-she writing to Mr. Carlyle's wife! and in the capacity of a subordinate! How would she like to live with her as a subordinate? a servant -it may be said—where she had once reigned, the idolised lady? She must bear that; as she must bear all else. Hot tears came into her eyes, with a gush, as they fell on the signature "Barbara Carlyle."

All ready, she sat down and waited the signal of departure: but that was not to be yet. It was finally arranged that she should travel to England and to West Lynne with Mrs. Latimer, and that lady would not return until October. Lady Isabel could only fold her hands and strive for patience.

But the day did come; it actually did; and Mrs. Latimer, Lady Isabel, and Afy quitted Stalkenberg. Mrs. Latimer would only travel slowly, and the impatient, fevered woman thought the journey would

never end.

"You have been informed, I think, of the position of these unhappy children that you are going to," Mrs. Latimer observed to her one day. "You must not speak to them of their mother. She left them."

"Yes."

"It is never well to speak to children of a mother who has disgraced them. Mr. Carlyle would not like it. And I dare say they are taught to forget her, to regard Mrs. Carlyle as their only mother."

Her aching heart had to assent to all.

It was a foggy afternoon, grey with the coming twilight, when they arrived at West Lynne. Mrs. Latimer, believing the governess was a novice in England, kindly put her into a fly, and told the driver his destination. "Au revoir, madame," she said," and good luck to you!" Once more she was whirling along the familiar road. She saw Justice Hare's house, she saw other marks which she knew well. And once more she saw East Lynne, the dear old house, for the fly had turned into the avenue. Lights were moving in the windows, it looked gay and cheerful, a contrast to her. Her heart was sick with expectation, her throat was beating; and as the man thundered up with all the force of his one horse, and halted at the steps, her sight momentarily left her. Would Mr. Carlyle come to the fly to hand her out? She wished she had never undertaken the project, now, in the depth of her fear and agitation. The hall door was flung open, and there gushed forth a blaze of light.

THE TEMPLE MOUNT AT JERUSALEM.

A RECENT VISIT TO THE MOSQUE OF OMAR.

PASSING from the consideration of the external features of Jerusalem -its elevation, enthroned on a mountain fastness, on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country, and constituting the water-shed of the Jordan and the Mediterranean; its deep and dark defiles-Kidron and Gihon; its compactness, and its central situation, with regard to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin-it has been justly remarked by an admirable writer, the Rev. Canon Stanley, that if we turn to its internal relations, we encounter a mass of topographical controversy unequalled for its extent, for its confusion, and for its bitterness. If the materials, however slight, on which our judgment was to be formed were before us, it might be worth while to attempt to unravel the entanglement. But the reverse is the case. The data exist, perhaps, in abundance, but they are inaccessible. When Jerusalem can be excavated, we shall be able to argue; till then, the dispute is for the most part as hopeless as was that concerning the Roman Forum before the discovery of the pedestal of the Column of Phocas.

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Whatever may be the adjustment of the names of the heights on which Jerusalem stands, the peculiarity imparted to its general aspect and to its history by these various heights is incontestable. Even in the earlier times, when the city was still compact and narrow-when it was the Chadash of Sethos and Sesostris, the Cadytis of Herodotus, and the stronghold of the Amorites, the Hittites, and the Jebusites-there are traces of its double form. An upper and a lower city-possibly the dry rock of "Jebus," or Zion," the " City of David," as distinct from the Mountain of the Vision (Moriah), in whose centre arose the perennial spring, the "City of Solomon"-are dimly discerned in the earliest dawn of tradition. It is possible that this double existence-the line of demarcation of which was the Tyropæon-may have given the dual form to the name of "Jerusalaim," which superseded the old form of Jerusalem. It is possible, too, that the name of Jebus-Salem Melchisedek's city-or Jerusalem, "the vision of peace," may have been first given from the same vision that originated the name of Moriah.

Whatever differences have arisen about the other hills of Jerusalem, there is no question that the mount on which the Mosque of Omar stands, overhanging the valley of the Kidron, has, from the time of Solomon, if not of David, been regarded as the most sacred ground in Jerusalem. And on this hill, it has been justly remarked, whatever may be the controversies respecting the apportionment of its several parts, or the traces of the various architecture, which, from the time of Solomon downwards, have been reared on its rocky sides and surface, two natural objects remain, each of the highest historical interest.

High in the centre of the platform rises the remarkable rock called by the Jews Eben Shetiyah, or "foundation stone" (Yoma, V. § 2), and by the Arabs, El Sakhrah, or the hard rock. It is irregular in its form, and measures about sixty feet in one direction, and fifty feet in the other.

It projects about five feet above the marble pavement; and the pavement of the mosque is twelve feet above the general level of the enclosure, making this rise seventeen feet above the ground. It appears to be the natural surface of Mount Moriah; in a few places there are marks of chiselling; but its south-east corner is an excavated chamber, to which there is a descent by a flight of stone steps. This chamber is irregular in form, and its superficial area is about six hundred feet; the average height seven feet. In the centre of the rocky cave there is a circular slab of marble, which, being struck, makes a hollow sound, thereby showing that there is a well or excavation beneath. (Catherwood, in Bartlett's Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 156, 163.)

The Christians regarded this rock, before the Mussulman occupation of Syria, as the rock of the Holy of Holies, and as such-so different was the feeling of the Christian world with regard to the Old Testament between the fifth century and our own-used every effort to defile it.

Regarded as the site of the Holy of Holies also by Khalif Omar, it was by his successors invested with a sanctity only less than the Kaaba of Mekka. It was believed by them to be the rock of Jacob's Pillar at Bethel; the stone of prophecy, which would have fled on the extinction of that gift, but was forcibly detained by the angels in anticipation of the visit of Muhammad to Jerusalem in his nocturnal flight, when it bowed to receive him, and retained the impression of his feet as he mounted the celestial Borak. (The hard limestone of this rocky region appears, as far as multiplied traditions are concerned, to have been like wax at other epochs.) Within the cave every prayer is supposed to be granted, and in the well are believed to rest the souls of the departed between death and the resurrection.

The belief was that the living could hold converse with these souls at the mouth of the well about any disputed matter which lay in the power of the dead to solve. According to the Rev. Canon Stanley, it was closed because a mother, going to speak to her dead son, was so much agitated at the sound of his voice from below, that she threw herself into the well to join him, and disappeared. A different version of the story was related to Mr. Catherwood, and which was to the effect that a certain widow, who was more than ordinarily curious and communicative, carried such intelligence from the living to the dead, and from the dead to the living, as to disturb the peace of many families in the city, and caused such commotions in the Bir Aruah, "the well of souls," that, the noise getting too outrageous, the well had to be closed, to prevent further mischief being done.

Recovered by the Crusaders, Mount Moriah was exhibited as the scene of the apparition of the angel to Zechariah, and as the circumcision of Christ, as also of many other events in the Gospel history of Our Saviour's life. The footmark of Muhammad was there represented, according to Sewulf (Wright's Early Travels in Palestine, p. 40), as the trace was left, when He went out of the temple to escape the fury of the Jews.

In modern times, the same mount and its enclosure have been the centre of the most conflicting theories of sacred topography. Mr. Fergusson maintains, chiefly from architectural arguments, that the dome of the Sakhrah is the church of Constantine, and, consequently, that the rock beneath is the rock of the Holy Sepulchre. Mr. Falkener and Mr. Thrupp suppose it to be the rock, or part of the rock, on which stood the

Tower of Antonia. Professor Willis and others urge its claim to be the rock of the threshing-floor of Araunah, selected by David and Solomon, as the "unhewn stone" on which to build the altar; the cave within being the sink described in the Talmud as that into which the blood and offal of the sacrifices were drained off. Undoubtedly this is the most acceptable theory, and is most consonant with other traditions that are not Christian; nor do we see any such difficulty in accepting it as that suggested by Canon Stanley, that it fails to produce adequate examples of a rock so high and so rugged used for the purposes of a threshing-floor or an altar. In 1 Chron. xxi. 20, 21, it is said that Ornan (Araunah) and his sons hid themselves apparently within the threshing-floor, and a cave exists, in connexion with which was undoubtedly the base of the Samaritan altar in Gerizim.

All accounts combine in asserting that the water of the two pools of Siloam, as well as that of the many fountains of the Mosque of Omar, proceeds from a living spring beneath the temple vaults, or rather, as the Rev. George Williams has recently shown, coming from beyond that, and of which it is only one of the many subterranean reservoirs. This subterranean stream of Jerusalem was the treasure of the Holy City-its support through its numerous sieges-the "fons perennis aqua" of Tacitus, and the source of Milton's

Brook that flowed

Hard by the oracle of God.

And more than this, it was the image which entered into the very heart of the prophetical idea of Jerusalem. "There is a river (a perennial river) the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High" (Ps. xlvi. 4). "All my springs are in thee" (Ps. lxxxvii. 7). "Draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isa. xii. 3). In Ezekiel's vision the thought is expanded into a vast cataract, flowing out through the temple-rock eastward and westward into the ravines of Hinnom and Kidron till they swell into a mighty river, fertilising the Dead Sea (Ezek. xlvii. 1-5). And with still greater distinctness the thought appears again, and for the last time, in the discourse when in the courts of the temple: "In the last day, in that great day of the feast (of tabernacles), Jesus stood and cried, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John vii. 37, 38).

The temple was like the rest of Jerusalem, a fortress of massive foundations and gigantic gateways on every side. The walls, great and high, with the gates of precious stone, furnished the chief images of the Heavenly Jerusalem, both in the Old and New Testament; and the idea of the "chief corner-stone," and of the "stones" of the living Temple of God, which pervade the evangelical and apostolical imagery, were suggested, in the first instance, by the vast masses which, whether of the date of Solomon or Herod, form so imposing a part of the existing walls of the ancient temple area.

The mountain of the land of Moriah, which Abraham reached on the third day from Birsheba, there to offer Isaac, is, according to Josephus (Antiq., i. 13, 2), the mountain on which Solomon afterwards built the temple. The selection by David of Jerusalem as the capital of Judah was also subsequently confirmed by the Divine appointment, which made

Moriah the site of the temple. David carried thither the ark of the covenant, and there he built an altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, on the place where the angel stood who threatened Jerusalem with pestilence. The promise made to David received its accomplishment when Solomon built "the house of Jehovah" upon Mount Moriah. The temple was pillaged under Rehoboam by Shishak, King of Egypt, and again under Amaziah by Jehoash, King of Israel. Jotham built the high gate to the temple. Nebuchadnezzar lay the Temple of Solomon, the Castle of David, and the entire city in ruins. The prayers of the Israelites were, however, listened to, and the Israelitish captives in Babylonia returned, by the permission of Cyrus, to rebuild the temple. Interrupted, however, by Artaxerxes, the building of Zerubbabel was not finished till the sixth year of the reign of Darius Hystaspis, when the feast of dedication, and after it the passover, were celebrated with great joy. Alexander the Great spared Jerusalem: the Ptolemys, for the most part, made rich presents to the temple. Antiochus expelled the Egyptian garrison but respected the temple, which Antiochus Epiphanes profaned and plundered. The statue of Jupiter Olympus was then set upon Mount Moriah, and Jerusalem was deserted by priests and people. The Maccabees, after an arduous struggle, obtained possession of Jerusalem, and repaired and purified the temple. Judas Maccabæus surrounded it with a high wall and towers. Simon (B.C. 142) built a palace for himself upon Mount Moriah, which was afterwards turned into a regular fortress by John Hyrcanus. This castle, called by Josephus the Castle of Baris, was enlarged by Herod the Great, who called it the Castle of Antonia, under which name it makes a conspicuous figure in the Jewish wars with the Romans. When the Jews passed under the dominion of the latter power, although twelve thousand of their number, including many priests, were massacred in the temple courts, the treasures and sacred things were left untouched. Crassus, however, bore them less respect than Pompey. The temple itself, however, which always formed the great architectural glory of Jerusalem, was taken down and rebuilt by Herod the Great, with a magnificence exceeding that of Solomon. Jerusalem seems, indeed, to have been raised to the greatness which it had attained when the Saviour of men appeared, as if to enhance the misery of its overthrow. In A.D. 70 the city and temple were razed to the ground by Titus, who only left three of the towers and a part of the western wall, to show how strong a place the Roman arms had overthrown. Once more, in A.D. 135, a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected on Mount Moriah, and Jerusalem itself became Elia Capitolina.

Pilgrimages to the holy city became common in the time of Constantine. The Empress Helena and Constantine himself erected churches at the holy places, and the Jews were only allowed to wail over the desolation of the temple in which their fathers worshipped God. Under Julian they began to build, but it availed them not. Justinian erected a magnificent church to the Virgin upon Mount Moriah, as a memorial of the persecution of Jesus in the temple. This church, now the Mosque of El Aksa, was partially destroyed by the Persians in A.D. 614. The damage done by the Sassanides is said to have been repaired by Heraclius, who returned triumphant, with the cross upon his shoulders, but we know not exactly to what extent. Arabia soon furnished a still more formidable enemy in the Khalif Omar. The conqueror entered the holy