Palestine or the Holy Land | Page 8

and to assist in searching for the venerable
remains of the first age of the gospel. To this illustrious female is
ascribed the glory of restoring to religion some of its most valued
memorials. Not satisfied with the splendid temple erected at the Holy
Sepulchre, she ordered two similar edifices to be reared under her own
auspices; one over the manger of the Messiah at Bethlehem, and the
other on the Mount of Olives, to commemorate his ascension into
heaven. Chapels, altars, and houses of prayer gradually marked all the
places consecrated by the acts of the Son of Man; the oral traditions
were forthwith committed to writing, and thereby secured for ever from
the treachery of individual recollection.[4]
These considerations gave great probability to the conjectures of those

pious persons who, in the fourth century of our era, assisted the mother
of Constantine in fixing the locality of holy scenes. From that period
down to the present day, the devotion of the Christian and the avarice
of the Mohammedan have sufficiently secured the remembrance both
of the places and of the events with which they are associated. But no
length of time can wear out the impression of deep reverence and
respect which are excited by an actual examination of those interesting
spots that witnessed the stupendous occurrences recorded in the
inspired volume. Or, if there be in existence any cause which could
effectually counteract such natural and laudable feelings, it is the
excessive minuteness of detail and fanciful description usually found to
accompany the exhibition of sacred relics. The Christian traveller is
delighted when he obtains the first glance of Carmel, of Tabor, of
Libanus, and of Olivet; his heart opens to many touching recollections
at the moment when the Jordan, the Lake of Tiberias, and even the
waters of the Dead Sea spread themselves out before his eyes; but
neither his piety nor his belief is strengthened when he has presented to
him a portion of the cross whereon our Saviour was suspended, the
nails that pierced his hands and feet, the linen in which his body was
wrapped, the stone on which his corpse reposed in the sepulchre, as
well as that occupied by the ministering angel on the morning of the
resurrection. The skepticism with which such doubtful remains cannot
fail to be examined is turned into positive disgust when, the guardians
of the grotto at Bethlehem undertake to show the water wherein the
infant Messiah was washed, the milk of the blessed Virgin his mother,
the swaddling-clothes, the manger, and other particulars neither less
minute nor less improbable.
But such abuses, the fruit of many ages of credulity and ignorance, do
not materially diminish the force of the impression produced by scenes
which no art can change, and hardly any description can disguise. The
hills still stand round about Jerusalem, as they stood in the days of
David and of Solomon. The dew falls on Hermon, the cedars grow on
Libanus, and Kishon, that ancient river, draws its stream from Tabor as
in the times of old. The Sea of Galilee still presents the same natural
accompaniments, the fig-tree springs up by the wayside, the sycamore
spreads its branches, and the vines and olives still climb the sides of the

mountains. The desolation which covered the Cities of the Plain is not
less striking at the present hour than when Moses with an inspired pen
recorded the judgment of God; the swellings of Jordan are not less
regular in their rise than when the Hebrews first approached its banks;
and he who goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho still incurs the
greatest hazard of falling among thieves. There is, in fact, in the
scenery and manners of Palestine, a perpetuity that accords well with
the everlasting import of its historical records, and which enables us to
identify with the utmost readiness the local imagery of every great
transaction.
The extent of this remarkable country has varied at different times,
according to the nature of the government which it has either enjoyed
or been compelled to acknowledge. When it was first occupied by the
Israelites, the land of Canaan, properly so called, was confined between
the shores of the Mediterranean and the western bank of the Jordan; the
breadth at no part exceeding fifty miles, while the length hardly
amounted to three times that space. At a later period, the arms of David
and of his immediate successor carried the boundaries of the kingdom
to the Euphrates and Orontes on the one hand, an in an opposite
direction to the remotest confines of Edom and Moab. The population,
as might be expected, has undergone a similar variation. It is true that
no particular in ancient history is liable to a better-founded suspicion
than the numerical statements which