Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-05-26

Jerusalem BY MOONLIGHT.


-. 80 asAia i = Gll. i
u Jerusalem by Moonlight. y y
aThe broad moon fingers on the SUNNI
of Mount Oliyet, but its beam has long LEI
the garden Of Gethsemena and The tomb o
Absalom, the waters Of Keedren, and til,
dark abyss of Jehosapkat. Full falls it
splendor, however, on the opposite city, viz
id and defined in its silver blaze. A lofty
wall, with turrets and towers and frequent
gates, undulates with the unequal grount
which it covers, as it encircles the lost cap
ital Of Jehovah. 1t isa city of hills, far
more famous than those Of Rome; for al
Europe has heard of Sion and Calvary,
while the Arab and the Assyrian, and the
tribes and nations beyond, are as ignorant
Of the Capitolonian and Aventine Mounts
as they are of the Malvern or the. Chiltern
Hills.
"The broad steep Of Sion, crowned with
the tower of David; dearer still, Mount Mo-
riah, with the gorgeous temple of the God
of Abraham, built alas! by the child Of Ha-
gar, and not by Sarah's chosen one; close
70 its cedars and its expresses, its lofty
spires, and airy arches, the moonlight falls
upon Bethesda's pool; further on, entered
BY the gate Of st. Stephen, the eye, though
its the.noon of night, traces with ease the
Street Of Grief, long winding ascent to a
vast cupoloed pile that now Calvary,
called the street Of Grief, because there the
most illustrous of the human, as well MS Of
the Hebrew, race, the descendant of King
David, and the Divine Son OF the most fa-
vored Of women, twice sank undershat bur-
den of suffering and shame which is now
throughout all Christendom the emblem Of
triumph and of honor; passing over groups
and masses of houses built Of stone, with
terraced roofs or surmounted with small
donles, we reach the hill Of Salem, where
Melchisidec built his mystic citadel; and
still remains the hill Of Scopas, where Ii
rus gazed upon Jerusalem on the eve of
his final assault. Titus destroyed the tenn
pie. The religion Of Judas has in turn
subverted the fanes which we're raised to
his father and to himself in their imperial
capital; and the God Of Abraham, of Isaac,
and Of Jacob, is now worshipped before al
tess in Rome.
"Jerusalem by moonlights IT'S a fine
spectacle, apart from all its indissoluble as
sociations Of awe and beauty. The miti-
eating hour softens the austerity ola noun.
tain landscape magnificent in outline, how
ever harsh and severe in detail; and while
it retains all its sublimity, removes much
of the savage sternness Of the strange and
unrivaled scene. A fortified city,, almost
surrounded by ravines, and rising in the
centre ofchains Of far spreading hills, oc.
casionally offering, through their rocky
glens, the CLEANS Of q distant and richer
land! .5,,.;..s .'. .-...s.,
"The moon has sunk behind the mount
OF Olives, and the stars in the darker sky
shine doubly bright over the sacred city.
The all pervading stiffness broken by a
breeze, that seems to have travelled over the
plain Of Sharon from the sea,--lt walls a.
among the tombs, and sighs among the
cypress groves. The palm tree trembies
as itpasses, as if it were spirit Of woe
Is ii the breeze that has travelled over she
plain of Sharon from the sea? 'a pAi3
aOris the haunting voice Of prophets
snourning over the city that they could not
save? Their spirits surely linger onthe
land where their Creator had designed to
dwell and over whose impending fate Onl-
Iipotence had shed human tears.--From
this mount! Who can but believe that ai
the midnight hour, from the summit of the
Ascension, theg great departed Of Israel as.
esembled. to gaze upon the. battlements oI
,sheir mistic city? There might be counted
heroes, sages, who need shrink from no ri
yalry with the brightest and sisest of othel
lands: but with the law-giver ofs the time
.of Pharaohs, whose laws are still obeyed
the monarch, whose reign has ceased fol
three thousand years, but whose wisdom il
ID proyerb iri all the nations Of the earth
the teacher, whose doctrines have noddel
I'D civilized Europe; the greatest Of legis
I lators, the greatest of administrators, ant
the greatest Of reformers- what race, ex
,tincf or living, can produce three such tnel
aRs these? Y ~ Ss . J,
ssThs iast tight ii extinguishsd IN they
alags 81 Bethany. The wailing breeze ha
become d moaning wind; q white fin
spreads oysr the purple sky: the stars ar
yelled; the stars are hid; all becomes Q
dark ns the waters VI Kedton and the vol
Icy Jshosaphat. The towerof David mei
ges INTO obscprity; no longer glitter tn
aainarsts ofthe mosque 0f Omar Bethes