THE SACRED LOCALITIES. 79 maintained on both sides, as it has been of late by Dr. Robinson in his "Biblical Researches" against, and by Mr. Williams in his "Holy City" in favor of the present site, we may be excused for yielding to the voice of the universal and constant tradition since the earliest ages. Those who are in the habit of doubting, and almost denying, every tradition, may be expected to do so here; but as there must have been some place where these stupendous events occurred, we shall be content with believing in this until the skeptics show us another, which they have not yet attempted to do. The fact that Adrian endeavored to desecrate this place, and obliterate the memory of the cross by building a Pagan temple here in the second century, is proof that the tradition goes back to the earliest age; and Adrian's unbelief pointed out the sure place for the exercise of Helena's faith. At present, therefore, I prefer to believe in the old traditions until I see some better reasons for discarding them, than the modern traveller's measurements and opinions. As to Calvary, although I may not believe that the hole in which the cross was placed has remained to this time, or could have been identified by the Empress Helena so many ages after the crucifixion, yet I see at present no sufficient reason to doubt as to the general locality. The universal tradition has more weight with me than modern measurements, and still more fallacious arguments. And to this conclusion of the understanding my heart gladly assents, and pours out its feelings upon the spot where the redemption of man was accomplished. I cannot afford to come to the Holy Land for the sake of doubting. There is enough of that at home. I prefer to believe. The rent in the rock is remarkable, and has evidently been produced by some convulsion of nature, and not by art. This is a very singular feature, and its contemplation fills the mind with awe. way except that mentioned in the Scriptures. Although nothing is seen, at the present day, of the tomb hewn in the rock, yet the Sepulchre may have been upon the spot designated, and now covered with the small chapel, over which the church is built. Henry Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697, has a very striking passage upon this subject, and one that may explain several difficulties: "In order to the fitting of this hill for the foundation of a church, the first founders were obliged to reduce it to a plain It is not accounted for in any other area, which they did by cutting down several parts of the rock, and by elevating others; but, in this work, care was taken that none of those parts of the hill, which were reckoned to be more immediately concerned in our blessed Lord's passion, should be altered or diminished. Thus, that very part of Calvary where they say Christ was fastened to, and lifted upon, his cross, is left entire, being about ten or twelve yards square, and standing, at this day, so high above the common floor of the church, that you have twenty-one steps or stairs to go up to its top; and the holy sepulchre itself, which was at first a cave hewn into the rock under ground, having had the rock cut away from it all round, is now, as it were, a grotto above ground." The remarks of the same honest traveller are so much to the purpose in reference to the changes which the walls, and position of parts of Jerusalem itself, have probably undergone, that I shall add them here; as the principal doubts turn upon the point that the crucifixion took place without the walls. Calvary "was anciently appropriated to the execution of malefactors, and therefore shut out of the walls of the city as an execrable and polluted place; but since it was made the altar on which was offered up the precious and all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, it has recovered itself from that infamy, and has been always reverenced and resorted to with such devotion by all Christians, that it has attracted the city round about it, and stands now in the midst of Jerusalem, a great part of the hill of Sion being shut out of the walls to make room for the admission of Calvary." On visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre again, in the evening, we found it filled with a crowd of pilgrims, and witnessed a succession of ceremonies, which I shall briefly describe without much comment. The crowd of spectators were looking upon the Latin Patriarch, and a procession of monks carrying a cross and a figure of our Lord, of almost life-like size. The first station was by the stone Pillar of Flagellation. A large piece of this relic, unknown to the Scriptures and to early Christianity, is kept in a cell, not far from the spot where Mary Magdalene stood and where our Lord appeared to her, or the Chapel of the Apparition. The fact that two other pieces, preserved, one at Rome, and the other in the church near the Greek Patriarch's house at SINGULAR CEREMONIES. 81 sermon. Constantinople, are of a different mineralogical character, does not prevent the pilgrim from touching this with the end of his staff, and devoutly kissing that part which has come in contact with the holy stone. Here they sung a hymn, and a sermon was held in Spanish, upon the scourging of the Lord. They next proceeded, in priestly array, to the Prison of our Lord, or the place where He was incarcerated while the preparations were made for the crucifixion. This is also a circumstance upon which the New Testament is silent. After the customary singing, a French sermon was preached in this place. The same ceremonies, with a sermon at each, took place at the altar and the chapel of the Division of the Garments. The procession then ascended the steps, and went first into the chapel where our Saviour is said to have been nailed to the cross. Here they placed the large cross upon the floor, and performed the ceremony of affixing the image to the cross. Then followed another hymn and another The crucifix was next taken to the adjoining chapel or Mount Calvary, and set up in a hole in the rock. Hymn and sermon. Two friars, representing Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, now approach the cross, and with an air of great solemnity and sorrow, draw out the nails and take down the figure from the cross. As it is a flexible image, the two men who acted the part of mourners, composed the limbs, bending the arms and arranging them in the usual manner, and then laid it in a winding sheet and carried it to the stone of unction, followed by the procession. Upon this stone the figure was laid and odors and spices thrown over it. After another sermon it was placed in the Holy Sepulchre, and here, at least for the present, the performance ended. How much soever such scenes may annoy us, they cannot altogether destroy the associations of the locality, nor detract from the sublimity of the real events. We cannot forget that we stand upon, or near the spot where the greatest problem that had hitherto troubled the world was solved for ever. During the long night of four thousand years, the nations, 'sitting in darkness,' had vainly endeavored to discover whether 'the shadow of death' was eternal. Here the veil was lifted: man had share in the secrets which lie beyond the tomb. After the Lord of Life had been three days subject to death, He came forth here triumphant, the first-born of His own glorious revelation and purchase-Immortality. 82 JERUSALEM, BETHANY, AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Saturday, April 7th.- We rode out at St. Stephen's Gate, and again passing the spot where the first Christian martyr is said to have sealed his testimony with his blood, we went down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, crossed the brook Kedron, and rode along ascending the side of the Mount of Olives to Bethany. This village is about two miles distant from Jerusalem, or as we are told in the Scriptures, 'about fifteen furlongs off,' and on the road which our Lord travelled when he came from Jericho. Bethphage appears to have been somewhat more distant; but no traces of its existence can be found at the present day. The hamlet of Bethany probably occupies the site of the ancient village to which our Lord loved to resort, the abode of Martha and Mary, and the scene of one of his greatest miracles. It is now a poor place, and contains only some fifteen or twenty families. It is, however, delightfully situated, and affords a fine view of the Valley of the Jordan. The house of Mary and Martha, and the tomb of Lazarus, are pointed out; for in the Holy Land every sacred event has its modern locality. The tomb is cut out of the rock, and is descended by twentyfive steps; but as it would appear, from the account given us by St. John, that the grave was not in the town, we are led to suppose that either the modern village or the tomb may not be upon the ancient site. The latter is described simply as 'a cave, and a stone lay upon it.' But it was sufficient for us that we had gone over ground which had often been pressed by the hallowed feet of our blessed Lord, and that we looked upon a beautiful prospect, down one of the valleys, which his eyes in the flesh must have often beheld. On our return we crossed the summit of the Mount of Olives, and had a fine view of the Dead Sea. At the top of the Mount is the Church of the Ascension, built over the rock, in which a foot-print is shown, and which tradition assigns to the last event in the earthly life of our Lord, though the account by St. Luke places the Ascension at Bethany itself, rather than the summit of Olivet: 'And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.' (Luke xxiv. 50, 51.) Approaching Jerusalem, we could see the city from the very summit of the Mount. We could look directly down Jerusalem and upon the site of the temple, and felt the full force of the upon |