From The Sunday at Home. THE LAKE OF GENNESARETH, AND us. TIBERIAS. ues of the Roman gods, and busts of the deified emperors. He who "was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," might well hold himself aloof from such scenes as these. Modern Tiberias is a village of about two thousand inhabitants. A large proportion of these are Jews, who regard it as one of their holy places and have here a rabbinical school. It is filthy and squalid, beyond even the average of eastern towns. From the swarms of vermin with which it is infested, the Arabs have a proverb that THE road from Nazareth to Tiberias leads over the low ridge which bounds the valley on the north-west, across a broken table-land, and through the village of Kenna, regarded by geographers as the traditional site of Cana in Galilee. Sefurieh, the ancient Sepphoris, is passed. It played an important part in the heroic but unsuccessful resistance of the Jews to the Romans under Titus, and hither" the king of the fleas lives at Tiberias." the Sanhedrim retired after the fall of Jerusalem. The battle-field of Hattin is likewise distinctly seen, where the last great battle was fought between the Crusaders and Saladin, issuing in the total destruction of the Christian army and the establishment of the Moslem power in the East. The hills which enclose the lake soon come into view, but the lake itself is not seen till we reach the summit of the steep descent which leads down to Tiberias, a thousand feet below The clear, blue, placid waters lie in a deeply depressed basin nearly seven hundred feet below the level of the sea. Some geologists have supposed it to be the crater of an extinct volcano. More careful investigation, however, proves that this is a mistake. It is but a part of that long line of depression which, starting from the sea-level near the Lake Huleh, sinks down along the whole Ghor or valley of the Jordan till at the Dead Sea it has reached the unparalleled depth of thirteen hundred feet. The lake is about thirteen miles in length, by about six or seven in breadth at the widest part. The mountains on the eastern side rise to a height of two thousand feet, but they are flat and monotonous, destitute alike of colour and of foliage. The scenery has neither the bold outline of the Swiss lakes, nor the rich verdant loveliness of our own. The tamer ports of Windermere, stripped of their glorious mantle of forests, would give a not unapt illustration of the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We do not read that our Lord ever entered Tiberias. The reason is doubtless to be found in the fact that it was practically a heathen city, though standing upon Jewish soil. Herod, its founder, had brought together the arts of Greece, the idolatry of Rome, and the gross lewdness of Asia. There was a theatre for the performance of comedies, a forum, a stadium, a palace roofed with gold, in imitation of those in Italy, stat Wilson says that on spending a night here he was literally covered with them, and plucked them from his coat by handfuls. In common with other places in the valley of the Jordan, it suffers severely from earthquakes. In the great shock of January, 1837, the Turkish walls which surround the town were shattered, and in many places laid prostrate. As, under the present government, nothing is ever repaired, the fortifications remain in the dilapidated condition in which they were left nearly forty years ago. Northward from Tiberias the hills on the western side slope gently down nearly to the edge of the lake. The strip of shore is of extraordinary fertility. Though now uninhabited and uncultivated, it is easy to believe that the glowing descriptions of Josephus were in no degree exaggerated. In about an hour after leaving Tiberias we find the hills gradually recede, leaving a broad open plain - that of Gennesareth. The only sign of human habitation is a cluster of mud hovels near the water's edge. There are a few remains of other buildings, one of which seems to have been a watch-tower (Migdol). A palm-tree rises from the centre of the village, and a few thorn-bushes cluster round it. The modern name Mejal reminds us that this was Magdala, the place where our Lord came ashore after feeding the multitude on the opposite bank, and the home of Mary Magdalene. Into the disputed question as to her history we do not enter here. 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