Show JERUSALEM wot more than twenty years ago 24 considered by many theolog 1417 8 to be a very bold exegesis to con aulet ct the prophecies of old in proof pt the doctrine that the jews should 8 gathering in palestine their le and city again restored the decies PO ne cies it was said should be er stood spiritually not dot literally as there was no need needa of such a lat fit h W restoration ator atlon jerusalem meant the church of christ israel was tile the church of christ the B was also the church all ken today all this Is changed every W 3 must lust admit not that the jews aw gather bather but that they are 4 g ug ng and the building of tte sand the temple isbutt is but a question of time and not a long time either events unfold rapidly in our days and before a sleepy world is aware of the fact the great events immediately preceding the coming of christ will be finished this is hardly a matter of belief any longer it is a matter of fact every day demonstrated before our very I 1 eyes under these circumstances everything pertaining to the holy land its it present condition and development has peculiar interest to the people of god who have gone out to meet the bridegroom they can look to palestine as to a timp timekeeper keeper which in consonance with the prophetic word indicates the drawing near of the all important hour with this view I 1 have thought that the following sketch of the city of god would be perused with some interest by the readers of the NEWS the name jerusalem is generally translated place of peace the edans call it el euda the holy or el schew the celebrated it is built on a plateau meters high and cut off from the surrounding still higher hills by deep valleys which anciently were in some places at least still deeper east of the city is the valley of or the valley of kidron west and south the valley of hinnom encircles the foot of the hills already some 1900 years before christ ChrI stat at the time of abraham there was a salem in palestine the reed residence dence of king Melchi sedek but whether this salem is identical with the present jerusalem is not for certainty known although psalm 76 2 in salem is his tabernacle and his dwelling in zion seems to indicate it at the time of joshua the place was called ened jebus but it was then a place of small importance although on account of its favorable situation on the hill it was aide able to resist the invading enemy of israel for a long time first after the death of joshua was the lower part of the city taken but the Jebus ites were masters over the fortress and lived among the israel ites in the pur surrounding rounding region tt it cost david many bloody struggles to wrest the strong fortress fredi the hands bands of the Jebus ites but iffa he succeeded and as soon as this WM was danehe done he made jerusalem his residence and decided to build the lord Lorda a housein house in this place prom from this time jebus is called zion probably in remembrance of the elty of enoch and also the city of david 11 to distinguish it from the surrounding city which was jerusalem proper As soon as 99 david had bad carried the ark of the covenant into the city it became emphatically the holy city a name often applied in the bible to jerusalem david built a wall around the city which WU was completed by his son solomon he also erected several monuments entO buildings with the assistance of architects from tyre sent to td him hift by king hiram he built a cent palace and a house for th in heroes nehemiah rh ift Is 1 probably the headquarters of the royal guard further a place for the in ill torment of the dead of the royal family a place which was am known at the commencement of olaf era ag JJ ii 29 20 but no now looked for in vain through EM all the royal bounty which david showered neom the city it gained a celeb celebrity riV mid and a prosperity never before heard ot of but this was still more during the reign of thid king raised that ture the Solomon lari temple planned for years by his royal father the feln temple wa was north of the city of david wry likely somewhere on the spot where the mosque of omar now stands according to tradition the temple was built bull tin on the place where abraham was to have sacrificed his son and this tradition is supported by chron II 11 if iii 1 and solomon commenced to build Jehova hrs hs house in jerusalem on the mount Mo rijah 21 which name in hebrew means the appearance of jehovah 11 so called it is presumed from the appearance of the angel jehovah to abraham at the time of his intended sacrifice solomon also built a palace a complex of many magnificent buildings as well as other structure sall of which spread the report of the wisdom and wealth of this king to the uttermost parts of the then known world the prosperity of the city was however of short duration it was sown in a soll soil plowed with the sword watered with blood and reaped with the assistance of heathen neighbors zio no prosperity thus gained can ever last loni long it seems to be an in inimitable mutable law demonstrated on every page of history that only that which is gained in righteousness can last blessed are the gentle minded for they shall possess the earth is more than a promise it is a statement of a true philosophical principle violence breeds corruption allegiance with the enemies of god causes putrefaction and these bring speedy destruction truc tion they are the consumption of the lungs of the people prom from this general law of nature the holy city was not exempt already after the death of solomon ton the ten tribes revolted and founded a kingdom of their own and from this time the glory of the city was gone the Egypt egyptians iaus under pharaoh chonk spoiled the temple and the pansee pajaree philistines and arabians invaded the city under the reign of king joram joas the king of israel gained a victory over amazia at beth semes entered jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the temple and the palace not content with this he broke down the wall in the northern part of the city where it was most needed this took place BC the righteous king uzziah restored the walls and erected several towers hezekiah Eleze klah built a second wall in order to include that part of the city which had been built outside the first wall and he also built a canal to supply the city with water rut but his son manasseh suffered ered an invasion by the assar ians fans and was himself for a short time kept a prisoner in assyria BC on his return he did all a he could to keep the walls in repair joseah BC repaired the temple but nothing of all this could help the fallen city there were no walls no outward work on the once glorious temple judah had departed from the way of the lord nothing short of a full repentance pen tance could save them from the predicted doom they did not repent truly and the doom came during the reign of BC jerusalem was taken by cebu further punished during Jo jachim and finally during the miserable reign of zedekiah Zede klah BC after seventeen mouths months of struggles all but totally destroyed one of the first concerns of the jews who returned from babylon under the leadership of Zerub babel was to rebuild the temple it was waa finished BC but looked so miserable compared to the former building that the venerable fathers who had seen both structures could not help crying at the sight alexander the great warned by god in a dream did not molest the city as was no doubt his original intention but 1 I took jerusalem B C and broke the wall down in several places twenty years later the whole of palestine fen fell into the hands of the egyptians again the unfortunate cief alt suffered destruction by the hand of Antl Ant chus lebus epi B C however the great jewish hero and patriot judas Maccab seus succeeded in re taking the temple which he surrounded with a wall but the syrians possessed davids fortress akra prom from this time bloody scenes were with short intervals witnessed in jerusalem the romans were forced to intervene pompeius lompej Pomp ejus us took the temple tempie 68 B C herod the great commenced a rule of comparative quietude and imitated david and solomon in his taste for building he reconstructed the temple place fortified it and called it antonia he erected a magnificent palace and built several strong towers he also built a theatre and an ampel theatre in the roman style and enlarged the walls considerably it was his intention to restore the temple to its first glory but although he be spared no money his purpose was never attained twenty years B C he commenced the restoration of the temple in ten years it was so far completed as to be used for divine services but it was not fin asbed till shortly before the last destruction st of jerusalem 70 A D this Hek odian temple then was the th one that existed in the days of our lord and concerning which he clod that not one stone should be left upon another no for herod the great sinner had bad no instruction from god to build a temple at all As the city of jerusalem grew in size it was found necessary to protect the inhabitants who lived north of the second wall and to surround their habitations with a third wall this was commenced by herod agrippa I 1 after the death of christ and he encircled and added it to the city this thio wall was fully fifty feet high and was considered the strongest of the three walls J jerusalem eru salem was now surrounded by deep valleys and a complex of walls defended by ninety towers and one would think that the prediction of the lord that this city would soon fall fail into the hands of an invading army could be nothing but the wild imagery of a diseased fancy but no walls no towers could withstand the decrees rf the almighty the people had bad rejected the son of god and willi willingly uglY accepted the responsibility 11 ste blood be upon us and our chI children Idren and the curse soon worked the tb legions of rome borne led by titus rounded the doomed city narrow er they drew their iron arms around it and embraced it with a death grip till 70 AD the last gle ensued the city WO va taken the temple destroyed the very ground where it had st stood ploughed sloughed hed up and the inhabitants inh abitanta were killed until their blood flows like water in the streets on the jtb of may the first wall fell and already on the of the same month the tb second wall on august the temple was consumed by flain eB the work of devastation was eow COW by the beginning of Sep september tOlu ber almost the whole city was ole miserable heap of rains adrian the emperor founded he again a colony AD caw ella capitolina and partly strutted ted the walls but without gil do 9 ing the city the same boundaries it formerly had it was a besth beathel beat bel colony and on the very place once the temple of god had stood bo e af erected a temple for the worship abi jupiter Capit olinus where w holy of holies had been he a statue of himself and on tit M where the savior of the world WO P thou died to save his people from sins adrian built a temple deo bated to venus the jel jews rs we forbidden on 0 n pain pal n of death to eila ess their ancient city s T t X constantine constant ne the great inaugurated anew era for the unfortunate city A so called christian patriarch took his residence here and pilgrims began to travel to jerusalem in order to worship on its holy ground the grave of our lord in particular the empress helen the mother of constantine had also made a pilgrim journey and through revelation found the cross of our lord and other sacred relies relics all of which created a rush of pilgrims to the holy city churches and were built which from time milne to time were enlarged and multiplied ti plied particularly during the reign of f justinian in the sixth century of our era but history repeats itself the jews had been scattered and their cities had been desolated as a oon con sequence bence of the departure of the people from the paths of the lord tile the romans had swept the country once nee and thrown out the remnants of s polluted theocracy the christians followed the tracks of the jews perverting the religion of christ until all even its first outlines were lost the consequences were the me as in the case of the jews Jieh heathen then nations were by god let loose over an apostate christendom currying crying out the judgment of the almighty in the persians besieged and took ok jerusalem they were again striven driven away by Hera cleos in but ut in ila the city was taken by the arabs under sunder the leadership of caliph omar who compelled the fews bews and the christians to pay dearly for the privilege of remain 19 8 in jerusalem in the county Y came under the rule of the and the oppression creased to an unendurable r tent the crusades commenced uh th the view of wresting jerusa uj and eventually the holy land m the hands of the foreigners ottfried tt fried von bouillon took jerusa lem mon on july 1099 and founded 4 kingdom with the holy city as lae capital this little kingdom ed its human foundation by its ty on the ad of october 1187 the ue egyptian sultan EWa heddin took w the city and the work of the ers that had costlo cost so much w 44 all in vain in the year 1617 1517 the e country changed masters from able baade ands of the egyptians it went those of the turks such Is ig the history of jerusalem atel n in ila faint outline there is probably bably no other spot on the earth here so many struggles have taken ayase and so much blood split spilt jews 14 babylonians syrians assyrians As greeks romans egyptians arabs turks french Tle hans germans english and the sons of the interior of asia all have here met and written a page of the history of this city with their own hearts blood jerusalem the plane place of peace never was a name or a city seemingly so much misapplied the present jerusalem is a fortified eity city surrounded by a wall twelve metres high and ornamented with thirty four pinnacles or towers five gates open the city to the outer world in north the damascus gate in east the stephen gate in south the mist gate and the zions gate and in west the jaffa gate A good walker can walk round these walls and gates in an hour and a half viewed from the mount of olivet jerusalem looks very beautiful but when you once walk the streets the favorable impression fades away the streets are narrow and dark the i houses look heavy and the whole gives one the impression of a city in mourning the inhabitants number somewhere near deax thirty four thousand of whom are jews to christians and to mabom madans the jews all live in a wretched condition supported support hd by their friends in other parts of the world living on alms their morals are chiefly those of beggars among the christians the greek orthodox are predominant they have 18 monasteries or a and several sch schools the roman boman catholics come next the armen lans ians the copts coats the jacobites the abyssinians Abyssinia ns are all represented the protestants work in their way quite energetically frederick wilhelm TV IV of prussia founded a bishopric here in 1841 the bishop of which is now nominated by english church dignitaries the german Temp lars have also a colony here and unfold a remarkable energy in their work for the colonization of the country particularly by drinking wine and smoking tobacco how many bottles of wine or pounds of tobacco it takes to civilize a jew or an arab I 1 have never been able to ascertain in respect to religion jerusalem is at present a true babel yet it is surrounded by a nimbus lustre to all those who reflect on its past history and who look forward to its approaching pro aching glory the most attractive place in jerusalem is undoubtedly the church of the he sepulchre supposed to be erected over the grave where the body of our lord was laid after his death on the cross whether this supposition is correct or not is yet undecided but the tradition |