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others.
The hills and valleys remain much as they were in the ancient times. Some
relics of the old walls and towers are left. Pools and fountains still exist
or flow as in former days. A few trees— olive, fig, palm, cypress,
and pomegranate—remain as representations of those that once crowned
the hills or adorned the gardens. As I walk on the walls, or make the circuit
of the city with them, imagination is over busy in restoring the original
grandeur of this City of the Great King, reviewing its changeful history
and astonishing events, and seeing again the vast throngs that once crowded
its thoroughfares, and the wonderful persons that walked its streets.
How deeply interesting to “walk about Zion”— how beautiful
the scenery by the way— if we could see the city as it was in its
glory, the hills and the valleys in their verdure and bloom; if we could
“tell the towers, and mark the bulwarks, and consider the palaces,”
that were long ago destroyed! The visitor is reminded of the prophet’s
lamentation: “How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people?
How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and
princess among the princes, how is she become tributary!” O chosen
city— how art thou fallen! And what glorious, what sad memories are
thine!
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
Thy cross thou bearest now!
An iron yoke is on thy neck,
And blood is on thy brow;
Thy golden crown, the crown of truth,
Thou didst reject as dross,
And now thy cross is laid on thee—
The Crescent is thy cross.”
Proceeding eastward down the hill, we enter the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
amidst a cluster of olive trees, and turning south cross the bed of the
Piedron. Just over the bridge, on the left, is the Tomb of the Virgin
Mary. It is a church also, and I was surprised to find it so ample, and
so brilliantly adorned. It is mostly underground, and the main room, gleaming
with lighted silver lamps and splendid alters, is reached by a desent
of sixty steps. About half way down on the right, are shown in a niche
or little chapel, the tombs of Joachim and Anna, parents
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