Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-03-20
"Men may come and men may 90,
But ! noW on foreYer.n

| Isl I tAeh may bVhnV hhu ArCu may BVf H
l '-'N But how on forever"
! And then, in the ghostly stiffness OF the night
| entered the vast Tfilithou. The Temple Of
Jupiter, under the deceptive lightning of the
moon, looked perfect. IL seemed as If Just fn.
ished by the architect, and to morrow Antonnius
Pontifex Maxlmus might himself be coming to
consecrate II to mighty Jove. The religion Of
the Roman has been celebrated there Sacrifi-
ces to the gods of Baalbec were offered there
for near four hundred years after the Christian
era. Then another religion occupied its halls
and shrines. The Christian possessed it. The
Cross was erected where the beardless statne
Of Jupiter had stood. The Bishop of Heliopo.
lis sat in the Council of Antioch.
Three centuries heard the hymns of the
Church chanted in its temples; AMI the lay pro-
cession of the priests swept through its hexagon
and quadrangle. Then war was in the land.
The exterminating conquests Of the Crescent,
with tide Of blood, flowed from the ocean
board to the deserts Of Damascus, and quenched
the lamps that had burned everlastingly before
the altars of the City of the Sun. Darkness
covered it for three hundred years, and silence
blotted out the name Of Heliopolis from history.
When IL once more emefges, its classic title has
perished In the food of devastation. Men call.
ed 70 Baalbec, and the Arabian historian and
Benjamin of'Tuledo (A.i D. 1863 noted it, and
tell us. Of its s'stones of enormous size,o and
how earthquakes have shaken the land Of Syria,
thrown down lie structures, and crushed to death
It's people. ss'iln'5
Saladin next occupied the stage of time.
King Baldwin and Count Raymond carried fire
sndaword through the land, cried havoc and let
clip the dogs Of war under It's battlements; for,
no longer city of temples, no longer the home
of o religion, IL had been converted into a for
tress, and the historian said, IL '.is castle built
with very large stones And then another
tragic actor afretted his little day before the
world. He bade It's citizens surrender, and
Tamerlane, flushed with victory, marched on
ward to Damascus. Another century and a
half rolled over, and we hear no more of II,
until the modern spirit Of travel first exhibited
itself, and the long catalogue Of names,coni.
menced with the Frenchman Belar, A. d.
1913; the Engllsh Maundrell, 1877. which
links u st last with the people Of our own,
times. slow oiti , aai ,f'f1fy E9i N piiai
The heashen, the Christian. the saracsn, the
Turk, all have been its lords and masters. .--
What train OF ghostly forms my fancy pictur.
%, with SLOW and stately march, going past me,
sweeping over the Door and through the COL
uured aisles where once IN life they trod Z Pom.
eyjthe veterans Of Augustus legi6ns; the EN-
perofs OF Rome Aptoninus, the bloody Cs racal
10, the Christian Theodosius;a the 6ctor-tbe
poor actor Gelasinus earning the hard d.boueht
food of the sock and the buskin, and vet with
hereligi0n Of Christ In his heart, going with
him on the stage, and hallowing his martyr
death y the impetuous crusader; the conducting
and couftly Saladin; the fiery Tamerlane-- --ali,
all seemed TO pass before me, their wan hands
pointing 70 the ruins they had left and the moon
shiningEhrough the broken nitches, the diamafl !.
tied architraves and pillars Of the lilhou, reft
Of all the sculptor clothing, exposed them With
funeral light before me IN giant forms, the de- !.
nuded corpse Of imperial pride, the skeletons Of
earthly pageantry and power, mopldefing away
in the falloW Of centuries a = ni'i