The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-12-27
(Anaconda Standard)

Great has been the revival of inter-
est in the city of Jerusalem caused by
its capture by the British, intensified
still further by the report that before
the surrender the Turks rifled of its
valuables the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. What is said to be the holy
sepulchre, the place of the crucitiXion
and, in fact, every other place intim-
ately Connected with that tremendous
event, are ingeniously massed and COW
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The genuineness of all these holy
places is questioned, but that of the
crucifixion is least so. 1t is argued
that Christ was very celebrated long
before He came to Jerusalem; that His
fame was so great that crowds con-
stantly followed Him; that when He
was crucified there were very many
who believed He was the true Son of
God. Publicly to execute such a per-
sonage was sufficient in itself to make
able place for ages; added to this, the
storm, the darkness, the earthquake,
the rending of the vail of the temple,
were events calculated to fix the
of even the most thoughtless witness.
Fathers would tell their sons about the
strange episode, and point out the
spot; the sons would transmit the
story to their children, and thus per-
iod of 300 years would easily be span
ned, at the end of which time Helena.
the wife of the Emperor Constantine.
came and built a church upon Calvary
to commemorate the death and burial
and preserve the sacred place in the
memories of men. Since that time
there has always been church there.
Still, not all scholars are agreed
that the place pointed out in the
Church Of the Holy Sepulchre as the
place of the crucifixion, is actually the
spot. But far more uncertainty ex-
lists as to the other holy places. Only
very few persons knew where Christ
was buried, and a generation or two
later traditions might easily become
confused. But it does seem as If the
Hill of Calvary was made too notable
by the crucifxion to be forgotten in
the space of 300 years.
For a plain, sensible description Of
a. nf hn nj
there is none better than that of Mark
Twain in his "Innocents Abroad"
Even here the great humorist could
not resist the temptation to poke fun
at ignorance and credulity, but he was
as dignified and reverent as man
could be when gazing at Calvary. and
So" he writes, 81 close my chapter on
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre--
the most sacred locality on earth to
millions and millions of men, and wo-
men, and children, the noble and the
humble, bond and Free In its history
from the first, and in its tremendous
associations, it is the most illustrious
edifice in Christendom. With all it's
clap trap sideshows and unseemly i'm
postures of every kind, 1t is still
grand, reverend, venerable-for a god
died there; for fifteen hundred years
its shrines have been wet with the
tears of pilgrims from the earth's re-
hottest confines; for more than two
hundred the most gallant knights that
ever welded sword wasted their lives
away in a struggle to seize 1t and to
hold it sacred from infidel pollution.
Even in our own day" there Mr.. Glenn
ems refers to the Crimean war; "a war
that cost millions of treasure and riv-
ers of blood, was fought because two
rival nations claimed the sole right to