Hills of Ashes
Jerusalem, Friday, March 7. — Went out about seven by the Jaffa gate. The morning was rather cloudy, but not without sunshine. The scenery all round remarkably clear and vivid, the Mount of Olives especially. A shepherd came along leading his flock,, they following him without any care or trouble on his part. They knew both himself and his voice.*
I went again to the hills of ashes, examining them and digging up some handfulls to carry home. There seemed to be no fresh accumulations anywhere, nor did they seem to be used at present as a place for depositing rubbish, as the name given to them in Tobler’s map would imply.
The forenoon was occupied with letters and busi-Either on this or some previous morning (I forget the day), when passing up beyond the south-western angle of the wall, I saw workmen engaged in felling a noble tree (a terebinth I think, but I am not sure, as it was leafless), in order to make room for some wall that was to be built. “Woodman, spare that tree,” I would have said to them, for the destruction of such an old tree seemed like sacrilege. ness.* At two o’clock we proceeded to the great quarries under the city, along with an American party; and of course a guide. t Bundling up some old clothes, kindly lent us for the occasion, to throw over our own apparel, we proceeded through the city to the Damascus gate, looking like soldiers with their knapsacks slung over their shoulders, or rather like the Gibeonites with their clouted garments.
Turning to the right when we reached the gate, and
* I ought before this to have mentioned the name of Mr Roberts, American, whom I met more than once, and who, unconnected with any Society, is labouring here in faith, distributing Bibles among the men of ail nations, and meeting with many a kindly welcome and friendly response, where one could hardly have expected it. He is constantly going about the streets with his Bibles, saluting in his own solemn but kindly way all whom he meets. He is doing a good work.
+ The native name for the place is Mugharet el-Kotton, or cotton-cave. As our word cotton is Arabic, and corresponds to the “fine linen” of the Old Testament, there may have been some tradition as to this being a depositary for the fine linen of Egypt. I ought to notice that Tasso refers to this cave. Jerusalem Delivered, b. x. canto 29, &c. The wizard undertakes to conduct the “Sol dan,” through the besieging army of Godfrey, into the heart of the city. As Godfrey occupied at first the north-west suburb and afterwards the south, (Mill’s Hist, of the Crusades, vol. i. p. 247; Lahore’s Godfrede, &c, p. 418,) it is not easy to discover the place where the wizard finds the entrance. It seems to have been some south-west spot that is meant, for Ismen leads him to Zion, from which descending to the left, he finds the mouth of the cavern, covered with shrubs, &c.
Cava grotta s’ apria nel dure- sasso,
Di lunghissimi tempi avanti fatta
Ma disusando, &c.
This is called a “via furtiva,” leading from the tower Antonio into the Temple. The description can hardly apply to the substructures of the Temple, but very exactly to the Mugharet el-Koitom
ENTRANCE INTO THE CAVE.
going a few minutes along the wall (some 1 50 yards), we saw a hole not two feet in diameter, on a level with the ground. It was not cut in the rock but through the wall, very slightly sloping downwards towards the interior. How or when such a hole in a broad wall has been made, one wonders. It may have been left at first as a sort of secret door into recesses with which it was desirable, either for the purpose of refuge or concealment of treasure, to maintain a communication. At this place, I suspect, there must have been originally several openings into the quarries, as the levellings between this and Jeremiah’s grotto seem here to have cut into the more elevated levels of the excavated parts, leaving apertures like the mouths of caves of considerable size, which were afterwards walled up. It is in front of these apertures that the present city-wall runs, closing them tightly up, with only the small bore already mentioned for an entrance.
Having donned the “old clothes” which we brought with us, we examine the entrance. It seems only made for a serpent or a jackal, not for one of the family of Adam. Shall we enter with head or feet foremost? We decide on the latter. Very wisely, too, as we soon found. Lying down on the ground, we inserted our feet and legs; then, gradually pushing our persons through, by means of our hands, we found that there was a sudden fall of some five feet to the first level. To this upper shelf we dropped our bodies in succession, and commenced lighting candles, torches, and wax-lights. That part of the roof immediately above the entrance, was not very high; but it seemed to be solid rock. The five feet of perpendicular height down which we had dropped, holding by the hands, was the rough interior of the city-wall, built, as I have already said, across the mouth of the chamber laid open by the vertical cutting into the quarry. At the side of this chamber there seemed to be another; at least, I observed the rock coming down, and forming a sort of division between the place on which we stood, and another immediately adjoining, in which I noticed a chink, through which the light was gleaming.
The shelf of rock on which we were standing is evidently much higher than the other parts of the quarry; for we see a sloping descent before us, down which we are to go. This recess, then, was the upper part of the excavated hill, — for hill it clearly was. Between this and Jeremiah’s grotto had risen the highest part of the hill, which in all probability was scooped out subterraneously, in the same way as the present quarry, so that the levelling process of the Asmoneans was perhaps not so very laborious. The mass of rock forming the roof of the chamber where we are standing, has been left for some purpose; perhaps because, had ffhey cut it down any lower, the whole depth of the quarry would have been laid open, requiring, in that case, either to be filled up or bridged over. It was easier to wall up a vertical section of a dozen of yards than to bridge over a horizontal one of four
HEIGHT OF AERA.
times that; and accordingly the levellings stopped here.
The height of the hill between this and Jeremiah’s grotto, we have no means of ascertaining. It may have been very considerable; and if so, it would overlook the whole city, and’ especially the temple, which was not far off, and directly below. This levelled hill, in its original state, must have formed the side of the valley which runs up from the Damascus gate. Of this depression, De Saulcy says, “any one who has seen Jerusalem, knows how deeply hollow the passage is leading forth from the very threshold of this gate,”* If this depression be so visible even now, when so much filled up with earth, as it is, and when one of its highest flanks has been levelled, what must it have been in earlier dajrs, when this now levelled hill rose upon its northern side, to a height nearly equal to that of Sion itself? This hill, whatever it was, must have presented one of the most prominent objects to one coming from the south. It formed, very probably, the termination of the plain of Rephaim; for it is quite evident that this plain or valley extended considerably north of the upper part of what is now called Gihon, so as actually to be said, by Eusebius, to lie north of the city.
We now, torches in hand, went down the slope, which
* Narrative, &c, vol. ii. p. 281. Dr Robinson, also, states that “the most marked valley of the city” is that which extends southwards from the Damascus gate to Siloam, vol. iii. p. 207. was apparently composed of hardened debris (the remains of the dressings of the stones), covered with fine dry dust. The width of this part is considerable, but its height not great; but one is afraid to guess at either; and it is not easy to measure them. At the foot of this descent several immense chambers are visible in all directions. We visited them all, and then passed on to others beyond, and again to others beyond these. Between these different compartments, the rock came down to the ground; or rather, as in coal-mines, huge blocks, like vast but shapeless pillars, had been left to sustain the mass above.* For upwards of two hours we groped about in these strange recesses, the chief inconvenience being the heat. Yet, hot as the air was, there was no unpleasant smell or dampness. All was fresh and &.vy.
The excavations here are totally different from those at Akeldama or the tombs of the Judges. You see at once the object in view by the excavations. Large niches there are here no doubt; but their rough facings and edges tell you that it was the piece cut out that was the thing of value, not the recess left behind as in the case of the tombs. The size too of these horizontal cuttings is so great, as to shew that they were not meant for tombs. The spaces left correspond so exactly to the measurements of the immense stones, which are seen in different parts of the south-eastern
* See the statement in the Athenceum for May 1856, p. 554. Also, Dr Stewart’s description in his (<Tent and Khan,” p. 264.
TEMPLE STONES.
angle of the city wall, that the object of the quarrying is quite obvious. And it is the size of the stones that makes it so probable that they were used in the building of the temple, and not, as some have conjectured, in erecting the later town of Bezetha.* It is said that these excavations extend to Moriah and to Gethsemane, and that there was a vertical aperture at or near Moriah, through which the stones were lifted up to the temple, and set in their places, without noise of axe or hammer. Only underneath, was the sound of the hammer heard. Hewn and polished here, they rose up, without noise, to their appointed place above. But I do not vouch for this tradition of the aperture. It may or it may not be correct. The quarrying and roughhewing of the temple stones might go on here in the darkness; but the polishing and fitting, done with such marvellous exactness and care, would require the light of day.
The small fountain in one of the recesses is poor enough; and if it were no better in former days than now, it could not have been of much service to the workmen. There was a little water in it; but it did not seem very pure. In several places the diggings had obviously been much deeper than they now appear, as the rubbish fills up several of the hollows. That rubbish was of different kinds. In some places it was small as common gravel. In other places it was piled
* According to what I believe to be the true topography of the city, the quarry is under Akra, not under Bezetha. up in considerable fragments, apparently the refuse oi the first rough dressing of the stones. In other places the fragments were much larger. The debris lay in all manner of shapes; here in small heaps, there in large mounds, there in the form of pavement; here in bars, there in blocks or square boulders, there in slices, there in nodules, there in crumbs. Every part of this great marble mine was different from the other. All was irregular, — size, shape, position, elevation. There was no apparent plan of excavation. Grooves, cuttings, hammer-marks, and chisel-marks, were visible on the various sides of the rocks, which looked remarkably fresh and white.
In one part, a deep hollow or large pit, we saw a skull and some bones; but that was the only fragment of the kind that we noticed. So that the quarry would not seem to have been the haunt of wild beasts. Bones and other refuse would have been found in larger quantities. It would have been rather curious had this been ascertained to be the resort of the neighbouring wolves and jackals; for this is Benjamin’s hill; and it would have given to this great cavern the character of the den of the wolf of Benjamin (the “evening wolf,” Zeph. iii. 3), here tearing his prey and gnawing his bones, preserving to the last the character of “wolf of Benjamin, ’ the “wolf of the evenings” (Jer. v. 6), But we found no relics of the kind alluded to.
It seems to be to this place that the frequent references in Josephus are made, i-a his narration of the
JOSEPHUS.
siege of the city. When the lower city was taken, many of the Jews, with their leaders, betook themselves to caverns under the city. “Their last hope was in the underground places, betaking themselves to which they expected not to be searched out,“* Again, he mentions their confidence in these subterraneous retreats, from which they issued forth to burn, and pillage, and slay.f Again he mentions that, as for the seditious, some of them u went up from the wall to the citadel, J others of them descended into the underground places.” § Again, he writes that those who were driven out of the towers of the inner wall, “fled to the valley which is under Siloam there rallying, they renewed their attack upon the Romans; but being repulsed they dispersed, and” descended into the underground places.” Subsequently he describes the Romans as u making a search for Jews underground,”^ and finding a great deal of treasure in these subterraneous parts.** A little farther on, he mentions that at last John, with his companions, was forced, by want of food in these parts
* Jewish War, b. vi. 7. 3. These excavations Josephus frequently speaks of as reav bvrovofAM; and it is to these Tacitus refers, and not to the temple substructions, when he speaks of cavati sub terra montes. Hist. v. 12.
t Totg V’ — ojeloig Trz-Troidorsg. Ib. ib.
t ave%y)9Gvv rev rz’iyj/jg hg rqv 9 Azpciv. Ib. vi. 8. 4.
§ TGi; VKQVQfbMQ,
Ib. ib. rroXXa rw KU^rfkim h rate dwgv<*iv evrifficsro.
simon’s stratagem. to surrender himself to the Romans.* But the most striking notice of these cavities is in a subsequent book, when going back upon some parts of the narrative, he describes Simon, who occupied the upper city, when the Romans had forced the wall and had entered the streets, as letting himself down into these caverns, with a great number of associates and workmen carrying iron tools, in order to dig a way out for himself beyond the city and the Roman lines. He found the work too great, and, as provisions began to fail, he bethought himself of a stratagem to save himself and to alarm the Romans. Robing himself in white, and throwing over his shoulders a purple mantle, he suddenly rose above ground amid the ruins of the temple. His device threw the enemy into momentary astonishment; but mustering courage to salute the spectre, they seized Simon and. carried him to Terentius Rufus, and finally to Rome. But his appearance led to the discovery of the entrance to the caverns, and his companions were immediately searched for and brought up.-f-
* lb. ib.
f The whole passage is worth citation.” This Simon, Jerusalem being besieged, was in the upper city. When, however, the Roman army, having come within the walls, was laying waste the city, he took the most trusty of his friends, and with them stone-cutters, and the iron tools suited to their work, as well as provision for many days, and let himself down (xai)i/i/, the same word as Luke v. 15; Acts ix. 25; x.ll; xi. 5) into one of these concealed underground cavities. He made his way through this as far as the old excavations extended. Coming upon firm ground, they set to excavate this, in the hope of being able to advance farther, and escape by making their ascent in a safe spot. But the expe-THE EXTENT OF THE QUARRIES.
Comparing these narratives with present appearances, we learn that these quarries must have extended from Jeremiah’s grotto to the temple, a distance of about 2300 feet, or less than half a mile, — thus undermining the whole extent of Akra, and part of Moriah. As yet, no one has penetrated more than six hundred feet southward or south-eastward; and the distance between the grotto and the wall (about -r)00 feet) added to this, makes only 1100 feet, leaving 1200 feet, or nearly the half, unexplored. The narrative of Josephus shews us that Simon knew the great extent of the excavations; for he evidently calculated that, by setting to dig and mine, after these caverns ceased, he would soon bring himself beyond the Roman lines. We gather nothing from it as to whether the present entrance was then open, or at least known, to the Jews; for, even though Simon had known it, he would not have ventured to make his exit there, as that would have thrown him into the very midst of the Roman entrenchments. We learn, also, that there really was a shaft descending into these quarries from the temple. That, in ail likelihood, remains to this day; and were
ri merit shewed the fallaciousness of their hope; for the miners (psraX- “keuGVTSg) made little progress, and that with difficulty, n,nd their provisions, though carefully dispensed, were on the point of foiling them. Making an attempt, then, to deceive the Romans by a panic, he put on white garments, and, fastening on a purple cloak, he appeared cut of the ground on the very spot where the temple had formerly been. This rising of his out of the ground, led to the apprehension of many others of the seditious, in these underground cavities. “- — Jwisk War, vii. 2, 1. the whole precincts of the mosque thrown open to investigation, Simon’s place of ascent from his subterraneous hiding-place would soon be discovered. But all investigation is still prohibited. The presence and the prejudice of the Moslem hinder discovery. God, in his wisdom, has seen fit to give the guardianship of his ancient places into the hands of, perhaps, the only nation upon earth who would arrest research. When, in early centuries, or in the victorious day of the Crusades, they were in other hands, nothing was done in searching out the verities of antiquity. To coin legends, and to frame an ecclesiastical topography, embodying neither history nor research, but mere unauthorized fictions devised for the occasion, or picked up from past ages, — this was the vocation of Christianity, in these times, in so far as Palestine and its holy places were concerned.
We retraced our steps through the different avenues and chambers of this vast quarry without difficulty, as our guide was with us. But we felt that without a guide we should not have liked to traverse these intricacies. No doubt, the passages and cavities are, in general, wider and higher than those in the cave of Khureitun, so that one can see and be seen farther off; yet the number of the compartments, and their general resemblance to each other, would make the thread of Ariadne neither superfluous nor undesirable.
It has struck us since that there may have always existed here some natural cavity or cavities, and that of
OUR EXIT.
these the builders of the city or temple took advantage. The limestone rocks in this country abound with such caverns, and these natural excavations form an easy commencement of a quarry. It seemed to me, also, that, under ground, the stone was softer, and, of course, more easily worked. I observed this apparent softness, not only here, but also in the Khureitun cave, and even in some parts of the substructures of the mosque, to which air and light have not free access. Exposure to sun and air seems to indurate the surface of the rock, and make it susceptible of a finer polish than I should have thought it capable of, judging from the soft brittleness exhibited at the edges, and in all the fresh fractures.
We soon ascended the last slope, leading up to the aperture, and then, one by one, wriggled ourselves through the narrow bore * We did not experience any greater discomfort than a little heat and dirt. Doffing our superfluous garments, we strapped them up, and throwing them over our shoulders, returned through the Damascus gate and along the bazaars, to our hotel on Mount Sion. The evening we spent at Dr Macgown’s most pleasantly, in varied conversation on Scripture and antiquities, with several of the missionaries.
Jerusalem, Saturday, March 8. — Went out about half-past seven for a walk, through the olives on the
* See Tasso, b. x. canto xxxiii. north-west of the city, to the tombs of the kings, which I reached in about twenty minutes, passing over ground now partially tilled and planted, but which had once been within the walls. I spent some little time in examining them; but they have been so often described and sketched by travellers, that I shall not say much about them. The outer gateway into them, though much broken, is one of the most elaborate pieces of carving that we have seen; but the tombs themselves are inferior to those of the Judges.
In the afternoon we went to the Governor’s house, supposed by most to be the site of Pilate’s house. The Governor was very civil, ordered in refreshments, and shewed us up to the top of his house. From this you have a complete view of the Haram and the mosques, the only view which hitherto strangers were permitted to have. The view of distant objects was clear. Olivet, with the mountains of Moab in the background, stood up m the sunshine; while the city beneath, on every side of us, looked beautiful.
Gazing down thus upon the roofs of the city, you see fully its shape and undulations, though the rubbish of ages has very much filled up its interior valleys, so that you cannot recognise the “rock of the plain “or the valley,” of which Jerusalem is called the “inhabitress” (Jer. x. 17). The heights of Akra and the steeps of Zion are all but invisible now, so many have been the overturning.^ which have visited the city. Yet, save in the rubbish that has been left, there is nothing here to
Jerusalem’s desolation.
tell of the greatness or the number of Jerusalem’s overthrows. The crusades, for example, were terrible, but like everything else that has befallen Jerusalem, they exercised no permanent influence, nor brought about long results. They were but a wave, no more; a broad and lofty one, that, in its run, swept men and kingdoms before it, but soon retiring, and in its reflux leaving only sand and shingle. The rains of Palestine look not so much the moss-grown debris of desolation, as the confused stones of the beach, rolled, rounded, and heaped together by the action of the tide. North, south, east, and wrest, Babylon. Assyria, Persia, Edom, Moab, Amnion, Egypt, Africa, Greece, Rome, have tossed their billows on her strand, for three thousand years, each one effacing the ravages of the preceding by greater havoc of its own, and leaving the land unreclaimed and unhealed, as if within the perpetual tide-mark of the nations.
The evening came down in clouds, and the night was cold and windy. This was but the first week of March, and we learned that in some seasons the weather has at this time been most ungenial. Only last year there was such a heavy fall of snow as to block up the road to Bethany over Olivet; and since we came to J erusalem we had seen snow as wrell as rain, we had frost as wTell cold. We found, indeed, better weather than we had been led to expect; for we had bee a alarmed beforehand with predictions of the rain-floods that were to drench us, if not to sweep away our tents. We had not been confined to the house one whole day by the weather, though once or twice a forenoon or afternoon of rain broke up our plans, so that Anata (Anathoth), the Frank mountain, Emwas, and one or two places remained on our list unvisited. We, of course, did not murmur at the superfluity of sunshine. But others did; and we heard the expression of complaints and foreboding in many quarters. The latter rain had been looked for; but it had not come, and these few showers of which we have spoken had made no impression on the ground. They had not raised the pool of Siloam, nor the Birket Mamilla, by a single inch. The Kedron had not flowed so much as half an hour; and the Bir Eyub remained at its old level. The “summer-fruits” were despaired of; some could not be sown or planted till the shower came, and others would not spring by reason of the drought. The country was parched, for the latter rain had been delayed beyond its time.*
Jerusalem, Sabbath, March 9. — The morning rose in beauty, and I sat at the window marking the different parts of the well-known scene, on this my last Sabbath in Jerusalem. Scopus and Olivet, with the range of city roofs between, looked brighter than ever. Nothing that the sunshine of the present, or the memories of the past, could do for them was awanting. Almost under the window was “Hezekiah’s pool,” as
* This year (1857) the opposite calamity has come upon the land. The floods have been excessive. Solomon’s pools have overflowed. The spring at [Jrtass has been so plentiful as to sweep away crop and soil.
SABBATH-MUSINGS.
it is called; a little farther on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; to the right on the hill rose the Church of the Ascension; the place where I was sittting was Mount Zion, and not far off there rose one of the few palm-trees which still adorn Jerusalem. Congenial scenes for a Sabbath morning! There was no gloom nor heaviness. Light, love, peace, seemed to impregnate the air and tinge the sky. Desolation and death seemed far away. It was a living stillness that floated down from that old canopy of blue, speaking to us even more of the life than of the death of the Risen One; for though this is His city and His tomb, “He is not here, he is risen” and it is of Him as the Risen Christ that this day speaks. Out of death, life has come; out of the grave, resurrection. The “first day of the week!” How rich is the glow of the new dawn which the last chapters of the Evangelists record! Darkness had been for three daj’s upon the face of the deep; and now God said “let the light be, and the light was,” On this morn the “true light,” — the lux vera mundi, — rose upon the city that had sought to quench it. On what nation, city, soul, may it not rise if it rose upon Jerusalem?
After public service I took my Bible and went to Gethsemane, going out by the Jaffa gate. Outside was a goodly sight. Men, women, and children, all in gala dress, sat or strolled upon the various slopes of Zion, and in its neighbourhood. There were stragglers here and there for nearly a mile in all directions. The women were most numerous, and their white head-dress, sometimes swelling in the breeze, sometimes lying gracefully over their shoulders, glanced brightly out amid the less numerous red and yellow turbans of the men. Most of them were in groups, conversing with each other under the walls of the city, hard by the J affa gate, or on the knolls around. How like it seemed to the scene which the prophet gives, “thy people still are talking by the walls and in the doors of the houses” (Ezek. xxxiii. 30).
The city is no longer “Salem” the city of peace; nor is it either the city of righteousness, or the city of the great King. It lies not only waste, but defiled and unclean. The “holy flesh” (Jer. xi. 15) has passed away, and the only sacredness connected with it is in the memories of the past. Yet the Moslem has affixed to it the name of holy, El-Kuds, and calls that clean which God has called unclean. I do not know that in so doing he had Scripture in his thoughts at all. Yet from the time of Nehemiah downwards it frequently gets this name. “They cast lots to dwell in Jerusalem, THE Holy City” (Neh. xi. 1). “The Levites of the Holy City were two hundred and eighty-four,” (Neh, xi. J 8). “They call themselves of the Holy City,” (Isa. xlviii. 2). “Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City,” (Isa. lii. 1). “Seventy weeks are determined on thy Holy City,” (Dan. m 24). ‘* The devil taketh him up into the Holy City,” (Matt. iv. 5). “Went into the Holy City and appeared unto many,”
THE HOLY CITY.
(Matt, xxvii. 53). “The Holy City shall they tread under foot,” (Rev. xi. 2). There are only other two places in which the words occur, and these refer to the heavenly, not to the earthly, city, “I, John, saw THE Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from Coa out of heaven,” (Rev. xxi. 2). “God shall take away his part out of the Holy City,” (Rev. xxii. 19). But though only in these instances does the above expression occur, yet the epithet “holy” is often found in connection with things pertaining to the city. The people’s gifts are “holy gifts,” (Exod. xxviii. 38). The high priest’s crown is a “holy crown,” (Exod. xxix. 6). The ointment of the sanctuary is” holy ointment, (Exod.
xxx. 25). The oil is called “the holy anointing oil,” (Exod. xxx. 25). The Sabbath is a “holy day,” (Exod.
xxxi. 14). The high priest’s crown is a “holy crown,” (Lev. viii. 9). His dress is “the holy linen coat,” (Lev. xvi. 4). The sanctuary is “the holy sanctuary,” (Lev. xvi. 33). The water used in sprinkling is the “holy water,” (Numb. v. 17). The people are called a “holy congregation,” (Numb. xvi. 3). The utensils of the sanctuary are “holy instruments,” (Numb. xxxi. 6), “holy vessels,” (1 Kings viii. 4). The temple is called “the holy house,” (1 Chron. xxix. 3). The ark is called “the holy ark,” (2 Chron. xxxv. 3). The shrine is called “the holy oracle,” (Psa. xxviii. 2). Mount Sion is called “the holy hill,” (Psa. xcix. 9; Joel iii. 17), “the holy mountain,” (Isa, xxvii. 13). The chambers of the priests are called (‘’ holy chambers,” (Ezek. xlii.
13). The land itself is called” the holy land/*’ (Zech. ii. 12).
Since Scripture thus minutely gives the name of holy to everything connected with Jerusalem, there needs be no wonder that the city itself should get the name, and that the Mahommedans should preserve and perpetuate that name, long after that which gave origin to it had departed. Nor can the Christian withhold his recognition from this, as the authentic expression of his feelings in looking upon the city, even as it lies before him in ruins, and polluted with false worship in every street. The Son of God was here, and how can he but feel that the ground is holy. The slaying of that J ust One was indeed an act which blotted out the name, and made it of all places most unclean; yet this pollution is only for a season. It is a mere parenthesis in the mysterious story of the nation and the city. And the reader of God’s word can overlook this sorrowful interval, and think of Jerusalem only as it once was ere it crucified its King, and as it shall be when restored and consecrated again, by that very blood which it shed.
I soon found a shady olive with a rock beneath, where I could sit down. There were no groups of strollers near, nor was there so much as one passing fellah to disturb the quiet. The ground was partly ploughed, but the grain was barely shewing itself. Small flowers, of various colours, sprinkled the soil. It is “good to be here;” but not good, as some have dreamed, to be here always. To build or hew out a cell,
THE AGONY.
and to creep into one of its chambers, there to meditate and mortify “the flesh this is not religion, nor is it peace. A week’s retreat in such a spot, after the toil and buffeting of useful but exhausting months, is much to be coveted; but a life-time’s slumbrous inaction, even in Gethsemane or Golgotha, would be utter weariness. The casual solitude, like that of Paul in the Mamertine dungeon, or of John in Patmos, or Whitefield upon the Atlantic Ocean, coming after brave doings and endurings; this is “the sleep which God gives to his beloved,” this is the silence which heals the wounds of the spirit, and fills it with serene, but not stagnant joy.
How true does the gospel story of “the agony “appear when sitting among these olives. The sorrow, the cry, the anguish, the sweat, — how real do they seem! How genuine the sacrifice; how complete the substitution of “the just for the unjust V It is no fictitious sorrow, no wasted blood, no useless endurance, no unmeaning cry of sinking nature that this place speaks of. Each olive and each rock still repeat the strong crying and tears, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” “thy wrath lieth hard upon me, thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.” The very spot where he knelt, we know not; it might be here where I am siting. The place where the angel appeared to strengthen him, we know not; it might be hard by. The place where the disciples slept, and Peter drew the sword, and Judas kissed, we know not. It could not have been far off. Along this way, “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter,” Here might be said to terminate the mystery of his vicarious life, — the life that has provided “the righteousness” here began the marvel of his vicarious death; — the death that exhausted the eternal penalty of unrighteousness, and paid “the wages of sin,”
A far truer thing did this old olive-yard seem to us than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, that gorgeous pantheon of baptised idolatry. A far more solemn voice seemed to come from these rocks around, than from the pretended “via dolorosa,” or u Ecce Homo” arch. The natural features of the spot were all authentic; man had marred nothing here.
Yon turtle-dove is winging its way across the valley, seeking shelter from the heat. It finds it in yon neighbouring olive, whose thick foliage shuts out the scorching sun. So let my soul find a surer, safer resting place in God’s goodly olive-tree, his “plant of renown” (Ezek. xxxiv. 29), beneath whose shadow there is security, and coolness, and peace.
Farewell, Gethsemane! I have visited thee almost each day of my three weeks’ sojourn in Jerusalem; and every rock, and crevice, and hollow, and olive, seems already as familiar as the garden of my boyhood. From thee I carry home a life-time’s memories.*
* Early writers make mention of a village of Gethsemane, and if so, the place of the olive-press, which Gethsemane perhaps signifies, could not be far away. Round about the northern extremities of the valley, where the garden lies, were probably what are called “the fields of Kedron” (2 Kings xxiii. 4). Farther up was the village of Bezetha, mentioned in the Apocrypha (1 Mace. vii. 19), which gave name to the hill Bezetha, and finally
LAST SERMON IN JERUSALEM.
In the evening I preached my last sermon in Jerusalem, — on John xix. 5, “Behold the man!” Here where He fought our fight, and won life for us by dying; here where his glory is yet to be revealed, we had been permitted to proclaim his love, and life, and death, and kingdom. To preach on Mars Hill would have been an event worth remembering; much more to preach on Mount Zion; to say to J erusalem, “behold your king,” or to the cities of Judah, “behold your God.” (Isa. xl. 9).
to the “new town” of Jerusalem. Bezetha means “the house of olives.” So that we have an interesting cluster of names attaching to this once fruitful spot, the orchard of the city. (1.) Bezetha, the olive-house, (2.) Gethsemane, the olive-press or olive-valley. (3.) Olivet, the olive-bill. (4.) Bethany, the house of dates. (5.) Bethphnge, the house of figs. (6.) Chaphenapha, mentioned by the Kabbies, which must have lain a little lower down the valley than Gethsemane, and so called from its unripe dates.