Chapter 1
A First View of Jerusalem, and of the Temple
'And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.' Luke 19:41
The Charm of Jerusalem
In every age, the memory of Jerusalem has stirred the deepest feelings. Jews, Christians,
and Mohammedans turn to it with reverent affection. It almost seems as if in some sense
each could call it his 'happy home,' the 'name ever dear' to him. For our holiest thoughts
of the past, and our happiest hopes for the future, connect themselves with 'the city of
our God.' We know from many passages of the Old Testament, but especially from the
Book of Psalms, with what ardent longing the exiles from Palestine looked towards it;
and during the long centuries of dispersion and cruel persecution, up to this day, the
same aspirations have breathed in almost every service of the synagogue, and in none
more earnestly than in that of the paschal night, which to us is for ever associated with
the death of our Saviour. It is this one grand presence there of 'the Desire of all nations,'
which has for ever cast a hallowed light round Jerusalem and the Temple, and given
fulfillment to the prophecy--'Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of
His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the
word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.' (Isa 2:3) His feet have trodden the busy streets of
Jerusalem, and the shady recesses of the Mount of Olives; His figure has 'filled with
glory' the Temple and its services; His person has given meaning to the land and the
people; and the decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem has been for the life of all
nations. These facts can never be past--they are eternally present; not only to our faith,
but also to our hope; for He 'shall so come in like manner' as the 'men of Galilee' had on
Mount Olivet 'seen Him go into heaven.'
Ancient Memories
But our memories of Jerusalem stretch far back beyond these scenes. In the distance of
a remote antiquity we read of Melchisedek, the typical priest-king of Salem, who went
out to meet Abraham, the ancestor of the Hebrew race, and blessed him. A little later,
and this same Abraham was coming up from Hebron on his mournful journey, to offer
up his only son. A few miles south of the city, the road by which he travelled climbs the
top of a high promontory, that juts into the deep Kedron valley. From this spot, through
the cleft of the mountains which the Kedron has made for its course, one object rose up
straight before him. It was Moriah, the mount on which the sacrifice of Isaac was to be
offered. Here Solomon afterwards built the Temple. For over Mount Moriah David had
seen the hand of the destroying angel stayed, probably just above where afterwards
from the large altar of burnt-offering the smoke of countless sacrifices rose day by day.
On the opposite hill of Zion, separated only by a ravine from Moriah, stood the city and
the palace of David, and close by the site of the Temple the tower of David. After that
period an ever-shifting historical panorama passes before our view, unchanged only in
this, that, amidst all the varying events, Jerusalem remains the one centre of interest and
attractions, till we come to that Presence which has made it, even in its desolateness,
'Hephzibah,' 'sought out,' 'a city not forsaken.' (Isa 62:4)