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The Holy Land

The Holy Land image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
December
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

There s little pieasure in Visiling the placrs within the walls üf Jeruzalem which nre feported by ihe monks to be the scène of the acts and sufferings of Christ. There is no'certainty about these; en3 the spots regarding which there can be no misiake re so inieresting, ihat the mihd and hcart of the travelier turn nway from such as may bs faulous. About the site of the temple, there is no doubt ; nd beyi'iid the walls one meetsot every turn assurance of being liere Christ wa'keiand t ugh", and where the great events of Jewish history took place.- Letus go over wliat I füund in one ram ble; and ihen my reader will see whaí h must be to take walks in the neighbor hood of Jeiusalem. Leaving the cily by the B-thlehem ga:c, we dvcended into ilie valley of tfin nom, or Gehenna ttere there are ma ny tomb? cut in :he rock, with entrance ]ike door-ways. When Ispenk ofBeth nnv, I shall have occasion to dstcribe the (ombs of the Jews. It wns in this valley close by the fountain of Silonn, tliat, in the day's of jewish dolatry, children asfed ihrough the fue, in honor of Moloch. This is the place called Tophoi in Scripture, fit to be spoken of as it was, as an imnge of heil. Here, in this placo of cormpiion and cruelty, where fires hov ereJ abo.it living bodies. and worms preyad on the drad- hftre v-as the Unagery of terror "ihe wornn that dieth nol, atid i'ue lire that is nol quènched." The scène ii ve y different now. The slopes are terraceJ, t'hr.t the winter rains mr.y nol wash away ihe soil ; and tliese terface? were to-doy green with springing wheat; and the sproading oliven and fig trees cast iheir sbadows on the rich, thougb stony soil. Streams were led from t!e pool of Silor-.m among the fielda and gardens ; and all looked cool and fiesh in the once heJíish spot. On the top of the opposite hill wns the Field of Blood- the field ÍQUfiht os aburial place for strangers, by the priests to whom Judas returned his brfb For the burial of strangers, it was uscd in subsequeiit agrs ; lor pilgrims wlio died nt the Holy City were laid theip. It is now nolonger et.closed; but n house marks the spot. Tlic pools all round Jerusalem are beautiful ; the cool nrohing rock rnof of Kome, the wetd tuftd sides and clear waters of nll, are delicions. The pool c.F Siloam is still prelty- thnugh less so, nidojbt, than when the blind rr.:in,sent ti wah there. opened bis eyes on its sacred.strenm. The foumain of Siloam is more beautiful than the pool. It lies depp in a cave, and must be reached by brood steps which wind down in the shadow. A woman sat lo-day, in the dim ) glit of reflected sunshine, wnshing linen in the poní. Here it was that in days of o!d the priest carne down with hi.s golden pitcher to drnw water for the temple service ; and thighcr il was thnt ihe thought of Mihon came. when he sanp of- "Si'.oa's ! rook thal fluwed Fast by tlic orado of God." We were now in ;ho vnlley of Jehoshaphat ; and we cronaed the buttom of it, where the brook Kedcon must run wlien t runs nt all; but it seeins to be now merely a winter U'rrent, and never to liave been a constant slream. When we had ascended the oppnsite side ol the valley, we were on the Mount of Olives. The ascent was sleep - now amongtombs, and now past fields of waving barley, flecked wilh ihe shade of olive trees. - As we ascended, the opposite hillseemed to rise, and the city 10 spread. Two horsemen in the valley below, and a woman with a burden OD her head,mounting to the city by a path up Moiiah, looked so surprisingly smnll as to prove the grandeur of the senery. Hereabouls it wqs, as it is said, and may reasonably be believed, ihat Jesus mourned over Jerusalem, and told his followers wli at would become of the noble city which here rnse upon their view, crowning the sacred mourit, and shining clear against the cloiid!e:-s sky. Dwellers in our climate cannot conceive of such a sight as Jerusalem, seen from the summit of ths Mount of Olives. The Moab mountains, over towards the Dend Sea, nre dressed in tl e softest hues of purplp, lüac, and g-ey. The hill country 10 the north is almost gaudy wilh its contrnsts of color its white or grey stonps, red soil and crops of vivid green. But the city is the glory - aloft on the stefp - ts long lines of wall clearly defining it to the sight, and every minaret and cupola, and al most every stone marked out by the brilliant sunshine ngainst the deep blue s!iy. In the spncf-s unbnilt on witfiïn the walls, are tuftsof verdure; nnd cypresses spring liere nnd there (rom some convent garden. The grfen lawns o: the Mosque of Omar iiesprpad out sma before the eye, kh tleir graups of tin gay moving people. II it is r.ow 8 glorieus a place Vi tlie eye, what mus it have been ín the days of its 'pride ! - Yot iti ih-ii ifny, ivhcti every oi.e )(jokf( for tho exnlHng Me.sing, "Vt ace lo witl in thy wnlU. tik' [voR!rr'ify itlfin h palaces?" - there carne insleaJ, the lamentntion over Jerusalem, that killed the prophets and stoned the mesfengeis of Jehovah, nnd wliose house must be iherefure Ieft desolate. The disci)les, looking f rom henee upon the strength of the wnlls, the massiveness of the temple bui'dings then springng 480 feet from the bed oí the hrook beow, and the depth and ruggedness of he ravines surrounding the city on three sides, might well tisk wlien those things shoulJ be, nnJ how lhey should be acconiplishod. On the fuurth side, the the north, where there is no ravine. the Roman army was encamped. We could now see the rising ground, once covered with the Roman tenïs, but to.day with co rn fiélds and olive grounds. The Romans encamped one legión on the Mount of Olives; but t cou'd noi do any harm to the city; and the only availnble poirit of altack - the north sir'e- was guarded by a moat and three wnU. The sirge was long; so l'ng ihat men's hear!s fuiled ibera for fear, and at least one f;imishtd woman ate her owndillii; and at lost the city was taken and nearly deslroyed; and of the temple, Bot one stone was left upon nothcr. Now we were in the midst of these scènes lo-day? We tood where the doom was pronounced ; below us was the camp of the single legión I have mentioned; opposite was' ihe humbled city; wiih the site of ihe temple cour ts' and over to the north wa tl.e camp of ihe enemy. Here was the whole scène ofthat " great tribuïatien, such as was not kno.vn from the beginning of ihe worll!" From the summit of Olitret. we went down to the Scène of that olher tiibulation - that nnguush uf mind whicb hart perhaps never been surpassed from the beginning of the worlrl. "WhenJesus had spoken these words" (his words of cheer after the last suppei-,) "he wem forth," we are :cld, " witli his disciples over the brook Kedron, where was a gnr, den." The garden we entered lo-day from the other direction, nnd left it by crossing the bed of the brook. It is n dreary place now, very unlike whnt it must have been when " Jesus oftimes resorted thither wilh his disciples " It is a plot of ground on a slope above the brook, enclosr.d with fence if loose stones, and occupied hy eiglit extremely oíd olive trees - theoldest,! should (hink, int we snw in all oor Iravels. 1 do not mean thatlhey could have been growing in the dnys of Christ. Thai issupposed to he impossible; ihough I never could learn wliat ís the gieatesf nge. known to he obtained by the olive trep. The roots of these were supported by littln terraces of stones, that neither trees nor soil might be washed down the slope by the winter torrents. But little femains of these nee fine trees but hollow Irunks and a ev straggHng branches. It is with the ïind's eyethat we must seethe filling up f this garden enclosure, when Jesus 'ofttimes resortec' thither ' - its orchard oí íig, pomegranate, and olive trees, and the grass oryoung springing corn under foot. From evcry part of it the npproach of Judas and his party must have bren visible. By their 'lanlems, and lorclief, , ond wrapons,' gleaming in the glit, they must have been seen descending the liill fi-om the city gntf. The s'eeping disciples may nothave hoede;! thel'ghts and fooUteps of the mullitude; but s'.ep by siep as il wound down the steep, and then crossing thu brook, and turnrd up to the garden, the vietiin knew t'.iat ihe hour of lis fate drew on. By the way the crowd carne down, we now ascended towards the city, turning aside, howevei', toskirt the north wal!, inslead of returiiinz home through tlie slreets. Not to mention now other things that we saw, we noted much ccnnecied wilh theseige: the nnture of the ground - favorable for the encarnpment of an aimy, and the shallow moat umier the walls, where the Romans brought two great wooden towers on wlieels, tha; the men in the towers might fight on a level with those on the walls, and ihrow missiles inlo the town. This cene of conflict is very quiet now. A erop of barley was ripening under the very walls; nnd an Arab, with a soft, mild countenance,was fiiling his water skins at iho pool, called thesheep pool, near the Damascus gate. The proud Roman and despairing Jew were not more unüke ench oi'ner than this Arab, with his pathetic face, was unHke them both. As he stooped under ttie dim nrches of the rock, and his red cap carne into contrast with thedark grey of the still wa'.er belovr, and the green of the dnngling weeds over his head, our tho'ls were recalled lo our own day, and to a sense of the beauty we meet in every noi.'k and corner of the Ho'y Land. From this ramble, my reders may ee something, of lint it is lo take walks in the neigliborhood of Jerusalem. 05a The American Freeman piibüshes .1 letter from a missionary in Canada, which says : " Kor encour.igpmpnt, we wish our friends generally lo knovv that there liever has bren such a time as the present in this province. More, by nt leasttwo ihirds, hfivfi biokenaway from slaverv ihis yf!tr than any former ypar. Our seciion Üterally sivnrms with thone who tmrp cnrne iihin p rnnnihs."'

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News