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but faithless people, or the wonders of redemption effected for a fallen world.

I will now endeavor to bring together my observations upon the most interesting and unquestionable localities about the Holy City, without adhering to the order in which I visited them from day to day, during the three happy and privileged weeks which I spent there.

ZION. "Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following." The rejoicing of Zion is hushed; the gladness of the daughter of Judah is changed into mouraing the towers and bulwarks of Zion have crumbled, and her palaces have become a desolation; generation has told to generation the severity of the judgments of Jehovah; and on that noble and ennobled spot, there is now seen the fulfilment of the prophecy-"Therefore shall Zion, for my sake, be ploughed as a field." On her southern slopes she yields to the culture of the husbandmen; and thin, spare crops of grair and tobacco are scattered about. As I walked about Zion ir. her desolateness, and thought of the "City of David," and of the "Ark of the Lord" in the midst of the tabernacle that David there pitched for it; and as I stood at the gate of Zion, looking over to the south, down the slopes extending to the valley of Hinnom, the silence and almost solitude of the scene impressed me greatly How vast the change-how awful the cause! Instead of being the seat of enthroned majesty and glory, Zion is now a city of the dead. The bones of David himself-where are they? Were they laid in an obscure grave? Scripture affirms they were buried in the city of David. Tradition says they repose on Mount Zion— the site of that city. The minaret of a small mosque points out the spot to which tradition bids us look. "Men and brethren," said Peter, when preaching Jesus and the resurrection, at Jerusalem-" Men and brethren, let me freely speak +1 Kings ii. 10.

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Psalm xlviii. 11-13.

+ Mic. iii. 12.

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MOUNT ZION-THE VALLEY OF HINNOM.

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to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." Alas for poor humanity! Even David, himself-the man after God's own heart-what remains of him on the earth? A noble-a wondrous-a humbling history; dust-a grave-a tradition!

The larger half of Mount Zion is unenclosed by the city walls; and a considerable part of it is occupied by places of sepulture belonging to the Latin, Greek, and Armenian communities, and to the American Missionaries. The only buildings of any note are the mosque already mentioned, and a rude Armenian convent, said by the monks to occupy the site of the house of Caiaphas. And shall it be always thus? Shall the traces of divine indignation ever be visible? Faith says-no; and hope, rejoicing in promise-says, no! Though Zion has become a wilderness, and Jerusalem desolationtthough the Lord hath filled Zion with judgment,t-yet He loveth her gates, He will do good unto her in his good pleasure, He will save Zion and build the cities of Judah. T

THE VALLEY OF HINNOM. Perhaps there is no better point of sight from which to view the valley of Hinnom, than that afforded by the southern slopes of Mount Zion. The lower bed of the valley lies at an almost startling depth, and is shaded by a great number of olive and pomegranate trees. The rocks on the opposite side are rugged and precipitous; but still it possesses an indescribable air of repose. Hushed are all those dreadful shrieks and cries which once echoed in the midst of it, when idolatrous parents sacrificed to Molech,** making their children to pass through the fire, and drowning their agonies amidst the braying clangor of musical instruments. The might of the good Josiah was displayed there— when he broke in pieces the idol Molech, cut down its polluted and blood-stained groves, and crushed the abomination of the

* Acts ii. 29.

† Isaiah lxiv. 10.
|| Psalm li. 18.

§ Psalm lxxxvii. 2.
** See 2 Kings xxiii. 10. 2 Chronicles xxviii. 3.

+ Isaiah xxxiii. 5.

¶ Psalm lxix. 35.

tt It has been thought that the Hebrew word "Toph" -which signifies a loud musical instrument, gave the name of Tophet to this scene of idolatrous horror.

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heathen. Formerly the refuse and filth of the city were cast into this deep valley, by command of Josiah, together with the dead bodies of malefactors and animals. And for the purpose of preventing infectious disease, the natural consequence of such deposits, devouring fires were kept continually burningwhence it was metaphorically called by the Jews, Gehennathe place of eternal torments. Its present Arabic name is Wadey Jehennam.

THE FIELD OF BLOOD, &C. “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priest and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed and went and hanged himself. And the Chief Priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called the field of blood, unto this day."* "Now this man (Judas) purchased a field† with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers in Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say the field of blood." These Scripture narratives invest the potter's field with a gloomy and awful interest; and so far as I can learn, there seems every thing to favor the idea that the spot fixed on is the true one. Crossing the valley of Hinnom from Mount Zion, and bearing slightly towards the east, you make a steep ascent and reach the potter's field--a space of small extent, and evidently a place of sepulture. In the middle of it there is still a charnel

*Matthew xxvii. 3-8.

+ St Matthew says the Chief Priests purchased the field; but here it is said that Judas did so. There is no real discrepancy, Judas occasioned the field to be purchased by the Chief Priests, by returning to them the money which they could not put into the treasury again.

t Acts i. 18, 19.

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