are sufficiently obvious; though it may be presumption, in the highest intellect of man, to 
assume that it knows all the reasons of any one miracle. The presence of our Lord at a 
festivity, and that one of the most crowded and joyous of all the social festivities of 
Palestine, instantly marked his Religion as wholly distinct from the frowning formalities 
and ascetic superstitions of the Jewish sects. His giving the assemblage an unexpected, 
and even a bounteous, increase of the proverbial means of enjoyment, was only an 
additional pledge of his sympathy with the customary habits and harmless indulgences of 
man. But his choice of a Marriage-feast as the commencement of his Mission may have 
had a reference of a higher rank. The connexion of our Lord with his Church is repre¬ 
sented, in both the Old and New Testament, under the figure of a Marriage. He is the 
Bridegroom, His redeemed the Bride. The character of the Married State,—the sincere 
confidence,— the perfect identity of object,—the intimate, pure, and permanent union, are 
applied by Scripture to the sacred relation even in our world. How much more strongly 
to that exalted and immortal condition in which “ we shall see as we are seen,” and in 
which “ the spirits of just men made perfect ” go on “ from glory to glory, as in the 
presence of the Lord! ” 
TOWN OF TIBERIAS, LOOKING TOWARDS LEBANON. 
The Artist conceives the columns in the foreground to mark the site of ancient baths, from 
the hot springs still issuing round the ruins which lie on the shore of the Lake, about half 
an hour’s walk south of the City. The whole way from the Town is marked by traces 
and remains of the ancient City; several columns of grey granite, twelve or fifteen feet 
long, lie together about half way to the baths. An old bathing house remains, and is still 
used by the common people; but Ibrahim Pasha, in 1838, raised, at the distance of some 
rods from the site, a handsome edifice for public and private bathing, consisting of a large 
circular, aoartment, covered with a dome, and having a marble pavement around a fine 
circular reservoir, to which steps descend. The roof is supported by columns. Many 
doors lead into this apartment. At the period of the Artist’s visit, this bath was crowded 
with pilgrims, who at this season were returning from Jerusalem. The building contains 
private apartments for those Avho can afford to pay for them, which are well and orientally 
furnished, and some have beautiful marble baths. Above the old bathing house is a large 
reservoir, 1 into which the water is first received, and allowed to cool before it flows into 
the bath; this is necessary, for its temperature when it issues from the spring is 144° of 
Fahrenheit. There are four springs nearly together; the taste of the water is salt and 
bitter, like hot sea water, and it gives out a strong odour of sulphur. 
Those waters are considered highly efficacious in rheumatic affections and debility, and 
are much resorted to from all parts of Syria. They are spoken of by Pliny, 2 and by 
Josephus, 3 and they were called Annnaus (Warm Baths). In the Talmud, the springs are 
mentioned as the ancient Hammath. The view- of Tiberias and the Lake from this spot, 
backed as it is by the snowy summits of Lebanon, is strikingly picturesque; but it wants 
wood, though the vegetation is rank in grass, brambles, and low shrubs. 
Itoberts’s Journal. 
2 Hist. Nat. v. 15. 
3 Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 2. 
