The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1872-12-07

lhfA iNNA AhN lAitAiin VI ~
cient Jerusalem The pool has had no
water for centuries few wild trees -four
ish in its damp soil, and like everything
else in the city, it has a terribly dcsolate'
look, As the city walls have not been
changed for many centuries, the chief con
trast between Jerusalem that was and Je- |
rusalem that is must be the utter dilapida-
ton belonging to every province Of such |
an effete despotism as Turkey Even in
Constantinople ruins abound, and ms one
journeys from the heart to the extremities
Of the empire, they multiply, until, as
everybody knows, you come at last to de-
serted towns and abandoned districts. And
nothing but a change of dynasty can lift
this milestone from off the neck of Judea.
Our Yankee idea" is, that every tub
should stand ON its own bottom but If
ever there was any sense in foreign inter
yention, some powerful nation ought to
have drawn back the hand of Turkey from
crushing out people life.
The troublesome question about the To-
cal traditions forces itself upon every tray
eler in Palestine, and torlnents him, some
times, more than one would imagine, Ex-
ccpt Jacobs Well, Rachel's Tomb, and a few
more, accepted by three great religions
without question, as much can be said
against any Mount Of TRANSPORTATION that
has been selected as in behalf of Tabor, for
instance. The Church of the Holy Sep
ulchre is a specimen of this difficulty, as
besides the SaviOr's Tomb, it contains the
graves of Adam, Melchizedek, John the
Baptist, and Nicodemus asked
Franciscan friar what he made Of such a
mass of traditions clustering around this
single spot--if he believed that here was
the undoubted spot where the Virgin faint
ed, where the Savior fell, where the earth
quake split the rock, where the true cross
was discovered, etc? He replied, very in-
geniously, that having been there only a
few months, he had not given any time to
investigation But it is of no use to strip
place you have come six thousand miles
to visit of all hallowing assoeiations--to
sink into grim pile of graeeless masonry
what may have been the last resting-place
Of the Redeemer. And | cannot help feel
ing that this spot was likely to be remem-
bercd, if no other-that the hottest tomb
earth ever had might be shown by mother
to daughter, from one generation to anoth-
er, until the designation of this spot by
the Empress Helena if they could not
fix which of several rock -hewn caves be-
longed to Joseph of Arimathea, at least
the neighboring Golgotha would be remem-
bered by unqueationable tradition. But
an entirely new argument of great weight
is the discovery, under the western gallery.
of an ancient Jewish sepulchre in the live
rock, which seems to prove that the pres
ent church was outside the city, and there
fore might have been the burial place.
And this certainly was the only spot claim
ing any such reverence in the fourth cen
tury. Shame that it should be the scene
Of the most shameless imposture praeticed
anywhere upon earth-of the production
of miraculous fire every Easter from the
Angel Chapel in the centre Shame, too,
that around the probable resting-place of
the Prince OF Peace the strife among his
followers has often risen to bloodshed, no
Brotherhood being even pretended among
the different sects worshipping here at
nineteen altars, no one creed loaning even
its lamp for festival service to another,
the bloody Crimean war springing out of
the dispdte about the right of French or
Russian to repair the grand dome and
keep the outdoor key of st, Sepulchre
This caricature of gospel Of love would
almost call forth another revelation to vim
dicate itself from such gross contradiction.
Certainly, the Turk (who has to keep
armed watch whenever the church is open,
IN prevant thnso Christian brnthrop from