st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

DAMASCUS. 7
lose themselves, there being no outflow from
1
the banks.
The Barada is the principal stream, and brings down a
considerable body of water. The Awaj, or Phege,
the ancient Pharpar,
is a less important river, but
better for drinking purposes, for which it is chiefly
employed by the inhabitants. The use of the water
of the Barada is observed to be often attended by
goitre. At the edge of a plain thus fertilised, some
sixty miles from the sea at Beirut, with the snow
capped summits of Anti-Libanus looking down upon
it to the north and west, and its white dwellings
embosomed in green foliage, stretching away towards
the south and east, stands this most ancient of cities.
The dirt and disorder of its streets, when one
passes within the walls, in strange and unwelcome
contrast to the beauty of the gardens without, seem
a token of the misgovernment of its present rulers.
Around it is nature s paradise man s wilderness is
;
within. Such as it is now in its better aspect, it was
twelve hundred years ago. And it must make us
think more highly of the devotion of John Damas
cene, that he could forsake, not only the glittering
prospects of wordly ambition, but this fairest of
earth s fair cities, for the dreary solitude of his cell
by the Dead Sea.
It was in the little village of Haran, near the south-west
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corner of this lake Ateibeh, that the late Dr. Beke thought he
had discovered the true Haran to which Abraham migrated
from Ur of the Chaldees. See his interesting work, "Jacob s
But Lewin argues at length against this opinion.
Flight."