At the south-east corner of Jerusalem, near the termination of the Kedron, lies the valley of Hinnom, where once sacrifices were offered to Moloch on Tophet. They bent their course around the Water-gate and went through this valley which lies on the southern side, along the aqueduct of Siloah, which had been erected by Solomon. They came first to the lower pool, then to the remains of a noble garden, and at last, opposite to the south-west side of the city to the upper pool, near which was the highly-prized fountain of Siloah, which Manasseh, on his return, had connected with the city by means of a well. Isaiah describes the waters of Siloah as "flowing softly."

This is the holy spot where the wisest king of Israel was anointed. David, then grey with years, said, "Set Solomon my son on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (so this fountain was then called) and let Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him there king over Israel. So Zadok and Nathan, and

*Isaiah viii. 6.

Benaiah and the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down thither, and Zadok took a horn of oil out of the sanctuary and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, and all the people came up after him piping and rejoicing, so that the earth was rent with their sound."*

"It was not without reason," said Elisama, "that I brought thee hither to-day. As the king is the anointed of a people, so is the priest of a family. For thy own sake I led thee to the valley of Jehoshaphat; it shall serve as an omen to myself that I have brought thee hither."

They were both silent. Passing by the Fuller's Field, as it was called from ancient times, and bending round the western side of the city, by the ruins of the aqueduct of Hezekiah, they entered the valley of Siloah. Between the gate of the Fountain and the gate of the Valley they saw the tower of Zion, formerly called the tower of the Jebusites, and now the city

* 1 Kings i. 33.

+2 Kings xviii. 17. Isaiah vii. 3. ‡ Judges i. 21.

of David, rising in the midst of the Higher City which had been built around it. The Higher and Lower City were separated by a valley, which was called the Tyropoon (valley of the cheese-makers.) They entered by the gate of the Valley and thus reached again the house of Iddo, in the Higher City, and in the Broad-street.

How did Iddo sympathize in the joy with which Elisama announced to him the determination of Helon! He was standing in the outer court, and had just taken leave of some acquaintance, when they entered. Leading them with exclamations of joy to the inner court, he called his wife from the apartment of the women, made the slaves place cushions around the fountain, and repeatedly exclaimed, "What a happiness for a family! The priest is indeed an angel of Jehovah of Hosts."

The day was spent in domestic festivity, but Helon could not be present at the evening sacrifice, because he had made himself unclean by contact with a grave.* It seemed somewhat

Numb. xix. 16.

strange to him, that he should have been defiled by a visit to his father's tomb, and be unfit to appear in the temple of Jehovah, because he had shed there tears not of earthly sorrow but of heavenly hope. But he consoled himself with the thought that the priest was more secure even in this respect.

In the afternoon, as he could not go up to the temple, he strayed, accompanied by his host, through the Higher City, the Lower City, and came at last into the New City. The artisans were at their labours, in shops open to the street, and presented a picture of animated activity. They passed the ruins of the palaces of David, in the Upper City, and Solomon in the Lower City, and saw the tower of Baris, where Helon was to appear on the following day, before the high-priest, and at length turned in the New City around the hill Bezetha, by the Gate of the Corner which lay in the north-east side of the city. The sepulchres of the kings,* a splendid work, hewn out of the rock, was near.

#2 Chron. xxi. 20.

Helon and Iddo proceeded, and winding round the west side of the city came into the vale of Gihon. "Yonder," said Iddo, "is Golgotha," as they came to an open space.

A dim remembrance of the connection of this place with some past event of his life came into Helon's mind, and he at length recollected his dream. "I have had," said he to his host, "an extraordinary dream, which I have been unable to shake off and which ended with Golgotha." When he had related it to him, Iddo replied, "Remember the words of Elihu,

In a dream, in visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon their bed

God giveth instruction unto men.-Job xxxiii. 15.

A part of the dream is on the point of being fulfilled, in your receiving the sacerdotal unction, and we will hope that the rest portends only good. What Golgotha should mean I do not understand."

Helon purified himself in the evening, by the prescribed ablutions, from the uncleanness which he had contracted by the contact of the grave.