Mosque of Omar and Turkish Quarter, Jerusalem

‎We now go with Jesus through the valleys and over the hills, from the Sea of Galilee to the Holy City on her throne among the Judean mountains. When Christ came the Jewish Temple stood, as we have said before, where now the Mosque of Omar rises with its beautiful dome against the blue sky of Syria. It is the most prominent and striking building in Jerusalem, and from every point of view we catch the fine outline of the dome. Here the feet of Christ often trod the courts of the temple. Toward its towers He looked with mingled love and sorrow. To His sensitive soul here came memories of a long and eventful history in which His own human ancestors figured, and in which His Holy Father. God himself, had expressed in sundry ways and divers manners His will, His wrath, His grace. Upon this particular visit of our Lord to the Jews’ Passover it is said that He “found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting; and when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves: ‘Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise.’ ” It is at this time that our Lord had His wonderful interview with Nicodemus, and set forth before the learned and distinguished Jew the mysteries of the inner kingdom and the higher life which He came to make known; the new life, the birth from above, the life of heaven in the hearts of men.