noon
The tower of David merges into obscurity ; no longer glitter the minarets of the mosque of Omar ; Bethesda 's angelic waters , the gate of Stephen , the street of sacred sorrow , the hill of Salem , and the heights of Scopas can no longer be discerned . Alone in the increasing darkness , while the very line of the walls gradually eludes the eye , the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a beacon light . And why is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a beacon light ? Why , when is it already past the noon of darkness , when every soul slumbers in Jerusalem , and not a sound disturbs the deep repose , except the howl of the wild dog crying to the wilder wind ; why is the cupola of the sanctuary illumined , though the hour has long since been numbered when pilgrims there kneel and monks pray ? An armed Turkish guard are bivouacked in the court of the Church ; within the Church itself , two brethren of the convent of Terra Santa keep holy watch and ward ; while , at the tomb beneath , there kneels a solitary youth , who prostrated himself at sunset , and who will there pass unmoved the whole of the sacred night . Yet the pilgrim is not in communion with the Latin Church ; neither is he of the Church Armenian , or the Church Greek ; Maronite , Coptic , or Abyssinian ; these also are Christian churches which can not call him child . He comes from a distant and a northern isle to bow before the tomb of a descendant of the kings of Israel , because he , in common with all the people of that isle , recognises in that sublime Hebrew incarnation the presence of a Divine Redeemer .