the sun of noon
It had moved him to look upon this most majestic fortification , embattled and begirt for resistance against the most majestic nation in the world . But he who came as a stranger could not feel within him the tenderness of old love , the sanctity of old tradition , and the desperation of kin in his blood as he gazed upon Jerusalem . Yonder was a roof-garden ; to him , no more than that . But the inspired Jews beside him knew that in that place the sun of noon had shone upon Bathsheba , the beautiful ; and in that neighboring high place the heart of the Singing King had melted ; to the north was a stretch of monotonous ground overgrown with a new suburb ; but that was the camp of Sennacherib , the Assyrian whom the Angel of the Lord smote and his army of one hundred and four score and five thousand , before the morning . Yonder were squalid streets , older than any others . But the Kings had walked them ; the Prophets had helped wear trenches in their stones ; the heroes and the strong-hearted women of the ancient days had gone that way . No house but was holy with tradition ; no street but was sanctified by event .