The sun was rising on the Holy City on the first day of the week, when Iddo took leave of his guests at the Water-gate. They took the road to Jericho, which leads over the mount of Olives. They had before them a journey of one hundred and fifty stadia, or about twenty-four sabbath-days’ journies. Passing the dry bed of the brook Kedron, they walked under the shade of the cedars, till the road wound up the side of the mount and led them through rows of olive-trees over the easternmost of the three summits. It is loftier than any of the hills on which the city stands. As they ascended it, Helon cast back a look of gratitude and regret on the sacred spot, where God had shown him so much good. The summit commanded on one side a view of the temple, the castle Baris, Zion, and the wide-stretched city; on the other, the eye could reach to the Dead Sea and the glittering line of the Jordan’s course, which winds on the other side of the walls of Jericho and falls into the Dead Sea. Towards the east, the exhalations rose from the sea, at the place where once Sodom and Gomorrah stood—a terrible memorial of Jehovah’s vengeance on the transgressors. Towards the west the smoke of the morning-sacrifice was ascending from the altar of burnt-offering in the temple. “See,” said Elisama, as he pointed to Moriah, “the fulfilment of the words of Moses, the glory of the Lord appearing to all the people in the fire that comes from before him and consumes the burnt-offering on the altar.”[79] And then turning to the clouds of pitchy smoke that hung over the Dead Sea; “Behold there the fulfilment of another word of Scripture, 'The Lord thy God is a consuming fire and a jealous God.'”[80] ----- Footnote 79: Lev. ix. 23, 24. Footnote 80: Deut. iv. 24. ----- They proceeded in silence. At length Helon observed, “When the flame ascends upon our altar of burnt-offering, or the seven-branched candlestick is lighted at evening in the holy place, I cannot but think of Jehovah’s comparison of himself to a light, in our psalms and prophets. Fire is the most ethereal of the elements, and is a symbol as well of the grace of God to the pious, as of his indignation against sinners.” “Beware,” interrupted Selumiel, “of making to thyself any likeness of God.” “I understand,” said Helon, “what you mean. Even the doctrine of Zerdusht is superstition, because he has disfigured, by human additions, the knowledge which is handed down in its purity in our sacred writings. Yet it is remarkable that the children of the east have selected precisely this point from the divine wisdom of their forefathers, worshipping, alas, the visible sun, instead of the eternal light.” “Be satisfied,” said Selumiel, “those whom thou art about to see to-day, have already prayed some hours ago for the return of the heavenly light. They do so every morning, and every morning their prayer is heard. You shall see my Essenes.”