We did not follow the narrow streets to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
where reverent worshipers were at that moment kneeling before the tomb,
or kissing the stone upon which are the marks of the three crosses. It
seemed incredible to us at first that this small church could cover both
the spot which was called Calvary and the tomb in the garden of Joseph
of Arimathea. Within the church are the chapels of the Greeks, the
Romans, the Armenians and the Copts. In each are beautiful shrines with
very precious lamps studded with jewels, lamps that burn in honor of
each of the four Christian groups. Once there were four great doors of
entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but so frequent were the
quarrels of those coming to worship that these doors were closed leaving
only one way of entrance. The key to this door is still held by a
Mohammedan according to the command of General Allenby, in memory of the
fact that the Caliph Omar spared and continually protected this Church.
Priceless jewels are hidden within it, the gifts of Pilgrims from every
land. Its treasury is the richest in the world. Jamil saw it when it was
shown to the former German Emperor for whom he interpreted, but could
never find it again, so devious were the ways that led to it. The
Kaiser’s gift, presented as with impressive ceremony he knelt to pray,
was of great value—in gold.
But it was not to this church of the Holy Sepulchre with its wonderful
shrines, its most sacred associations reaching back into the long past,
filled with memories of devout men and women, rich and great, poor and
lowly, young and strong, weak and old, who had reverently worshiped
before the rent in the rock, the place where the soldiers parted His
garments, the tomb in the solid stone down in the very bowels of the
earth, worn smooth as glass by the feet of pilgrims who, like Peter and
John, must stoop to enter it, and Golgotha, reached by winding steps cut
in the rock and leading up almost to the roof of the church—it was not
this place which we sought as we came from the garden of Gethsemane,
following Him along the Sorrowful Way. It was out on the hills beyond
the Damascus Gate to the spot called Gordon’s Calvary that we went, not
because we cared to enter into all the reasons why many believe it to be
the place of suffering, rather than the other, but because out there on
the wind-swept rocks under a darkening sky, with a garden in the little
valley and the tombs cut in solid rock, their “great stones” lying
near—out there with no priest and no altars it was easier to read the
words of the Book and try to understand them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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