back a thousand senseless tyrants, instead of a single shrewd one. The operations of nations and rulers are in the hands of the Eternal God, but it should grieve us that Judæa fixes the stigma of much of her present degradation on ourselves, and this enlarges tenfold that obligation upon us which all the Christian world has received, to aid in the welfare of this interesting country, for it is no common scribe that has written this advice, "Pray for the peace of Jeru salem; they shall prosper that love thee."

G

CHAP. VII.

JERUSALEM— continued.

I ACCOMPANIED my friends to the house of the Sardinian consul, to whom one of our party had an introduction. We received from him great civility, and the offer of a place in the gallery of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, for the ceremony of the Greek fire, which was to take place on Easter Eve. He also invited us to a great ceremony of the Latin church, with which he is by religion and station much connected; he is said, moreover, to be high in favour with the Pacha, which gives him great authority and influence. It was strange to hear his accounts of the celebrated contests between Greeks and Latins for the different localities of the Holy Sepulchre. "I have had some difficulties, this year," he said, "as the Greek and Latin Easter fell together, but I trust all has been satisfactorily settled." The contested point was, if I remember right, an altar on the reputed Calvary, on which one of the parties had a carpet, and the

dilemma was escaped by placing another table on the top of them, and a covering over that.

*

The difficulties on these occasions are worthy the best days of the schoolmen; but the controversy often ends with scenes more proper to the scholars of St. Louis or the Templars, than of Thomas Aquinas. One cannot look at those terrible great three-legged candlesticks, in all the chapels of the Holy Sepulchre, without admitting their cogency in this species of debate: the realistic tendency of these recluses from the world's inquietude becomes then strikingly evident. A controversy of this nature had taken place a little before I arrived, in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, between a Latin and Greek monk, when the well-directed and pointed arguments of the former so demolished his antagonist, that his life was considered in danger.

The next morning after our arrival in Jerusalem, being Good Friday (April 21st), we attended the English service in the room devoted to the Anglo-Prussian mission, near to the in

* Joinville tells us that St. Louis delivered the following opinion. "The layman, whenever he hears the Christian faith contemned, should defend it, not only by words, but with a sharp-edged sword, with which he should strike the scandalisers and disbelievers, until it enter their bodies as far as the hilt."- Memoirs, part i.

complete church on Mount Zion. We had a good sermon from Mr. Veitch (the chaplain to the late bishop), whose connection with the mission is now I believe at an end. But the most interesting part of the service was the baptism of Rabbi Shuphami, a converted Jew of Salonica, who had come up to Jerusalem for admission into the church, and whose case, presenting a valuable testimony to the power of divine truth, will be, or has been, doubtless made public by the reporters of the Jewish missions. The solemn aspect of the convert, who was a middleaged man, his Jewish garb, the cluster of wondering and displeased Jews who stood near the door, and the deep solemn tone of the good bishop's voice, as he repeated the impressive words of the adult baptismal service, gave a primitive and apostolic character to the first religious service I was present at on Mount Zion.

The mind seemed half to forget that 1800 years had passed, and invested the present service with the characteristics of early Christianity.

That simple chamber, enclosing a venerable overseer of the church, surrounded by his brother presbyters; the congregation made up of Christians from all parts of the world united in faith (not in language); the party baptized, and his Jewish companions; the place itself, Mount

Zion; all brought before me a scene and ideas more perfectly apostolic than I could have thought possible. And when the hymn of praise rose high and loud, of praise and thanks to God for this new display of His converting power and love, I listened to that hearty music, as though to catch some ancient strain lost since the church's infancy.

In the glare of mid-day I wandered forth from the Damascus gate, passing by a large cavern, half-natural, half-excavated in the rock, and now called the grotto of Jeremiah. As this part of the environs is as unquestionably within the wall built round Bezetha by Agrippa, either that suburb must have risen with extraordinary rapidity, or the grotto of the prophet must have been in the midst of habitations. If the latter alternative be held good, it seems more probable that the existence of the cave suggested the legend, than that the prophet should seek so near Jerusalem a place to pen his lamentations. The cave is surmounted by a small round hill, which is now covered with modern Turkish tombs; about fifty yards further (pursuing the path by the walls), near a broken reservoir for water were scattered the fragments of a trough or sarcophagus, apparently of Roman workmanship or style. As such relics are rare about