wall could even then have made, embraces a very limited space, little more than the other; and unacquainted as we are with the motive which may have decided the builders on a particular course, it is hardly correct to say that the wall never could have excluded the present sepulchre, and that on this ground alone its site is mistaken.

LINE

SEPULCHRE

INNER LINE

ANTONIA

GATE

GENNATH

BRIDCE

The annexed diagram will illustrate the disputed point, and by comparing the map and frontispiece, (views, p. 107,) the reader will be able to judge for himself on this interesting question. In our chapter on the Holy Sepulchre, we shall examine the traditionary argument, which seems of great force, and shall only say here, that, on topographical grounds, we can see no sufficient objection to oppose to its apparent conclusiveness.

We have now noticed all that is of interest on this most ancient and hallowed portion of Jerusalem, "the holy hill of Zion." Perhaps no spot on earth has been for ages, and is still, the subject of such deep, longing interest and anticipation, both to the Jew and the Christian. The writings of the prophets, as they denounce the sins of Israel, and wail over her desolation, always return to their beloved theme, her final and glorious restoration. In them the Jew reads the promise of the future greatness of his people, when “her iniquities shall be punished, and her sin pardoned." He hangs, in poverty and contempt, over the wall of his once proud temple, and prays for the speedy accomplishment of these prophecies. And if many look upon the idea as visionary, there are others who believe that they shall be literally fulfilled; that the veil shall be taken from their hearts,and they shall be restored to the final possession of their own land.

"For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

"Her sun shall no more go down; neither shall her moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be her everlasting light, and the days of her mourning shall be ended."

WALK II.

FROM THE LATIN CONVENT, BY THE VIA DOLOROSA, TO ᏚᎢ . STEPHEN'S GATE, THENCE BY GETHSEMANE AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES TO BETHANY, RETURNING BY THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, AND THE DAMASCUS

GATE.

We shall not at present notice particularly those objects which lie within the city, between the Latin convent and St. Stephen's Gate. The descent is by a steep and rugged street, called the "Via Dolorosa," from the monkish tradition, that Jesus, laden with his cross, ascended it from the house of Pilate to the hill of Calvary. As far as the direction of the street is concerned, the tradition is well founded. For even if we set aside the site of the sepulchre, it remains certain, that the way from Fort Antonia to the heights without the second wall, where Jesus was crucified, must have ran in nearly the same line as the present.

By this gloomy street then, which, though its architecture is of Saracenic or Turkish origin, never failed, in the deepening twilight, of its legendary impression on my own mind, we reach St. Stephen's Gate, passing first

under an archway, built up of fragments of various dates, where the same tradition points out that Pilate showed Jesus to the people, thence called the Arch of "Ecce Homo." Let us ascend the wall a little to the right of this gate, and, before we quit the city, look out upon the ground we are about to traverse.*

And if there be holy ground on earth, it is here. Nor is there anything to disturb the full impression of identity, which at once passes into the mind, with the scene of so many wonderful and touching events. We are neither confused with learned theories, nor repelled by the palpable inventions of pious fraud. We are here, alone with nature, and in a silence, unbroken but by the wind sweeping over the ancient walls, and tombs, and hoary olive-groves, may give up our minds to the full impression of the spot.

Under the ancient Saracenic wall extends a narrow level ridge, occupied by the Mahomedan cemetery. The ruinous tomb of a Santon rises above its humbler graves, where a few Turkish women are seated, as is their custom. Sunk beneath this ridge, is the valley of the brook Kidron, above it rises the Mount of Olives.

The general appearance of this celebrated hill is, of course, the same as in the time of Jewish prosperity. The cultivation of the valley below, and of the hill itself, must have been more careful; the groves of olives were more * View 8 on the Map.