Mount Carmel

“ Mount Carmel extends from the sea coast at Haifa, inland 15 miles, in a south-easterly direction, thus forming a separating ridge between the Plains of Sharon and Esdraelon. Its height is about 500 feet at the sea, and 1,800 feet at its inland extremity. The mountain has always been associated with the name of the Prophet Elijah. It was here that he was said to have sought shelter when Ahab was seeking his life. A monastery stands over what is thought was the spot, and was used as a hospital for the wounded when Napoleon was besieging Acre. ”

“ Spain in America
Youth's Immortality
A HERMIT OF CARMEL SCENE.—A ravine amid the slopes of Mount Carmel. On one side a hermitage, on the other a rustic cross. The sun is about to set in the sea, which fills the background.
HERMIT. Thou who wast tempted in the wilderness,
Guard me this night, for there are snares in sleep
That baffle watching. ”

“ Before entering into details, let us imagine ourselves to be [29] standing on one of the mountains round about Jerusalem. [1] Away to the north, Mount Carmel rises abruptly from the sea. Thence the chain of Carmel runs S.S.E. for some 20 miles, dividing the Coastal Plain from the Plain of Esdraelon. About Dothan and Tul Keram it merges in the range comprising the mountains of Samaria and Judæa, which range runs north and south through the land like the backbone of a fish, with steep spurs, like ribs, thrown out on either side towards the Coastal Plain and the Jordan Valley. ”

“ The historical origin of the Carmelites must be placed at the middle of the 12th century, when a crusader from Calabria, named Berthold, and ten companions established themselves as hermits near the cave of Elias on Mount Carmel. A Greek monk, Phocas, who visited the Holy Land in 1185, gives an account of them, and says that the ruins of an ancient building existed on Mount Carmel; but though it is likely enough that there had previously been Christian monks and hermits on the spot, it is impossible to place the beginning of the Carmelite institute before Berthold. ”

“ It has a wide plain to the east, and a little to the south-east the great plain of Esdralon extends from the Mediterranean to the sea of Tiberias. Having a most favourable wind, we passed on at a great rate, and just as the sun rose we passed the north end of Mount Carmel. It is a mountain, or hill as we should call it, a straight and regular ridge, eight or ten miles long, running north and south; on the top and side next us, almost wholly destitute of trees, and without cultivation. ”

“ The gnarled, veteran boles still send forth vigorous and blossoming boughs. There were all manner of lovely lights and shades chequered over the turf and the winding path we rode. At last we reached the foot of an ascent, steeper than the Ladder of Tyre. As our horses slowly climbed to the Convent of St. Elijah, whence we already saw the French flag floating over the shoulder of the mountain, the view opened grandly to the north and east, revealing the bay and plain of Acre, and the coast as far as Ras Nakhura, from which we first saw Mount Carmel the day previous. ”

“ The bay horse he rode had its harness of red leather studded with bosses of burnished steel.
"Come now," said he to himself, "may Our Lady confound that rogue of a hedge priest! What was it—right or left by the three thorns? Send me to Mount Carmel, but I have forgotten!"
His brown face looked grave and a little grim. The forest was not merciful to strangers, even when a haughty and adventurous spirit looked at life out of shrewd, steel-bright eyes.
"At the stone cross by the three thorns on the heath? Yes, to be sure. And I gave the lousel a groat! 'Pax tecum, lording. ”

“ North of Mount Carmel a narrow strip is called Phœnicia. Directly east of Mount Carmel the level country is pressed inward, and lies between the mountains, forming the remarkable Plain of Esdraelon, physically belonging to the Maritime Plain, but geographically to the Mountain Region. South of Mount Carmel lay Sharon; and further southward was Philistia, a land whose people, the Philistines, were long the enemies of Israel, and have since given the name Palestine to the whole land. ”

“ COMPLETION OF TEMPLE EXTERIOR Heart aglow with pride, love, gratitude for superb achievement of completion of exterior of the House of Worship, Mother Temple of the West. Bahá’u’lláh’s high behest, enshrined in His Most Holy Book, has been brilliantly executed. The thirty-five year old enterprise, initiated on same day that the Báb’s sacred remains were transferred to Mount Carmel, has been triumphantly consummated. The unique Edifice, singled out for consecration by the hands of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been nobly reared. The Greatest Holy Leaf’s last ardent wish has been befittingly fulfilled. ”

“ Between two of these ranges lay a valley so beautiful that some have called it a terrestrial Paradise; though situated in a much higher region than the greater part of the country, it enjoys perpetual spring—the trees are always green, and the orchards full of fruit. Libanus has been famed for its cedars. Mount Carmel is a celebrated mountain, properly belonging to Samaria, but on which the Syrians had an altar, but not a temple, dedicated to their god Carmelus. ”

“ The ancient Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon were on the coast between Beyrout and Haifa, where I entered Galilee on the fourth of October, but we passed these places in the night. Haifa, situated at the base of Mount Carmel, has no Biblical history, but is one of the two places along the coast of Palestine where ships stop, Jaffa being the other. Mount Carmel is fourteen miles long, and varies in height from five hundred and fifty-six feet at the end next to the sea to eighteen hundred and ten feet at a point twelve miles inland. ”

“ I would pass through thy forest and Carmel, and stand in Gilead, and gaze with rapture on mount Abarim;—mount Abarim and mount Hor, where are thy two great luminaries, thy teachers who gave thee light.
Thine air is life for the souls, like myrrh are the grains of thy dust, and thy streams are like the honeycomb. It would be pleasant for me to walk naked and barefoot among thy desolate ruins, where once thy temples stood; where thy ark was hidden, and where thy Cherubim dwelled in thy innermost shrines. ”

“ Carmelites, a monastic order, originally an association of hermits on Mount Carmel, at length mendicant, called the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, i. e. the Virgin, in consecration to whom it was founded by a pilgrim of the name Berthold, a Calabrian, in 1156. The Order is said to have existed from the days of Elijah.
Carmen Sylva, the nom-de-plume of Elizabeth, queen of Roumania; lost an only child, and took to literature for consolation; has taken an active interest in the elevation and welfare of her sex ”

“ Many strange legends had gone to weave round the Convent of the Carmelites—so long the centre of fashionable Catholicism—an atmosphere of romantic mystery.
Tradition taught that the order had been founded on the summit of Mount Carmel by Elias himself. Its earliest members were the mysterious Essenes, but they were converted to Christianity by Saint Peter’s Pentecostal sermon, and built on the mountain a chapel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she herself becoming a member of their order. ”

“ It was in El Calvario, too, and for the nuns of Beas, that the Saint drew the plan called the ‘Mount of Perfection’ (referred to by M. Magdalena [5] and in the Ascent of Mount Carmel and reproduced as the frontispiece to this volume) of which copies were afterwards multiplied and distributed among Discalced houses. Its author wished it to figure at the head of all his treatises, for it is a graphical representation of the entire mystic way, from the starting-point of the beginner to the very summit of perfection. His first sketch, which still survives, is a rudimentary and imperfect one ”

“ Henceforth I will love them myself, for the good lesson that, through you, they have imparted. I trust you will forgive me the rudeness of laughing at you.
M. Cheerfully, Clara; but learn from this never to despise any of God's creatures; they can all teach us some important and beautiful lesson which we should be happy to heed. And now, if you please, we will go and feed the snow-birds.
C. With all my heart!
MOUNT CARMEL.
SELECTED.
Mount Carmel is a high promontory, forming the termination of a range of hills running northwest from the plain of Esdraelon. ”

“ Several weeks after this I was on Mount Carmel, where is a small but substantial stone building designed for the use of pilgrims, with but one large room, whose only division is that the place for men and women is two or three feet higher than that for the beasts of burden. On this raised platform the pilgrims sit and eat and sleep, while but just below them stand "the beasts of the stall." ”

“ What is called Mount Carmel by Europeans is a part of a district which goes by the name of Beled Hartha, comprehending the mountain and plain from Häyfa down to Mharrem. This district was commanded by Shaykh Messâd, a man of ancient family in these parts, and who resided at Yethem, his principal burgh.
The road, after passing the foot of the promontory, turns to the right or E. over a level and well cultivated soil of a fine black mould. One hour more brought us to the gate of Häyfa. ”

“ The success of the community’s teaching work is assured by the fact that the instruments it uses were created by the Revelation itself, that it was the Faith’s Founders who conceived the methods for the prosecution of its Divine Plan, and that it was They who guided, in every significant detail, the launching of the enterprise. During the twentieth century, through the efforts of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Guardian, Mount Carmel itself has become an expression of this oneness of the Faith’s being. ”

“ I fancy that was a great day when this question was decided.
All the places of business were closed, and everybody was going up to Mount Carmel. There must have been more people on Mount Carmel than there are today at the races. [A] A better class of people, too.
[A] This was said on Derby Day, in Opera House, Haymarket, London.
There were eight hundred and fifty of the prophets and priests of Baal altogether. I fancy I can see them all, going up in a grand procession, with the king in his chariot at their head.
“Fine-looking men, aren’t they?” says one man to another, as they go by. ”

“ The Carmelites, or White Friars, pretended to be of great antiquity, and were originally established at Mount Carmel, from whence they were driven by the Saracens about the year 1238. They were brought into England in 1244, and settled first at Alnwick in Northumberland, and at Ailesford in Kent.
About the date (or a little before) of our poem, the Carmelites appear to have been very active in asserting in a boasting manner the superiority of their order over the others. ”

“ The answer to that question determines men's attitude, their position on the one side or on the other; their answer to that question decides the destiny of every individual soul. According as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is accepted or rejected, will men stand or fall. What is it in its significance but the conflict of Mount Carmel over again? ”

“ There they are now interred in a tomb beautifully situated on the slope of Mount Carmel, not far from the Cave of Elijah, and only a few miles from the spot where Bahá’u’lláh spent His last years and where His remains now lie. Among the thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world who come to pay homage at the Holy Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh, none omit to offer a prayer also at the shrine of His devoted lover and forerunner, the Báb. ”

“ Those on either side, which denote the roads of imperfection, are broad and somewhat tortuous and come to an end before the higher stages of the mount are reached. The centre road, that of perfection, is at first very narrow but gradually broadens and leads right up to the summit of the mountain, which only the perfect attain and where they enjoy the iuge convivium — the heavenly feast. The different zones of religious perfection, from which spring various virtues, are portrayed with much greater detail than in the first plan. ”

“ Our traverses from the shores of the Salt Sea to Gaza, and again from Jaffa to Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, together with our excursions to Bethlehem and Solomon's Pools, had enabled us to obtain an approximately complete knowledge of the general features of the country and of its geological structure, and we looked forward to a further reconnaissance northwards to the shores of the Lake of Galilee, and thence across to Mount Carmel and onwards to Beyrût, to enable us to complete our geological survey of the whole country;—but this was not to be, as my narrative will show. ”

“ Why dost thou go to him? today is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.
24 And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going. And do that which I bid thee.
25 So she went forward, and came to the man of God to mount Carmel: and when the mall of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess.
26 Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? and she answered: Well. ”

“ Napoleon besieged the place in 1799, and used a monastery, since destroyed, on Mount Carmel for a hospital. After his retreat, Mohammedans killed the sick and wounded soldiers who had been left behind, and they were buried near the monastery. Acre was called Ptolemais in apostolic times, and Paul spent a day with the brethren there as he was on his way down the coast from Tyre to Jerusalem. ”