The first Gentile convert was here admitted into “the fellowship of the saints,” in accordance with the vision vouchsafed to Peter at Joppa, a day’s journey down the coast. It was at Cæsarea that Herod Agrippa was smitten with the Divine judgment upon his impious pride and vainglory. Hither Saul of Tarsus was brought on his way from Jerusalem; and here Paul the Apostle, as a prisoner, “reasoned of temperance and righteousness and judgment to come” with such persuasive force as to draw from one of his judges the confession, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”[216] Continuing our journey we soon leave the plain of Sharon, and find ourselves amongst the lower spurs of Carmel, whose long ridge runs out as a bluff promontory into the sea, a few miles to the northward. This, however, will more fitly occupy a place in a subsequent section. The other route from Samaria to Galilee leads us through a district richer in Scriptural associations than that just described. It runs almost due north through a series of picturesque glens, or over romantic hills which need only a moderate amount of labour to be turned into a succession of gardens. At a little distance to the right is Talûza, the TIRZAH of the kings of Israel, a royal residence, the beauty of which furnished Solomon with the comparison, “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah!”[217] A little farther on is Tûbâs, or THEBEZ, where Abimelech was slain by the hand of a woman, his ignominious death furnishing a proverb for after years.[218] About twelve miles north of Nablus, and just before descending into the plain of Jezreel we pass the entrance to a broad, deep valley, or basin amongst the hills on our right. Its name, DOTHAN, recalls one of the most memorable incidents in the lives of the patriarchs which formed one of the turning-points in the history of the Church and of the world. Joseph, sent by his father to visit his brethren in their favourite camping-ground at Shechem, found on his arrival that they had passed northward to Dothan. Hither, therefore, he followed them; and “when they saw him afar off they conspired against him to slay him.” Having cast him into one of those deep pits with which the district yet abounds—excavations formed by the inhabitants of the land for storing grain or water, often shaped like an inverted funnel—they left him to perish. Relenting in their murderous purpose, or prompted by the selfish hope of gain, they subsequently drew him thence, and sold him to a company of Midianites from Gilead, who were passing on their way down into Egypt.[219] Upon this slight incident the whole after-fortunes of the nation turned. [Illustration: JENIN, THE ANCIENT EN-GANNIM.]