake,” was Master. What a school of theology it was! Over them the dome of heaven; in the fresh air they walked day by day, hearing the songs of the birds, looking into the faces of the people and talking with them, witnessing deeds of mercy and of power, and listening to the quickening, broadening and strengthening words which their Divine Leader proclaimed. In 1894, on the morning of the 26th of April, our artist secured the fine picture of the Jordan. We are looking down the river. The mountains in the distance are the Judean Mountains. Although we stand on the western bank, we are able, because of the bend in the river at this point, to get very much the same view that we should command from the eastern bank. The weather was exceedingly warm, although it was only April. A large number of pilgrims just below the ford, having come down from Jerusalem to celebrate the Greek Easter, were bathing in this sacred river. How finely in the picture above the river sweeps around the curve! How beautifully the trees and shrubbery on its banks are reflected in its clear waters! Beyond are fields and forests and ruins and the great mountains toward the west. Among these mountains are Jerusalem and Bethlehem and Bethel and Bethany, and beyond them the plains of Sharon and the great sea reaching out toward the Western world.
Comments