New-York tribune., 1869-05-07
TIE DlSCOYERY or JERUSALEM.

estjnian Fund Society, are likely to be sus-
handed for want of means. The pious people
of England who gave their money i'll anticipa-
tion of an easy recovery of all the Holy Places
from the grasp of oblivion, have been dlscour-
aged by the arduous nature of the task. Inc
ACCOMPLISHED and energetic officer furnished
by the Government disconeerted the Committee
first " by declaring that nothing WIat-
ever could be certainly known respecting
even the most important localities. Ihe
real city was blotted out His next
ann o,lncement was to the effect that the an
eient town was some hundreds of feet below
the surface of the ground. He had touched 1t
with his shafts, and was confident that money
and time would overcome all the difficulties OF
unearthing it. But the inducement was not
sufficient to bring the money; interest Tagged;
enthusiasm died. and unless the patrons OF
archaeological research take the enterprise up,
it will be abandoned the labor already spent
Will have been spent in vain the shafts VIII
be filled up with rubbish; and Jerusalem VIII
be more hOpelessly lost than 1t was before.
Our first feeling on learning that Lieut.. War
rens aboyS were terminated, was one OF regret
that SO famous city should be abandoned
TO its fate. But that feeling was greatly soft
ened by consideration. The loss to Art Will
be nothing The loss to antiquarian knowledge
will be fully compensated by gain In other dl-
rections One person, said Dean Stanley, at
the annual meeting of the Society last year, VIII
be interested in the result of these explorations
our old friend Josephus-whose reputation
for yeracity has been wholly destroyed by the
want. of correspondence between the Jerusalem
A. hat described,
Other gentlemen the Dean intimated. who had
theories at stake, might look on with Gu
riosity not unmixed with anxiety. But
there are reasons why the Christian
world should not mourn deeply the
present exhaustion of the Fund II the re-
covery of Jerusalem were to be the occasion
for n revival Of the superstitOns and fanatI-
cisn that have centered there; If the Jews,
haiiing it as the beginning of the fulhllment
of prophesy were to gather there in numbers;
if the Mussulmans were to feel strong in their
pride of possession; if the Christians were to
be touched once more by their old shame that
the haunts of Jesus should be profaned by
the feet of unbelcvers, the failure OF Lieut..
Warren's undertaking must be welcomed
with congratulations For two thousand
years Jerusalem has been q bone OF con-
tention, so constant. so ferOcious, so lnhu-
man, that its burial underground seems
like n decree of the Providence of his
tory that it should be put forever out of
sight. The cause of quarrel between nations
and religions was wholly removed, every
vestige of the Savior's temporary home was
destroyed, every footprint of his was effaced.
There was no Calvary to mourn over, no tomb
4. rha al ba
the place he wept in, were oblterated. 1t was
as if God had said: "Go away and come here
"no more. Cease your pilgrimages and your
vgils, your jeaousies and your hates, your
/" frenzies and your hypocrisies He is not here.
"He is risen. He has gone before you into
"another world. Why seek ye the living among
" the dead Let the local Christ disappear; let
"his earthly dwelling place pass away let
" his temporal accidents be forgotten. The inter
" est in him is spiritual now, and moral. No
"more biographical; he is an influence, not an
" individual; spirit, not o body; o power in
society, not q presence in n town. Look for
" him where he is, in your New World, in your
young civilizations. In your own streets is the
Calvary where he is daily crucifed; in your own
houses the sepulcher where he lies buried. Your
" "own pleasure gardens are the Gethsemanes he
weeps in your own public assemblies the places
where lac meets the bigot, the inGdel, and the
scoffer. Recover his image at home. if you can;
make real and vivid his presence among
yourselves, and in place of the mis-
cradle pile Of rubbish in Judea
"you will have the Heavenly Jerusalem come
" down from the clouds" If ever history spoke
plainly it speaks plainly in this matter The
time may come for disregarding her lesson; !;
but we must venture to suggest doubt that
the time has yet come.
The unfortunate feature in this recent enter
prise is the circumstance that it was initiated
and supported by Christian people in the in-
terest of religion. This, which was reckoned
the most important condition of success, fur
nishes the chief consolation under failure. The
work of recovering Jerusalem would be noble
one for science to take up. As prosecuted by
piety, it is to he regarded less appfovingly.
Piety Las already played too conspicuous
and too fatal part in the Holy Land. Piety
reduced Jerusalem to its present condition;
buried it beneath successive layers Of ruin,
and strewed salt and ashes over the spot it
occupied. Pety is answerable for the miser-
able state of the Jews there, for the cruelty of
the Mussulmuns, for the wretchcd credulity of
the Christians for the lying of guides and the
swindlng of showmen, for the brutal tights at
the shrine, and the disgusting ribaldry at the
church. Of late years these disgraceful demon
strations have been decreasing in frequency
and violence 1t is 10y this time generally
known that nothing authentic is to be seen
in Jerusalem, that ignorance and imposition
reign supreme there, that the traveller gets