The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-05-24
sOIOmOn's Temple.


The skill, the art, the mighty toll, that
have been devoted to the adornment, and
to the desecration, Of this most ancient
place Of worship, have been Of extraordi-
nary magnitude. The grandest legacy Of
Egyptian antiquity, the Great Pyramid,
demanded, indeed, larger amount Of
naked human labor, but in Moriah there
is a conipulsion of the features of Nature
herself to the service of the builder In
actual bulk, the Great Pyramid is TO the
temple rock, as five to nine, ii we descend
but as far as the sills of the five double
Gates of the mountain of the house. IL
We carry the comparison down to the level
at which the lowest foundations of the walls
is inlaid in the rock at the angles Of the
enclosure, the bulk is three times that of
the Great Pyramid The cubic contents
of the mason's work may not amount to a
tenth part of that piled up by Souphis.
But the hill has been honey-comed with
chambers and galleries; and the declining
part to the south covered with vaults aud
arches, TO which Gheezeh can show no
parallel. No merely artificial structure
could have so successfully resisted the
| efforts Of the two greatest military nations
of the ancient world to destroy its exist
ence and obliterate its memory. No other
monument, long surviving the era of
Asiatic and Italian power can ever, like
the noble Sanctuary, mark by its very
ruins, the successive periods Of its glory
and its fall
If we regard not SO much the evidence
Of the labor devoted to the work of the
Temple as the effect produced on the mind
by its apparent magnitude, we may suggest
the following comparisons: the length of
the eastern wall of the Sanctuary is rather
more than double that of one side Of the
Great Pyramid Its height from the
foundation on the rock at the south, and
near the northern angles, was nearly a
third Of that of the Egyptian structure.
If to this great height Of one hundred and
ffty-two feet of solid wall be added to the
descent of one hundred and fourteen feet
to the bed of the Kedron, and the further
elevation of one hundred and sixty feet
attained by the pinnacle of the Temple
porch, we have total height of four hun
dred and twenty-six feet, which is only
ffty-nine feet less than that of the Great
Pyramid The area of the face Of the
eastern wall is more than double that Of
one side of the pyramid. Thus the magni-
tude of the noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem
far exceeded that of any other temple in
the world. Two ampitheatres of the size
of the Coliseum would have stood within
its colossal girdle, and left room to spare.
The Coliseum is said to have seated eigh.
ty-seven thousand spectators, and accom-
modated twenty-five thousand more in its
arena and passages. For such number
to have been crammed within its circle,
the space for each person must have been
limited to seventeen inches by twenty
inches. Allowing two cubits each way, or
four square cubits for each worshipper in
the temple, the Sanctuary would have
contained thirty thousand the Chel, in
cluding the Priests Court, twenty thousand
more, and there would yet have been room
in the Great Court and the cloisters to
make the total reach to more than two
hundred and ten thousand.-Ediab =
Rerie,c