DESECRATORS Of JERUSALEM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 10, 28 August 1911, Page 3

DESECRATORS Of JERUSALEM.

A terrible picture of the spiritual depravity and beuightedness of Jerusalem is drawn by “a resident in Jerusalem” in the new issue of the “Hibbert Journal.” ‘‘ ‘lt wore better to be of no church than to bo bitter for any,’ said William Penn. “Had lie lived in Jerusalem, the capital of Christiandom, lie might have substituted ‘religion’ for ‘church.’ In that pl'acc, whose bewildering complexity of life and manifold charm and variety make it indeed the centre of the world, are seen at once, and in vivid contrast, the strength, the vitality, and the unloveliness of Christianity—the Christianity, that is, of Christians; for wo are gradually beginning to realise that the Christianity that Christ taught and lived, and the Christianity that men teach and live, are as diverse as heaven and earth. Christianity in Sore Straits. “This article slums such wide holds of controversy, intending rather to describe the present state of religion in the Holy City, and to show how a Christianity does yet somehow survive, though in sore straits. That it survives at all abuses such as we shall describe, is, we submit, a proof of its vitality; and that it is trying to raise itself, a proof of its dvineness.

“The Greek, representing the Eastern side of the church, and the Latin, representing the ‘ Western, are the largest and most important of the Con munions at Jerusalem. Theie are besides the English, the,Russian (which bears to the Greek Church much the same relation as that of the colonial or the American Church to the English—i.e., a nationalised branch of the same Communion), the Syrian, the Coptic, the Armenian, the Abyssinian, and the Lutheran. There are also various recognised forms of Christianity, .and others whose peculiar claims arc known only' to themselves. The Greek C hurch is the Church of the Coumrv, but centuries of war and change have reduced it to a state of absolute indifference—a church in name only. Monastic Disloyalty. “The monasteries have gradually absorbed the wealth of the church, and, as their rules allow the monks the personal use for life of monastic funds without account, they have been able to live smoothly and to benefit their relatives. Much of this wealth comes through the pilgrims, who pay whatever they can afford to the guardian monks of the holy places, in exchange for masses. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre gets the main share. The pilgrims bring their doles to the olliee of the chancellory of the Holy Sepulchre, with scraps of paper bearing the names to be mentioned at mass. The money is laid on the table; a monk in charge takes the papers. This .goes on for hours, a goodly pile of money rising by degrees. Finally the money is swept into a drawer, and the papers torn up and thrown away. The scene is described by eyewitnesses. Priests as Cticap-dacks. “A monastery on a holy site owns a large olive-grove surrounding it. Single trees are sold to the pilgrims so that the oil may feed a lamp to burn for ever in their name before the altar. Perhaps a number of pilgrims, or a village, will join to purchase so rare a privilege. Every tree in that grove Inis been sold times over for the same purpose; and the monks probably eat the olives into the bargain. “The Bishop of lives in a large house within twelve hours of his diocese, life in Jerusalem being more comfortable and convenient than anywhere in his See. He has an ingenious way of augmenting the episcopal income. He fills hundreds of large envelopes with tiny olive sprigs, or with stones marked as from this or that holy place, or with his photograph, printed cheaply in large quantities. Those envelopes are inscribed ‘From the Bishop of .’ They arc sold in hundreds, tiie pilgrims taking away with them the treasured contents and leaving in the envelope whatever they can afford. If is surprising how these small offerings will swell to quite a respectable sum.”

Many other incidents of tins kind are given, but one is enough.

Tha Hopeful Side.

“But there is a hopeful side to these abuses,” adds the writer. “For some ten years past there has been growing up within the church a body of young Arabs, devoted to their church, who would neither leave her nor yet countenance abuses they wore powerless to prevent. A self-respect-ing Arab would rarely receive a monk into his house; the younger generation went further, and refused to confess to men who were notorious evil-livers. The monks retaliated by denying them the communion. Matters remained thus until the Turkish revolution of 1 EOS, by granting religious freedom, made it possible for the Arabs to advance their claims. These were, representation on the governing bodies of the church, control in the finance, a national share in the episcopate, and a resident episcopacy. "Reiifiicus Houses.” “The proportion of these religious houses to tlie population of Jerusalem, about 75,0(10, is overwhelming. There cannot he work for all, and there is not; and it is cruelly unfair to the pilgrims to live upon their devout credulity. If there were work, or if the work professed were clone*, we should possibly hoar less of the luxury of certain houses, whose ‘cells’ are comfortable separate looms, and whore tal.de on gala nights shine with plate presented by i ich or princely pilgrims. Nor should we blush as Chi i d ians over those scenes of stiife and bloodshed wherein Christians display the nakedness of their religion

to the biting scorn of the Moslem and the Jew. What the Monks Have Dons. “These small frantic stands made by laymen against monkish rule may herald the dawning of reform, but clay is yet far off. It is duo to the ignorance, fho wilful carelessness, the utter unspirituality of the monies, whose lives have long made the name of Christianity a byword, that there is now growing up a generation of absolute non-believers. They have been taught by tiie monks to regard religion as inseparable from themselves, and therefore they loathe the very name, and will have none of it. Every country lias found that the suppression of the monasteries is essential to progress and reform, whether civil or religious. When Jerusalem, too, is freed, she will be no longer Mater Dolorosa, but in very truth Mater Muudi.”