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,