trod our Lord; within the circuit of the city standing at this hour were wrought Lis 
miracles; were heard those lips “ which spake as never man spake;” were uttered 
those fearful denunciations which condemned Judah to bondage; and with not less 
authority, those infallible and illustrious promises which declare that she shall yet break 
her chain, and see her King in triumph, as she saw him in humiliation. Under such 
feelings, all minute doubts disappear; the mind takes no interest in minor localities; all 
Jerusalem is one magnificent locality. Through these streets the Saviour passed; on that 
height he taught in the courts of the Temple; from that Mount of Olives he looked upon 
the golden domes, and sculptured towers, and marble walls of Jerusalem ! Those facts are 
known beyond all doubt; those are sufficient for the heart; and fallen as the City of 
David is, Christendom bears in sacred memory, that “ her stones were laid in holiness,” 
and longs for the coming of the day when a splendour, not borrowed from sun or star, 
shall fill her courts with new-born glory. 
THE GOLDEN GATE. 
This is a massive structure, a double gateway, projecting from the eastern wall into 
the area of the Harem-esh-Sherif (the Noble Sanctuary), in which stands the Great 
Mosque. Its floor is several feet below the level of the area. After the second revolt 
and total ruin of the Jewish people, Hadrian (a.d. 136) built a new city, which he 
called JElia; and, for the purpose of offering the last insult to an unhappy nation, 
he raised a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Solomon. The style of 
the Golden Gate appears to refer it to this period; the external front and arches are 
unquestionably of Roman origin; and of the interior it is evident, that “a central 
row of noble Corinthian columns and a groined roof, had once formed a stately 
portico of Roman workmanship.” 1 
The name “Porta Aurea” cannot be followed higher than the tenth century. This 
gate was found walled up in the time of the Crusades, but was then opened once a-year, 
on Palm Sunday, from a tradition that through it our Lord made his entry into Jerusalem 
as king; a tradition probably arising from the stateliness of its architecture. By 
the Moslem, however, it is kept constantly willed up from a singular dread, that through 
it a king shall enter, who is to make himself master not only of Jerusalem, but of the 
globe. And that their vigilance, at least, may not be wanting to avert the conquest, 
they keep a sentinel constantly on duty in a tower flanking the gateway . 2 
' Bononi and Catlierwood, referred to by Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 438. 
2 Stephens, p. 94. 
