is in the oldest city in the world, which has undergone more vicissitudes than any other in the annals of history. But these are not the ruins of Jerusalem. Let him repair to the Jews' Quarter on Mount Sion, and there he will see the living "stones of the sanctuary poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Sion, comparable unto fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!" For, if the dwellings and the synagogues of the Sephardim bear witness, as do their countenances, to a higher state of moral culture than he had been led to expect, and if they are living in comparative security, as subjects of the Turkish government, after having been hunted like dogs from kingdoms which called themselves Christian, yet are they but strangers in their own land, speaking a foreign language, and subject to the caprice of foreign lords. But the other section, the Ashkenazim, will exhibit all the symptoms of wretchedness which an acquaintance with their European brethren still greater depth of 42 feet were dug through by Mr. Johns, in laying the foundations of the Church, and he also found a vaulted chamber beneath. (See his Work, pp. 6 and 7, and Bartlett's Walks, pp. 87, 88.) These excavations I saw for myself. Again, Dr Robinson mentions the same phænomena in digging for the foundations of a new synagogue in the Jews' Quarter, i. e. in the middle of Sion, Bib. Res. 1. p. 360; and the same (with the exception of the chambers) in laying the foundations of the new barracks on the western brow of Sion. Ibid. p. 459. Similarly Richardson speaks of 20 and 30 feet of ruins in the Jews' Quarter, (Vol. 11. p. 267) cited by Raumer, Beiträge zur biblischen Geographie, p. 54, where he also adduces Niebuhr's observations to the same effect. Thus then the débris mentioned by Mr. Whiting are not so deep as in other parts of the city, and cannot be taken as indications of the filling up of a valley. Rather, had there been a valley here, the accumulation must have been much greater. His opinion of the date of the ruins indicated by me is, perhaps, not worth more than my own. I have nothing to do with the square corner of the Palace of the Knights of S. John;" nor does Dr Schultz identify it with the second wall, but only Lord Nugent, (Vol. 11. p. 36,) who has been "too kind" to Dr Schultz in this instance. had taught him to expect. The same haggard and careworn expression of countenance, the same anxious. eye, an index of that "astonishment of heart," which is the threatened curse of their unbelief. Their very presence here is a memorial of the condition of their outcast brethren, scattered abroad in every nation under heaven, whose representatives they are, and by whose alms they are supported in "the city of their father's sepulchres." Or if he can trust his feelings, and consider it no desecration to intrude on a scene of human sorrow with which he may not sympathize, and which he cannot relieve, he may follow the steps of many travellers to the Jews' Wailing-place, on the appointed day, and there he will probably witness, among many cases of carelessness and listless indifference, apparent instances of deep mental agony', for which he will know that nothing but the Gospel can afford adequate relief; and he will surely join in the petition of the third Collect for Good Friday with a deeper meaning than before, and desire more earnestly than ever that the attempts for their conversion, however and by whomsoever made, may be crowned with perfect success. Still these are not the ruins of Jerusalem. Let him turn to the children of the "heavenly Sion,"-" the New Jerusalem,"-" the Mother of us all," and the First and Second Collects for the Great Fast will come home with equal force. Let us suppose him present in Jerusalem during the Holy Week; he will feel a curiosity to witness the cere I was never at the Jews' Wailingplace on Friday, for reasons hinted at in the text, but I remember to have been an unwilling spectator of one of these paroxysms in a young Jew, in one of the synagogues at Hebron. monies in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Let him go by all means, at least if he can go to mourn, not to mock or to triumph over the scenes which will be there enacted. If he arrive at the great gates of the Church about sunset, he will find them closed for a few minutes while the Moslem guardian and his attendants perform their devotions. A small window in the door will allow him to watch their ceremony, and he may learn a lesson of outward propriety and decorum from the infidels, which he will look for in vain among the worshippers within. On his admission, the first object which will excite his astonishment and horror, will be the Turkish soldiers of the garrison standing with their bayonets fixed, in various parts of the sacred precincts, and about the Holy Cave itself. If he enquire the reason of this dreadful profanation, he will be informed that the Latins have requested it as a protection against molestation from the Greeks! The Latin ceremonies in commemoration of this day have been frequently described, and will not here be detailed'. Suffice it to say, that if it were their purpose to convince the infidels that the Christian Church is strictly idolatrous, they could scarcely have devised a service better calculated to impress them with the conviction, than that in which the most awful scene that the earth ever witnessed is annually acted on Mount Calvary in a representation of startling reality2. They are at this day exactly the same as they were in Maundrell's time, 1697. See under date Friday, March 26, p. 72, &c. Sandys' account is much shorter (p. 132), but the ceremonies were apparently the same. (1611.) 2 I am bound to say that this pas sage now stands as it was originally written for the press; and that the substitution in the first edition was without my knowledge or consent. Or again, let an unbeliever join the throng in the same church, on the Easter Eve of the Greeks, when the imposture of the holy fire has been practised for centuries by the highest dignitaries of all the Christian communions in Jerusalem, though it is now confined to the Greeks and Armenians3; and he will witness, not only the most deplorable and degrading superstition in this exhibition, but a scene of wild confusion and dis This ceremony is first noticed among the westerns, by Bernhard the monk, who visited Jerusalem circ. A. D. 870. (Recueil de Voyages, Tome Iv. p. 790). Dositheus has preserved a Greek notice of it at the end of the same century. (Mouravieff's History of Jerusalem, 1. p. 340.) It was continued from this time forward until it became, among other causes, the disastrous occasion of Hakem's destruction of the Church, (as related in Vol. 1. p. 347). Notwithstanding this, it was revived with the restoration of the Church, and shortly before the Frank occupation of the city, the powers of this miraculous fire were tested by another Fatimite Khalif of Egypt, who prepared lamps with iron wicks which immediately ignited! (Historia Belli Sacri, ap. Mabillon's Mus. Ital. Tom. 1. pars 11. pp. 209, 10.) But the most curious and condemning fact is that recorded with innocent simplicity by Fulcher of Chartres, who was present in the first year of the Crusaders' Conquest. The light did not appear at the usual time. The expectant Latins, whose Patriarch was officiating, were dismayed, no less than the natives. Prayers and cries were redoubled in vain. Easter-day arrived, still no light appeared. King and princes, priests and people of the Latins, went in procession, chanting solemn litanies, to the Templum Domini, leaving the native Syrians of the Greek rite in the Church. On their return they were met at the door of the Church with the glad tidings that the light had appeared. (Ap. Bongar, pp. 409-411.) The truth being that the jealous Greeks had performed their trick during the absence of their suspected rivals. After this the Latin Patriarch was admitted into the secret, and practised it until their expulsion; when the Greeks resumed the profitable deception, in conjunction with Armenians and Abyssinians. The Latins do not believe in the continuance of the miracle since they have been debarred from a participation in it and its profits, and an Armenian Patriarch who once assisted at its enactment has declared it a lie. (See more in Asseman's Biblioth. Oriental, Tom. III. pars 11. Dissert. de Syris Nest. xx. sect. pp. ccclxiiccclxix. Quaresmius, Elucid. T. S. Tom. II. pp. 556-567, and Leo Allatius, de Græc. Opinat. xxx. pp. 179 -182.) Yet it is still practised by the Patriarchs, still believed by the multitude! order "very unfit for that sacred place, and better becoming bacchanals than Christians." Not unfrequently on this and other occasions, in the tumultuous processions of the rival communions, severe conflicts take place about the very Sepulchre, and blood is shed on both sides. It is a heavy penalty which the ecclesiastics of the present generation are paying for the deceptions of former generations, that they cannot discontinue with safety, nor retain without offence, this scandalous abuse of an ancient and significant ceremony. In its original intention and use it appears to have been nothing more than a very instructive representation of a great truth, a parable in action relating to the Death and Resurrection of our Lord. On Good Friday all the lamps which had been kept burning at the sacred places throughout the year were extinguished; on the morning of Easter-day they were relighted by fire brought from the Holy Cave. But the figurative meaning has been lost sight of long ago in the pretended miracle, which has been unhappily claimed by the ecclesiastical authorities themselves: so that while all the respectable members of the Greek community now at Jerusalem make no scruple to acknowledge and deplore the imposture, and are absolutely ashamed to take part in it; yet they dare not disavow it before the uninstructed multitude, lest they should shake their trust in the verities of the Christian faith, which have been confirmed to them by the authority of the same teachers, on whose credit they receive this lying wonder for a veritable miracle. It requires a larger measure of faith than they can exercise to believe, that if the Church 1 The words are Maundrell's, under date Saturday, April 3, p. 95. |