CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 179 and immediately behind it the Greeks, and yet closer to the walls of the city the Armenians and the Latins, have each their cemetery.. We contented ourselves to-day with viewing them from a distance, for it wanted but little of high noon. I was therefore rejoiced at reaching the Jaffa gate, through the valley Gihon, and thence in a few minutes we were at the Casa Nuova. I had promised myself to spend a couple of hours of the evening in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. I was determined to allow nothing to-day to disturb my devotions; neither the observation of an unworthy clergy, nor their sensual forms of religion, nor even learned doubts of local identity. Were this but the place for which the enthusiastic hosts of the Crusaders sacrificed the happiness and love of home, for which so many of the most valiant swords have glittered, for which millions of hearts have bled; were this but the place which, since Helena's pilgrimage, has attracted the eyes and hearts of every pilgrim, — received their tears and heard their prayers; where, on the whole surface of the earth, is there such another spot? And, if tradition be correct, upon this very spot the Saviour hung upon the cross; and here, after the brief sabbatic rest of three days, he burst the bonds of the grave for ever: who could approach it without feeling that he here beholds the very countenance of his Redeemer, or without celebrating the entire festival of Easter in the very depths of his soul. Before entering the church I examined its antique porch. I saw upon one of its pillars the name Dandolo inscribed. Six hundred years ago the valiant Doge stood at the same porch of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. We found the doors open, although the Turkish guards were not wanting to the left in the antechamber: the Christian community possess on this day the privilege of a free entrance, we consequently met with a pious congregation already assembled within its area. When once my departed mother led me by the hand into church, I durst scarcely move my lips; I was affected as children are, with a perception indistinct to themselves, but heartily fervent. When subsequently after many years of study I stood before the expecting community in the same church, I was solemnly affected. I felt conscious of my calling, to speak imperishable words to the hearts of my brethren. Here to day I oscillated in my feelings between man and boy, as I stood at the entrance of the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, in the midst of a multitude of Orientals prostrated upon their knees, and with their heads uncovered. We shortly entered the small but brilliantly lighted and richly decorated chamber, containing the rent marble cover of the tomb. 180 CONGREGATION WITHIN THE CHURCH. A Latin priest performed mass; standing near him I read with inaudible lips what was deeply graven upon my own heart. A year previously I had written to my distant friends, whilst glowing with the idea of seeing Jerusalem, "When I shall stand praying by the tomb of our Lord, I shall think of you all." To think of those we love, in the highly excited moments of self-dedication, I have always felt to be the most fervent pledge of affection. To-day I did not forget what I had then written. When Geramb, lost in the contemplation that in the church of the Holy Sepulchre all the Christian sects, by means of their representatives, incessantly elevate their voices in praise of God, he exclaimed, "Strange that one voice still is not heard here—that of the Protestants!" It is true indeed that I myself did not chaunt a hymn of praise, but I rejoiced in the conviction that this instant negatived the assertion of the Trappist. The whole church was full of devotional emotion. The Greeks assembled in greatest force in their gorgeous church. In the chapel of Helena we beheld Armenian priests magnificently apparelled. Solitary Copts also wandered about, indigent in their raiment, with suffering expressed in their physiognomy, as if performing an incessant act of penitence. The Franciscans, in their dark brown cowls, were parading in procession, which several pilgrims had joined. I was also handed a noble wax taper, that I might participate; but I preferred to visit, in company with the beloved Padre Lorenzetti alone, the several objects of attraction. The procession went from the altar of the mass, in the small Latin church, to the pillar of scourging; thence to the prison of Christ, where the soldiers divided the garments; thence to the spot where the cross was discovered; then to the chapel of Helena; to the pillar where Christ was crowned with thorns; to Mount Calvary; to the place where the cross stood; to the stone where the corpse was anointed; to the Holy Sepulchre; thence to the place where the Risen One was seen as a gardener; and to the chapel where Christ, after his resurrection, appeared to his mother. What pleased me in the procession was the edifying chaunting of the Franciscan brotherhood, which reminded me of their musical and song-loving native land. In the sacristy I observed several rituals for all professions of Franciscans at Jerusalem: the prior presented me with a copy as a memento. From the Sacristy we ascended a staircase higher to a chamber where are preserved, in addition to the festal habiliments of the Latins, two costly relics, namely, the sword and spurs of Godfrey of Bouillon. Upon returning to the church, which by this time had become tolerably empty, I resolved upon stopping there an hour alone. It REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTIANITY. 181 was to me a delicious hour of meditation. I thought for an instant upon the sceptics of my fatherland, who imagine they have severed the nerves of positive belief with their sharp knives; and I questioned myself as to the principle which binds me myself to the letter of the Bible. In spite of my critical calling, which for six years has entangled me in the complex combinations of the existing spirit of inquiry, I have not yet attained the vaunted progress; but have lingered in the convictions I entertained and expressed six years ago. "The Christian life," as I then said, "and still more the Christian Church, is thoroughly rooted in the complete historical individuality of the incarnate divinity; the splendidly iridescent soap-bubble of poetical belief to which confused philosophical schools have reduced it, flutters in the air in short-lived joy. Not purposeless is the comparison with the vine. (Matt. xv. 1, &c.) Abide in me, and I in you.' To abide in him is effective. All miserable or sickly attachment to the Prophet of Nazareth, devoid of the Divine nimbus, is either farce or treachery. Judas also kissed the Redeemer, but close behind him stood the centurions with swords and staves." (John xviii. 3, &c.) Whilst thus wandering solitarily, yet more solitary in my steps than in my faith, through these localities which were the terrestrial foundation for the preaching of Him who bore the cross and rose from the dead, before the eyes of that small troop to whose hearts nothing was so foreign as a lie, and whose heads without doubt were incapable of inventing a single star in the firmament of mind: how bold did the denial of the truth, that Jesus is the Christ, appear to me upon that spot to be! It is true indeed that Scripture has many points to which doubt may attach, and which produce even to innocent faith many vexations. Is it not, it is asked, an internal contradiction that the revelation of the Son of God, the message of Redemption, has been conveyed for the instruction and reformation of the world, in forms which are so uncertain, and which bear more interpretations than any clause of any statute of a temporal state? The solution, I reply, lies not far from the contradiction. The Church of Christ is a living act of God; it was so from the commencement, and is so still. The spirit is its principle, but the spirit never can be fettered by the letter. As Christ formerly appeared on earth, combining in his earthly body his divine mission, even so is he still present. One cried, "He is possessed by a devil." Others, his wisdom attracted. (John iv. 41-42.) A third confessed, “Thou art the Son of God." Many saw with open eyes the miracles he performed and the miracle he was, and yet they believed not. Only he whom the Father chose came to the Son. As was then the case, so is it now. The Gospel statements, many-sided though their interpreta 182 FAITH AND RELIGION. tion may be, have preserved for us the authenticity of Christ's public appearance. The door must be left open to opposition, if faith is to remain perfect faith. And the various modes of comprehension of St. Matthew, St. John, St. Paul, and St. James, correspond admirably with the variety of human minds. It is precisely thence, whence so many inconsiderate attacks upon the authority of the Bible have sprung, that we obtain so great a guarantee of its universal destination. Truly Scripture is not in fault when infidelity despises it, and wisdom treats it superciliously. But the sorrowful contest in the very bosom of the Church is yet a melancholy fact. Many a heart throbs sadly that beholds it; even the lamentations of grief are not wanting, and crying aloud that the life of the Church is endangered. Is there real cause for this? It will then commence having a real cause when conscience shall deny, that, above all eyes which are fixed upon its transitory existence, an Eye watches which is eternally open. Thus have Golgotha and the sepulchre of the Redeemer led me to a confession of the grounds of my faith. When standing upon the dead stones above which the Christian church is built, we are led unconsciously to think of the living pillars whereon the structure rests. The hour had passed rapidly upon this spot. Although I had not yet commenced my study of the actual sites, yet my repeated visits had familiarised to me the localities of the garden sepulchre and the rocky hill, and in my mind's eye I beheld them as they may have appeared before they were enveloped in the mask of their highly decorated Church. I did not to-day take a last farewell of the Holy Sepulchre. DEMANDS ON OUR FAITH AT JERUSALEM. There is assuredly no city in the world whose surface, with its stones and ruins, offers at this moment to the strictest historical investigation so many characteristics of the past as Jerusalem. Yet this has not sufficed for the desires of leisure minds: for they have recklessly ventured upon discoveries which range far into the domains of the incredible. But credulity has given the heartier welcome to these discoveries, from their appearing to cherish a species of sober piety, which in its day numbered many proselytes. This day has not long been over under every zone; may there be few amongst my readers who will not too seriously reflect upon what I call Demands upon our faith! Indeed those would certainly err, who, on account of the weak side of tradition, should therefore tax it with TRADITION OF HOLY PLACES. 183 absolute caducity and penury. To destroy the body because of the deceased limb is unadvisable. The Via Dolorosa,-who knows it not from its many representations in Catholic countries? That at Jerusalem will naturally be the identical one which led the Saviour to his crucifixion: it runs past the house of the governor, close to the gate of St. Stephen, and terminates in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. I will not adjudicate upon its authenticity: it is at all events probable that the real road, along which Christ walked to death, took this direction and was similarly constructed. For my purpose a few will suffice of the peculiarities which make the Via Dolorosa recognisable, independent of its several chief points. In the house of the governor, the chamber is to be seen wherein Christ sat in bonds before he was led to judgment. Close to it, in a ruinous condition, is seen Pilate's dark judgment hall (John xviii. 28); and upon the first story is the balcony whence Pilate uttered the Ecce homo to the people. (John xix. 5.) About the middle of the Via dolorosa is the house of the rich man, at whose door Lazarus lay. (Luke xvi. 19.) Probably the representation of this house was suggested, in consequence of such celebrated fathers as Tertullian and Origen giving a positive existence to the parable of our Lord. Near the Temple the spot is identified where Christ absolved the adultress. (John viii. 11.) On Mount Zion a church has been built where Jesus laid the clay upon the eyes of the blind man. (John ix. 6.) A street was formerly named from the archway where Judas is supposed to have hanged himself. (Matt. xxvii. 5.) The house of Zebedee is as well known as that of the pharisee where Mary Magdalene anointed the feet of our Lord. (John xii. 3.) The church of St. Anna contains the grotto of the conception of the Virgin. (Luke i. 31.) Even the very spot where the cock stood when it crowed, and where Peter stood when he heard it, as also the identical one where he wept so bitterly; all this can be pointed out. Beyond the walls is recognised the spot where Solomon sat when surveying the labourers at work upon the Temple: a stone is also shown which is said to have been the usual seat of Elias; and the accursed fig-tree (Mark xi. 21.) stood close to the spot where Christ taught the Lord's Prayer. (Matt. vi. 9.) But the boldest dive into antiquity marks the spot where Abraham and Melchisedeck met (Genesis xiv. 18); the scene of the intended sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. xxii. 9); and lastly, the tomb of the great parent Adam. This tomb lies exactly under the spot of the cross at Golgotha. It was indeed ingenious to unite the commencement of the human race to the act of its redemption as closely as the root of a tree to its summit. As in former times the very skull of Adam |