A locality is assigned to every, the
minutest, event connected with the recorded history of our Saviour;
even the spot where the cock crew when Peter denied his Master is
ascertained, and surrounded by the walls of an Armenian convent.
Many Protestants are wont to treat these traditions contemptuously,
and those who distinguish themselves from their brethren by the
appellation of "Bible Christians" are almost fierce in their
denunciation of these supposed errors.
It is admitted, I believe, by everybody that the formal
sanctification of these spots was the act of the Empress Helena,
the mother of Constantine, but I think it is fair to suppose that
she was guided by a careful regard to the then prevailing
traditions. Now the nature of the ground upon which Jerusalem
stands is such, that the localities belonging to the events there
enacted might have been more easily, and permanently, ascertained
by tradition than those of any city that I know of. Jerusalem,
whether ancient or modern, was built upon and surrounded by sharp,
salient rocks intersected by deep ravines. Up to the time of the
siege Mount Calvary of course must have been well enough known to
the people of Jerusalem; the destruction of the mere buildings
could not have obliterated from any man's memory the names of those
steep rocks and narrow ravines in the midst of which the city had
stood.
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