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the date of the shrine in which it is preserved being of the date of 1280. I have also a piece of the cross in a more modern setting, which is not of the same wood. Whether all the hallowed spots within these walls really are the places which the guardians of the church declare them to be, or whether they have been fixed on at random, and consecrated to serve the interested views of a crafty priesthood, is a fact that I shall leave others to determine; however this may be, it is a matter of little consequence to the Christian. The great facts on which the history of the Gospel is founded are not so closely connected with particular spots of earth or sacred buildings as to be rendered doubtful by any mistake in the choice of a locality. The main error on the part of the priests of modern times at Jerusalem arises from an anxiety to prove the actual existence of everything to which any allusion is made by the evangelical historians, not remembering that the lapse of ages and the devastation of successive wars must have destroyed much, and disguised more, which the early disciples could most readily have identified. The mere circumstance that the localities of almost all the events which attended the close of our Saviour's ministry are crowded into one place, and covered by the roof of a single church, might excite a very justifiable doubt as to the exactness of the topography maintained by the friars of Mount Moriah. CHAPTER XIV. The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The Prison of St. Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The Mosque of Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the Book of Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory regarding the Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their Dress in their own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their literal Interpretation of Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description of the House of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem. Except the Holy Sepulchre, none of the places which are pointed out as sacred within the walls of Jerusalem merit a description, as they have evidently been created by the monks to serve their own purposes. You are shown, for instance, the whole of the Via Dolorosa, the way by which our Saviour passed from the hall of Pilate to Mount Calvary,
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