Morning view of the city. Glance at the localities. Question with
regard to the place of the Crucifixion. Its practical nature. Scene
usually sketched in the mind. The event probably more humiliating in
its attendant circumstances. Traditions forced upon the visitor to
Jerusalem. Their effect on the mind. Danger of such visits to those
who will not separate truth from error. “El Devoto Peregrino.” Dr.
Clarke.
I arose early on the morning of the 16th; the sun was shining bright,
and the atmosphere had a freshness and a balminess quite exhilarating.
Having made a hasty toilet, I placed a ladder against our range of
cells, and climbing to the flat roof, by which they were covered,
gazed around; and now, for the first time, felt that I was really in
Jerusalem.
Immediately east of the city, and separated from it by a narrow valley
or ravine, was a mountain large enough to command our respect by its
vastness, and yet not too large for gracefulness and beauty. I knew
it at once to be the _Mount of Olives_. It has three summits, one in
the centre and one at each extremity; they are of nearly equal height,
and when viewed from the city present for their outline a gentle and
beautiful curve. A large part of it is covered with olive trees,
particularly the central and northern summits and declivities; and they
still form so striking a feature, that if the mountain were now to be
named, we should be apt to call it the Mount of Olives.
Nearer to me, and just within the city walls, on the east, was a large
open place, and from the centre of this rose an octangular edifice of
considerable beauty; I had seen pictures of it, and recognized it as
the mosque of Omar, standing on the supposed site of the Temple of
Solomon. There at least was undoubtedly Mount Moriah, and my own eyes
were gazing upon it.
I turned from it soon, however, to look for a spot of still more
absorbing interest. Where was Mount Calvary? Not far from me rose
two domes, one somewhat peaked, the other one more obtuse, but very
large. In all directions, however, were domes of various sizes, and
the mind was puzzled, though still arrested by the position as well
as the magnitude of these two. A couple of old and venerable looking
monks were hanging over the parapet of a neighboring convent watching
my motions, and turning to inquire of them, I found my surmise had
been correct. This was the church of Mount Calvary and of the Holy
Sepulchre.--“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground.”--“At least,” a voice seemed to say to
me, “walk here with seriousness and humility; bow thy head, and cleanse
thy heart, and tread with meekness the ground trod by Him who was here
humbled for thee, and here bore thy sins upon the cross.” It was the
Sabbath also--this first day of our visit; and the quiet and healthful
influence of that holy season was added to the power which Jerusalem
would at any time have exercised upon the heart.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Imagination in its highest
flights has not pictured a scene that will compare in interest, or
in deep and searching pathos, with the reality here displayed in the
redemption of man. It partakes of the character of all the works of
God, combining a simplicity that opens it to the comprehension of all
men, with a grandeur and sublimity that must excite the admiration of
the highest seraphim. I have seen it where I have seen man’s proud
philosophy quail and shrink into nothingness--in the sick room and
by the dying bed; I have seen it come gently and quietly, and open
the feeble lips in praise, and in utterance of joyful and triumphant
hope. I have seen it sustain and cheer those whom the world, and the
world’s enjoyments and earthly hopes too, had all deserted, and who
would otherwise have been left in maddening solitude and wretchedness;
I have seen it sustain them; and while the body was tortured with
pains, I have seen it raise the mind superior to bodily feeling, and
while the cold sweat was breaking out upon the brow, keep that brow
calm and serene. The tortured child of clay thought of his Saviour’s
humiliation and pains, and of the glory wrought out for him; and,
in the boundless love that led to the sufferings of Calvary, found
assurance that God was even now a friend closer than a brother, and
would not desert him to the last. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ crucified, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth;”--and the highest honor of my life was on that day,
when I was permitted to walk amid scenes dignified and exalted by the
great events of our redemption.
It was, indeed, a day of concentrated interest and gratification,
such as I had never experienced before, and do not expect ever to
feel again. After breakfast our large Company broke up into smaller
parties, and proceeded to visit the various localities. In company
with Lieutenant F. I walked over to Mr. Nicholayson’s, and, under the
guidance of that gentleman, we went, with the Commodore and family,
first to the church of Mount Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre.
But is this church really on the site of the crucifixion, and of the
sepulture of our Saviour? This is a question which it may be well
to settle before proceeding further, so that we may know with what
feelings to approach spots of such sacred and interesting titles. It
is a subject on which my own mind is satisfied almost beyond a doubt,
and if the reader will for a short time give me patient attention,
in a somewhat dry and difficult examination of facts, I think he may
find himself rewarded for his labor. It is true that the question
with regard to the exact _locality_ of these events is of little
consequence, compared with the great subject of the redemption itself,
and the query whether we have, by a living faith, made that salvation
ours; but still it is one not without its practical consequences. The
mind often tries to picture the scene of the Saviour’s sufferings,
the uplifted bloody cross, the hours of agony, the tumultuous crowds
of scoffers below; and our feelings are touched, and the heart is
benefitted, by contemplating the price that was paid for our salvation,
the obligations under which we are placed by it, and the assurance it
gives us of the surpassing love of Him who spared not his own Son, but
gave him freely for us; the whole scene is often one of pious thought
and of pulpit description, and has frequently enlisted the skill of
painters, and is a matter of practical interest. My impression is,
that the scene we sketch is very seldom correct, and that the event
itself had a depth of humiliation that our thoughts do not reach; and
in this I do not have reference to the condescension of the sufferer,
but to circumstances connected with the locality of the suffering.
Our thoughts, when they turn to this subject, I believe place
before us an eminence of considerable elevation, sloping gradually
upward, and crowned at the summit by the crosses of our Saviour and
the malefactors, while the slopes are all crowded with the excited
spectators. This, I believe, is the picture that is generally presented
to our mind; and there is in it a degree of physical dignity, that the
event itself, I am inclined to think, did not possess. On the other
hand, if my apprehensions are correct, the crucifixion was attended
with every physical circumstance that could make it humbling as well
as painful; instead of being on the summit of a lofty eminence, it
was on a rocky knoll at the bottom of a natural theatre of hills; on
one side, at the distance of five hundred feet, was the city wall; on
another, the low and wretched suburb of a suburb; it was in an open
place, with dusty roads to various parts of the city passing near it; a
thoroughfare, in short, where the spectacle of dust and confusion was
broken only by a few gardens, the remains of a larger range of such
enclosures, now nearly destroyed by the encroaching suburb.
Such is the scene which the result of my investigations, commenced
there, and followed up since my return, places before me. I examined
the ground in and about the city as carefully as my time would allow,
and with the aid of Josephus, have constructed a map, which is here
offered to the examination of the reader. In my younger days, I used
to take great interest in maps of Jerusalem, till, finding that each
differed from every other one, and that they were filled with the
localities of public buildings, some of them evidently placed at
random, I lost in a measure my confidence in all the plans, and as they
furnished me with no means of judging for myself, I gave them up in
despair; and this is probably the case with many other persons.
[Illustration]
In this map I have laid down nothing for which we have not authority,
and I have in every part quoted the authorities; so that, if the
reader chooses, he can examine and form an opinion for himself. He will
find that I have been guided chiefly by Josephus, whose descriptions
of the ancient city are, undoubtedly, by far the most correct as
well as the most minute that we possess.[15] If I have not rightly
understood them, it has not been from the want of study. I have read
him carefully, and compared one part with another, and have seized on
every allusion to localities, and have again and again studied and
compared, and did not stop till I had a map that would correspond to
all such descriptions and allusions. He is, I think, deserving of our
confidence; for he spent much time in and about the ancient city; his
duties as an officer in Titus’ army led him to examine, and as far as
possible to get the admeasurements of its walls and towers; he must at
this time have been preparing for his work on the Jewish nation, and
probably made his records on the ground; and with a little allowance
for the pride and prejudices of a Jew, as regards his country, seems
to be a fair and candid narrator of events, a large part of which
fell under his own observation. In some places he is obscure, and at
times appears to contradict himself; but a little study will enable us
to understand and reconcile most of these passages; in many parts,
particularly in scenes of pathos, there is a simplicity and yet a
force, in his descriptions, that are really admirable.
In the map[16] just spoken of, I have sketched also the line of the
present city walls, as I found it could be done without producing
confusion, and I thought the reader would like to be able to see how
much of the ground of the ancient city is occupied by the modern
Jerusalem.
The traveller to the present city, at least the Protestant traveller,
is excessively annoyed at every step with traditions in which he cannot
believe, and with having localities pointed out in which he can place
no confidence whatever; and the effect is bad in a great many ways.
It not only disturbs sadly the feelings with which he would wish to
walk over the grounds of Jerusalem, but, sickened and disgusted, he
is apt to run into the opposite extreme of incredulity, and reject
even where there is proper grounds for belief. I have now before me
large extracts which I made from a book called El Devoto Peregrino, or
“The Devout Pilgrim,” published at Madrid in 1654, by P. F. Antonio
of Castile, Commissary General of Jerusalem for Spain, and Guardian
of Bethlehem,[17] in the last of which places he had spent a number
of years. It offers a good specimen of the accounts of places that
are thrust on the visitor to Jerusalem, and as it is a book of high
authority, I will by and by give some of the extracts at length. In
this work he points out edifices, at present standing, and which it
must be evident are comparatively modern structures, as the houses
of Pilate, of Simon the Pharisee, where Mary Magdalene washed our
Saviour’s feet with her tears, of St. Ann, of the Rich Man, &c. &c.;
and this in the face of authentic history, which informs us that the
city, when taken by Titus, was, with the exception of a few towers,
levelled with the ground, and that a ploughshare was made to pass
over it. There is scarcely an event of any description, mentioned in
the New Testament as occurring in or about Jerusalem, of which they
do not designate the exact locality; and to all this they have added
traditions so absurd as to be beyond all belief, to say nothing of
their childishness. All this is repeated to the visitor to Jerusalem,
and produce a revulsion of feeling not only disagreeable but dangerous;
and men whose faith is not previously settled, or who do not like the
trouble of sifting the truth from error, I believe would be apt to be
injured by such a visit. And it appears to me that most Protestant
visitors, and our missionaries also, have been betrayed by these
feelings into an excess of scepticism, which has led them to reject
some things against sound and proper evidence. We must not reject
all because some is false, any more than we would reject all species
of coin because some is spurious; a wise man will be led by the fact
that there is spurious money, to believe that there is good money
some where; and therefore, these tales, instead of provoking utter
scepticism, while they make us cautious, should at the same time lead
us to suppose that there _is_ ground for belief.
Dr. Clark is the boldest of these modern sceptics; for while others
simply doubt, he goes further, and with a feeling bordering certainly
on rashness, attempts at once to designate other sites for these
distinguished events. His boldness is not more surprising than is the
small amount of evidence he produces for his localities; and I believe
he has had scarcely a single follower, among either readers at home, or
travellers to these interesting spots. As he stands quite alone, the
subject of wonder rather than of credence, we will not stop to examine
his theories; but proceed to notice the old belief, and the doubts of
more cautious and moderate men.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] I have been surprised as well as pleased to see the large number
of copies of Josephus that are sold in this city [New-York.] I have
attended the book auctions here quite frequently; and have observed
that there is no book of its size that meets with such a ready sale,
or brings so good a price. The work merits all this--Josephus has not
received the praise from literary men that he deserves.
[16] PLAN OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN CITY OF JERUSALEM.
The castellated lines represent the walls as they existed at the time
of the crucifixion.
The zigzag lines mark the supposed course of Agrippa’s wall, erected a
few years after that event.
The dotted lines, represent the walls of the present city of Jerusalem.
The square figure represents the court of the ancient temple, with the
temple in the centre.
REFERENCES.
ANCIENT CITY.
1. Castle of Hippicus.
2. Gate Gennath, or Gate of the Gardens.
3. Tomb of the High Priest John.
4. Bridge connecting the Temple with the upper city.
5. Supposed site of the Xistus.
6. Castle of Antonia.
MODERN CITY.
_a._ Jaffa Gate.
_b._ Zion Gate.
_c._ St. Stephen’s Gate.
_d._ Damascus Gate.
_e._ Reputed Pool of Bethesda.
_f._ Pool of Siloam.
_g._ Fountain of the Virgin.
_h._ Garden of Gethsemane.
_i._ Monuments of Absalom and Zachariah.
_k._ Village of Siloa.
_l._ Supposed Mount of Corruption.
_m._ Road to Jaffa.
_n._ Road to Bethlehem.
[17] “El Devoto Peregrino, viage de tierra Santa, compuesto por el P.
F. Antonio de Castillo, Predicador Apostolico Padre dela Provincia de
S. Juan Baptiste y Comisario General de Jerusalem en los Reynos de
Espana Guardian de Belem.”