distance north of Jericho, a lofty summit, forming the highest point of the mountains of Gilead, is visible."ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. pp. 348, 349, 405. "The mount upon which we stand," writes a recent traveller, "is very interesting in the details of its story. There are yet a few olive trees that maintain their ground, though in nation, language, and religion, their owners have once and again been changed. Some of them appear } very ancient, with gnarled branches, and hollow trunks, and though not so old as Christianity, they may be lineally descended, by not more than one remove, from the trees that here flourished when Christ trod upon the same spot. In this direction David retired from the city on the rebellion of Absalom, with the priests, and the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. "And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot; and all the people that were with him, covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up." This mount was the favourite place of retirement to our Saviour and his disciples from the noise and distraction of the city, of which we have many evidences in the Gospels. "As he sat upon the mount of Olives, over against the temple, Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? . . . At night he went out, and abode in the mount, that is called the mount of Olives. . . Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. . . And he came out and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives." In passing to Bethany, where Jesus appears generally to have lodged, during his visits to the city, he would have to cross this mountain. It was probably along that path, which still leads from the village, that he rode in triumph, attended by acclaiming thousands; and at that turn in the road, where the city in all its magnitude bursts at once upon the sight, that he wept. "When he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thy eyes. GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. "THEN cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death . And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And ... lo, Judas, one of the twelve came, and with him a great multitude, with swords and staves And... he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master; and kissed him... Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him ... Then all the disciples forsook him and fled."-Matthew xxvi. 36. 39–56. (Mark xiv. 32.) "Passing down the steep hill from the gate (of St. Stephen) into the valley of the Kidron, and crossing the bridge over the dry water-course, near the bridge, on the right, is the place fixed on by early tradition as the site of the garden of Gethsemane. It is a plat of ground nearly square, enclosed by an ordinary stone wall.... Within this enclosure are eight very old olive-trees, with stones thrown together around their trunks. There is nothing peculiar in this plat to mark it as Gethsemane; for adjacent to it are other similar enclosures, and many olive-trees equally old1.. Giving myself up to the impressions of the moment, I sat down here for a time alone beneath one of the aged trees. All was silent and solitary around; only a herd of goats were feeding not far off, and a few flocks of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain. High above towered the dead walls of the city; through which there penetrated no sound of human life. It was almost like the stillness and loneliness of the desert. Here, or at least not far off, the Saviour endured that ' agony and bloody sweat,' which was connected with the redemption of the world; and here in deep submission he prayed: 'O, my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done!' From the bridge three paths lead up to the summit of the Mount of Olives."-ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. pp. 345–347. "A few steps beyond the Kedron, you come to the garden of Gethsemane; of all gardens the most interesting and hallowed; but how neglected and decayed! It is surrounded by a kind of low hedge, but the soil is 1 There is, however, nothing in particular to lead us to question this site. At any rate, Gethsemane must have been in this vicinity. bare; no verdure grows on it, save six fine venerable olive-trees, which have stood here for many centuries. This spot is at the foot of Olivet, and is beautifully situated; you look up and down the romantic valleyclose behind rises the mountain-before you are the walls of the devoted city. While lingering here at evening, and solitary, for it is not often a footstep passes by, that night of sorrow and dismay rushes on the imagination, when the Redeemer of the world was betrayed and forsaken by all-even by the loved disciple. Hence the path winds up the Mount of Olives; it is a beautiful hill, verdant, and covered in some parts with olive-trees."-CARNE'S Letters from the East, pp. 289, 290. "BUT the gate of the fountain repaired Shallum . . . and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David."-Nehemiah iii. 15. "The waters of Shiloah, that go softly". viii. 6. ... -Isaiah "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing."-John ix. 7, (whole chapter.) "The pool of Siloam, (situated in the mouth of the valley of Tyropæon, or the Cheesemakers, at the foot of mount Sion,) is a small deep reservoir, into which the water flows from under the rocks out of a smaller basin hewn in the solid rock a few feet farther up; to which is a descent by a few steps. This is wholly an artificial work; and the water comes to it through a subterraneous channel under the hill Ophel, from another fountain higher up in the valley of Jehoshaphat," now called the fountain of Mary, or the Virgin, but probably the same with the "King's Pool" of Nehemiah, and the "Pool of Solomon" of Josephus. "The hill Ophel, lying between the valley of Tyropæon and the valley of Jehoshaphat, ends here, just over the pool of Siloam, in a steep point of rock forty or fifty feet high. Along the base of this the water is conducted from the pool in a small channel hewn in the rocky bottom; and is then led off to irrigate gardens of fig and other fruit-trees and plants, lying in terraces quite down to the bottom of the valley of Jehoshaphat, a descent still of some forty or fifty feet. The waters of Siloam, as we saw them, were lost in these gardens." -ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. p. 341, 342. "The water of Siloam is clear and cool," writes Mr. Carne," and flows down the mount into the valley beneath to a considerable distance. At this stream the women of the city generally come to wash their linen and its banks are in some parts shaded with trees. On a pleasant spot here, a poor Turk had brought his little ; |