The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-03-17

JERUSALEM. December !. lS7G

grOUllu. leHNllnH our ANIMALS toward The
gate. the most precious gate. that opens
upon Gcthscmauc. '.Thc King walks
when he comes TO Zion" At the worn
threshold the guard presented arms. Il
respect due TO his official rank. The
muskcts rang upon the pavement as we
passed out of the gloomy gateway into
the narrow street. II is but step to
the Via Dolorosa. None of us had vet
spoken. As we recognized localities
familiar to us from earliest childhood
by reason of prints and pictures. we
sometimes exchanged glances. We were
each palcr than common; kind of ncr-
vous chill seemed to have seized us.
Passing up the Via DolOrosa. under the
Eccc Homo Arch, we reached the hos
picc whose charity had already set our
rooms in order. and laid the cloth for
our meal.
Standing upon the Mount of Olives.
with the familiar panorama of Jerusa-
lem before YOU, the first object that at
tracts the eve, and the one that is sure
TO hold it longest, is the lIaramesh-
Sherif-thc field of the Mosque of Omar
II is bordcrcd on two sides by the an
cient and picturesque walls of the city,
II hangs upon the brink of the valley of
the Kcdron (Jehosapha), a narrow and
not very deep ravinc, dotted with Mos
lem tombs. 1t absorbs for the time the
attention of the pilgrim. who in imag-
ination is carried back to the very begin
ming of history. Mount Zion. though
il ovcriops the world in our Imagination.
is only a little hill. The platform oi'lhc
Temple is partly artificial. the southeast
corner being supported by Il hundred
massive columns, twcnty-eight feet in
height. The roof is covered with soil
and grass. II is part of The great field
of the Temple. stretching out to the city
wall above the Kcdron Valley. These
vaults are called SolOmon's stables.
Tradition, that runs wild in the Orient
and. .cmbarrasscs history whenever it is
possible, ascribcs the origin of these
subtcrranean chambers to demons.
Tic enclosed field. with its beautiful
mosque. its expresses, olive, prayer
shrincs, its 'goldcn gate" long since
walled up. and which will not again be
opened till Christ and Mohammed re-
turn to Jerusalem to judge the world
together: with its long rows ofbuildings
on the north and west, the colonnadcs,
the deep porchcs, the latticcd windows
clinging TO the wall like hugh bird-cages,
and with its lesser mosque, El Aksa,
near the southern wallis there cor
ncr of the earth more crowded with in.
tcrcst than this? Here Abraham offered
sacrifice: David raised ali altar; Solo,
mon. as if by cnchantment, conjured
his marvellous temple; q second sprano
from the ruins of the first; third,
King Ilcrod's, followed, and much OF
| 81 n l.. Ia l.s IL en,
these structures the little mountain was
over IIinnom on the south, and over
In that last temple, i'll the porch of Sol
ONION, looking out upon Olivct, Christ
once walked. AT the temple gates sat
the money-changers and sellers of doves
and eve lambs, and in those days the
gold and precious stones that decorated
the sacred edificc must have "lowcd
like sacriicial fires in the glory of the
sun that rose and set on Jerusalem
Then came Hadrian's Temple to Jupi-
ter, with its proianc gods, and aitci
that the Mosque, which we now see. q
spot which has ever been regarded by
the Moslcms rs the holicst OF all places
after Mecca. Eight gates in the west.
ern wall of the Ilaramesh-Shclifs admit
you to the green enclosure. These
gates stand open; people continually
swarm in and out. The irregular quad
ranglc within the gates is about 53t
yards in length and $50 yards in breadth
The surface is much broken by build.
ings, many of them excessively small
scattered about apparently quite by ac.
cidcnt, and no Two hearing the slight
| tn oil
trees, also. seem TO have crown by
chance. There is Il total lack of hai.
mony in the grouping of the buildings
! An air of dcsolation broods over the
place; il looks rs If il had been DESTROY
cd again and again. Women might
wall among these stones, and men
rcnd their garments.
Al one or two of the small shrincs in
the field, which were like empty inches
with their backs turned to Mecca, Mo.
hammcdans were prostrated in prayer
A blue cloud of pigeons whirlcd oven
our heads and buried themselves
among the projecting cases of the deeI
windows in the wall. We looked across
the broad Enclosure and saw in the cen
ter of il Il temple so cXquisitcly proper
toned, so splendidly tinted, that ono
might imagine it some fairy pleasure
house cut from single gem. On Il
pedestal stands the flat-rooied octagon,
pierced with elaborately ornamcnted
windows, decorated with marble panels
and porcelain tiles, the whole looking
as fine as ivory. A dome seems TO float
in the air above this mysterious cham.
ber-a dome crusted with tiles tinted
with all the changeful shades of oforange
violet and green; dome that in the
sunshine is as splendid as the breast Of
a peacock. 1t is Kubbet-es-Sakhra (the
Dome of the Rock), the Mohammedan's
Holy of HOLES! Under the arcades
without the building will hang the
scales on the Judgment day; within
lies the rock itself-a rock so sacred
that no foot treads it. We are onlo
permitted TO approach it with our shoes
off, and so late as the Crimean war il
was worth Christian life to seek ad
mission here. The Jews have never
sought it, it is said, as they dread the
possibility of treading upon the 'IIoly
of HOLES. .'-CSan Francisco Chronicle