SHRINES OF THE HOLY LAND CONTESTED BY THE RUSSIAN AND THE TURK. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONG MANS. 1854. 203. d. 231. PREFACE. wwwww ONE of the most extraordinary events ever inscribed on the page of history is now to be recorded, namely, that in the nineteenth century Europe stands involved in the horrors of war on account of the Holy Places. The longest peace that its states have ever enjoyed is now broken upon a question connected with the Shrines of the Holy Land. In the days of the Crusades the Western Powers fought side by side in the same cause, and once again the world beholds the amazing spectacle of armies and fleets in motion, making the Tomb of the Saviour the ostensible motive for war and bloodshed. The phrase of the "Holy Places" being as familiar on every lip as household words, it has been thought that a concise description of their localities, their past history, and their present state, might not be unacceptable to the public, thrown into a condensed form, so as to be fully comprehended at one view. THE HOLY LAND. THE Holy Land is that unique portion of the earth which must always command the deepest interests of the human heart wherever Christianity is known; and as time advances, and the kingdom of the Messiah spreads far and wide over the face of the earth, still more and more will the attention of those who are called by his name be drawn towards that country, emphatically denominated the "Land of Promise." It was in this favoured section of the earth that the Omnipotent deigned to hold communication with man. It was here that angels came and went-here that Christ lived and died-Deity sanctifying B |