If This Kissing Of The Shrines Had
Seemed As Though It Were Done At The Bidding Of Enthusiasm, Or Of
Any poor sentiment even feebly approaching to it, the sight would
have been less odd to English eyes; but as
It was, I stared to see
grown men thus steadily and carefully embracing the sticks and the
stones, not from love or from zeal (else God forbid that I should
have stared!), but from a calm sense of duty; they seemed to be not
"working out," but TRANSACTING the great business of salvation.
Dthemetri, however, who generally came with me when I went out, in
order to do duty as interpreter, really had in him some enthusiasm.
He was a zealous and almost fanatical member of the Greek Church,
and had long since performed the pilgrimage, so now great indeed
was the pride and delight with which he guided me from one holy
spot to another. Every now and then, when he came to an unoccupied
shrine, he fell down on his knees and performed devotion; he was
almost distracted by the temptations that surrounded him; there
were so many stones absolutely requiring to be kissed, that he
rushed about happily puzzled and sweetly teased, like "Jack among
the maidens."
A Protestant, familiar with the Holy Scriptures, but ignorant of
tradition and the geography of modern Jerusalem, finds himself a
good deal "mazed" when he first looks for the sacred sites. The
Holy Sepulchre is not in a field without the walls, but in the
midst, and in the best part of the town, under the roof of the
great church which I have been talking about. It is a handsome
tomb of oblong form, partly subterranean and partly above ground,
and closed in on all sides except the one by which it is entered.
You descend into the interior by a few steps, and there find an
altar with burning tapers. This is the spot which is held in
greater sanctity than any other at Jerusalem. When you have seen
enough of it you feel perhaps weary of the busy crowd, and inclined
for a gallop; you ask your dragoman whether there will be time
before sunset to procure horses and take a ride to Mount Calvary.
Mount Calvary, signor? - eccolo! it is UPSTAIRS - ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
In effect you ascend, if I remember rightly, just thirteen steps,
and then you are shown the now golden sockets in which the crosses
of our Lord and the two thieves were fixed. All this is startling,
but the truth is, that the city having gathered round the
Sepulchre, which is the main point of interest, has crept
northward, and thus in great measure are occasioned the many
geographical surprises that puzzle the "Bible Christian."
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre comprises very compendiously
almost all the spots associated with the closing career of our
Lord. Just there, on your right, He stood and wept; by the pillar,
on your left, He was scourged; on the spot, just before you, He was
crowned with the crown of thorns; up there He was crucified, and
down here He was buried. A locality is assigned to every, the
minutest, event connected with the recorded history of our Saviour;
even the spot where the cock crew when Peter denied his Master is
ascertained, and surrounded by the walls of an Armenian convent.
Many Protestants are wont to treat these traditions contemptuously,
and those who distinguish themselves from their brethren by the
appellation of "Bible Christians" are almost fierce in their
denunciation of these supposed errors.
It is admitted, I believe, by everybody that the formal
sanctification of these spots was the act of the Empress Helena,
the mother of Constantine, but I think it is fair to suppose that
she was guided by a careful regard to the then prevailing
traditions. Now the nature of the ground upon which Jerusalem
stands is such, that the localities belonging to the events there
enacted might have been more easily, and permanently, ascertained
by tradition than those of any city that I know of. Jerusalem,
whether ancient or modern, was built upon and surrounded by sharp,
salient rocks intersected by deep ravines. Up to the time of the
siege Mount Calvary of course must have been well enough known to
the people of Jerusalem; the destruction of the mere buildings
could not have obliterated from any man's memory the names of those
steep rocks and narrow ravines in the midst of which the city had
stood. It seems to me, therefore, highly probable that in fixing
the site of Calvary the Empress was rightly guided. Recollect,
too, that the voice of tradition at Jerusalem is quite unanimous,
and that Romans, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, all hating each other
sincerely, concur in assigning the same localities to the events
told in the Gospel. I concede, however, that the attempt of the
Empress to ascertain the sites of the minor events cannot be safely
relied upon. With respect, for instance, to the certainty of the
spot where the cock crew, I am far from being convinced.
Supposing that the Empress acted arbitrarily in fixing the holy
sites, it would seem that she followed the Gospel of St. John, and
that the geography sanctioned by her can be more easily reconciled
with that history than with the accounts of the other Evangelists.
The authority exercised by the Mussulman Government in relation to
the holy sites is in one view somewhat humbling to the Christians,
for it is almost as an arbitrator between the contending sects
(this always, of course, for the sake of pecuniary advantage) that
the Mussulman lends his contemptuous aid; he not only grants, but
enforces toleration. All persons, of whatever religion, are
allowed to go as they will into every part of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, but in order to prevent indecent contests, and also
from motives arising out of money payments, the Turkish Government
assigns the peculiar care of each sacred spot to one of the
ecclesiastic bodies.
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