Cana

“ There are two rival sites for Cana: one is the ruin of Kanah, about 8 miles north of Nazareth, the supposed site in Crusading times; the other is the village of Kenna, about 4 miles north-east, which was the accredited site before the Crusaders arrived. The traveller is shown the water-pots at either place. It is difficult in the present instance to decide between rival claims, but the opinion of most writers is in favour of Kefr Kenna, and our explorers lean to that, partly for the reason that it is on the high road between Nazareth and Tiberias. ”

“ There are two places, each of which is pointed out as the Cana of the Gospel. One is eight miles due north of Nazareth and the other three and a half miles northeast of it. The one is on the north side of an extensive plain and is entirely in ruins, while the other is now an inhabited village. Early tradition seems to claim the former, but the latter is now, and appears always to have been, on the direct line to Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee from Nazareth, and it may be due to this fact that many have supposed it to be the Cana of the Gospel. ”

“ Advancing under their majestic shadow one discovers at every turn fresh views, and one’s imagination, carried away by the tales of the ancients, is filled with poetic impressions. These enchanted regions are well worthy of the fictions of fables, and in the enthusiasm they give birth to when wandering in their midst, the Canarios appear to have lost nothing of their celebrity; these are still the Fortunate Islands and their shady groves the Elysium of the Greeks, the wandering place of happy souls. ”

“ Whoever has read the history of those isles, will remember the wonders told of another island, still more beautiful, seen occasionally from their shores, stretching away in the clear bright west, with long shadowy promontories, and high, sun-gilt peaks. Numerous expeditions, both in ancient and modern days, have launched forth from the Canaries in quest of that island; but, on their approach, mountain and promontory have gradually faded away, until nothing has remained but the blue sky above, and the deep blue water below. ”

“ Christ was at Cana of Galilee (John i. 29, 35, 43; ii. 1) . Now Cana was at least seventy miles from the neighbourhood of Jericho, and the distance is manifestly too great for one day’s journey. But the error lies, not with the Evangelist, but with his opponents, who assume that the fourth-century tradition is necessarily correct.{209} The name Bethabara is not to be found in the neighbourhood of Jericho, and the site discovered, by the Survey party, in 1874 (to be described in the next chapter) is much higher up the valley. ”

“ An old man in his seventies watches the tumult, his eyes full of memories. Far away from the storm, over the wide Atlantic, lies new Canaan where the sun itself is like Rosa Solis, where the tawny braves walk the trails of the greenwood, the sea birds feed by the marsh, and the plover rises piping from the grass. ”

“ A warning to send cold fear along the spine of any man who was raised in that isolated back-country, called Canaan, that lies between Tularoosa and Black River—to send him racing back to that swamp-bordered region, wherever the word might reach him. ”

“ The name means "fisheries"—an appropriate one for a city on the sea, which must of course have been at first a settlement of fishermen. "Canaan" really is the name of a vast region, inhabited by a great many nations and tribes, all differing from each other in many ways, yet manifestly of one race, wherefore they are called "the sons of Canaan," Canaan being personified in a common ancestor, given as one of the four sons of Ham. ”

“ The dreams of the visionary have "come to pass!" the unseen El Dorado of the "fathers" looms, in all its virgin freshness and beauty, before the eyes of their children! The "set time" for the Golden age, the advent of which has been looked for and longed for during many centuries of iron wrongs and hardships, has fully come. In the sunny clime of the south west--in Upper California--may be found the modern Canaan, a land "flowing with milk and honey," its mountains studded and its rivers lined and choked, with gold! ”

“ O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. 6 And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed there: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity. ”

“ Canaan, that fruitful land, shall be turned into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein. They love the reward in the corn-floor, and are so full of the joy of harvest that they have no disposition at all to mourn for their sins; and therefore God will, for their effectual humiliation, take away from them, not only their delights and dainties, but even their necessary food (v. 2) : The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, much less feast them; they shall either be blasted by the hand of God or plundered by the hand of man. ”

“ To injure or destroy us a nation;
They may plunder, rob and burn,
And cause our land to mourn,
But they shant have our happy land of Canaan:
Oh! no! no! no!—ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
To them the day of Vengeance is a coming,
We will never mind the weather—no,
For let it rain, or snow,
We will die for our happy land of Canaan.
With our Johnstons and McGruders,
Of the Ship of State the rudders;
And with Beauregard to drive them to perdition,
With our Longstreets and our Lees,
We can flog them at our ease,
And will drive them from our happy land of Canaan.
And oh! ho! ho!—ha! ha! ha! ha! ”

“ Canaris, Constantine, a Greek statesman, did much to free and consolidate Greece, more than any other statesman (1790-1877) .
Canary Islands (288) , a group of mountainous islands in the Atlantic, off the NW. African coast, belonging to Spain, with rocky coasts, and wild, picturesque scenery; on the lower levels the climate is delightful, and sugar, bananas, and dates grow; farther up there are zones where wheat and cereals are cultivated; the rainfall is low, and water often scarce; sugar, wine, and tobacco are exported; the islands are a health resort of growing favour. ”

“ They were supplied with flocks and—— [181] which is their wine. On arriving at their vain temple, they made sacrifices in accordance with their heathen practices, killing many lambs. Thence the army advanced to Ayavire, where the Canas had brought more provisions. The Inca spoke to them lovingly, and arranged his peaceful pact, as was his custom with other tribes. The Canas, holding it to be an advantage to them to be governed by such wise and just laws, did not object to the payment of tribute, and the duty of going to Cuzco. ”

“ For the geography and civilization of Canaan about 1400 B.C. we have valuable evidence in the Egyptian papyrus Anastasi I., which mentions Kepuna (Gubna, Gebal-Byblus) the holy city, and continues: “Come then to Berytus, to Sidon, to Sarepta. Where is the ford of Nat-’ana (? Nahr el-Kāsimīyeh, or a town) ? Where is ’Eutu (? Usu, Palaetyrus) ? Another city on the sea is called a haven, D’ar (Tyre) is its name, water is carried to it in boats; it is richer in fish than in sands.” ”

“ So it has come to pass, that those among them who cannot settle down like unto the Gentiles, have gone across the Great Water to America, which is their true Canaan, where they flourish mightily, the more enterprising making a good thing of it, by prastering graias or “running horses,” or trading in them, while the idler or more moral ones, pick up their living as easily as a mouse in a cheese, on the endless roads and in the forests. ”

“ Canaan was simply the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, extending from Mt. Lebanon on the north to the Desert of Arabia on the south. Dan was in the extreme northern part, and Beer-sheba lay in the southern end of the country, one hundred and thirty-nine miles distant. The average width of the land is about forty miles, and the total area is in the neighborhood of six thousand miles. "It is not in size or physical characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position as the theater of the most momentous events in the world's history." ”

“ What are singing men and singing women to a heavy ear? The pleasant land is despised still. Canaan is not worth the scaling of a single wall, or an encounter with one Amalekite. The farm, the merchandise, and the wife, are made the captain to take us back, in spite of the invitations of love and the treasures of glory. ”

“ Certain tracts especially in the vicinity of the Canaries seem to be alive with myriads of creatures of every form and colour, some opaque and almost invisible, other transparent and bright with the most varied tints. ”

“ To attain the rude little shrine at the Fortaleza where a rest was to be taken, the path leads down into the Cañadas itself. A stretch of fine yellow sand, like the sand of the Sahara, thoroughly sun-baked, proved too great a temptation to one of the mules, and regardless of its rider and luncheon-basket, it enjoyed a good roll in the soft warm bed—luckily with no untoward results. After a welcome rest in the grateful shade of a retama bush, we turned our backs to the Peak and left this beautiful solitary scene. The island of La Palma seemed to be floating in the sky ”

“ ILLUSTRATIONS:
THE WOMAN OF CANAAN
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ”

“ As to the customs, manners, arts, sciences, and language of the seven nations that inhabited the land of Canaan, they must, from the situation they severally occupied, have been very different. Those who inhabited the sea coast were merchants, and by reason of their commerce and wealth scattered colonies over almost all the islands and maritime provinces of the Mediterranean. ”

“ Canaan is of those novels that centre about an enthralling idea. The type which devotes much attention to depictions of life and customs, to discussions upon present realities and ultimate purposes, is perhaps more frequent among Spanish and Portuguese Americans than among our own readers who are apt to be overinsistent in their demands for swift, visible action. Yet, in the hands of a master, it possesses no less interest than the more obvious type of fiction, for ideas possess more life than the persons who are moved by them. ”

“ Canaan was the country in which the two streams of Babylonian and Egyptian culture met together, and we now know that Canaan was the centre of that literary activity which the Tel el-Amarna tablets have revealed to us. Canaan, in the age of the eighteenth dynasty, was emphatically the land of scribes and letter-writers. If libraries existed anywhere in Western Asia, they would surely have done so in the cities of Canaan. ”

“ We will inform you presently what has been the occasion why it has been called Africa also. Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, inhabited the country now called Judea, and called it from his own name Canaan. The children of these [four] were these: Sabas, who founded the Sabeans; Evilas, who founded the Evileans, who are called Getuli; Sabathes founded the Sabathens, they are now called by the Greeks Astaborans; Sabactas settled the Sabactens; and Ragmus the Ragmeans; and he had two sons, the one of whom, Judadas, settled the Judadeans, a nation of the western Ethiopians, and left them his name ”

“ Canaan was marked out by Nature to be a land of merchants. Its long line of coast fronted the semi-barbarous populations of Asia Minor, of the Ægean, and of the northern shores of Africa, while the sea furnished it with the purple dye of the murex. The country itself formed the high-road and link between the great kingdoms of the Euphrates and the Nile. ”

“ We fully admit that our tame Canaries are at a great disadvantage when compared with their brothers of the groves, for that which sounds delightful in a dusty room, gains unquestionably a thousandfold by being heard in a spot where the singer has God's heaven above him, and masses of roses and jessamine at his feet. ”

“ That the account of the posterity of Canaan, of the families and nations that descended from him, and of the land they possessed, is more particular than of any other in this chapter; because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their land was, in process of time, to become the holy land, Immanuel's land; and this God had an eye to, when, in the mean time he cast the lot of that accursed devoted race in that spot of ground which he had spied out for his own people ”

“ Canada, throughout the various islands of the sea, upon the continent of Europe, and in far-off Asia, Africa and Australia,—no sooner have the glad tidings of salvation been proclaimed by the servants of God, under the auspices of the Almighty, than there has sprung up in the hearts of those who have thus heard the truth an irrepressible and irresistible desire to leave their native lands, and to identify themselves with the people of God in these remote regions, in these Rocky Mountains. ”

“ Canaan, the land promised to the fathers as an everlasting possession, with its costly productions, is a type of the inheritance bestowed by the Lord upon His church, and of blessedness in the enjoyment of the gifts of the Lord which refresh both body and soul. ”