The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-05-15
Interesting Sketch.
VISIT TO THE TOMB OF LAZARUS AND TIL
GARDEN OF GETHsEMANE.

VISIT TO THE TOMB OF LAZARUS AND THE
GARDEN OF GETHsEMANE.
The Rev. r. A. Holland is contributing
to the Louisville Courier a series Of inter-
esting letters from the Holy Land, which
he has been exploring for some months
past. We present below graphic pictures
of the Tomb of Lazarus and the Garden
of Gethsemane, which we select from his
letter of March 23rd, written from Con-
stantinople;
THE TOMB OF LAZARUS.
But I digress The path is precipitous.
We dismount and lead our horses down.
We have reached the tomb of Lazarus.
We enter by low opening, and feel our
way down long, winding, dilapidsted
staircase to small chamber, the walls of
which are partly plastered, partly the ma
ked rock of the cavern. From this cham
Der few steps lead into low vault, l
imagine mot more than nine feet square.
Therein lay the body of Lazarus. The
closeness of the atmosphere limits our IN
spection TO mere glance. We retire to
the larger room, and sitting upon the floor,
Bible in hand, one of us reads aloud, by
candle-light, St. Johns account of the mir
acle and of the Savour's intercourse with
those whom it most affected. How touch
ingly simple, how surprisingly beautiful
that Gospel sounds when read on the spot
it commentaries. The past tense becomes
the present. The scene is most finished,
but transpiring. Right there in that cell
the corpse has been lying for four days,
and every day Mary has been here to
weep. The noise of conversation, as of
many persons above, I began to hear.
A shadow is in the door. 1t is His. The
long-expected and prayed.for has come
from beyond Jordan. His mellow voice,
tremulous with emotion, but loud with au-
thority, peals down the arched staircase
and echoes among these sepulchral walls,
aLazarus, come forth" 1t goes deep be-
yond, reaching into the regions OF death.
Hush! do you hear that rustling! See!
he comes STOPPING, "bound hand and foot
with grave clothes and his face bound
about with napkin" Slowly he mounts
the steps. He is on the threshold. He
has passed out under the sky. Listen
again /! "Loose him and let him go!" And
Lazarus, the dead brother, no longer dead,
is in the arms of his bereaved sisters, no
longer bereaved. Neighbors gatheraround
and passionately greet him. Bethany is
glad. The news flies throughout the land.
Crowds come from Jerusalem to see ''the
man" who has wrought the wonder, and
believe him God.
Reluctantly do we tear ourselves from
the hallowed place. We gofrom the grave
to the house OF Mary and MaEtha, and that
of Simon, the leper, where, while Jesus sat
at supper, Mary annointed his feet with
costly spikenard, and wiped them with her
hair, and, as the room then was, even so
to-day the world is ''flled with the odor
of the ointment"
THE GARDEN OF GETHsEMANE.
We return to Gethsemane, over the
southern shoulder of Olivet, by the road
Messiah followed on the morning OF His
triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Our
raps are more successful this time than be-
fore, for the heavy iron gate soon swings
open with creak, exhibiting the tonsured
head of Padre Louis, who invites us into
the garden. 1t disappoints at first. There
is too much Of art, too little OF nature.
The happy medium, so desirable and 80
rarely obtained, between culpable neglect
and excessive care, is not found here. The
fancy which has already prepared q Geth-
semane OF its own, does not at once recog-
nize the claims of this, objects to the inn
prisoning walls, to the trim parterres, to
the front-yard neatness of the ratings, to
the prayer stations arithmetically calcula-
ted, and marked by crucifixes on the stuc-
coed inclosure, to the air of perfect readi-
ness for the security of connoisseur-ship IN
the whole.
But the eye speedily becomes accustom-
ed to what it cannot alter, and concen-
trates it's attention upon the olive trees
doubly grand-grand from their own as
sociation with incidents of which they are
the sole surviving spectators on earth.
These trees are eight in number. Their
gnarled and massive stems, and far-spread-
ing leafy boughs give them the appearance
of patriarchs in the attitude of blessing. /
cannot understand why they should not
be as old as the event requires, nor do l
desire to understand, if an illusion lovelier
than the truth is to be dissolved by the
explanation. abandon criticisms to erd-
dite cavilers and recline under the foliage
of the larges5 and most ancient Of the
trees-the one supposed to have shadowed
the victim in His prostrations of agony.
Here, then, with soul exceeding sorrowful
unto death, He fell on the ground and
prayed, while His disciples slept stones
cast hence, too fatigued to watch with
Him. Here thrice He bowed himself and
groaned the entreaty to be delivered from
the mysterious cup. Oh, the intensity of
that struggle. 1t wrung the crimson per-
spiration from his temples and forced the
strengthening succor of anxious Heaven !
but its issue was victory, and its fruit eter-
nal life.
Twill not, dear Courier, trespass upon
a.. I, "A