He made up his mind to go away from Galilee to some quiet place where no one would know of his coming. On the northwest of Galilee was a narrow land, on the other side of the Lebanon mountains, beside the great Mediterranean Sea. It was called Phoenicia, from the people who lived there, the Phoenicians; and also called "the land of Tyre and Sidon," from its two leading cities. The people who lived in that country were not Jews, and few of them even spoke the Jewish language. Jesus thought that this would be a quiet place where he could talk alone with his disciples. [Illustration: The woman threw herself at Jesus' feet and cried aloud: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David!"] Jesus and the Twelve quietly left Capernaum, and walked over the mountains to this land of Tyre and Sidon. There they found a house and went into it, intending for a time to live there. Jesus wished nobody to know of his coming; but he could not be hidden. A woman of that country heard of him, and at once went to Jesus, threw herself at his feet, and begged him to come and cast an evil spirit out of her daughter. This woman was not of the Jewish people. She was a foreigner, of a mingled Syrian and Phoenician race, a people called "Canaanites." She cried aloud and kept on crying: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David! My little daughter is terribly troubled with an unclean spirit. Will you not please come and help her?" At first Jesus did not answer her one word. But his disciples said to him, "O Master! send this woman away, for she is making a great noise and disturbing us!" To them she was only a Gentile, a heathen woman, and the Jews, even those who followed Jesus, looked with great contempt on all such people. They did not know that Jesus was sent to save not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. Jesus wished to teach his disciples a lesson, that a Gentile could have the same faith as a Jew. He said to the woman: "I was not sent to your people, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But the woman kept on following him. She knelt down before Jesus, and said, "Master, help me!" He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first of all; it is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." "That is true, Lord," said the woman; "yet the little dogs under the table do pick up some of the children's crumbs." Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great. Your prayer is granted as you wish. The evil spirit is gone away from your daughter." The woman believed the word of Jesus. She hastened to her home and found her daughter well and resting upon her bed. In the Land of the Ten Cities Chapter 45