JERUSALEM.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 29, 31 January 1850, Page 3

JERUSALEM.

The Jerusalem of sacred history is no more. Not a vestige remains of the capital of David and Solomon; not a mouument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls H changed, and (he boundaries of the

ancient city are become: doubtful. The monk: pietend to show the sites of the sacred places ; but neither Calvary, nor the Holy Sepulchre much less the Dolorous Way, the House ol G'aiaphas, &c, have the slightest pretension! to even a probable identity with the real places to which the tradition refers. A few gardens still remain on the sloping base ol ■Mount Zion, watered from the Pool of Siloam ; the gardens ot'Gethsemane are still in a sort of ruined cultivation; the Mount of Olives still retains a languishing verdure, and nourishes a few of those trees from which it derives its name ; but nil round about Jerusalem the general aspect is blighted and barren j the grass is withered ; the bare rock looks through the scanty sward; and the grain itself, like the staring progeny of famine, seems in dovibt whether to come to maturity or die in the car. The vine that was brought from Egypt is cut off from the midst of the land ; the vineyards are wasted ; the hedges are taken away ; and tho graves of the ancient dead arc open and tcuauilcss. '1 o conceive of its ancient aspect, we must endeavour to shut our eyes to the domes, and minarets, and castellated towers, which now revolt every pleasing and sicrcd association ; we must forget the Turks, the Arabs, and the monks, and blot out from the picture the holy .sepulchre, with all the horrible mummery connected with it. We must imagine ourselves ooking dawn from Mount Olivet on a well peopled and strongly-fortified city, occupying the oblong area of two sloping hilU, about 4 miles in circumference, and sheltered on almost every side by more commanding elevations, cultivated in terraces, and clothed to their very summits with the olive, the fig-tree and the palm. The city itself, if it could not boast of a Parthenon, was propably equal, in architectural decoration, to any one then standing in the world. It could not indeed, compare with Babylon or Nineveh, or the hundred-gated metropolis of Egypt, either in extent or magnificence ; hut its two temple? —the one built by Solomon, and tho other repaired and completed by Herod wore, successively the admiration of the world. Of the latter, Josephus has left us a description, which, making every allowance for his national partiality, must be held to prove that it was every way worthy of the founder of Ccsarca and Sebasto, and the other cities which attest thi greatness of the Jewish Monarch. The stupendous foundations on which the terrace rested, at the height of 600 perpendicular feet from the valley, which was formed to extend tho area of the Temple, still remain to indicate tho gigantic nature of the work. From the Temple the city had the appearance of an amphitheatre, the slope of the hill being being just sufficient to present it to the greatest advantage. At certain distances, towers of not less strength than architectural beauty broke the line of the walls ; while on the left the acropolis of Zion overlooked the whole city. Modern Jerusalem, thouch now disfigured by intervals of waste ground and ruined heaps, still suggests the idea of " a compact city ;" but when every gait was built upon, it must have peculiarly deserved this appellation. Its ancient populousness we read of with surprise; its gates receiveil an influx of strangers from all parts ; and tho wealth thus poured into it rendered it probably one of the richest cities in the world. If to these topographical and political advantages we add the local sanctity which dignified the scene of so many proud historical recollections, and connect with the bulwarks and palaces, and gardens of the metropolis of Judea, its consecrated character as the peculiar abode of Deity the chosen mountain of Jehovah—the "City of God," wc shall obtain some idea of the aspect which it once presented, when the light of Heaven, which nowhere conies with a purer ray, shone on a free and favoured people, and the voice of joy and thanksgiving was heard ascending from the dwellings of her citizens. —Gosueii, Muilcni Traveller.