Visit to the Mount of Olives to procure olive root. Cabinet work from
it. Attempt, by a Fancy spell, to raise up again the ancient city
of Jerusalem. Its appearance. Fortifications. Towers. Royal palace.
Stupendous wall supporting the Courts of the Temple. Outer Cloister.
Solomon’s Porch. Court of the Gentiles. Inner Cloister. Gate called
“Beautiful.” Court of the Jews. Court of the Priests. Altar. The
TEMPLE. Its dazzling façade. Noble entrance. Skill of the Architect.
Vestibule. Grape-vine of Gold. The Sanctuary. Its furniture. Holy of
Holies. Effect of this place on Pompey. Walls of the edifice. Stones
of amazing size. Frame work of the city. Villages and gardens around.
Effect of the contrast between the Temple and Mount of Olives. The
millions coming up to the Passover. Their Hymns. The Roman army.
Titus takes a view of the city. Events foretelling its doom. The
horror-stricken prophet.
The olive root makes beautiful cabinet work; and, desirous of procuring
some from the Mount of Olives to be worked up for my friends, I took
one day an interpreter and a couple of natives, and ascended the
mountain to see if I could purchase some. Southward of Absalom’s
monument is the village of Siloa, standing in what appears to have
been a quarry; and consisting partly of houses erected on the rocky
platforms, and in part of caves cut in the side of the declivity. This
was quite deserted; but near the summit of the mountain I was fortunate
enough to find a house with occupants, from whom I purchased the
privilege of cutting some roots.[64] It may afford an idea of the state
of the arts at Jerusalem, when I mention that the best axe which we
could find in the city was a species of blunt grubbing-hoe; and that
we actually grubbed through the thick roots; and this, they informed
me, is the usual way of cutting wood in that country. Mr. Nicholayson
had owned an English axe, but his Arab guards had carried it off at the
conclusion of the siege.
Soon after commencing operations on the trees, we found ourselves
surrounded by a dozen wild looking men, who seemed to have started up
from beneath the ground, where probably they had been concealed in
the caves and artificial pits with which the country abounds. They
were induced, by the offer of a trifling compensation, to assist us;
and while they were tugging away at the wood, I sat down a few yards
off to make some plans and sketches of the city. In half an hour the
interpreter came to say that they had all fled; and on returning I
found that not an individual of them was to be seen. The soldiers
at the city gate below had spied them out with their glasses, and a
detachment had been sent up to seize them; but they were too cunning,
and escaped; and as we stood by the tree, we heard them, in their
flight, calling to the soldiers, and using epithets that were any thing
but complimentary. I have introduced this simple circumstance, however,
not so much for its own sake, as to give me an opportunity of carrying
the reader once more to the top of the Mount of Olives. And here I wish
him to sit down at the spot which I have just been occupying on the
central eminence, and gaze down on this place of wonderful history,
and of tender and thrilling association. But my object is not to speak
of the present city of Jerusalem; I wish to blot out all that picture,
defaced in so many places by wretchedness and unsightly ruins, and to
place before his imagination the ancient city of Jerusalem, when she
sat upon these hills in her jewelled ornaments,--when “glorious things
were spoken of thee, O city of God.”
Often as that city is upon our lips, I believe there are few persons
who have an idea of its extraordinary splendor in the olden times; for
it was a place not only unique, and of strange religious interest, but
also of wonderful magnificence. The period of Solomon’s reign might
perhaps be selected as that when its effect was most imposing; but I
prefer for our picture the time, of the Agrippas, because, while the
splendor of Jerusalem was scarcely less than in the reign of Solomon,
we have, by the aid of Josephus, more ample materials for forming a
judgment of its appearance; and this, too, with a slight exception,
was the city whose streets our Saviour trod, and over which, while
observing it from a spot just below us here on the Mount of Olives, he
wept in the sad anticipation of its downfall.
And now look northward, and westward, and southward, and notice how,
from these distant heights, the land slopes gently downward; bending
hitherward as if in reverence, and to add dignity to the consecrated
spot. Now look downward. Behold now I spread over the place the spell
of a sober and chastened Fancy. I call up again the buried objects of
other days. City of the olden time--arise!
See, this is the ancient Jerusalem!
Truly it is a magnificent place; a picture of rare and exquisite
beauty set in a frame of brilliants. Recovered from our surprise, and
the eye having grown more familiar with the unique spectacle, we turn
now to examine it in detail. And, first, observe the walls by which
it is begirt; what a proud and formidable array of strength is here.
The massive battlements seem to set all earthly power at defiance,
while the stones of immense size excite our wonder, not only by their
prodigious size, but by their peculiar and careful finish. That wall
on the north is eighteen feet in thickness, and with its battlements
and turrets is forty-five feet in height; it runs zigzag, so that
each part may be raked from the towers, of which there are ninety in
this wall. The towers, thirty-six feet square, are of solid masonry,
and are crowned each with two stories or suites of rooms, in which
architectural beauty is consulted as well as strength, and which are
of great magnificence. The angles in the wall are acute, receding
considerably from the towers; and the whole structure, as it sweeps
around the city, looks like a mountain of solid and immoveable rock.
At its north-western angle, high above all the rest, rises the tower
of Psephinus, massive below, but in its upper part marked by graceful,
though still heavy architecture; it is octangular, and attains an
elevation of one hundred and twenty-seven feet.
Within this, separating Acra from Bezetha, is another wall, a solid
mountain of masonry, presenting high angular walls, battlements, and
towers of exceeding strength; and here, south of Acra, on the edge of
Zion, is a third line of similar defences, making, with the steepness
of the ascent, a bulwark by no means less formidable than the rest; and
on the southern and western sides of this mountain, grow up from the
edge of the high rocky precipice, by which it is there begirt, lines of
broad and high stone-work, presenting an utterly hopeless barrier to an
assailant. “Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers
thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks; beautiful for situation, the joy of
the whole earth is Mount Zion. The kings were assembled, they passed by
together; they saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and
hasted away.”
The chief glory of these defences of Zion, however, is a nest of towers
there at the north-west angle, “which, for largeness, beauty, and
strength, are beyond all that are in the habitable earth.” They were
built by Herod, and called after his friend, his brother, and his wife.
They stand at a point where the elevation of Mount Zion, contracting
into narrow limits, becomes more remarkable, and thus presents their
altitude and elaborate architectural beauties in a more striking point
of view. One of them is placed in the sharp angle, and is called the
tower of Hippicus. It is 46 feet square; and to an elevation of 55
feet is composed of firm and solid masonry, the stones with which it
is built being 36 feet in length, by eighteen in width, and nine in
height; above this enduring mass is a reservoir 36 feet in elevation;
next above this is a double range of magnificent chambers of ornamental
yet massive architecture, making an additional height of 46 feet; and
above these rise battlements and turrets, the whole height of the tower
being 146 feet.
A short distance from it we behold the tower Phasaelus, 72 feet square
and 164 in height. Seventy-two feet of this elevation consists of
stones like those in the tower just described; and the rest is composed
of heavy stone work faced with colonnades; of richly ornamented
chambers, and of battlements and turrets.
The third tower of Mariamne, named by Herod after his wife, is smaller
than these, but of exquisite beauty, and richly adorned with ornaments;
it attains an elevation of 91 feet.
All these look immediately down upon the royal palace, also on Mount
Zion; and here the eye is wearied with tracing the labyrinth of courts,
the succession of porticos adorned with rich and curious pillars, the
ranges of lofty windows, giving light to halls where statuary and
carved work have added their embellishments, and where the vessels are
of silver and gold. And in the courts below and in the gardens are rare
trees, and fountains, and brazen statues, and winding streams. No cost
or skill has been spared in this palace by a prince whose resources
were of the most ample kind. These palaces and courts and towers are
the _Kremlin_ of Jerusalem.
Observe now that long bridge, with its lofty arches, a striking feature
in this scene, and adding greatly to its picturesque effect. It rises
high above the dwellings of Acra, and, stretching quite across that
portion of the city, connects the precincts of this palace with the
Temple. But let us hasten to turn our attention to the Temple. The
city has yet many striking objects that solicit our attention; the
lofty and frowning castle of Antonia, palaces in great numbers, private
edifices of remarkable architecture, brought out into strong relief by
the uneven nature of the ground, invite our notice; but the wonderful
Temple, grand, mysterious, awful, is here before us, and the eye
glances impatiently at other objects. Let us turn then, and suffer our
eyes to dwell and feast on this.
And it is indeed a glorious sight. It stands here all before us, the
walls that support its courts rising from the very depths of the valley
of Jehoshaphat, and towering aloft to an astonishing, a giddy height.
It was a bold and daring conception--that of carrying up this mountain
of stone-work to such a stupendous elevation. This wall here fronting
us is 729 feet in height![65] On the northern and western sides, owing
to the inequality of the ground, the elevation is somewhat less.
You perceive that in order to obtain greater strength, the walls are
not perpendicular, but somewhat slanting, so that with the ascending
nature of the ground in the courts above, the whole structure has
somewhat of a pyramidal form. The stones of which it is composed are of
prodigious size, yet are fitted together with the greatest care, and in
addition to the security afforded by their magnitude, are strengthened
internally by means of iron clamps. This wall is above 730 feet in
length on each side; it forms an exact square, and the whole interior
space being filled up, we have thus a vast mountain raised by human
labor, a stupendous structure that must excite the astonishment of all
succeeding ages. But this is only the ground work, the substructure for
the great Temple and its sacred courts. Look upward now; you see along
the edge of this wall, far up at its giddy elevation, where the brain
reels as it attempts to measure the depths below, you see a cloister
or ornamented colonnade, on the outside ornamented with architectural
embellishment, and yet more remarkable still for massiveness and
strength, as if to guard from the assaults even of the wildest fancy
the sacred precincts of the Temple. This cloister is 55 feet wide, and
consists on the outside of a range of chambers, and within or towards
the Temple, of a double row of marble columns 46 feet in height, each
column consisting of a single block of white marble; the entablature
gives to the whole cloister or colonnade an elevation of more than 60
feet. At the southern end, instead of two, are four rows of columns,
each column six feet in diameter and 27 in height; the heaviness of
the shaft being relieved by fanciful flutings at the base, and by rich
leaf-shaped capitals, like those which we consider as belonging to the
Corinthian order. This end is called Solomon’s Porch;[66] it consists
of a nave, if I may use the term, 45 feet wide, and in height 100
feet, with side aisles, each 30 feet wide, and 50 in height. It is an
enchanting spot, and fanned at that high elevation with a perpetual
breeze, and is a favorite resort; but, indeed, where, in this whole
colonnade, forming a complete circuit of 2900 feet, is a spot that is
not marked by exceeding beauty and magnificence? At each angle you
perceive towers of elaborate architecture, crowned with turrets or
pinnacles, where, gazing downward, the senses recoil with horror from
the frightful depth.
But this is only the commencement of the grandeur of this wonderful
Temple. Within this cloister is an open court, running also quite
around; it is paved with marble, and its level is broken by a few steps
of ascent, also passing along the whole circuit of the court. This
is the court of the Gentiles; and inscriptions on columns are seen
at intervals, forbidding this class of people to advance nearer to
the Temple. Along the inner edge of this court runs another cloister,
consisting also of a row of chambers, with a single colonnade in the
interior, or looking toward the Temple. In the space allotted here to
the chambers, the ground has taken an ascent of seventeen feet from the
court of the Gentiles, but the colonnade itself is on level ground, the
pillars being, as in the outer colonnade, forty-six feet in height, and
making, with the entablature, likewise a full elevation of more than
sixty feet; but from the rise of the ground this colonnade is twenty
feet higher than the other.
In this cloister, fronting us on the east, is the “Beautiful Gate;”[67]
and truly, no one need be directed to mark its surpassing magnificence.
It is ninety-one feet in height by seventy-three in width; the doors
are of massive Corinthian brass, covered on both sides, as are also
the jambs and lintels, with plates of gold and silver, sometimes plain,
sometimes in fretted work, or raised into figures in low or in high
relief. On either side of the doorway is a tower, seventy-three feet
high, adorned with columns twenty-one feet in circumference. On the
northern and southern sides of this cloister are eight other gates,
of less magnitude, but covered in a similar manner, as are also their
jambs and lintels, with plates of gold and silver; and strengthened
also like the former, with towers and massive columns.
Passing through this, we are once more in an open court, paved with
marble, and rising by steps towards the central point. The eastern side
of this court is allotted to the worship of the Jewish women, while
that on the north and south is divided off for the men. At the inner
edge of this court is again another wall; it is of marble, only a few
feet in height, and is richly ornamented with sculpture; it separates
the court of the Jewish worshippers from the inmost court of all, the
court of the Priests.
And there, at the eastern side of this inmost court, in the open air,
at the apex of this stupendous Pyramidal structure, canopied only by
the heavens, stands the Altar of Burnt Sacrifice. It is a colossal
structure, being twenty-seven feet in height and ninety-one feet on
each of its sides. The ascent is by an inclined plane on the south.
And just beyond it, is the TEMPLE. This looks also to the eastward, and
as we attempt to gaze upon it in this bright morning sun, now darting
its rays across the Mount of Olives, our dazzled eyes turn away, pained
by the glorious sight. It presents a front one hundred and eighty-two
feet long and of an equal height, _all of which is covered with thick
plates of gold_. What a magnificent spectacle! What a grand termination
to this stupendous structure, towering upwards from the deep valley
towards the clouds. Cast your eye downwards, and let it range over the
immense masses of chiselled rocks, wrought into regular shape, enriched
with architectural device, and piled on each other till the senses
are pained in endeavoring to take in the colossal fabric of more than
seven hundred feet in height; glance at the huge mouldings into which
the wall swells at its termination; mark the high colonnades of pure
showy marble, that are ranged along the edge of this mighty structure;
see within this the marble tesselated pavement, ascending by flights
of steps, and encircling the mountain; and then again another range
of light marble porticos sweeping quite around; mark the pavement,
again ascending by unbroken flights of marble steps; and here, at
length, crowning the whole magnificent work, is the gorgeous Temple,
its front one hundred and eighty-two feet high, decked with elaborate
architectural embellishments, and covered with massive gold.
And “the Lord is in his Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence
before Him.”
Yes, in this gorgeous edifice, raised to such a stupendous height,
wrapped in a splendor that the eye can scarcely look upon; deep
within the edifice in a spot of mysterious darkness and solitude, is
shadowed forth the presence of Jehovah; and this Temple belongs not to
Jerusalem, but to the whole world. And He, the Deity, whose very name
is awful, and should be used with reverence, hath blessed this spot
with his peculiar presence; and it is meet that man should look upon it
with deep and solemn feeling. “How amiable,” said the Psalmist, when
far distant, “how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts. My
soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my heart
and my flesh crieth out for the living God. For a day in thy courts is
better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of
my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
In this eastern front of the Temple is an open and ornamented door-way,
46 feet wide and 128 feet in height. The architect of this edifice
was a man of skill. He knew well the powerful effect produced by the
prevalence of high ascending lines in a building, and in the Temple he
has taken advantage of this effect, and with the best results. How fine
is the appearance of this grand and lofty door-way, open also so as to
give a view of the rich vestibule just within! Our thoughts and our
feelings, whatever they may be, are not checked at the very threshhold,
but are allowed to penetrate to a short distance; they are not excluded
from the edifice; they enter sufficiently to make us a part of it;
and yet it is not made common by being all exposed; sufficient of it
remains shut up to excite our wonder, to cherish feelings of respect,
to inspire that awe which arises from mystery.
He who may enter this lofty door-way, will find himself in a vestibule
at right angles with his path; it is 36 feet wide, 92 in length, and
164 feet in height. The wall in front of him is all covered with plates
of gold, which, like that on the exterior front, is in various forms,
smooth and highly burnished, or in patterns of embossed work, or in
figures of various kinds. From the lofty ceiling, which the eye is
pained in attempting to reach, hangs down a golden vine, with leaves
and fruit of the same metal, and so colossal are its dimensions, that
the clusters of grapes are six feet in length.[68] Our foot may not be
placed within this vestibule; but through the large open door-way we
can discover much of the splendor by which it is distinguished. In the
golden wall that bounds our vision at its further side, is a door-way
twenty-nine feet wide by 100 in height, covered by a Babylonian
curtain, of blue and scarlet and purple, richly embroidered, and of
wonderful workmanship. Its ample folds conceal a door, which, like the
wall, is covered with plates of gold, plain or in various patterns, and
of exceeding richness.
He who enters this door will find himself in _The Sanctuary_. This
is a chamber thirty-six feet wide and seventy-two in length, and 109
in height; its height, however, cannot be reached by the eye; for
this chamber is in darkness, except the obscure light shed upon it
by several lamps. Daylight cannot penetrate it, unless occasionally
a feeble glimmering through the door-way; a mysterious obscurity is
left to pervade it, and the vision, turning upward, combats for a
while the deepening shadows, and is then repelled by utter darkness.
The furniture of this room is simple, for it contains only the Table
of Shew-bread, and the Golden Candlestick, and the Altar of Incense.
While the incense ascends silently, and keeps the chamber filled with
perpetual odours, the softened light of the Seven Golden Lamps of
the Candlestick falls upon a table with twelve loaves of bread, one
for each tribe; as if, by this simple emblem, the staff of his life
kept here in memorial, man would gratefully acknowledge by whom his
existence is prolonged, and whence are derived its blessings. There is
something in this quiet and simple scene, a subdued and humble, yet
grateful character in its speech, that is very impressive.
At the further end of this chamber is again a door-way covered by a
thick veil of many folds. It opens into a square chamber thirty-six
feet on each side, and 109 in height. In this chamber there is nothing
at all. _It is quite dark_; and its deep obscurity and its vacancy are
fit emblems of HIM who is invisible to mortal eye, and whom mortal
thought can never reach. This is the Holy of Holies. It is entered only
by the High Priest, and by him but once a year. Unadorned, and deeply
shut up within the Temple, it is left to darkness, and silence, and
impressive solitude.
When Pompey, after a toilsome siege, at length took this mountain by
assault, he hastened to the Temple, incited both by curiosity, and by a
desire to feed his eye on the wealth that had at length become his own;
but when, having examined the Sanctuary in its dim mysterious light,
and then, raising this veil, he stood in the Holy of Holies, and found
no object, nought but an obscurity that his eye, as he gazed upward,
sought in vain to pierce, a feeling of awe and dread seems to have come
upon him; he left the Temple, having touched neither its furniture nor
its treasure, and, calling off his troops, he gave orders to repair the
injuries that had been occasioned by his assault.
The walls of this building are fourteen and a half feet in thickness,
and are composed of stones forty-six feet long by twenty-one in
width, and fourteen in thickness, interspersed with some that have
the astonishing length of eighty-two feet.[69] The main body of the
edifice, containing the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, is so narrow
in proportion to its elevation, that it would be in danger from
earthquakes if that were not guarded against by an outer wall nine feet
from this, with which it is connected so as to form between them three
tiers of cells, thirty in each tier; the upper part of the building is
used as store-rooms for the furniture and utensils of the Temple. The
vestibule, being at right angles with the body of the edifice, projects
thirty-six feet on either side. The stone employed here appears to be
a pure white marble, for those portions of the building which are not
covered with plates of gold are of dazzling whiteness, so as to appear
at a distance like a mountain covered with snow.
The whole mass, the foundation walls, the porticoes, the Temple,
are indeed a wonderful structure; and with the sacred and solemn
associations connected with them, form an object of surpassing interest
and grandeur.
And now look down again upon the city and upon the fair region
stretching all around. The ground on which Jerusalem is built, assists
greatly, as you perceive, in giving it architectural effect. Babylon,
Nineveh, Thebes, Memphis, those cities of ancient renown, were built
on level plains, and with all their riches and greatness were in
most parts tame and monotonous; but here the picturesque is added to
greatness and splendor; the walls and towers overhang deep precipices;
the lofty palaces are brought into stronger relief by their situations;
each portion of the city, by harmony or by contrast, adds a charm to
every other; and the Temple, like another sun chained to the dizzy
heights of Moriah, sheds an effulgence over all.
Gaze now around. What a frame-work is there for the city of Jerusalem!
See the villages, embosomed in gardens of deep verdure, sprinkled
thickly over all the plains, which, ascending as they retire from
the city, expose every object to our view. Here the houses stand in
thick clusters, there they straggle along amid the overhanging trees;
and the whole immense extent of country seems only a continuation of
the city in a more cheerful form. And this Mount of Olives, what a
beautiful object it must be when viewed from the city. Its graceful
slopes, its gardens, its deep shade, its white cottages, its villas,
where the wealthy love to retire, half exposed, half concealed, by the
dense verdure; its groves and public walks; what an admirable picture
they form; and alongside of the stupendous and glittering pyramid of
Mount Moriah, each by contrast gives new beauties and new charms to the
other. Where in all the world shall we find a scene equal to this?
And now glance your eye along these roads that come winding over the
hills by which Jerusalem is encircled. See! The whole country seems
awakened into an intensity of life and animation. _It is the Passover._
Far off as the eye can reach, the great highways and the narrow paths
are covered with masses of living beings, thousands upon thousands
pouring onwards, and still succeeded by other thousands, till it seems
as if the whole habitable globe was sending its inhabitants and its
tribute to this sacred city. And it does. Here are “Parthians and
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea,
and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt
and in the parts of Lybia about Greece, and strangers of Rome, and
Cretes, and Arabians,” in their various costumes, and speaking their
various tongues. The number that assembles here on this occasion is
about three millions. They come, some purely from religious feeling,
some also for commerce; for the occasion is seized by dwellers in far
distant countries for the interchange of commodities. As they approach
the city, however, a common feeling takes possession of all of them,
delight, reverence, awe, wonder, admiration. As they gain the summits
of the distant hills, and catch a view of the Temple, they burst into
shouts of joy, they prostrate themselves upon the ground, they break
out into hymns of praise. The air seems burdened by the noises that
unceasingly ascend; one while they are like the roar of the ocean;
at another, they rise, and sink, and swell upward again into lofty
strains of wonder and thanksgiving; the earth trembles under the
moving to and fro of these countless multitudes. See--still they come,
thousands and yet still countless thousands pressing onward towards the
city. The eye is wearied with beholding them; the senses are pained and
overwhelmed.
And now the sounds abate and sink into a deep but continuous murmur.
They are preparing for the Paschal sacrifice. The multitudes are
divided into companies of from ten to twenty, and each company, by a
deputy appointed for that purpose, is to offer in the courts of the
temple a lamb without blemish or spot; the blood is to be sprinkled at
the foot of the great altar, and the fat is to be cast upon it for a
burnt offering. There will be 250,000 of these sacrifices.
See! the courts of the Temple, the flat roofs of the colonnades, are
covered by the dense throngs; the walls and towers of the city, the
terraces of the lofty dwellings of Jerusalem, are crowded by the
multitudes; and the ascending plains around, and the slopes of the
Mount of Olives, are all animated; it is an ocean of living beings.
And now they are silent all. Soon you will perceive a great cloud of
smoke roll up from the altar and envelope the Temple, and then you will
hear their hymns. There it is! and astounding! the millions of voices
that ascend seem to burst the very heavens; the mountain shakes under
the strange concussion.--Their Hymn.--
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
O praise God in his holiness,
Praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts,
Praise him for his excellent greatness.
_Instrumental music accompanying._
Praise him in the sound of the trumpet,
Praise him upon the lute and harp.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.
_Children of the Levites, from the Temple._
Thine ordinances, O God, how glorious they are.
But tell us, fathers of Israel, what mean ye by this service?
_Solemn recitative, from the Elders._
It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the
houses of the children of Israel, in Egypt, when he smote the
Egyptians, and delivered our houses.
_Hymn from Mount Moriah._
Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
He has brought us in and planted us in the mountain of his
inheritance;
In the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
In the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thine own hands have established.
_Full chorus of all the multitudes._
The Lord is our strength, and he is become our salvation.
He is our God, and we will honor his habitation.
Our father’s God, and we will exalt him.
Hallelujah. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah.
_Full company of instrumental music, on Mount Moriah._
Now listen, this is the hymn of solemn invocation.
_From the Priests in the inner Court._
The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.
The name of the God of Jacob defend thee,
Send thee help out of the Sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.
Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifices.
Grant thee according to thy heart’s desire, and fulfil all thy mind.
Be merciful unto us, O God, be merciful unto us; for our soul trusteth
in thee.
_Response from the deputies in the surrounding courts._
Hear our cry, O God; give ear unto our supplications.
From the ends of the earth will we call upon thee when our heart is
in heaviness.
Our souls wait only upon God; for our expectation is from him.
He is our salvation and our glory; he is the rock of our strength and
our refuge.
_Response from the full multitude._
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; our souls wait only upon
thee.
Thou art our salvation and our glory; thou art the rock of our
strength and our refuge.
HYMN THIRD.
_Voices of the full multitude._
O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things.
With his own right hand, and with his holy arm, hath he gotten
himself the victory.
The Lord hath declared his salvation; his righteousness hath he
openly showed in the sight of the heathen.
He hath remembered his mercy and truth towards the house of Israel;
And all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God.
Show yourselves joyful before the Lord, all ye lands; sing, rejoice,
and give thanks.
Praise the Lord upon the harp; sing to the harp with a psalm of
thanksgiving.
With trumpets also, and shawms, O show yourselves joyful before the
Lord, the king.
_Full outburst of instrumental music on Mount Moriah._
HYMN FOURTH.
_Voices of the strangers._
How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts.
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the
Lord.
Our feet stand joyfully within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
_Voices of the citizens._
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for the peace of Jerusalem; they
shall prosper that love thee.
_Full chorus of all, both strangers and citizens._
Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will wish thee prosperity.
Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.
Hallelujah! The Lord shall reign for ever and ever! Hallelujah!
* * * * *
City of Jerusalem! art thou then to be a heap of ruins? Land of glory!
art thou then to be a desolation? Temple of the living God, to which
exceeding beauty and wonderful associations draw our hearts, art thou
then to be laid in the dust, till not one stone shall be left upon
another? It is even so.
The voices of the worshippers are suddenly hushed, for upon yon distant
hills, to the northward, is the glitter of armor; and see, the heights
are now all covered with a dense array of the legions of Rome. Their
leader comes here to reconnoitre, and from this mountain looks down
upon the glorious city.
“It must be--
And yet it moves me, Romans! it confounds
The counsels of my firm philosophy,
That Ruin’s merciless ploughshare must pass o’er,
And barren salt be sown on yon proud city.
As on our olive-crowned hill we stand,
Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters
Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion,
As through a valley sacred to sweet Peace.
How boldly doth it front us! how majestically!
Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill-side
Is hung with marble fabrics, line on line,
Terrace o’er terrace, nearer still, and nearer
To the blue heavens. Here bright and sumptuous palaces,
With cool and verdant gardens interspersed;
Here towers of war, that frown in massy strength,
While over all hangs the rich purple eve.
And as our clouds of battle, dust, and smoke,
Are melted into air, behold the Temple,
In undisturbed and lone serenity,
Finding itself a solemn sanctuary
In the profound of heaven! It stands before us
A mount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles!
The very sun, as though he worshipped there,
Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs!
And down the long and branching porticoes,
On every flowery sculptured capital
Glitters the homage of his parting beams.
By Hercules! the sight might almost win
The offended majesty of Rome to mercy.”
MILMAN.
It is a wonderful city, wonderful in its origin, in its history, in its
present character; strange events, too, have been foretelling its doom,
and terrible is to be its downfall.
A flaming sword was seen night after night, for the space of a year,
suspended over the city; the inhabitants crowded to the Temple, they
offered sacrifices, but still that bloody sword was over them; the
timid buried themselves in their chambers and wept; the gay tried to
forget it in debauch, but still it hung above the city, and the hearts
of the stoutest at length quailed before it. It has lately disappeared,
but they do not know whether to consider this as an omen for good or
for evil.
Also the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, which requires twenty men to
move it, one night, though secured by heavy bolts, opened of its own
accord, as if to show that the spirits which had been keeping guard in
the Temple were leaving it.
Also one night at Pentecost, as the priests were going to their duties
in the inner court of the Temple, they felt a quaking of the earth,
and then, as they stood to recover from their dread, they heard a
whispering noise as of a multitude of people, saying, “_Let us go
hence._”
Even now, as we have been sitting here, a lonely and mournful, but
loud voice, has been repeating in the lanes and in the high streets
of the city, “Wo, wo to Jerusalem!” And for four years, by day and in
the deep stillness of night, that melancholy cry has been unceasingly
heard denouncing wo to the affrighted and cowering inhabitants. A
plain countryman came up to the Feast of Tabernacles four years ago
while the country was prosperous and at peace; and while engaged in
the duties of this occasion became suddenly a changed man, and before
the multitudes cried aloud, “A voice from the east, a voice from the
west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the
Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a
voice against this whole people!” A dead weight of fear has ever since
lain upon the spirits of the inhabitants, crushing the timid, and
oppressing even the boldest. They have tried by every means to stop
his mournful cry; they have beaten him till his bones were laid bare,
but he made no supplication and shed no tears; they have carried him
before the rulers, but he has not been awed to silence, nor to their
queries and threats has he made any reply; he has associated with no
one, but in the crowded city has made himself a solitary and a lonely
man; he has not complained when ill treated and abused from day to day;
he has not thanked those who gave him food; to each he has replied
only by his usual exclamation of, wo to the city; the channels of all
feeling, except a deep and dreadful horror, seem to have been frozen
up. He rests but little; something within him hath murdered sleep. At
midnight, when all nature is hushed in death-like repose, from amid the
deep darkness his mournful voice is heard; and the mother starts and
draws her infant to her breast, and the sentry on his post trembles at
the prolonged and melancholy cry, “Wo, wo, wo to Jerusalem!”
* * * * *
The wo hath been poured out upon the unhappy city.
* * * * *
Eleven hundred thousand persons perished during the siege, by famine,
pestilence, or by human violence. Ninety-seven thousand at its close
were carried as captives into distant lands.[70]
FOOTNOTES:
[64] I trust that I shall be pardoned if I add that the Commodore
and myself had some of it worked at Mahon into tables representing,
in Mosaic work, the hills and valleys of Jerusalem, a plan of the
city, and a view of the Mount of Olives, its buildings and roads. The
workmanship was well executed, and they make handsome pictures. The
ingenious workman, Juan Rivdavetz y Prieto, just before we left that
city, contrived a method of staining on plain apple wood, pictures of
fruit, &c., with a very rich back-ground, forming beautiful cabinet
work. The Commodore offered him a passage in the Delaware to America;
but the love of his native island prevailed, and he remained.
[65] Jos. Ant. lib. viii. cap. 3. § 9. Ib. lib. xv. cap. 11. § 15. Ib.
de Bel. lib. v. cap. 5. § 1. The height of these walls must strike the
reader as almost beyond belief; and I confess that I hesitated about
repeating them from the Jewish historian, till I came to reflect on
the size of similar structures in other eastern cities. The walls of
Nineveh are reported on good authority to have been 100 feet in height,
and to have been strengthened by 1500 towers 200 feet in elevation. The
height of the temple of Belus, at Babylon, formed altogether of bricks,
is computed by Major Rennel at 500 feet, and by Prideaux at 600; its
ruins still form a mound 200 feet in height. The royal palace in the
same city was nearly as large as the temple; and the ruins of a castle
are still seen 140 feet in height, and half a mile in circuit. The
walls of this city were 34 miles in circuit--according to some writers
60; and were broad enough for six chariots to drive abreast upon them;
and appear to have been originally 300, or 350 feet in height; having
been reduced from this to 75 feet by Darius Hystaspes in order to check
the rebellious spirit of the inhabitants.
The Egyptian pyramids still afford us a proof of the colossal nature of
such undertakings in ancient times. The largest two of these, as has
been already stated in this work, being 470 and 456 feet high, by 704
and 654 on each side.
When we reflect on the sacred character of Jerusalem in the eyes of
all the Jews; how deeply the temple worship was wrought into all their
systems, both civil and religious; how earnest their zeal, how entire
their devotedness as regards this structure--we are prepared for
something extraordinary.
Josephus computes the number of “pure” persons who came up yearly to
the feast of the Passover at about 3,000,000. (De Bel. lib. 11. cap.
14. § 3. lib. vi. cap. 9. § 3.) The vanity of the historian may have
led him to some exaggeration, but still the number was prodigiously
great. Many of these brought rich presents to the temple, and all were
ready to contribute their labor as well as means whenever called upon.
Agrippa, at one time, had 18,000 men employed in repairing the Temple.
(Jos. Antiq. lib. xx. cap. ix. § 7.) Solomon employed 80,000 men to cut
stone; 70,000 to transport the materials, and 10,000 men constantly
on Mount Lebanon to cut wood for the Temple, and was seven years in
completing it.
The space comprehended by these lofty walls was not entirely filled
with earth, a large portion being occupied with vaults and subterranean
passages. Their extent and the subsequent violence will account for the
complete abrasion of this mountain. See Jos. de Bel. lib. v. cap. iii.
§ 1. Antiq. lib. xv. cap. ii. § 7.
[66] Thrice referred to in the New Testament, John x. 23. Acts iii. 11.
and v. 12.
[67] Acts iii. 2.
[68] I have been unwilling to break the thread of description by
references; but my authorities are in Josephus, Antiq. lib. xv. cap.
11. lib. viii. cap. 3. de Bel. lib. v. cap. 5.
If the reader should think this account of the richness of the Temple
incredible, he is requested to consult ancient authors about similar
structures in other countries. The Parthenon at Athens cost sixty
millions of dollars; the Propylaea, or entrance to the Acropolis, on
which it stands, cost half as much; the statue of Minerva in the former
was of ivory and gold; the gold alone cost more than half a million of
dollars. The statue, decorations, and utensils in the Temple of Belus,
according to Diodorus Siculus, were equal in value to more than 200
millions of our dollars. When Titus had taken Jerusalem, gold was so
abundant among his soldiers, that in Syria a pound of it sold for half
its former value. See Jos. de Bel. lib. vi. cap. 6. § 1.
[69] Stones are still to be seen at the Great Temple of Baalbec
sixty-four feet in length.
[70] See Jos. de Bel. lib. vi. cap. v. § 3. Ibid. cap. ix. § 3; and for
the prodigies, see also Tacitus, Hist. lib. v. cap. xiii.