legion of beggars droning or screaming the everlasting cry of "Backsheesh!" Rows of stalls line the way, at which men and boys with loud voices are calling out their wares— sherbet, nuts, oranges, sweetmeats, and cooked food of doubtful aspect; while a row of small shops and cafés appear to be doing a roaring trade, especially in those where a tempting placard announces "English beer sold here." On the right hand the eye rests at once upon a massive square tower, forming part of the citadel. It is the Tower of Hippicus-the tower described by Josephus-the tower about which there has been endless controversy. The substructures are very solid and of great antiquity; the stones, many of them ten feet in length, are bevelled, with rough surfaces. Over the height of thirty-nine feet the masonry is of a different character, and it is supposed by some that the lower part is a portion of the fortress erected by King David, or, according to others, of the Tower of Hippicus, built by Herod. Whichever it may have been-or it may have been both-there is every probability that this tower was standing in the days when our Lord was on earth. Josephus tells us that Titus left this tower standing when he destroyed the city; and it was the last place to yield when Jerusalem was taken by the Franks. "There is not one house standing," says MacLeod, "on which we can feel certain that our Lord ever gazed, unless it be the old tower at the Jaffa Gate." Close by is the English church on the site of Herod's palace, a substantial and pretty building, and the interior simple and in good taste-a striking contrast to many of the other churches. Turning now into Christian Street, where the shops more resemble those of European cities than in the other streets, a narrow turning brings us to one of the most interesting spots in the world, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Rivers of ink have flowed in controversies over the sites of holy places in Jerusalem generally, and of the Church of the Sepulchre in particular. The site of Golgotha, as indicated in the Scriptures, was outside the walls of the city; the site of the Church of the Sepulchre is far within the present walls. The question is, Could the present site ever have answered to the requirements of the sacred narrative in which it is said that Golgotha was "nigh to the city" (John xix. 20); that our Lord was crucified "without the gate" (Heb. xiii. 12); and that "in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid; there laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand"? (John xix. 41-2). Opinions are divided upon this topographical controversy; De Vogüé, Williams, and many others being in favour of the present site; Dr. Robinson, Fergusson, and others taking the opposite view. The next important point of controversy is that of historical evidence; and it is agreed that there is no evidence whatever that this site was held in reverence during the early centuries of the Christian era. It is not mentioned by any of the apostles; nor-with the exception of a passage in Eusebius, in which he states that over the sepulchre, "that illustrious monument of immortality," had been erected a Temple of Venus-is anything known of it until the Emperor Constantine caused the Temple of Venus to be overthrown and the holy cave laid bare. Subsequently, so it is said, Helena, the mother of Constantine, discovered, by a divine vision, the true Cross and all the localities connected with the death and burial of our Lord. fue encon đẻ thẻ mitiow, and emped f amost every nationality ventor së pa ka, rara, famą, maizes, and a variety, tô other artilles; ta! nae not an imposing aspect from the exterior, nor is there any spot 1... proportiona on be wet, standing as it does in the midst of a crowded It la, boxer, an enormous building, or series of buildings, 350 feet Aq q 2 ch, and contains seventy sacred localities presided over by seventeen 4 March estan agerate chapela inside the edifice.” hand young to describe the architecture of the exterior, or the bas-reliefs over fue main portai, let us pass the Moelem custodians on their bench in the portal, where they metrikes, revenir piper and drink their coffee in utter indifference, as no "backsheesh" can be demanded at the times when the church is open, and commence our tour of the church, whing only the principal places of interest and the legends connected with them. And, in Ang my let us remember that we are following the footsteps of millions of pious pilgrims wive, from all countries, through many centuries, have come hither, in a spirit of faith, de robion, mod self sacrifice, to worship. The first thing we observe is a large stone, around which, at all times, there are many kneeling worshippers. It is the Stone of Unction, on which it is said the body of our Lord www bad for anointing when taken from the Cross. Notwithstanding the fact that the stone has often been changed, that it belonged at one time to the Copts, at another to the Georgians, then to the Latins, and afterwards to the Greeks, and that the present stone was only placed in position in the year 1808, it is positively worn down in parts by the lips of pilgrims who have kissed it. All the Christian sects have free access to this part of the church; and over the Stone of Unction, Armenians, Latins, Greeks, and Copts have hung lampe and large candelabra, which are always kept burning. A few paces farther on is another stone, in a railed enclosure, indicating the spot where the mother of our Lord stood while the body of Jesus was being anointed, and where she afterwards stood watching His tomb. Slabs of marble, inlaid and radiating from the central stone, mark the very spot known as the Station of Mary. Turning now to the right, a few steps bring us to the Rotunda of the Sepulchre a vast space, in the centre of which stands the Holy Sepulchre itself. The dome, supported by eighteen piers, over which run two rows of arcades, is sixty-five feet in diameter, richly decorated with mosaics, and is open at the top like the Pantheon at Rome. Tery few persons visiting the church for the first time care to take the chapels in their enronological order, but proceed at once to the spot of absorbing interest, the Sepulchre. It is a small chapel, twenty-six feet long by eighteen broad, built of Santa Croce marble, and divided into two chambers, the first being the vestibule, or Angel's Chapel, where, in the centre, rests a stone set in marble, said to be that which the angel rolled away from the mouth of the tomb, aud on which he afterwards sat. In this little chapel, only sixteen feet long by ten wide, burn fifteen lamps, five of which belong to the Greeks, five to the Latins, four to the Armenians, and one to the Copts. A low doorway leads into the second chamber, the Holy Sepulchre. It is a very small chapel, “being only six feet by seven, or forty-two square feet in area, of which space nineteen square feet are taken up by the marble slab shown as the tomb of the Lord." Not more than three or four persons can be admitted at once, and then there is hardly room to turn. The chapel is encased with marble, so that if it really encloses a rock-hewn sepulchre such as that described by the evangelists, not a vestige of it is visible. Forty-three splendid lamps, belonging to the four sects, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, and Copts, are suspended from the ceiling, and are always kept burning; the roof is borne by marble columns, and on the walls are reliefs representing the Saviour rising from the tomb. The sacred slab on which the body of our Lord is supposed to have rested in death is cracked through the centre, and is much worn by the lips of adoring pilgrims. It is five feet long, two feet wide, and three feet high. In this chapel, beside this slab, mass is said daily; and here, day by day, and century by century, pilgrims come to worship; and no one, be his faith what it may, can witness the scene of passionate excitement, or gaze upon that slab, which has been bathed with myriads of tears and kissed by countless lips, without emotion. At Easter a scene is to be witnessed around this "Tomb of Christ" which is a disgrace to the name of Christianity. Thousands of persons assemble, in the Rotunda to witness the so-called Miracle of the Holy Fire, performed by the Greeks. In one of the walls of the Holy Sepulchre is a hole, and the great ambition of the fanatics is to take their station as near to this as possible, for, it is alleged, on Easter eve, when the Patriarch enters the Sepulchre, a flame of fire descends from heaven and lights the candles on the altar. The Patriarch, who is alone in the Sepulchre, passes out the fire through the hole; the priests light a bundle of tapers from the sacred flame and pass them to the people, and then follows a scene of indescribable excitement and confusion. Fighting, crushing, scrambling, screaming, each one seeks to light a candle or taper from a light which has been kindled by the sacred flame. Those who are nearest, and who have been waiting all the day and all through the past night, of course have the best chance; but the excitement continues until all in the church have lighted their tapers, those in the galleries lowering them by strings for that purpose, others paying large sums of money to the priests for having the privilege of a light direct from the sacred flame. The miracle is said to date from the apostolic age, but nothing is known of it historically till the ninth century. Down to the sixteenth century the Latins participated in the festival, but since then it has been confined to the Greeks, Armenians, Copts, and Abyssinians. Every year there are disgraceful riots, sometimes accompanied by scenes of bloodshed, attendant upon this festival, which is as wild and noisy as any heathen orgie; and in 1831, when 6,999 persons were in the church, a scene occurred which is best told in the language of an eye-witness. A panic took place in the church, and "the Turkish guards outside, frightened at the rush from within, thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and the confusion soon grew to a battle. The soldiers, with their bayonets, killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls were bespattered with blood and brains of men who had been felled like oxen with the butt-ends of the soldiers' muskets. Every one struggled to defend himself, and, in the mêlée, all who fell were immediately trampled to death by the rest. So desperate and savage did the fight become that even the panicstruck and frightened pilgrims appeared at last to have been more intent upon the destruction of each other than desirous to save themselves. For my part, as soon as I had perceived the danger, I cried out to my companions to turn back, which they had done, but I myself was carried on by the press till I came near the door where all were fighting for their lives. Here, seeing destruction before me, I made every effort to get back. An officer of the Pasha's, equally alarmed with myself, was also trying to return; he caught hold of my cloak and pulled me down on the body of an old man who was breathing out his last sigh. As the officer was pressing me to the ground, we wrestled together among the dying and the dead with the energy of despair. I struggled with this man. till I pulled him down, and happily got away upon my legs (I afterwards found that he never rose again), and scrambling over a pile of corpses I made my way back into the body of the church. The dead were lying in heaps, even upon the Stone of Unction, and I saw full four hundred wretched people, dead and living, heaped promiscuously one upon another-in some places about five feet high."* In making the tour of the Rotunda almost every step brings us to some place of legendary or historical interest. A few steps to the west of the Sepulchre is the chapel of the Copts, held by them ever since the sixteenth century, but very unpretentious in comparison with some of the chapels of other sects. Hard by is the chapel of the Syrians, or Jacobites, and here a candle is lighted to enable the visitor to see his way through a narrow passage to a rocky chamber, where are two tombs, said to be those of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. From the existence of this rocky chamber and of these tombs. Dean Stanley argues as follows:-"The traditional names of Joseph and Nicodemus are probably valueless, but the existence of these sepulchres proves almost to a certainty that at some period the site of the present church must have been outside the walls of the city, and lends considerable probability to the belief that the rocky excavation, which perhaps exists in part still, and certainly once existed entire within the marble casing of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, was at any rate a really ancient tomb, and not, as is often rashly asserted, a modern structure intended to imitate it." Coming back to the Rotunda, we next see the Chapel of the Resurrection, belonging to the Latins, with slabs of marble indicating the spots where Jesus stood when He said, "Woman, why weepest thou?" and where she stood when she, "supposing Him to be the gardener," said, "Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away." Ascending three steps we reach the Chapel of the Apparition, where, according to a fourteenth-century legend, Jesus again appeared to His mother after His resurrection. * Curzon, "Monasteries of the Levant." |