The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-05-19

changing, and out springs the light over
the frantic human mass, leapipg from
hand to hand. as if each flame were
lightning and music. Around and up
and over and through, till flame is add
ed to flame, spreading from candle to
candle, and floor to gallery. Now a
priest appears on the roof OF the Sepul-
cher itself, and the flame runs round
the top like crown of fire. Higher it
springs, drawn by rope up TO the peo-
pie at the base of the dome. 1t illu-
inmates the most distant and dungeon
like vaults, the chapels above and be-
low, every underground where the
spectators have stood or crouched on
the floor, or in temporary Judgments in
mid-a
On and on sounds the clangor and the
shouting; men, women, and children
are mad; they pass their hands over
the fame-is it not from heaven? how
can it do harm?-and then draw their
hands over their faces, taking the celes-
tial touch in ecstatic alteration. Over
path made clear for the runners from
the window already the fire is on it's
way to the ends of the earth.
The Armenian patriarch declared to
us later, and without hesitancy, that
the Greek patriarch simply had a lamp
on the tomb proper, which he blessed.
This kindly old Armenian said to us
that it was not miraculous. 1t was ru-
mored that prominent visitor was told
by the Greek patriarch that he told the
people that it was only symbol and
not miracle. 1 asked the visitor
whether this was true, and was ans
wered: "Nol How could he tell them
that? He would be torn to pieces"
Intelligent Greeks assure you that it is
a symbol, that holy fire" is the same
thing as "holy water" The Latins
will have nothing to do with this one
Of the most venerable ceremonies and
the most appalling scandal of the
Christian world.
At the height of the frenzy, as the
flame leaped through the rotunda and
lighted the encircling chapels, making
more rich and glittering the affairs, the
gorgeous vestments, the whole eccle-
siastical paraphernalia, the arms and
uniforms of the troops, and the many
colored costumes of the mad and mot
ley crowd, the thought flashed upon me:
Was there ever anything in all Christ
endom so beautiful and SO blasphemous.
A city beautiful On Palm Sunday,
from the stairway near the spot where
Mary stood when the body of her son
was taken from the cross, / saw the
Greek procession in the Church of the
Sepulcher. Then l went over to the
Mount of Olives. Looking back from
a field well up on the hillside, the
whole city lay beneath-the temple
area, with the great mosque in full
view across the valley of Jehoshaphat.
From here Jerusalem, with its clear
and stately outline of walls, the domes
and minarets of the mosques, and the
old towers and churches, has a singular
completeness. Perhaps even in Solo,
mons time, from the outside, though
different, it was not more lovely. The
warm gray of the stones of the city is
the color of the unbleached wool of
goats; the hills are darker, with deli
cate bloom over them, spotted with
gray ve.orchards, and melting in the
distance into violets. 1t is indeed a
city set upon hill, isolated, distin-
guished. The picture realizes ones
lifelong dream of the city of God.
The sunset sky was wild and cold,
with streaks of sunshine. The rain
ceased, and the air grew warm. In the
rich, low light all blemishes were lost,
and the City Beautiful was spread be-
fore the pilgrims eyes. Perhaps it was
here that Christ wept over Jerusalem
along or near this path he must have
come on the day of his sentry" on the
first Palm Sunday, whose feast was be.
ing kept this very day throughout all
Christendom. There were no other
travellers; few Syrians passed by.
gathered some flowers by the wayside
and turned again homeward.
You see that we did not find the
Holy Land disillusioning. There are
many things that confound the West.
ern mind; there is filth and degrade.
ton and superstition. But here is the
same sky, the same landscape, the same
dominating Orient. The painter who
knows the Holy Land best said to US in
Jerusalem: CAT times when / look al
these fields, and realize that this very
picture was reflected in the eyes of Je.
sus, feel myself shiver." The Bible
no matter what ones theology or phil
osophy, here takes on vitality and
meaning beyond the power of concep'
ton hitherto. Are the places reali
Jerusalem, all Syria, is real, and some
of the SACRED places" are nnquestion'
able. But you do not have to be sure
that the place is exact, when you listen
with new emotion to the words of Je
sus, repeated by the French monk or
Good Friday, and at that "station Of
the cross" where Christ cried out
Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not fol
me, but weep for yourselves, and fol
your children"
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