Hence the sad disappointment felt by most travellers on approaching Jerusalem from the west and the south. They can only see the 'serrated line of gray Saracenic walls 16 extending across a section of a bleak, rocky plateau. But when I stood that morning on the brow of Olivet, and looked down on the city, crowning those battlemented heights, encircled by those deep and dark ravines, and when the rising sun bathed in a flood of ruddy light the terraced roofs of the city, I involuntarily exclaimed, Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the great King!" 17 accus'tomed, used. bat'tlemented, for'tified. confused', irreg'ular. dazzling, overpowering. des'olate, desert'ed. diver'sified, va'ried. encaustic, enam'elled. encom passed, surround'ed exult'ing, trium'phant. familiar, well known. octagonal, eight'-sided. J. L. PORTER. riv'eted, enchained'. ser'rated, notched. straggling, scattered. topography, position of places. un'dulating, rising and falling; irreg'ular. unique, unmatched'. ven'erated, revered'. part, the Valley of Cheesemongers. This is only a translation of the other name, which is derived from Greek tyros, cheese, or a cheese-market. 1 Olivet, or the Mount of Olives, a ridge | Moriah and Zion; called also, in its lower running north and south on the eastern side of Jerusalem. It is the hill on the right of the picture on page 197. The central summit rises two hundred feet above Jerusalem, and affords the finest view of the city and its surroundings. 10 Armenian Con'vent; a convent of the Armenian Church (from Armenia, a 'Kid'ron, the valley and stream sepa- province of Asia Minor, south of the rating Olivet from Jerusalem. Plateau' (pla-toe'), table-land. • Mount Mori'ah, the hill on which the Temple stood. Cyclope'an, gigantic; lit. like the Cyclopes, a fabulous race of one-eyed giants, said to have lived in Sicily, and to have been the workmen of Vulcan, the god of fire and furnaces. * Mos'lem, a Mussulman or Moham medan. 7 Mec'ca, in Arabia, the birth-place of Mohammed. It attracts pilgrims in thousands every year, from all parts of the Mohammedan world. Mosque of O'mar.-A mosque is a Mohammedan place of worship; and the Mosque of Omar, built on the site of Solomon's Temple, is by far the most magnificent building in modern Jerusalem. It was built to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens under the Caliph Omar in 637 A.D. The date generally assigned for its completion is 687 A. D. Tyrcpe'an Valley, between Mounts Caucasus), which professes a form of Christianity resembling that of the Greek Church. It is governed by patriarchs. 11 Castle of David. So it is commonly called; but it is supposed by many to be the great tower of Hippicus mentioned by Josephus as the point from which the Jews made an unsuccessful sally upon the Romans, during the siege before the destruction of the city, A. D. 70. It is situ ated at the Jaffa gate, on the north-western corner of Mount Zion. QUESTIONS.-What is the best point for obtaining a general view of Jerusalem ? Where is Mount Olivet? At what time did the writer ascend the tower on that mount? What glen lay at his feet? What Mount, on the other side of Kidron? Why is the platform on Moriah so deeply interesting? What great building stands upon it now? What valley separates Moriah from Zion? What divides Zion into two sections? Where is David's tomb? How is its position marked? What valley runs on the farther side of Zion? What effect have the valleys of Hinnom and Kidron on Jerusalem? Why are most travellers disappointed with the first view of Jerusalem? THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.* A.D. 70. THE aspect of Jerusalem had changed but little from that which it had worn at the time of the Crucifixion, when, thirty-five years later, the Roman eagles gathered round their prey. But during these years the Jews had been plunging deeper and deeper into sin and 'wretchedness. At last, goaded by outrage and insult, they had risen against their Roman masters; and the great Vespasian") had been sent by Nero) to tame their stubborn pride. Galilee and Pereal were subdued after some trouble and delay; and the conqueror, having drawn a circle of forts round Jerusalem, was at Cæsarea, preparing for the last great blow, when he heard the news of Nero's death. The army in Palestine then proclaimed Vespasian emperor. He hastened to secure Alexandria, the second city in the empire; and having heard while there that the people of Rome were holding feasts in his own honour, he set out for Italy. So the siege of Jerusalem was left to his son Titus.() Mustering his forces at Cæsarea, and dividing them into three bands, Titus marched for the doomed city. Arrived there, he fortified three camps-one on the north, one on the west, and one, garrisoned by the Tenth Legion, on the Mount of Olives. Upon this last the Jews made a sally as the soldiers were digging the trenches; but they were soon beaten down the hill. While the trumpets were blowing at Cæsarea, and the clang of the Roman march was shaking the land, murder, and outrage, and cruel terror filled all Jerusalem. Robbers, calling themselves Zealots, had flocked in from the country. Eleazar, at the head of one set of these, held the inner court of the Temple. John of Gischala, another leader of ruffians, occupying ground somewhat lower, poured constant showers of darts and stones into the holy house, often killing worshippers as they stood at * From Great Events of History. By Dr. Collier. T. Nelson and Sons. the very altar. In this mad war, houses full of corn were burned, and misery of every kind was 'inflicted on the wretched people. In despair they called Simon of Gerasa to their aid, and thus there were three hostile factions within the walls. The great feast of the Passover came, and the Temple was thrown open to the thousands who crowded from every corner of the land to offer up their yearly sacrifice. Mingling in disguise with the throng, with weapons under their clothes, John's party gained entrance into the sacred court, and soon drove out their foes. The poor worshippers, all trampled and bleeding, escaped as best they could. John remained master of the Temple; and the three factions were reduced to two. Within the city there were above 23,000 fighting men-a strong body if united. There was, indeed, a temporary union, when they saw the Roman soldiers busily cutting down all the trees in the suburbs, rolling their trunks together, and to the top of the three great banks thus formed dragging the huge siege-engines of the time-rams, catapults, and balistas.2 The siege opened in three places at once, towards the end of March, 70 A.D. The Roman missiles poured like hail upon the city; but none were so terrible as the stones, sometimes weighing a talent (125 pounds), which were cast from the east by the Tenth Legion. The Jews replied with some engines planted on the wall by Simon, flung torches at the Roman banks, and made an 'unavailing sally at the Tower of Hippicus.3 Three towers of heavy timber, covered with thick iron plates, were then erected by Titus. Rising higher than the walls, and carrying light engines, they were used to drive the Jews from their posts of defence. The falling of one of these at midnight with a loud crash spread alarm through the Roman camp; but it did not last long. At dawn the rams were swinging away, and pounding against the shaking wall, which on the fifteenth day of the siege yielded to Nico (the Conqueror), as the most *ponderous of the Roman engines was called by the Jews. The legions, pouring through the breach, gained the first wall: nine days later, the second wall was levelled with the ground. (b) Then followed a pause of five days, after which the attack was renewed at John's Monument, and the Tower of Antonia.4 At the same time, Josephus, a noble Jew, from whose graphic history this sketch is drawn, went to the walls, as he had done before as he did more than once again, to plead with his countrymen. But all in vain, for the Zealots were bent on holding out, and slew such of the people as they found trying to desert. Famine had long before begun its deadly work. Mothers were already snatching the morsels from their children's lips. The robbers broke open every shut door in search of food, and tortured most horribly all who were thought to have a hidden store. Gaunt men, who had crept beyond the walls by night to gather a few wild herbs, were often robbed by these wretches of the handful of green leaves for which they had risked their lives. Yet, in spite of this, the starving people went out into the valleys in such numbers that the Romans caught them at the rate of five hundred a day, and crucified them before the walls, until there was no wood left to make another cross. His serious losses made Titus resolve to hem in the city with a wall. It was built in the 'amazingly short time of three days! The attack was then directed against the Tower of Antonia, which stood at the north-west corner of the Temple, on a slippery rock, fifty cubits high. Four banks were raised. Some Roman soldiers, creeping in with their shields above their heads, ⚫loosened four of the 'foundation stones; and the wall, battered at all day, fell suddenly in the night. But there was another wall inside. One Sabi'nus, a little dark Syrian soldier, led a forlorn hope of eleven men up to this in broad noon-day, gained the top, and put the Jews to flight; but tripping over a stone he was killed, as were three of his band. A night or two after, sixteen Romans stole up the wall, slew the guards, and blew a startling trumpet blast. The Jews filed. Titus and his men, swarming up the ruined wall, dashed at the entrance of the Temple. After ten hours' fighting, the Jews drove the Romans out of the Temple, but not from the Tower of Antonia. Piles of After the Roman wall was built, the famine and the plague grew worse. Young men dropt dead in the streets. decaying corpses filled the lanes, and were thrown by thousands over the walls. No herbs were to be got now. Men, in the rage of hunger, gnawed their shoes, the leather of their shields, and even old wisps of hay. Robbers, with wolfish eyes, 'ransacked every dwelling, and, when one day they came clamouring for food to the house of the daughter of Eleazar, she set before them the roasted flesh of her own infant-son! Brutal and rabid though they were, they fled from the house of that wretched mother. At last the daily sacrifice ceased to be offered, and the war closed round the Temple. The cloisters were soon burned. Six days' battering had no effect on the great gates; fire alone could |