IN giving a bird’s eye view of Jerusalem, I stated that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was one of the most prominent objects in the city. This famous building is located about midway the city, from east to west, but not more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards from the northern wall. It is, therefore, near the Damascus gate. Although thus centrally situated, although it covers an area of 200 by 230 feet, and although it lifts its double dome high in the air, this church is frequently passed by without attracting the slightest notice.

The reader naturally asks, “How is it possible that a building at once so historic and prominent as this attracts little or no attention?” The question is easily answered. Except a few feet on the south side, the structure is entirely surrounded by other buildings that join close on to it. These houses, which serve both for business purposes and residences, are built one upon another, until they reach high in air. The church is thus almost entirely shut out from the view of the street walker. To be seen externally, this edifice must be viewed from the city walls, from the Tower of David, from the Mosque of Omar, from the hill on the west, or from the Mount of Olives, on the east. When viewed from any one of these elevations, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is indeed prominent. From an architectural standpoint, the building is “without form and void.” But there it is, its two blue domes, like ever-open eyes, of unequal size, continually staring you in the face.

The building is owned jointly by the Latins, the Greeks, the Armenians, and the Copts, each sect having its separate chapels and apartments, neither one being allowed to trespass upon the rights of any of the others. The building proper is owned by so-called Christian sects, as stated above, but the door is the property of the Mohammedans! And jealously do they guard their property. The ponderous door works on rough hinges, and is fastened with bolts of iron. But to open it, the worshippers and even the priests who minister at the altars, are compelled to use a golden key. When the gold glitters, the door opens. To avoid this unparalleled imposition, many priests have actually taken up their abode in the sanctuary, their meals being passed to them through small apertures in the wall. The people are not so fortunate as the priests. They can not live in seclusion. They must work for bread and blanket, for Church and children. It is all they can do to keep soul and body together, yet will they divide their scanty living with the Mohammedans who own the door of the Sepulchre.

Does the reader ask, “Why do they not worship elsewhere, and save their money?” The answer is twofold. The priests are in the church; and with a catholic there is no prayer without penance, no pardon without a priest. Besides, they are taught to believe that this church is a peculiarly sacred place; that within this building is the geographical centre of the earth. A stone pillar marks the central spot. Here God got the dust to make Adam. Here, also, is Adam’s grave. Here was caught the ram that Abraham sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering instead of Isaac. Within this building is a stone prison where Christ was confined, Calvary, where he was crucified, the Sepulchre, where he was buried. They point out the graves of Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. These places are all crowded together under one roof; and yet they are pointed out by the Latin priests with an air of certainty that seems to say: “I have told you the truth. To doubt is to be damned.”

The building is not on Calvary, but over it. As if one would turn a tea-cup bottom upwards, and then turn a large glass globe over that. The floor of the building accommodates itself to the rough surface of the mount. So the mount is entirely covered up, and one no more realizes that he is about Calvary than if he were in Tremont Temple, in Boston. Entering the door from the south, one sees the Stone of Anointing directly in front of him, and about fifteen feet away. This marble slab is raised about twelve inches from the floor, and rests on a wooden block. It is also covered by wooden planks, so only the edge of the stone is visible. The stone had to be covered to keep the superstitious Catholics from kissing it away.

Turning now to the left, we find that the building resembles a large rotunda. Near the centre of the rotunda we see a small building, twenty-six by sixteen feet, and fifteen feet high. This small building is a thing of beauty. It is made of many-colored marble, richly polished and elaborately carved. It looks like the model of some magnificent cathedral. It is divided into two rooms, the first being sixteen feet, and the second ten feet long. The larger room is called the Chapel of the Angels, while the second is said to contain the Sepulchre of our Lord. The two rooms are lighted day and night by fifty-three gold and silver lamps. Numerous candles are also kept burning.

Christmas morning, thousands of Greek Christians crowd in and around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Patriarch enters this small structure, and extinguishes all the lamps and candles. Silence and awe fall upon the multitude, each of whom has an unlighted candle in his hand. Suddenly the Patriarch from within announces that he has received fresh fire from Heaven. The Patriarch stands at a small opening in the marble wall with the sacred fire in his hand. The frenzied crowd vie with each other, each trying to light his taper first. One man ignites his candle from the Patriarch’s fire, and a dozen others light from him. Presently, a deafening shout goes up from the excited multitude. Every man waves a burning taper above his head. The whole scene resembles a restless sea of flame. Expert horsemen now leap upon swift-footed coursers which have been held in waiting. The new-fallen fire is conveyed to different parts of the country. Ships are at Jaffa to bear the Heavenly gift to Greece and Russia. This sacred flame burns continually in the Greek churches until next Christmas, at which time this shameful imposition will again be practiced on the superstitious people.

Ascending a flight of stairs, we find ourselves on what is falsely called Calvary. Removing a few planks in the floor, the priest shows the bare top of Calvary, the round holes in the mountain where the three crosses stood, and the rent in the rock, which was caused by the convulsion of nature at the time of the Crucifixion. And many other things they show us, whereof if I should write, this book would not hold all I should say.

Now, if we had time, we might spend two or three days, pleasantly and profitably, down under the city. For, be it understood, that these hills on which Jerusalem is built are honey-combed with ancient stables, caves, caverns, quarries, catacombs, and other subterranean passages. Captain Warren, chief agent of the Palestine Exploration Fund, is my authority for saying that Jerusalem, so far as catacombs and underground passages are concerned, is far richer than Constantinople, Paris, or even Rome itself.

Just outside of the north wall, and a little to the east of the Damascus gate, we enter through an iron-barred door into a great cavern, known as Solomon’s Quarry or the quarry out of which Solomon got the stones to build his Temple. With a strong body-guard, and a dozen or more burning tapers, we wander for hours and hours in this underground world, which in many respects rivals Mammoth Cave. It is co-extensive with the city above. A forest of natural columns support the ceiling, which in many places is exceedingly high. Here and there, we find huge blocks of detached stone, which were long ago dressed, but never removed from the quarry. They were probably dressed by Solomon’s workmen, but were never honored with a place in his splendid Temple. That this was at one time a quarry, is evident from the abundance of stone chips and fragments that everywhere abound. In this cave, it is claimed, the Masonic order was organized. It has no river of eyeless fish, as has the Kentucky Cave, but it boasts a never-failing spring of pure and sparkling water. Think of all this underneath the Holy City! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, there is none like thee in all the earth!

On the white ceiling above me, I wrote with the smoke of my candle, “God is love.” I sang, and the music went ringing and reverberating adown the long, winding labyrinths of rock as I sang:

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”

Leaving this cave, let us now go down south of the city. Just where the two ravines meet, we come to the Pool of Siloam. Here our Blessed Lord once spat upon the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed a blind man’s eyes, and told him to wash in this Pool of Siloam. The man did wash his eyes, and at once received sight for blindness. The Pool is preserved to this day. Its length is fifty feet. It is fourteen feet wide at one end, and seventeen at the other, and has a depth of eighteen feet. It is walled up with rock. A flight of stone steps leads down into it from the southern end. Rev. Mr. El Kary, of Shechem, the only Baptist preacher in Palestine and Syria, was baptised in this Pool. It is now partially filled up with mud; still it contains a considerable quantity of water, and I go down into it and bathe my face.

In the valley, below the Pool, is a large vegetable garden and olive orchard. Vegetation luxuriates in this rich valley, which is constantly supplied, by means of irrigation, with water from the Pool of Siloam.

The ravine east of Jerusalem, the one which separates the city from the Mount of Olives, is known as The Brook Kedron. But the lower end of this “brook,” near the Pool of Siloam, is called The Valley of Jehoshaphat. This is the Jewish cemetery. The valley and the mountain sides on either side of the brook is one vast graveyard, and it is bristling thick with white stone slabs, which serve as head-boards to the graves. Jews from all parts of the world are constantly coming back here to be buried. According to their belief, the Final Judgment will take place in this Valley of Jehoshaphat. They say the name is significant—Jehoshaphat, “Jehovah judgeth.” They quote Joel III: 2 and 12—“I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat.” “Let the heathen be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen around about.”

Continuing up this valley, we soon come to the tombs of Zachariah, Absalom, and St. James, which were mentioned in a previous chapter. Passing these by, we follow the valley northward for a mile or more, and finally come to the celebrated Tombs of the Kings. The peculiar construction of these tombs, as well as the historical interest attaching to them, entitles them to a more elaborate description than my limited space will allow.

Reader, imagine that you are standing with me on a broad, level shelf of rock. Approaching its centre, we see what might be called a huge cistern, ninety feet square, hewn into the rock to a depth of twenty feet. A long flight of broad, stone steps leads us down into this excavation, whose rocky walls are perpendicular. A door, cut in the south wall, conducts us into a series of rock-hewn chambers. With lighted candles, we pass into the first room, thence through a small door to the second, the third, and so on. All these chambers are honey-combed with vaults, cut in the rock, for the reception of the ancient dead. This underground mansion of the dead extends seventy-five feet from north to south, and fifty feet from east to west. It is a perfect network of rooms. The ceiling is elaborately adorned with carved wreaths and roses, with vines, leaves, trees, and fruits. Everywhere the chisel has left undeniable evidence of the sculptor’s skill. The outside door is usually closed by a large flat, circular stone, which looks much like a wheel, or a block sawn off of the end of a log. Before entering, we have to “roll the stone away from the door of the Sepulchre.”

Let us now return to the Pool of Siloam, and walk up the other ravine, which is known as the Valley of Hinnom. Of this valley, Doctor Geikie, who is always a safe man to quote from, says: “Israelites once offered their children to Moloch, and these very rocks on each side have echoed the screams of the innocent victims, and reverberated with the chants and drums of the priests, raised to drown the cries of agony. It is well called the Valley of Hinnom—‘the Valley of the Groans of the Children:’ a name which perpetrates the horror once excited by the scenes it witnessed; especially, it would seem, in this lower part. Here, under Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, the hideous ox-headed human figure of Moloch—the summer sun in his glowing and withering might—was raised in brass and copper, with extended arms, on which were laid, helplessly bound, the children given up by their parents ‘to pass through the fire’ to him; a heated furnace behind the idol sending its flames through the hollow limbs, till the innocents writhed off into a burning fire beneath. Ahaz and Manasseh had set a royal example in this horrible travesty of worship, by burning alive some of their own children; and what kings did commoners would be ready to copy. In later times the very words Ge-Hinnom—‘the Valley of Hinnom’—slightly changed into Gehenna, became the common name for hell. The destruction of Assyria is pictured by Isaiah as a huge funeral pile, ‘deep and large,’ with ‘much wood,’ ‘prepared for the king,’ and kindled by the breath of Jehovah, as if by ‘a stream of brimstone.’ Jeremiah speaks of ‘high places’ in this valley, as if children had been burned on different altars; and he can think of no more vivid image of the curse impending over Jerusalem than that it should become an abomination before God, like this accursed place.”

In this same valley are two pools, known as the Upper and Lower Pools of Gihon. The lower and larger of the two is near the southwest corner of the city. This immense reservoir is, approximately, 600 feet long, 160 feet broad, and 40 feet deep. It has a capacity for 19,000,000 gallons. The other pool is about three hundred yards farther up the valley. It, also, is very large, but not so capacious as the lower one. From this Upper Pool of Gihon, water is conveyed through an aqueduct to the different pools in the city, of which there are quite a number.

Standing on the city wall just above the Damascus gate, and looking directly north, we see, about two hundred yards away, a mount rising up somewhat higher than we are. It looks like the upturned face of a man. We see first the chin, then the eyeless sockets, and then the forehead beyond. It is Golgotha, the place of a skull. Here is where the world’s greatest tragedy occurred. No mark is left to show where the cross stood; yet Calvary has become the centre of the world’s thought.

Some two hundred and fifty yards west of Calvary, there are some tombs cut in the solid rock. One of these has been pointed out by Captain Conder as the probable one in which our blessed Lord lay for three days and nights. When we remember that Captain Conder is a scientist of a high order, that he has been in Palestine twenty years, sometimes with twenty and sometimes with forty men with and under him, searching out ancient names, places, and history, we must acknowledge that he is good authority on these subjects. Of this tomb, he says: “It would be bold to hazard the suggestion that the single Jewish sepulchre thus found, which dates from about the time of Christ, is indeed the tomb in the garden, nigh unto the place called Golgotha, which belonged to the rich Joseph of Arimathaea. Yet its appearance, so near the old place of execution, and so far from the other old cemeteries of the city, is extremely remarkable.”

I believe God has wisely and purposely hidden these places from His children. He knows our imperfections. He knows we would make too much of crosses and tombs. He wants us to think more of Him who died on the cross, and rose from the tomb, who ascended on high, sat down at the right hand of the Father, and ever liveth to make intercession for us.