anything we have yet seen--it has a round dome rising
from walls of exquisite blue and green slabs of polished stone. This is
the church of the Mohammedans, called a mosque, and why it is so
especially interesting to us is because it stands on the very spot where
stood the Ark of the Jews, and where, from the days of King Solomon,
they worshipped God in the Temple. When Solomon built the Temple it was
the most wonderful and beautiful church in the world. It was put
together of massive stones, made ready and hewn and carved before they
came to this place, so that there was no sound of axe or hammer in the
sacred precincts. And the fittings were made of carved cedar wood,
brought down by sea from Lebanon, while the furnishings were of pure
gold. Never was any building before so carefully finished or so
artistically designed. Solomon's Temple was utterly destroyed, but there
were temples built and rebuilt on the same site, and that site is
considered to be peculiarly sacred, because it is a peak of a mountain
called Mount Moriah. You remember that it was to Mount Moriah Abraham
was told to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him? The Jews hold that the
very peak on which the mosque now stands is that place. It is, indeed,
quite certain that there is an outcrop of rock belonging to part of the
summit of Mount Moriah in the mosque which stands just where the Temple
stood. You shall see it. Meantime we must put on huge loose slippers,
made of sacking and straw, over our boots before we go in, for the
Mohammedans always take off their own shoes on entering holy places, and
as our modern boots are not constructed to be easily slipped off like
Eastern shoes, we must cover them up. The man at the entrance ties on
these enormous things and we shuffle along in them as best we can.
Inside, the mosque is light and high and very rich in polished stone and
gilding; it is very different from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We
are led through it, wondering and gazing, until we come suddenly to a
bare rock cropping up out of the pavement to just about your height, and
this, for all the ages past, has been a sacred rock. Indeed, no one can
say that it was not on this mountain-top, then in the midst of wild
natural country, that Abraham laid his only son bound. From this cause
the mosque is often known as the "Dome of the Rock."

[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF OMAR ON MOUNT MORIAH, JERUSALEM.]

One more sight we must see before going out on t