The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-08-24


sepulchral couch. could not but go in N.Y.
self, faithless as am now to the sanctity of
1.-The place, and respect the practice of the bend
ed knee, and bow before the lamps of gold
and silver ever kept burning there. while fra
grant perfumes and sweet incense fill the air.
The reverence, the awe of the poor humble
Christian, who perils life and sacrifices property
from the steppes of Russia to the rocks of Pat
agonia, to kiss the cold, broken marble slab,
often sobbing and crying as if his heart would
break, fills me with reverence for his devotion,
though without faith in the spot; and bring
home long wax. candle lit by the Holy Fire
upon the very spot
But it is well that the worlds faith is thus
shattered now in this site that il is not ques-
tion of Catholic and Protestant prejudices--
but question to be judged on by facts, and
not religious passion. A learned Russian of
the Greek church is now in Jerusalem, who
has been irresistibly driven to the opinions of
DR.. Robertson, upon his own researches alone.
Catholics deny the site, as well as Protestants,
and many Protestants affirm this to be the real
spot. 1t is well, say, for the Greeks, the Lat
ins, aud the Armen;ans have made a mockery
of the holy site, if site it ever were. The
whole Is but an exhibition, and an operate ex-
hibition too. My first sight of the Holy Sep
ulchre was on the first Saturday in Lent--a
great day of exhibition with both Greek and
Latin. The tive contesting sects were striving
to see which in procession should make the
grandest display, and thousands of Christians
were present in the holy precincts. The Lat
ins had one great start in music, the Greeks
have jnene--and tie Latin organ thundered in
wild appeals, of course, in Greek discontent--
The candles were legion. The Holy Sepulchre
itself WIS in one magnificent blaze of light
from ragged vaulted dome to its sepulchral
vault. To keep the two sects from blows, the
Turks assign to each sect diffe' ent bours for
their professions, and the Turks stand guard to
keep order and peace, all the day, within the
church. jew iss not admitted at any time
No Jew can show his head within the consecra-
ted chapels, and if Jew attempt admission, Jew
would be beaten unto death. -
NOTHING VISIBLE OF CALVARY.
Nothing is visible-nothing at all, of the
original Calvary-if this be Calvary. Marble
covers all the original rock, save in some very
few places, where peep can be had through
the marble crevices created to give the peep
The whole looks like series of churches or
chapels-with the usual affairs and the candles
of the Catholic Churches of Greece and Rome.
The priests of all the religions here show up
everything spoken of in Scripture-the exact
place where Christ appeared to Mary Magda-
lene in the likeness of gardener; then, few
feet further stone like star, designating
the spot where Mary stood; then, where our
Lori appeared to Mary then. a fragment of
porphyry column, called the column of Flage-
liaba, being piece of that to which the Saw
iour was bound when scourged by order of Pi-
late /; then, the prison where Christ was con-
fined previous to the cruci6xion; then, the ex
act place where the true cross was dug up I'M
der the inspired and watchful eye of ST. Hele-
ma place of especial sanctity, where the
very rocks weep now (the place is under ground
and damp in mournful memory then, the
very column of grey marble on which the Jews
made our Saviour sit while they crowned him
with thorns, and Knocked him +; then, the very
place where the cross was fixed; then the spot
where Christ was nailed to the cross then,
where the Virgin Mary stood d. ring the cru
cifxion, &C., &c. Every historical point of the
New Testament here, in Jerusalem, has not
only name, but a local habitat n nay, Monk
ish invention and fancy are not thus content,
but they wander back to the beginning of time,
and show up here on the grounds of the Holy
Sepulchre '.the centre of the earth," and the
spot even whence was taken the clay from which
Adam was modelled ! Fancy and Fiction
and Rom ince thus revel, and so extraordinary
is the whole operate show, that one rejoices at
last that this is not Calyary-this is not Golgo-
tha-this is not the place of the Holy Sepul-
chre, and that for wise purposes the Almighty
has yelled in secresy the spot whereon He sac
1ifced His only Son. s s29
THE HOLY NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AND FARCE.
The dome over the Holy Sepulchre is leaky
and broken and rain creeps through and in up
on it; but it cannot be repaired for such is the
jealousy that Greek will not let Armenian or
Latin do it, and Uicc Oers0. Well is it, re-
peat, then, that Infdel, but impartial, Turk
squats and smokes his pipe by the door as door
keeper, and brings in his soldiers to keep or
der. But what can Turk think of,sucb Chris
tianity and all this gewgaw-ccol, calm, SIM
pie minded, uninIpassioned Turk-who in plain
simplicity, spreads his mantle upon the bare
earth. and, with his face to Mecca, offers up,
humbly on his knees, with forehead bent to the
earth, his prayers to the Prophet alone-no i'm
age of him. no painting. no sculptured form, no
Virgin-nothing but the Prophet himself
and, though him, to Allah, his God What
can jew think of it-Jew who, here in his
own city, is chased out of the Sepulchre as de-
mon or wild beast would be? Hope not for
missionaries, then. Talk not of Christianity,
and its progress in the city of the Great King,
until all these things can be amended Never
will Jew be converted but by an interest here;
never will Moslem be turned from Mecca Tie
farce of the Holy Fire alone-that grand Greek
imposition on the Easter Eve of every year,
when the Greek Patriarch alone enters the
Tomb, and "the miraculous fame descends from
Heaven, lis, only of itself enough of disgust
for the jew and the Moslem-if not for the
Christian of any other name. Then, on that
great display and farce, the Turks have to come
in, not only with bayonets, but with leather
lashes. to lay over the backs, shoulders, and
legs of the Pilgrim Christians, to keep them in
order In the year 1884 fearful tragedy oc-
CURED on the Great Easter. Four hundred
persons were trampled to death, many even up
on the Stone of Unction.
THE wAILING PLACE OF THE JEWS.
The Jews wailinlg place was to me the most
interesting place in Jerusalem. My dragoman,
an East Indian Jew. of Moorish skin, who, by
the way, is an English subject and speaks En-
glish we'll, conducted me thither. We thread
ed orr way through the usual narrow and dirty
lanes, misnamed streets of Eastern cities, and
came to an area in the form of quadrangle,
near the bridge where the dwellers in ZionlI
were once wont to pass over, to worship God in