Druses. Those of Nazareth are Greeks, Maronites, and Catholics. CANA of Galilee is tenanted by Greeks only; so is the town of TIBERIAS, In JERUSALEM there are sects of every denomination, and perhaps of almost every religion upon earth. With regard to that part of the people in the Holy Land who call themselves Christians, in opposition to the Moslems, we found them to be divided into sects, with whose distinctions we were often unacquainted. It is said there are no Lutherans; and if we add, that, under the name of Christianity, every degrading superstition and profane rite, equally remote from the enlightened tenets of the Gospel and the dignity of human nature, are professed and tolerated, we shall afford a true picture of the state of society in this country. The cause may be easily assigned. The pure Gospel of Christ, everywhere the herald of civilization and of science, is almost as little known in the Holy Land as in Caliphornia or New Holland. A series of legendary traditions, mingled with remains of Judaïsm, and the wretched phantasies of illiterate ascetics, may now and then exhibit a glimmering of heavenly light; but if we seek for the blessed effects of Christianity in the Land of Canaan, we must look for that period, when "the desert shall blossom as the rose, and the wilderness become CHAP. IV. State of Christia nity in the Holy Land. СНАР. a fruitful field." For this reason we had early resolved to use the Sacred Scriptures as our only guide throughout this interesting territory; and the delight afforded by an internal evidence of truth, in every instance where fidelity of description could be ascertained by a comparison with existing documents, surpassed even all we had anticipated1. Such extraordinary instances of coincidence, even with the customs of the country as they are now retained, and so many wonderful examples of illustration afforded by contrasting the simple narrative with the appearances exhibited, made us only regret the shortness of our time, and the limited sphere of our abilities for the comparison When the original compiler of "Observations on various Passages of Scripture" undertook to place them in a new light, and to explain their meaning by relations incidently mentioned in books of Voyages and Travels in the East, he was struck by communications the authors of those books were them (1) "Scio equidem multa loca falso ostendi ab hominibus lucri avidis per universam Palæstinam; ac si hæc et illa miranda opera ibi patrata fuissent, sed hoc tamen negari non potest, aliqua sane certo sciri." Relandi Palæstina, cap. iv. in Thesaur. Antiq. Sacrar. Ugolini. vol. VI. Venet. 1746. (2) The Rev. Thomas Harmer. See the different editions of his Work, 1764, 1777, 1787; and especially the fourth, published in 1808, by Dr. Adam Clarke. selves not aware of having made; and, it is possible, his Commentators may discern similar instances in the brief record of our journey. But if the Travellers who have visited this country (and many of them were men of more than common talents) had been allowed full leisure for the inquiry, or had merely stated what they might have derived solely from a view of the country, abstracted from the consideration and detail of the lamentable mummery whereby the monks in all the Convents have gratified the credulity of every traveller for so many centuries, and which in their subsequent relations they seem to have copied from each other, we should have had the means of elucidating the Sacred Writings, perhaps in every instance, where the meaning has been "not determinable by the methods commonly used by learned men3." The House of St. Anne, at Sephoury, exhibited to us the commencement of that superstitious trumpery, which, for a long time, has constituted the chief object of devotion and of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and of which we had afterwards instances without number*. (3) See the Title to the Work above mentioned. (4) A house, supposed to have belonged to the same persons, is also shewn in Jerusalem. CHAP. IV. CHAP. A tradition prevails, that St. Joachim and the Mother of the Virgin Mary resided in this place: Church of accordingly, some pious agent of Constantine the St. chim St. Anne. Gothic Remains. First erected over the spot where the monks fancied their house had stood, or, what is more likely, over what they vouched for being the house itself, a most magnificent church. The remains of this sanctuary were what we had been invited to see; and these now bear the name of the house here mentioned. The visit was, however, attended by circumstances which may possibly interest the Reader more than the cause of it will induce him to imagine. We were conducted to the ruins of a stately Gothic edifice, which seems to have been one of the finest structures in the Holy Land. Here we entered, beneath lofty massive arches of stone. The roof of the building was of the same materials. The arches are placed at the intersection of a Greek cross, and originally supported a dome or a tower: their appearance is highly picturesque, and they exhibit the grandeur of a noble style of architecture. Broken columns of granite and marble lie scattered among the walls, and these prove how richly it was decorated. We measured the capital of a pillar of the order commonly called Tuscan, which we found lying against a pillar IV. of granite. The top of this formed a square of CHAP. three feet. One aisle of this building is yet entire at the eastern extremity a small temporary altar had been recently constructed by the piety of pilgrims: it consisted of loose materials, and was of very modern date. Some fragments of the original decorations of the church had been gathered from the ruins, and laid upon this altar; and, although they had remained open to every approach, even the Moslems had respected the votive offerings. WE were less scrupulous; for among them, to our great surprise, we noticed an antient Painting, executed after the manner of the Discovery pictures worshipped in Russia', upon a square Pictures. piece of wood, about half an inch in thickness. This picture, split through the middle, consisted of two pieces, which, placed one upon the other, lay upon the altar, covered with dust and cobwebs. From its appearance, it was evident that it had been found near the spot, the dirt not having been removed; and that the same piety, which had been shewn in collecting together the other scraps, had also induced some person to leave it upon the altar, as of antient (1) See the First Part of these Travels, Vol. I. Chap. II. p. 26, of the Octavo Edition. |