The Rabbis have a curious conceit about the origin of the name Jerusalem, which is

commonly taken to mean, 'the foundation,' 'the abode,' or 'the inheritance of peace.' They

make it a compound of Jireh and Shalem, and say that Abraham called it 'Jehovah-Jireh,'

while Shem had named it Shalem, but that God combined the two into Jireh-Shalem,

Jerushalaim, or Jerusalem. There was certainly something peculiar in the choice of

Palestine to be the country of the chosen people, as well as of Jerusalem to be its

capital. The political importance of the land must be judged from its situation rather than

its size. Lying midway between the east and the west, and placed between the great

military monarchies, first of Egypt and Assyria, and then of Rome and the East, it

naturally became the battle -field of the nations and the highway of the world. As for

Jerusalem, its situation was entirely unique. Pitched on a height of about 2,610 feet

above the level of the sea, its climate was more healthy, equable, and temperate than

that of any other part of the country. From the top of Mount Olivet an unrivalled view of

the most interesting localities in the land might be obtained. To the east the eye would

wander over the intervening plains to Jericho, mark the tortuous windings of Jordan,

and the sullen grey of the Dead Sea, finally resting on Pisgah and the mountains of

Moab and Ammon. To the south, you might see beyond 'the king's gardens,' as far as

the grey tops of 'the hill country of Judea.' Westwards, the view would be arrested by

the mountains of Bether, (Song 2:17) whilst the haze in the distant horizon marked the

line of the Great Sea. To the north, such well-known localities met the eye as Mizpeh,

Gibeon, Ajalon, Michmash, Ramah, and Anathoth. But, above all, just at your feet, the

Holy City would lie in all her magnificence, like 'a bride adorned for her husband.'

'Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the

north, the city of the Great King....Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the

towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces.' If this could be said of

Jerusalem even in the humbler days of her native monarchy, (Psa 48:2,12,13) it was

emphatically true at the time when Jesus 'beheld the city,' after Herod the Great had

adorned it with his wonted splendour. As the pilgrim bands 'came up' from all parts of

the country to the great feasts, they must have stood enthralled when its beauty first

burst upon their gaze. Not merely remembrances of the past, or the sacred associations

connected with the present, but the grandeur of the scene before them must have

kindled their admiration into enthusiasm. For Jerusalem was a city of palaces, and right

royally enthroned as none other. Placed on an eminence higher than the immediate

neighbourhood, it was cut off and isolated by deep valleys on all sides but one, giving it

the appearance of an immense natural fortress. All round it, on three sides, like a natural

fosse, ran the deep ravines of the Valley of Hinnom and of the Black Valley, or Kedron,

which merged to the south of the city, descending in such steep declivity that where the

two meet is 670 feet below the point whence each had started. Only on the north-west

was the city, as it were, bound to the mainland. And as if to give it yet more the

character of a series of fortress-islands, a deep natural cleft --the Tyropoeon--ran south

and north right through the middle of the city, then turned sharply westwards,

separating Mount Zion from Mount Acra. Similarly, Acra was divided from Mount

Moriah, and the latter again by an artificial valley from Bezetha, or the New Town. Sheer

up from these encircling ravines rose the city of marble and cedar-covered palaces. Up

that middle cleft, down in the valley, and along the slopes of the hills, crept the busy

town, with its streets, markets, and bazaars. But alone, and isolated in its grandeur,

stood the Temple Mount. Terrace upon terrace its courts rose, till, high above the city,

within the enclosure of marble cloisters, cedar-roofed and richly ornamented, the Temple

itself stood out a mass of snowy marble and of gold, glittering in the sunlight against

the half-encircling green background of Olivet. In all his wanderings the Jew had not

seen a city like his own Jerusalem. Not Antioch in Asia, not even imperial Rome herself,

excelled it in architectural splendour. Nor has there been, either in ancient or modern