The Empress Helena, Constantine's mother, was the great patron of all the holy places, and built churches upon them. How she ascertained for a certainty the precise spots is not so clear; but that she selected certain spots and had churches erected on them is admitted. So great an advocate for such matters, ought of right to have some honour shown her. They have, therefore, east of Calvary, and at a few yards' distance, prepared a chapel for her. It is a low, damp place, quite under ground, and does not do her much credit. It was down in this place, however, that she found the true cross, it is said, and an odd thing is told about her identifying it. Three crosses were found, and the question was, to which one of the three was our Lord nailed, for it would have been a fatal mistake to have selected for such deep veneration, amounting nearly to worship, the one on which the thief was nailed, instead of the one on which our Lord hung. Helena was not more zealous in hunting for places and things, than fertile in expedients to identify them. A child, either sick or dead, was brought and laid on the crosses, and strange to tell! it was made well when it touched a certain one. This was ample proof that it was the true cross. Another thing was found in this place, now set apart as the chapel of Helena. She found _Adam's skull_, which came out of the rent made in the rock caused by the earthquake. How she identified it, the account, as I received it, did not relate. No doubt she contrived some way to do it. Many such things are gravely told to the poor deluded pilgrims that resort here, and many believe them. And to tell all such folly and nonsense, and to fill their minds with them, is the business of the monks and priests, instead of teaching them the great leading truths of the word of God, and urging the nature and necessity of personal holiness and practical religion.