Sion

“ Hast thou no king in thee, or is thy counsellor perished, because sorrow hath taken thee as a woman in labour?
10 Be in pain and labour, O daughter of Sion, as a woman that bringeth forth: for now shalt thou go out of the city, and shalt dwell in the country, and shalt come even to Babylon, there thou shalt be delivered: there the Lord will redeem thee out of the hand of thy enemies.
11 And now many nations are gathered together against thee, and they say: Let her be stoned: and let our eye look upon Sion. ”

“ The ways of Sion mourn, because there are none that come to the solemn feast: all her gates are broken down; her priests sigh; her virgins are in affliction; and she is oppressed with bitterness. 1:5. He. Her adversaries are become her lords; her enemies are enriched; because the Lord hath spoken against her for the multitude of her iniquities; her children are led into captivity, before the face of the oppressor.
1:6. Vau. And from the daughter of Sion, all her beauty is departed; her princes are become like rams that find no pastures ”

“ Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.
49:14. And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.
49:15. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.
49:16. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes.
49:17. Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and make thee waste shall go out of thee. ”

“ I look upon His Mother as the saint of saints, the holiest of all, the fragrant urn for the manna, or rather, to speak more truly, the fountain taking its rise in the divine and far-famed city of David, in Sion the glorious; in it the law is fulfilled and the spiritual law is portrayed. In Sion, Christ the Law-giver consummated the typical pasch, and God, the Author of the old and the new dispensation, gave us the true pasch. ”

“ With this Sion deal kindly. What is Sion? A city holy. What is a city holy? That which cannot be hidden, being upon a mountain established. Sion in prospect, because it hath prospect of something which it hopeth for. For Sion is interpreted “prospect,” and Jerusalem, “vision of peace.” Ye perceive then yourselves to be in Sion and in Jerusalem, if being sure ye look for hope that is to be, and if ye have peace with God. “And be the walls of Jerusalem builded.” “Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion, and be the walls of Jerusalem builded.” ”

“ Ill imitated while they loudest sing
The vices of their deities, and their own, 340
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid
As varnish on a harlot’s cheek, the rest,
Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare
With Sion’s songs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is praised aright and godlike men,
The Holiest of Holies and his Saints
(Such are from God inspired, not such from thee) ”

“ He spies great Sion’s king amid the train,
And to him leaps, and high his sword he rears,
And on his forehead strikes, and strikes again,
Till helm and head he breaks, he cleaves, he tears;
Down fell the king, the guiltless land he bit,
That now keeps him, because he kept not it.
XC
Their guides, one murdered thus, the other gone,
The troops divided were, in diverse thought,
Despair made some run headlong gainst their fone,
To seek sharp death that comes uncalled, unsought;
And some, that laid their hope on flight alone,
Fled to their fort again ”

“ It is so to-day, because little of modernity has come into its life.
The city, town, or finally village—for it is hardly more, from its great lack of activity—lies at the foot of three lofty, isolated eminences. A great conflagration came to Sion early in the nineteenth century which resulted in a new lay-out of the town and one really fine modern thoroughfare, though be it still remarked its life is yet mediæval.
Upon one of these overshadowing heights is the present episcopal residence, and on another the remains of a fortress—formerly the stronghold of the bishops of Sion. ”

“ For Sion was equipped for war.
“Going to do? Fight, of course!” retorted Sion, as pugnacious as ever. “What are you fellows going to do? Keep on running away?”
“No. As soon as we meet up with Fannin or get those cannon from the mouth of the Brazos we’ll capture Santa Anna and go back to ploughing. We’re here to stick. We’re stuck already, in the mud!”
“Have you enlisted, Sion?” queried Ernest.
“Sure. I’ve just been waiting till you came down. I’m in Captain Moseley Baker’s San Felipe company, and I’m here to stick, too. He’s a fighter. We fellows reckon Sam Houston’s gone about far enough.” ”

“ At the same time, he himself made an extraordinary effort with his horse, but all in vain; and he found, on every side, people who presented themselves willingly to death, but who would not quit their station while they had power to defend themselves in it.
Conspicuous above all these for his dress, his youth, his many acts of valour, and his graceful figure, was the young king of Wypo, who, encouraging his troops, presented himself wherever Amda Sion was in person. The remarkable resistance that this young prince made, soon drew the attention of the king of Abyssinia ”

“ Without turning to the right or left, though many must have been consumed with [pg 241] anxiety to hear the fate of kinsmen and friends, they marched to Mount Sion. It was an hour of triumph, the fruition of hopes passionately cherished through many a dark day of sorrow. ”

“ Sion is redeemed with judgment, and established with righteousness. Do not make the way to heaven easier on your minds and imaginations than indeed it is, and think it not sufficient to live in an outward observance of the ways of God. If your own wills be alive, and your corruptions remain unmortified, the judgment of God will be your portion, therefore in the Lord’s name come along with me; I am come to declare what I have heard and seen of the Father. Come and examine thy conscience. Hast thou brought thy deeds to the light? ”

“ Who made this even of that very dust, but He who created Adam himself out of dust? This then is concerning Sion, but not in Sion only.
16. “The heathen shall fear Thy Name, O Lord; and all the kings of the earth Thy Majesty” (ver. 15) . Now that Thou hast pitied Sion, now that Thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, by acknowledging the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; now that they have pitied her dust; so that man is formed, or rather re-formed, in life out of dust ”

“ Sion House, one of the seats of the right Honourable the Earl and Countess of Northumberland, stands upon the banks of the Thames, between Brentford and Isleworth in Middlesex, and opposite to the King’s Garden at Richmond. It is called Sion from a monastery of the same name, which was founded by Henry the Vth. ”

“ They were not as brothers, but as strangers; neighborly and at peace. They married wives, by whom they had children, and they sat in the Big Seat in Sion. They mowed their hay and reaped their corn at separate periods, so that one could help the other; if one needed the loan of anything he would borrow it from his brother; if one's heifer strayed into the pasture of the other, the other would say: "The Big Man will make the old grass grow." On the Sabbath they and their children walked as in procession to Sion.
In accordance with his father's word, Dan dug ditches in Penlan ”

“ But, now that it is clear that Sion is the city of God; what is the city of God, but the Holy Church? For men who love one another, and who love their God who dwelleth in them, constitute a city unto God. Because a city is held together by some law; their very law is Love; and that very Love is God: for openly it is written, “God is Love.” [9] He therefore who is full of Love, is full of God; and many, full of love, constitute a city full of God. That city of God is called Sion; the Church therefore is Sion. ”

“ Amda Sion, whose whole wish was to bring the Moors to an engagement as often as occasion presented, left off his plundering upon the first news that the king of Adel had taken the field, and, allowing him to choose the ground on which he was to fight, the next day he marched against him, having (as sure of victory) first detached bodies of horse to intercept those of the Moors that should fly when defeated ”

“ This is going on now in the building of Sion: the builders of Sion pray, they groan: He is the one poor, because the poor are many; because the thousands among so many nations are one in Him, because He is the unity of the peace of the Church, He is one, He is many: one, through love: many, on account of His extension. Therefore we now pray, we now run: now, if any man hath used to be otherwise, and lived differently, let him eat ashes as it were bread, and mingle his drink with weeping. ”

“ For Mount Sion signifies Judea, where it is predicted there shall be safety, and a Holy One, that is, Christ Jesus. But Mount Esau is Idumea, which signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which, as I have expounded, those saved again out of Sion have defended that it should be a kingdom to the Lord. ”

“ If ever the innermost meaning of the Word was in dispute in Capel Sion the Big Man sent an angel in a cloud with a message to Old Ianto of the Road, and this message Old Ianto interpreted to the congregation. Thus, honoured above men, Ianto got puffed up and vain-glorious, whereat the Big Man sent a tempter to test him.
The tempter, in the flesh of a tramp, came to Manteg in the quiet of a Sabbath eve, and he found Ianto setting his thoughts in tune with Sion on the bank of the waters which are against the hedge of Abel Shones’s garden. ”

“ Sion is one of the most picturesque little cities in Switzerland, being built around two prominent hillocks that rise from the level valley of the Rhone. The north hillock is crowned by the castle of Tourbillon (built 1294, burnt 1788) , which was long the residence of the bishops. ”

“ In this capacity his merits shone more and more, and speedily elevated him to the rank of priest. Nor were his mind and actions unworthy of his rank, as the storm of persecution, which followed, made manifest. For at that time the unbelievers raised a violent persecution, and heavily assailed the church. But the gates of death did not prevail against the gates of the daughter of Sion, so as to deter men from declaring their Maker’s praise. ”

“ TO Icon Amlac succeeded Igba Sion, and after him five other princes, his brothers, Bahar Segued, Tzenaf Segued, Jan Segued, Haseb Araad, and Kedem Segued, all in five years. So quick a succession in so few years seems to mark very unsettled times. ”

“ The Mexican says if Fannin had marched only three miles further ’stead of camping in the open he’d have been in the timber and all Mexico couldn’t have cut him off!”
“We can fight without him, anyhow,” blurted Sion. “We’ve got enough to lick Sesma and Woll. And I reckon we’ll do it, about day after to-morrow.”
“Don’t know whether we will or not,” retorted Jim. “And supposing we do. They’re just an advance guard. There’s Urrea, now, down south, with twelve or fifteen hundred regulars, and nobody to hold him; and there’s Santa Anna coming, with a few thousand more. ”

“ Sir Simon thereupon vowed to God that if he escaped from thence, and the realm ever righted itself again, he would return thither to release his bride and take vengeance on the murderers of his brother. He did everything that Siona wished. His sword in one hand, his torch in the other, the card of deliverance round his body, he cautiously stepped upon the bridge of sighs, and when it gave way beneath him, he softly descended into the terrible abyss, from whose depths a dull howling greeted him. ”

“ At her feet sits Concord, a beautiful woman upon whose brow rests the pentecostal tongue of fire; she holds two cords that proceed from the scales of Justice, uniting the twenty-four citizens who pass in procession to the feet of the Commune of Siena. This is represented by a majestic old man, richly clothed in robes that show the black and white of the republican shield, royally crowned. The mystical cord of union is attached to his sceptre, and in his other hand he holds an image of the Blessed Virgin,{140} whom the Sienese had chosen for their Sovereign Lady. ”

“ With the help of the gray light which filters through the canvas can be seen a horse standing near the parapet. The big horse feels very lonely, whisks the flies with his tail, and often sways his head. Gradually the eye, becoming accustomed to the dim light, discerns other objects—for instance: the mast upon which Orso carries Jenny, the hoops pasted with paper for her to jump through. All these lie on the ground without order, and the half-lighted arena and nearly dark benches give an impression of a deserted building with battened windows. ”

“ Yet the life at Siena, serene and charming as it may have been for the pupil, was, if we may judge by his expressions in other connections, more or less a bore to the master. He liked to think of himself as an authority on the art of teaching, but he seems always to have regarded teaching as being, for himself, an interruption to the higher interests of his life. After a few weeks he was restless again, and begged permission of his pupil to go on alone to Rome. ”