The distance, in time, from Mount Tabor to Caesarea Philippi, may be conceived from the account given by Ebn Haukal, an Arabian geographer and traveler of the tenth century. He says "from Tibertheh (Tiberias, which is near Tabor) to Sur, (Tyre,) is one day's journey; and from that to Banias, (Paneas,) is two day's easy journey." [Sir W. Ouseley's translation of Ebn Haukal's Geography, pp. 48, 49.]
This was an occasion on which Christ did not choose to display
his glories to the eyes of the ignorant and impertinent mobs
that usually thronged his path, drawn together as they were, by
idle curiosity, by selfish wishes for relief from various diseases,
or by the determination to profit by the mischief, which almost
always results from such a promiscuous assemblage. It may be
fairly considered a moral impossibility, for such disorderly and
spontaneous assemblies to meet, without more evils resulting, than
can possibly be counterbalanced by the good done to the assembly
as a whole, whatever it may be to individuals. So, at least, Jesus
Christ seems always to have thought, for he never encouraged
such gatherings, and took every desirable opportunity of getting
rid of them, without injury to themselves, or of withdrawing
himself quietly from them, as the easiest way of dispersing them;
knowing how utterly hopeless must be the attempt to do any great
good among such a set of idlers, compared with what he might
do by private and special intercourse with individuals. It is worthy
of note, that Matthew and all whose calls are described, were
about their business. Thus, on an occasion already mentioned,
when Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, with the simple
object of doing most good, he did not seek among the multitude
that was following him, for the devoted laborers whom he might
call to the great work of drawing in men to the knowledge of the
truth as revealed in him. No: he turned from all the zealous
loungers who had left their business, if they had any, to drag
about after the wonderful man who had attracted general attention
by his great and good deeds. He dispatched them as fast as
possible with a few words of instruction and exhortation; for though
he did not seek these undesirable occasions, yet he would have
been as much wanting in benevolence as in wisdom, if, when
all the evils of such a throng had occurred by the meeting, he had
not hastened to offer the speediest antidote to the mischief, and
the best compensation for the loss of time to the company, by giving
them such words of counsel, reproof, correction or encouragement,
as, even when cast like bread upon the waters, or seed by
the way side, might yet perchance, or by grace, "be found after
many days," returning to the hands of the giver, in gratitude, by
