Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-12-10

- the three great religions meet as
at shrine That ancient
city has furnished setting for much of the sa-
cred history and legend of each
Going up to the Holy City for devotional or
other purposes was once fraught with grave diff
fculties. In the middle ages the expression "a
pilgrimage to Gods sepulcher" became proverbial
to indicate the desperate character of any peril
journey Since then things have changed for
the better, writes j. r. Scheltema in Asia. The
modern pilgrim to Jerusalem takes a steamer
to Jaffa and, on landing there, has himself and
baggage conveyed to the railway station in time
for the daily passenger train. When under way,
1t requires some Imagination especially ii one is
member of a specially conducted tourist party,
piloted to the Holy Land return ticket, in
Guiding accommodation and often inaptly over
done attendance--to realize that one traverses
the Plain of Sharon and the Valley of Rephaim
that the stopping places Akir and Sar't are Ekron
Judges /, 1S e. az and Zorah where Samson
was born Judges Is, pa, with Samson's cav
ern farther down the line; that is pilgrim
in the land where David slew the Philistnes
with great slaughter. where Joshua and Judas
Maccabeus and Saladin and Richard of the Lion
Heart fought their famous battles.
Not nook or corner in old Jerusalem but has
a legend of some kind attached to it. Indeed, the
whole of Palestine is rich in legendary lore
Saints Of three religions and particular
lgiOn at ALL are invoked throughout it's length
the evergreen one, the prolonger of life and por-
tai to the fountain of youth near the confluence
Of two SEAS believed to be the EuXine and Aegean,
whose waters mingle in the Propontis-a ira
diton which implies that Ponce de Leon sought
the Tejuvenating spring in the wrong place On
the eastern bank Of the Jordan the exact spot
is shown where the Antchrist will make his last
stand and, excluded from the Holy City will
alright the faithful assembled on the western
bank But then the Angel Gabriel will hasten
TO their rescue and hur three stones at the
arch-enemy, the first in the name of the God of
Abraham, the second in the name of the God Of
Isaac, the third in the name Of the God of Jacob.
And, fleeing, the impostor will be slain at the
Bir az-Zaybaq, the quicksilver well.
OF the Christian sanctuaries the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem and the Church Of the
Holy Sepulcher are the most important. The So
called Cave of the Sepulcher was revealed TO
the Empress Helena when she dug for and found
the Holy Cross. Some five centuries later the
keys of the basilica, built the sacred spot
= to replace a Roman temple dedicated to Venus
were sent by Harunal- Raschid to Charlemagne
as token of friendship and esteem. Again, two
centuries later, a less tolerant Fatmid Caliph,
Hakim hi amr'Allah, ordered its destruction $50
that it's earth should become its heaven" for
reports William of Tyre, the devil had spread
calumnies concerning the servants of the true
religion.
In 1149, when new additions to the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher were consecrated, the cere-
mony was attended by King Louis VII of France
and his queen Eleanor, who, two years earlier,
had left their royal domain to take part in the
second crusade. AS their majesties walked in
at the head of their gorgeousy arrayed cortege,
composed of the flower of French chivary and
were met by the Patriarch and the officiating
clergy, spectral figure stepped forth from a
dark, yvaulted passage It's sunken cheeks and
emaciated limbs were like those of a resurrected
corpse with glaring eyes and wild gestures, it
began to reproach the queen with her criminal
amCurs and generally scandalous conduct Swords
were drawn to stop those insulting remarks, but
fell back into their scabbards when the outspoken
stranger was recognized the illustrious ladys
father William, count of Poitou and duke of
Guyenne, Or rather, as his ghost, for he had
died in 1877 q hermit the shrine of ST.
James of Compostea, where he doing PEN
ance for his sins. Vanishing as unaccount-
ably as he had appeared he is supposed to have
returned to his grave in Spain after fulfilling his
mission, which interrupted the brilliant function
In such painful way. Some time afterward,
on the pretext of knship, King Louis obtained a
divorce from his erratic spouse And the "Rose
of Aquitaine" resuming the bonds of matrimony
in second nuptials with Henry Plantagenet, be-