CHAPTER VIII.

JERUSALEM.

I ENTERED Jerusalem by the Bethlehem gate, and there one of the Arabs presented a paper to me. It was a recommendation from the English Consul for travellers to take up their quarters at Simeon's Hotel on Mount Zion. I passed along the street of David. I passed a large building called the Citadel, the El Kalah, the Castle of David, but now used as a barrack. It was the palace in which David resided when in Jerusalem, and a window in it was pointed out as the scene of his temptation, and the seat which he is said purposely to have selected at which he wrote the fiftyfirst Psalm, so full of deep penitence and so powerful in prayer. Within sight of this window are the garden and fountain mentioned in Scripture history, having a large cistern cut in the rock, where Bathsheba bathed. I passed an open space formerly the corn-market. The streets were illpaved, and now they became very steep, and we were advised to dismount.

Often had I pondered what my feelings would be when I first set my unhallowed feet on the streets of the Holy City. For weeks before I had wondered whether the interest of the reality would come down from the association

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of these scenes so long and so piously cherished. piously cherished. Ascend in the scale I imagined it could not. But in this I was mistaken. Now that the first gaze of curiosity had subsided, and the mere novelty of such sublime scenes of desolation had passed away, so far from being joyful at what I had accomplished, I felt something unusually heavy and humbled at the heart. The impression was so intense that a kind of faintness came over me, and without thinking of it or being able to prevent it, I first burst into tears, and then gave utterance to prayer. I saw already several aged and feeble Jews, mean and melancholy, engaged at their devotions, muttering the law aloud, and tearing at as it were the stones of the street. With wild lamentations they were imploring the God of their fathers to restore to them the sceptre that had passed away, and to send them the Messiah, that this land might be their own. I thought the coincidence remarkable, when I heard at the same time from the minarets of the Turks the well-known Mahometan cry sounded and sung in long triumphant chorus, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his prophet." The contrast brought a feeling of fear over my frame, and the expression of Jacob when he awoke from his dream at Bethel occurred to me: "And Jacob was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place!" Sympathizing with the poor Jews, "Pray," said I, "for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces." And as to the proud prayer of the Mahometan, I said, "Now indeed has the sceptre departed from Judah and the land become a prey to the spoiler." In particular, I was grateful that the Lord had gone before me in this journey, watching over me in his gracious providence through all my perils and

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SERMON AT ENGLISH CATHEDRAL.

privations both by sea and land. And now I felt elevated that, in the language of the Psalmist, he had thus brought me to great honour in permitting me a sinner to visit the the City of David.

As I entered the principal room of our hotel I noticed the hands of the clock pointing to twenty minutes past six. Breakfast and a bath having been enjoyed, I went to sleep in a comfortable bed void of all the usual et cæteras. I was wakened in time to attend divine service at the English Cathedral in commemoration of Christ's Ascension. About twenty converts from the Mahometan and Jewish religion. might be present. The former wore their turbans on their heads when in Church, such being their usual method of paying the greatest respect both to God and man. Mr. Leider from Grand Cairo, himself a converted Jew, preached an appropriate sermon on the occasion, the Bishop assisting in the other parts of the devotion. When so many thousand miles from home, when tired at seeing the unmeaning bronzed faces of the Mahometans, and when disgusted with the sounds and songs of these wandering Ishmaelites, it was really refreshing for me to look upon a few English faces, and to hear once more the sounds of my mother tongue. But still more was it endearing to listen to the Gospel preached so powerfully within the walls of Jerusalem as to remind me of the days of the Apostles; and especially it was interesting to listen to a sermon preached on the Ascension of our Lord, when we could almost see from our seat in the church the very spot on the Mount of Olives from which he rose. I had letters from the English Consul-General at Grand Cairo to the Bishop of Jerusalem, and from others to Mr. Leider, but I refrained from delivering them on this occasion. My friend

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and I were accordingly going back towards our hotel, when the Bishop and Mr. Leider came up and introduced themselves to us. Our letters were then produced, and we all became friends in a minute, and so in like manner with our English Consul Mr. Phin, and with the whole family both of the Bishop and of the Consul, to whose hospitality and very interesting information about many things I was deeply indebted. I told Mr. Phin about the attempt which had been made to rob and shoot me. He proposed to report the circumstances at Constantinople, and wondered if it could have been the robber who had returned from his banishment to the same village a few days before. On thinking over the matter I began to be afraid of being detained to give evidence. And I foresaw that if Mr. Phin's proposal of apprehending the culprit had been carried into effect, some of his kindred might afterwards have quietly taken their revenge on me with a stone or a bullet from behind a rock before I left the country. So no notice was taken of the matter.

After dinner I lost not a minute in setting out from street to street to muse on the past, the present, and the future. I thought of the time when the glory of the Lord dwelt in the Temple of Zion when Solomon reigned. Then had the city risen to extraordinary pre-eminence; the fame of its riches, the magnificence of its temple, and the splendour of the king's house had reached into distant lands. Then was Jerusalem strong and mighty; the number of the chariots and horsemen far surpassing those in the time of David. Then was the land filled with forts and fenced cities, and the kingdom was established in Judah; yea, silver and gold became as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars as the sycamore trees in the vale for abundance. At the zenith of its greatness

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JERUSALEM HOW CHANGED.

Jerusalem became the scene of Christ's ministry and miracles, the place of his sufferings and crucifixion. Then was wrought the great work of man's redemption. But oh what a total change, in the fulfilment of prophecy, was now presented to my eye! This Holy city, once the joy of the whole earth, and preserved by the Almighty like the apple of the eye, was now the dirty and deserted capital of a Turkish Pashalite. What a fearful retribution of famine, pestilence, and slaughter has followed ever since that day that the Jews raised the cry, "Let his blood be upon our heads!" And what a blessed change has been accomplished in the western world by this mission of the Son of man. For eighteen hundred years the curse of God has rested on Jerusalem. Of how many wars and sieges, and sackings and burnings, and pestilences and famines, has it been the scene! What unheard-of sufferings have been endured here! What poverty and wretchedness in these houses and hovels! Wild dogs now prowl in these dark and dirty streets; and with secret sorrow in the solitary cliffs of these rocks, and in the dead valley of Jehoshaphat, the descendants of Israel pour out their lamentations to the God of their fathers, bewailing their sins and the downfall of their nation. Once this land was rich in every blessing, victorious over all its enemies, resting in peace, with every man sitting under his own vine and fig-tree with none to disturb. Their temple was the richest in the world; their religion was the purest, and their God was the Lord of Hosts. But they set at nought the counsel of Jehovah, they trusted in their walls, and they walked after the imagination of their own heart. And the day of vengeance arrived. Jerusalem was given up to the spoiler, and the Jews, plundered, persecuted, and peel