The
Holy Sepulchre Is Not In A Field Without The Walls, But In The
Midst, And In The Best Part Of The Town, Under The Roof Of The
Great Church Which I Have Been Talking About.
It is a handsome
tomb of oblong form, partly subterranean and partly above ground,
and closed in on all sides except the one by which it is entered.
You descend into the interior by a few steps, and there find an
altar with burning tapers.
This is the spot which is held in
greater sanctity than any other at Jerusalem. When you have seen
enough of it you feel perhaps weary of the busy crowd, and inclined
for a gallop; you ask your dragoman whether there will be time
before sunset to procure horses and take a ride to Mount Calvary.
Mount Calvary, signor? - eccolo! it is UPSTAIRS - ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
In effect you ascend, if I remember rightly, just thirteen steps,
and then you are shown the now golden sockets in which the crosses
of our Lord and the two thieves were fixed. All this is startling,
but the truth is, that the city having gathered round the
Sepulchre, which is the main point of interest, has crept
northward, and thus in great measure are occasioned the many
geographical surprises that puzzle the "Bible Christian."
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre comprises very compendiously
almost all the spots associated with the closing career of our
Lord. Just there, on your right, He stood and wept; by the pillar,
on your left, He was scourged; on the spot, just before you, He was
crowned with the crown of thorns; up there He was crucified, and
down here He was buried. A locality is assigned to every, the
minutest, event connected with the recorded history of our Saviour;
even the spot where the cock crew when Peter denied his Master is
ascertained, and surrounded by the walls of an Armenian convent.
Many Protestants are wont to treat these traditions contemptuously,
and those who distinguish themselves from their brethren by the
appellation of "Bible Christians" are almost fierce in their
denunciation of these supposed errors.
It is admitted, I believe, by everybody that the formal
sanctification of these spots was the act of the Empress Helena,
the mother of Constantine, but I think it is fair to suppose that
she was guided by a careful regard to the then prevailing
traditions. Now the nature of the ground upon which Jerusalem
stands is such, that the localities belonging to the events there
enacted might have been more easily, and permanently, ascertained
by tradition than those of any city that I know of. Jerusalem,
whether ancient or modern, was built upon and surrounded by sharp,
salient rocks intersected by deep ravines. Up to the time of the
siege Mount Calvary of course must have been well enough known to
the people of Jerusalem; the destruction of the mere buildings
could not have obliterated from any man's memory the names of those
steep rocks and narrow ravines in the midst of which the city had
stood.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 83 of 170
Words from 43655 to 44172
of 89094
