the but few of them can have been more terrible than that of sixty five years ago which mr describes from to still the miracle goes on here i must explain for the benefit of those readers who may be with the conditions which prevail at that this church of the is the joint possession of various christian who have held their rites in it for many ages in or about the year the traveller de la re lord of ch writes in the church of the holy reside also many other sorts of christians from the country of john and christians of the to come to a later age we have evidence on the point from the pen of the rev henry who was elected of their factory by the company of merchants in and who died while still a young man at in in the interval he visited and wrote an interesting and valuable account of what he saw speaking of the church of the holy he says that in these places almost every christian nation maintained a small society of each society having its proper quarter assigned to it by appointment of the such as the c in his age however most of these had been out by the of the so that only the and were left as in our time each of these had its own and where they possessed the right of their services to the of all others he continues � � but that which has always been the great price for by the several is the and of the a winter pilgrimage holy a privilege with so much fury and especially between the and that in which party should go into it to their mass they have sometimes proceeded to blows and wounds even at the very door of the their own blood with the sacrifices an evidence of which fury the father guardian showed us in a great upon his arm which he told us was the mark of a wound given him by a sturdy greek priest in one of these wars who can expect ever to see these holy places rescued from the hands of or if they should be recovered what deplorable might be expected to follow about them seeing even in their present state of they are made the occasion of such rage and f if the actual described by have the spirit of them remains and well may we echo the questions which conclude his remarks the of the christian are the object of the and mockery of the masters of the holy places whose business it is to and control them i imagine that few visitors who care to take the trouble to think even if they have never questioned the of the site can return � whole from an inspection of the holy the of various and different periods have made the mistake of leaving nothing to the imagination thus in addition to about a dozen to sundry saints and supposed to be connected with them in this way and in that and to the great greek cathedral the � in itself a fine building but to my taste much by its and � there are many other sacred spots each of them fixed to a hair s thus we have the centre of the world accurately if determined and the place of the the church of the burial of the skull of adam who was constructed of taken from this locality then we see the mount of � the reader will remember by the way as i have pointed out that nowhere in the bible is it said that was on a mount � beneath which adam was the blood flowing from the cross brought him to life again too was buried here and the made for the cross in the rock has been carefully preserved and is now lined with silver also the pilgrim is shown � and if he is a russian kisses the place � where stood the crosses of the two next there is an chapel called that of st where the cross was found near the altar too is a seat in which the sat while the cross was unfortunately for the of this as the points out an of the century complained in his day that he had frequently been obliged to renew this seat because the piety of led them to bear it away he adds does the some regard this chapel as part of the ancient city moat to this day play the same as poor father told me of on almost with tears indeed if left alone they would carry off the whole place in this chapel of st and on the staircase leading to it i saw names upon the greatly did such conduct brother a of self advertisement and above all things a gentleman he tells how vanity led some to their names with the tokens of their birth and rank on the walls of the church and even to paint their coats of arms and cut their with and on the pillars and a winter pilgrimage thereby and all men he adds � i have seen some whose pride had brought them to such a pitch of folly that when they went up into the chapel of mount and bowed themselves down upon the holy rock wherein is the secret hole of the cross they would pretend to be praying and within the circle of their arms would secretly scratch with exceeding sharp tools their with the marks � i cannot say of their noble birth but rather of their for a perpetual memorial of their folly but this they were f to do secretly for had the guardian of the holy rock whose name is g seen them doing so he would have dragged them away by the hair of their head the same madness moved some to their names 