The very site whereon she stood, Still inexterminable-still And bite the lip, and clench the hand :— O, what a spectacle of woe! In groups they settle on the ground; There is no voice, nor speech, nor sound- Entranced they sit, nor seem to breathe ; Themselves like spectres from the dead; our side in this war, and it was none other than He who cast out the Jews from these strong holds; for what could the hands of men and the force of machines have otherwise done against these towers? 1 It is difficult, indeed impossible, after the abomination of desolation has for so many centuries been laying waste the Holy City, to ascertain its ancient boundaries. There is very little reason to believe that the localities of the Holy Sepulchre, etc., overbuilt with churches, and visited by pilgrims and travellers from all countries, are genuine; so utterly confounded by undistinguishing ravages have been the very heights on which "Jerusalem was builded as a city compact together." There is nothing that strikes the stranger with more astonishment than the magnificent situation of Jerusalem, with the mountains standing round about it, and adorned with mosques, churches and convents, as seen from a distance, and the contrast of meanness and misery within its narrow, dark, and filthy streets, thronged with squalid and motley inhabitants. The city of palaces seems converted into a den of thieves. 2 The mosque of Omar, a most superb structure, with its blue dome rising above all the adjacent edifices, stands on the very site of the demolished. Temple of God. Within the court which surrounds it, none but Mahometans, under pain of death, or conversion to the faith of the false prophet, are permitted to enter. There is a tradition that the possession of the city depeads upon the unviolated sanctity of this place. The miserable remnant of Jews, who yet linger about the hill of Zion, pay a tax for permission to assemble once a week (on Friday) to pray on the outside of this usurped seat of the true God, on a spot near the place where, it is said, that the holiest of holies in the ancient temple was built. 3 The valley of Jebosaphat, in which the kings of Judah, the prophets and the illustrious of old, are supposed to have been buried, lies to the east and north of Jerusalem. It is traversed by the brook Cedron at the foot of the mount of Olives; but depending for its stream upon the uncertain rains, the channel is frequently dry in the summer months. Here the Jews believe that the solemnity of the day of judgment will be held, on the authority of the prophet Joel, iii. 1 and 2. "For behold, in those days I will bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,-I will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." The valley of Hinnom is to the south; once a scene of beauty and fertility with its groves and gardens, but at the same time a scene of the most atrocious and bloody idolatry, when infants were sacrificed by their unnatural parents to Moloch. Josiah desecrated it by overturning the shrines, cutting down the groves, and burning the bones of the priests upon their own altars. The valley afterwards became the And by the Gentiles in their pride "Zion, forsaken and forgot, Hath felt thy stroke, and owns it just; "Where is thine oath to David sworn? burying-place of the common people, and under the name of Tophet, a type of that place "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 1 Ichabod: that is, "Where is the glory?" or, "There is no glory." See 1 Samuel, iv. 21. "Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hands of the enemy, and none did help her; the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths." Lamentations. i. 7. 2 The Muedzins (Muedhins) are criers, with clear sonorous voices, who from the tops of the mosques call the people together at the hours of worship. 3 Mr. Jowett says:-"At every step coming forth out of the city, the heart is reminded of that prophecy, accomplished to the letter-Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles ! All the streets are wretchedness; and the houses of the Jews more especially are as dunghills." |