Milford chronicle., 1909-08-13

ing the later years of her life.
We will now visit our last place in
the City Of Jerusalem. which is the
Church Of the Holy Sepulchre, -
and do not feel that 1 am in any
way competent to describe the most
magnificent ornaments and beauti-
full paintings that it has ever been
my lot to see.
The church is a cluster ofchurches,
chapels and shrines, built separately
and at different times but now all
covered by one roof; here worship
Roman Catholics, Greek orthodox,
COptics, Armenians and Absynu-
ians. This church was originally
built by ST. Helena, the mother of
Constantine the Great, who dill
gently sought for the sight of the
Cruci6Xion of the Saviour, and it
IS said that on the spot which was
then fixed upon as the scene of the
chief events Of those three days this
church was built, but since the time
of St. Helena this beautiful work
has been desecrated and destroyed,
rebuilt, damaged and added to over
and over again, but it still preserves
the odOr Of sanctity, On first enter
ing the church your attention IS
called to large slab of stone, re-
sembling onyx which is known as
the Stone of JUNCTION" and on
which it is said that Christ lay
while he was anointed by Joseph,
and over the stone are hung eight
lamps burning day and night. A
little to the left and we arrive at
marked spot resembling a covered
sedan chair, from which place it is
supposed that the Virgin Mary and |
the Holy Women witnessed the
cruci6xion, and it is situated about |
three hundred feet from the summit
Of Mount Calvary.
Arriving now at the Tomb of
Christ one can scarcely realize the
fact that it has been standing for
centuries and to describe the beauty
Of it would be we'll nigh impossible
it is a square edifce about sixty
feet high and highly decorated with
paintings of old masters. We now
enter the door of the chapel ; in the
centre stands a pedestal on which is
a part of the rolling stone
which was placed at the door of :
the original tomb, but since the
time of the cruciixion so many diff !
erent sects have ruled Jerusalem
hat the stone has been broken up
and removed but this piece has been {
preserved by the Roman Catholics
md Greek orthodox. We now enter t
he door leading to the tomb of our
saviour and upon entering the tomb Il
We find there is barely room enough a
or five persons. The grave is stu e
ted on one side Of the tomb and is il
# marble, about two feet high and Z
even feet loug, and the room is Il
ghted by forty three lamps burn fl
1g day and night, representing the h
itterent denominations who wor t
hip there, as the tomb is held W
lcred by all, even though their W
tanner of worship may be different, W
We next approach the shrine Of til
lie Greek orthodox which was pre-
nted to them by ST. Helena, but Is
TIE time of the destruction of the ev
lurch by the Persians everything an
as removed except two huge mar +,
e candle sticks, which are still in tn
good state of preservation. On As
e right as we enter we find the IS
rome Of the Greek Patriarch and tai
the left the throne of the Bishop, Sn
tn of which are highly orna-
ented. of
A touching devotion of religious int
tn may be observed in the hum I ,
, chapel of the faithful few Egyp- alb
nsIepresenting the Coptic church, fac
Itch through all peril have refused gre
abandon Christianity. pre-
We are now presented with burn. Co
candles to visit the chapel Of the Jer
the black people, gui
ich is situated under the church,
/ is rarely attended. It'll
A few steps further down leads triE
to the second tomb of Arimathea, ext
ich he had built after he had ma
en- up his first to the disciples to as
for the body of Christ. This Y
ond tomb has been excavated
everything found therein sent
St. Petersburg.
The chapel of the Roman Catho-
was our next stop, and here we -
e shown many things Of great
iquity, among the most impor- a
t were the sword and spur of St. y
lillon, the first great general of
Crusaders the sword is a large The
and very heavy and was pre- '"U