t ancient temple, can be
counted, one above another, across the valley. Measured by a rough
estimate, some of them may be two and twenty feet in length, seven in
depth, and five in height, single blocks of hewn rock, cut certainly
by no Turkish enterprise, by no mediaeval empire, by no Roman labour.
It is here, and here only, at the base of the temple, that these huge
stones are to be found, at the base of what was the temple, forming
part of the wall that now runs along the side of Mount Moriah, but
still some forty feet above the ground.

Over them now is the Mosque of Omar--a spot to be desecrated no more
by Christian step. On the threshing-floor of Ornan, the children of
Mahomet now read the Koran and sing to Allah with monotonous howl.
Oh, what a history! from the treading of the Jebusite's oxen down
to the first cry of the Mussulman! Yes; no Christian may now enter
here, may hardly look into the walled court round the building. But
dignified Turks, drinking coffee on their divan within the building,
keep the keys of the Christian church--keep also the peace, lest
Latin and Greek should too enthusiastically worship their strange
gods.

There can be few spots on the world's surface more sacred to any
Christian than that on which Bertram sat. Coming up from Bethany,
over a spur on the southern side of the Mount of Olives, towards
Jerusalem, the traveller, as he rises on the hill, soon catches a
sight of the city, and soon again loses it. But going onward along
his path, the natural road which convenience would take, he comes
at length to the brow of the hill, looking downwards, and there has
Mount Sion, Moriah, and the site of the temple full before him. No
one travelling such a road could do other than pause at such a spot.

'Twas here that Jesus "sat upon the mount, over against the temple."
There is no possibility of mistaking the place. "And as he went, one
of the disciples saith unto him, 'Master, see what manner of stones
and what buildings are here.' And Jesus answering, said unto him,
'Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone
upon another that shall not be thrown down.'" There are the stones,
the very stones, thrown down indeed from the temple, but now standing
erect as a wall, supporting Omar's mosque.

"And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it."
Yes, walk up from Bethany, my reader, and thou, too, shalt behold it,
even yet; a matter to be wept over even