The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1873-07-16
The Temple at Jerusalem.


The Edin5argh RepseW has an article on
"The Recovery Of Jerusalem" briefly re-
viewing the results of recent explorations in
that city The writer thus speaks of the
magnitude of Solomon's Temple:
"Tbe skill, the art, the mighty toll that
have been devoted to the adornment and to
the decoration of this most ancient place
of Worship, have been of extraordinary
magnitude. The grandest legacy of Egyp-
tan antiquity, the Great Pyramid, demand
ed, indeed, larger amount of naked hui
man labor; but in Moriah there is com
pulsion 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, if we descend but as far as the
stills of the FIVE double gates of the noun
tain of the house. If we carry the COM
parison down to the level at which the lowest
foundation 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
combed with chambers and galleries, and the
declining part to the south covered with
vaults and arches, to which Gizeh can show
no parallel. No merely artificial structure
could have so successfully resistedTthe reso-
lutte efforts of the two greatest military ma.
tons of the ancient world to destroy its ex-
istence and obliterate its memory. No other
monument long surviving the era of Asatic
and Italian power, can ever, like the noble
sanctuary, mark by its very ruins the sue.
cessve 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 ap
parent magnitude, we may suggest the fol.
lowing comparisons: The length of the east
ern 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 north
ern angles, was nearly third of that of the
Egyptian structure. If to this great height
of 152 feet of solid wall be added the de-
scent of ia feet to the bed of the Kedron,
and the further elevation of 100 feet at
tanned by the pinnacle of the temple porch,
we have total height of 426 feet, which is
only SO feet less than that of the Great
Pyramid. The area of the face of the east,
ern wall is more than double that of the
one side of the Pyramid. Thus the magni.
tude of the noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem
far exceeds that of any other temple in the
world. Two amphitheaters of the size of
the coliseum could have stood within its
colossal grde, and Seft room to spare. The
coliseum is said to have seated 81 900 spec
tators, and accommodated $4,000 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. AL
lowing two cubits each way, or four square
cubitS, for each worshipper in the temple, the
Sanctuary would have contained 10000;
the Chel, excluding the priests court, 26,-
900 more; and there would have been room
in the great court and the coisters to make
the total reach to more than 100000.