among all people: And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?" Are they not astonished, and do not the nations of the earth speak thus to-day when the high home of God has become a chief tabernacle of the false prophet, where the Christian is admitted under guard and on sufferance, and the Jew, whose heritage it is, may not so much as set his foot? CHAPTER XIX THE NOBLE SANCTUARY, THE POOLS OF SOLOMON AND BETHLEHEM THE Mosque of the Rock, known as the Noble Sanctuary, where once stood the Temple of the Jews, is a beautiful building, even to those who, like myself, do not particularly admire the oriental style of architecture; also it is already ancient. At its door a Mahommedan priest received us, and rough wrappings of sackcloth were bound about our feet, which, as they were wet through and cold, to me were comfortable. Then we entered the place, where we found ourselves quite alone. It is spacious with a great dome; its windows are full of lovely and ancient stained glass; its walls set with harmonious Eastern tiles; its floors covered with rich carpets. Underneath the dome, fifty feet or more in length, surrounded by an old iron screen and one of wood, stands the sacred rock, where Abraham is said to have made ready Isaac for slaughter, where, too, as seems to be generally admitted, stood the Jewish altar of Sacrifice for many generations. Indeed there is a hole pierced through its centre that received, it is thought the blood of the victims, which was carried away by the drains beneath. Some fine, natural instinct, or perhaps a priestly tradition, caused the Hebrews to leave that rock untouched. Except for the steps cut on it by the Crusaders it is much as Nature made it in the beginning, and doubtless T so it will remain until the end. Millions of years ago it was heaved up in the first cataclysms of the universe. Thousands, or millions of years hence it will crumble and disappear in the last general catastrophe. The sacred associations that make it famous above every other stone in the world-even that of Mecca-will cling, as it were, to but one hour of the immeasurable æons during which it is destined to endure. Through long, long epochs it must have been but a rock upon a mountain breast. Through other epochs yet to come again it may be but a rock upon a mountain breast. But for two thousand years or so it was the Altar of God, that atom of His wide creation from which His chosen people offered Him praise and incense, symbolised in their burnt sacrifices. This rugged mass of stone impressed me more than all the vaunted glories of the Noble Sanctuary. Also it is a true relic. The courts, the walls, the columns, they have vanished every one. No trace of them is left above the ground. Yet that rock of ages still remains, the only thing, as I suppose, connected with their worship which has witnessed the history of the Jews almost from the beginning, that still witnesses it, and will in some far age witness its end, whatever that end may be. We saw many things in the mosque. For instance, there is the cavern beneath the rock, with places where David and Solomon used to pray, and a round hole above, made, we were solemnly assured, by the head of Mahomet as he went up to heaven like a cannon-ball. This hole, however, as I believe, has to do with the blood channels from the altar of Sacrifice. The Mussulmen say that at the last Judgment the Almighty will take His seat upon this rock, and that beneath the cavern is the Pit of Spirits, where on certain days in every week the deceased assemble to their devotions. Visitors to the |