Show THE HOLY SEPULCHER public interest has once more been wakened awakened to some extent in the subject of the true location of the holy sepulcher by the fact that the eng lish ligh people have hav a teen appealed to for the contribution of by which to purchase a spot of ground by some supposed to contain tike the sacred tomb ysab it is situated a short distance from the Daro gate and contains about four acres the high price is 18 accounted for by the fact that the ground in question is in the hands bands of german speculators the purchase is reco recommended ca by many leading ecclesiastics among amonia whom are the archbishop of canterbury the bishops of Salis buryj ripen and rochester and tho the archdeacons arch deacons of london and westminster arid and pro assur stuart poole the question where WB was christ burien is probably improbably ne ine of the raft difficult ones in the whole sacred topography po to answer the cave which is now shown tourists as the holy sepulcher sepu loher has a very ancient tradition in its tavor favor the first foundations or ok the beautiful structure that now covers ra it date at least as far back as an co conahan tine and yet recent explorers almost unanimously reject the claim the sacred historian states that christ was laid in a tomb near by the place where he was crucified and no place near no by this grave seems to answer the description of calvary it is further burthe argued that a place ot of execution coull could not have been within the city walls as this grave is and probably al ways ba has 0 been and that consequently tb the e grave must be looked for somewhere bere far ther north to this argument the rep reply I 1 y to Is however that the grave actually does exist within the wall fiand if it could be made there them at all it might certainly be the one which belonged to joseph of arlina thea and in which the body of the savior was laid as well as not calva ry might have been situated outside the walls and the grave inside and yet be near by that place of execution since the distance in reality is not very considerable but as has been already stated the best beet biblical eel soolan clars reject the tradition as without foundation la in fact 4 A writer while visiting jerusalem a couple of years ago heard from a venerable jewish rabbi a resident of the holy city a curious account of the origin of the tradition his statement may ingv be given for all it is worth when the city he said was destroyed by the romans most of the Christi christiana atis fled the old inhabitants of the city who had been eyewitnesses eye witnesses to the events recorded in the new testament were scattered some were slain lain others were driven into exile strangers came in who did not care to know anything about the places considered sacred by the despised and conquered inhabitants and in this way with the lapse of a century or so all certain knowledge of these places was lost beuins covered everything and made it next to impossible to later explorers to recognize such places of which haaf had given descriptions previous to the terrible destruction A couple of centuries thus rolled on and nobody took any interest in the spot spat where a supposed criminal once had been executed and ancl burled buried it was tint first at the time of constantine Constant lue when christianity had become a power in the state and the christians christiana commenced to breathe the air of liberty that pious men and women performed pilgrimages to the holy land and searched the country for calvary the sepulcher ae the place lace of nat nativity IVAY etc the empress welon helen the mother of constantine conceived the idea of finding the sepulcher ep aud she consequently went to jerusalem she thought that the few jews who then resided there knew where the grave was and she made inquiries but bat always met with iab the answer that nobody knew the empress ascribed this to perverseness perverse nees of the jews and thought they did know but bat refused to tell because they hated bated the nazarenes Naza renes she therefore commanded her soldiers to seize an old hebrew and gave them power to torture him and even kill jalna if he persisted persi eted in refusing tu divulge the secret of which she thought lie was la in possession he was accordingly seized and led about in the streets and commanded to go to the place where the grave was no protestation no imo excuse would be accepted he had either to find the gravle grave or be tortured to co death in his great distress he earnestly prayed to bis bia heavenly father to be delivered from his tor mentors and while thus mentally on en aged he came to a cave athenas then as ay by a sudden flash ot of inspiration he exclaimed here is the grave you are looking forland was subsequently liberated this was given as an all there was to the tradition the empress press immediately consecrated the place pace and built a church over it the catholic tradition to is more in harmony with the genius of that church according to Euse euzebius bluN whose reliability as a historian is not of the highest reputation constantine Cousta ntine was led to explore the place and found the cave which beaud be supposed hobed to be the holy sepulcher sepu loher the grave 0 ce found his imperial mother had a revelation according to which the three crosses were found near the grave which miracle identified the place beyond a doubt tradition has further ornamented this story by adding that she discovered the genuine cross crose by placing a dead body on it which immediately was revived but aside from these fabulous at stories oriee it la Is but just to say that one thing speaks for the genuineness of the place ing the arguments mento against it it is related in history that the emperor hadrian built a venus venue temple over the grave in order to hide bide it from those who held the place in veneration this temple still existed in the days of con stantina antine et st if it was built at all and he had bad in this structure a aure sure guide where to seek the tomb and find it the place which now is to be bought is known as the garden tomb general gordon thought it to be the genuine one and aad his hie view has baa been accepted by haskett smith and others but major condor rejects the theory altogether he explored the cave in 1873 and came to the conclusion that its construction construct ibn does not date farther back than to the ninth century another place is known as condors tomb but the evidence of its being the genuine grave la Is as insufficient as that adduced for any other spot the only sate conclusion so far is that the grave of christ has probably not yet been found perhaps it never will be unless it should be the pleasure of the lord himself to reveal it to somebody in the future the awakened Inter interest eRt among the nations in the land of promise is however a gratifying sign to those who believe in a glorious future for that country not many years ago it was desp despised isea now it attracts attention it has bab already begun to blossom as aa a rose in the wilderness it seems to be under preparation by the hand of providence to receive the inhabitants to whom it belongs belonge its gates are being opened its cities are being rebuilt the ruins rains are being removed the curse to is surely lifted and blessings are being poured down like the early rains and late rains which again agall make the country a beautiful garden as aa of old |