second Adam-the Lord from Heaven. And though time. may deaden, and sorrow may darken the retrospective visions of the soul as to all other things, yet, nothing short of an oblivious quenching of the powers of memory, will erase the recollections of that moment, and that scene. And now, while standing on the ground of hope which belongs to the whole "ISRAEL of God"-in Christ, I can take up the song, in the house of my pilgrimage, and say: "Jerusalem! my happy home, When shall my labours have an end, In joy, in peace, in thee?" I remember how, after a brief pause, we rode on in silencea silence in itself affecting. It was a time in which no man would intrude upon the thoughts and feelings of another. Even our attendant Arabs were silent. The tide of sacred history flowed massively through my mind; and its events, from the beginning to the end, with all their grandeur and magnificence, seemed to pass before me with a wonderful sense of reality. I had journeyed onwards from the scene of Israel's bondage and deliverance, to the spot where a more terrible captivity was destroyed, and a nobler deliverance. achieved. I had traversed some of the scenes of Israel's wanderings, and I now stood in the scenes of their glory and greatness of their shame and their nothingness-yet, still in the spot where One, more glorious than Solomon and mightier than David, shall restore the lost lustre of Israel, and gather in their thousands, with the rest of a redeemed people, from the four winds of heaven-when that shall have received its full accomplishment which is spoken by the holy prophet:-"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion 240 PROGRESS TOWARDS JERUSALEM. shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;"-and when shall be made good to Israel the precious promise-"Behold I will bring it [Jerusalem] health and cure, and I will cure them, and I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” When we first came within sight of Jerusalem, it was distant about five miles; and from that point of view seemed to occupy a small space in the midst of a wide, arid plain, round which gently rising slopes, rather than hills, appeared to be gathered. I thought of the passage-"As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever;" and felt a sense of disappointment at the picture. But this, like most impressions hastily taken, was erroneous. I had not then arrived at the proper point of sight to obtain an accurate notion either of the city or its surrounding mountains. As seen at such a distance, but little more was apparent than a seemingly low, straight, embattled wall, with a few inconsiderable buildings, and here and there a small dome, and a palm tree or two-the greater part of the city, northward and north-eastward being invisible. But still-it was Jerusalem-not such as when David and Solomon, in the fulness of their royal glory, bare rule amidst its thousands, or when Titus marched in the pride of Roman power, or when the ploughshare had passed over, and rooted up its foundations, but-it was Jerusalem "trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." From 1 Isaiah ii. 2, 3. 2 Jeremiah xxxiii, 6–9. 3 Psalm cxxv. 2. 4 Luke xxi. 24. PROGRESS TOWARDS JERUSALEM. 241 this point, the road was level and good, for Palestine; and continued in a gentle descent. How the feet of buried generations have trodden it. How many a patriarch and prophet, how many a pilgrim and burning-hearted crusader has familiarized himself with the aspect of every object. And, perhaps, this very road was once marked by the footsteps of the incarnate Son of God. As we advanced nearer, the city assumed her proper position, and the relative objects about her were such as scripture narrative would lead us to expect. The Psalmist says, "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together;" [or at unity with itself]; and such is precisely the idea which even now the mind conceives of it, occupying as it does, the summit and sides of a distinct and separate rocky elevation, surrounded for the most part, by a bold and deep valley, presenting as it were an almost natural fortification, surmounted by massive walls, though not at present altogether worthy of the commanding position which they occupy. In front of us, rose up the majestic heights of Mount Zion. At their westward base lay the valley of Gihon, bending off towards the valley of the son of Hinnom, and the decayed village of Siloam, to which the Mount of Offence and part of the Mount of Olives formed the background. Having reached the lowest point of descent, we wound our way slowly up towards the left, in order to enter at the Yaffa, or Bethlehem gate. At length-the weary pilgrimage was accomplished. On the hundred and third day after quitting my native shores, I stood in health, peace, and safety-a candidate for admission into the Holy City. It seemed almost to shadow forth to the imagination, the Christian's pilgrimage to the city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God. While standing at the gate, ruminating on the past, and thinking how improbable it appeared, twelve months before, that my feet should ever tread Immanuel's land, it was really difficult to realize the fact-that I, separated for a season from the duties of my beloved charge, was then actually on the scene of my adorable Saviour's triumphs. My own personal R 242 ARRIVAL AT THE LATIN CONVENT, JERUSALEM. identity I could not question; and yet a surmise just passed through my mind-May it not be all a dream? A sort of quarantine had been established at Jerusalem for fear of plague; and we were not permitted to enter till the medical officer had seen us. After a short delay, during which we were waited on, outside the walls, by Mr. Johns, the pro-Consul, who shewed us every polite attention, the official personage made his appearance; who, having received an explanation as to the Desert-route which we had taken from Cairo, and being assured that there was no plague in that place when we left it, just required us to submit to a slight fumigation with brimstone, in a tent pitched near the gate, as the ground of a claim for a few piastres, and admitted us at once-having previously suffered our baggage and servants to pass without any fumigation whatever. We proceeded direct to the Latin Franciscan Convent, where we resolved to take up our abode during our stay in the Holy City. A tolerable sized room, with whitewashed walls, and a small coarse bed at each end, was set apart for our use; and soon, with a little activity on the part of our faithful servants, we felt ourselves at home, with a prospect of three weeks delightful sojourn in Jerusalem. Rest, after the dreary wanderings through which we had passed, would have been delightful in any place-under almost any circumstances; but, rest in "the city of the Great King"-I felt it was far beyond my deserving. I could almost have said-Here let me rest for ever; but I remembered-I had left my flock in the wilderness of an evil world, and the earthly Jerusalem must be no home for me. CHAPTER VII. JERUSALEM. PROPHETICAL PORTRAITURE OF JERUSALEM-JERUSALEM-THE JEWS-SACRED LOCALITIES-THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE-VIEW OF THE CITY "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity, because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors took her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her, for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture; and they are gone without strength |