Said the spirit:  “Long before Gad was attracted by these heights and valleys, tribes of people lived here in their simplicity, yet in sin.  The land seemed not different from other lands.  Here were towering wooded mountain, rocky ravine, and strong-flowing fountain; here the beast prowled among the rocks, the bird nested in the trees, and the sweet-scented flowers graced all the landscape.  The storms beat upon the mountains and the waters rushed in madness to the valley in the rainy season, and the sun scorched the vegetation and dried up the fountains in the dry season.  Thus in monotony centuries passed.

“But one day the God of heaven sent messengers to encamp here, and from that time these mountains on which you now stand have been considered sacred—­because pressed by the feet of angels.  Yonder to the northeast, only a little way, is where that event took place.  Jacob, rich in herds and flocks, was on his way home from far-off Euphrates, but he was much troubled at the thought of meeting his brother who had sought to take his life about twenty years previously.  He was picking his way slowly over these mountains leading his company and cattle when there appeared in his way a host of angels.  He was not frightened, but in gladness of heart he cried out, ’Mahanaim,’—­God’s host.  And although the wise people of your day are not quite sure as to the exact location of this meeting, yet be happy in the thought that you are now only a few miles from the sacred spot, if, indeed, you are not just where it occurred.  Had you then stood here you could have seen the glorious light of their presence, and could almost have heard the rustle of their heaven-plumed pinions.

“After this meeting Jacob wandered a little farther to the south, and just over yonder, on the Jabbok, he spent a whole night in prayer and in wrestling with the Angel Jehovah, thinking it was a mere man.  There he gained a great victory over self, and he received the new name, ‘Israel.’  And on the next day, a little farther to the south, he met his erst-while angry and murderous brother in peace and happy reconciliation.

“A few centuries pass.  Then the mighty Moses conquers all this region; and a little later these Ajlun Mountains were given to the tribe of Gad as a permanent home.  But, in the course of time, the native tribes prove troublesome; and then the great Gideon, having gained a decisive victory down in the valley, followed the fleeing enemy, ‘faint, yet pursuing,’ right through this very district.  “Later the Ammonites were punished in a great battle by Israel’s ‘out-cast,’ and mighty warrior, Jephthah.

“But look again at Mahanaim where Jacob met the angels.  The place in later centuries became a center of other events of interest.  There, after the death of Saul, Ish-bosheth established his capital, and forth from its gates he sent his armies under Abner to fight that he might secure the scepter of all Israel to himself.  But after two years of struggle he was treacherously slain and his cause was hopelessly lost.  There, too, David sought refuge from Absalom; and out from those same gates through which Ish-bosheth had sent armies against him, David sent armies against his own son.  And there above one of the gates of Mahanaim the voice of his weeping arose when he heard the news of the death of his strange misguided boy.