328 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP. 
VII. 
closed its mouth had been, perhaps for ages, 
rolled away. Stooping down to look into it, 
we observed, within, a fair sepulchre, containing 
a repository, upon one side only, for a single 
body; whereas, in most of the others, there 
were two, and in many of them more than 
two. It is placed exactly opposite to the hill 
which is now called Mount Sion. As we viewed 
this sepulchre, and read upon the spot the 
description given of the coming of Manj Mag- 
dalene and the Disciples, in the morning", it was 
difficult to divest our minds of the probability 
that here might have been the identical Tomb 
of Jesus Christ; and that up the steep which 
led to it, after descending from the gate of 
the city, the Disciples strove together ^ when 
" John did outrun Peter, and came first to the 
Sepulchre.^' They are individually described as 
stooping down to look into it ^ ; they express 
their doubts as to the possibility of removing a 
stone '^, which, when once fixed and sealed, 
might have baffled every human effort. But 
upon this sepulchre, as upon the others before 
mentioned, instead of a Hebrew or a Phoenician 
(1) John XX. (2) Ibid. xx. 4. (3) Ibid. verr. 5, 1 1. 
(4) " And tliey said among themselves, ' Who shall roll us away the 
stone from the door of the Sepulchre ?' — (And when they looked, they 
saw that the stone was rolled away) for it was very great." Mark 
xvi. 3, 4. 
