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HARBOR OF CESAREA.-PETER AND PAUL.

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What could have induced Herod to select this place for a harbor, on an open coast without projecting headland or protection of any kind?

The rich country back of it to Samaria and Nâblus probably furnishes the explanation. It is also in the centre of a long reach of coast entirely destitute of harbors, and this offers another reason; and, moreover, it is not quite true that there is no natural protection to serve as the basis for an artificial harbor. Several ledges of rock run out into the sea from the shore, and the king took advantage of two, between which the water was deepest, and there constructed great moles, enclosing a space larger than the Piræus. Josephus says so, not I. It never could have been sufficiently long to protect a single large ship of the present day.

Cæsarea has always been invested with a peculiar interest, to my mind, not so much for its own eventful history, nor because it was the capital of Palestine, but chiefly on account of its honorable and most important connection with the Apostolic Church. It was here that the good Cornelius fasted, prayed, and gave alms, which came up before God as a memorial, until an angel of the Lord appeared, and directed him to send unto Joppa for Simon, whose surname is Peter. There another vision revealed to that apostle the great fundamental truth, "that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him;"" and thereby prepared this bearer of "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" to unlock the door to the Gentile world. Here the "apostle of the circumcision" first learned that he "should not call any man common or unclean;"" here the Holy Ghost was first granted to the heathen; and here took place the first Gentile baptism.

Certainly we have abundant reason to cherish the memory of Cæsarea.

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, and greatest of foreign missionaries, often visited it, and was here held prisoner for two whole years. Standing in chains where some of these ruins now lie, he made his noble speeches, reasoning "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," before Felix and Drusilla, Festus, Agrippa,

1 Acts x. 34, 35.

? Acts x. 28.

and Berenice-characters somewhat famous, and most of them not a little infamous, in their day. Eusebius, the historian, was born and lived in Cæsarea; and here Origen studied and wrote commentaries. But we need not prolong the list of her honors. They do but exaggerate her present utter desolation.

The ruins of Cæsarea remain precisely as they were forty years ago, upon my first visit. The area enclosed by the existing wall extends along the shore about the fourth of a mile, and is some forty rods wide from east to west. The wall was built of small but well-cut stone, was strengthened by sixteen square towers, and protected by a broad ditch; but still it could not have been a place of much strength, nor is it celebrated for any great military events. We are not to suppose that its vast population, stated as high as two hundred thousand, was confined within these narrow limits. On the contrary, there are abundant traces of suburbs scattered all over the plain, and the enclosed area was little more than the acropolis of the city. The harbor was at the south-west corner of this citadel, and we can trace its whole extent by the existing remains. Look at them, and then turn to Josephus,' and see if you can discover any resemblance. Beyond all doubt, much of that description is magniloquent Josephian hyperbole. Who can read of the mole, two hundred feet broad, built of stones more than fifty feet long, eighteen wide, and nine deep, without a smile? Why, the whole harbor enclosed by it is not much broader. But it is useless to criticise this extraordinary description. I cannot refrain, however, from remarking that Josephus must have forgotten that there is no appreciable tide at the head of the Mediterranean, when he says "the sea itself, upon the flux of the tide from without, came into the city and washed it all clean!" There is enough here, however, besides the name, to convince us that the historian is actually speaking of this place. It was doubtless the south-western mole which Herod named Procymatia-wave - breaker. Exactly where the tower of Drusus stood I am at a loss to decide.

In one respect these remains of the first century of our era are extremely interesting and important. They present the best criterion by which to judge architecturally of other ruins. A moment's

1 Ant. xv. 9, 6.

RUINS OF CÆSAREA.-STRATO'S TOWER.

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examination will prove that Herod built with materials furnished to his hands by ruins of a city older, and, I believe, more magnificent than his own. The great number of granite columns built into his moles speaks of an antecedent and wealthy metropolis, with splendid temples, which had been overthrown long before

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That

and which he changed to Cæsarea-was the original name. is of foreign derivation, given by the Romans, while the columns and other relics speak of Greek or Phoenician times and architects. Josephus says that Herod built a temple on this southern mole, and a splendid theatre near the harbor, and without the city, on

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