The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-11-14
THE WISE KING.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Works Of Solomon.
Wondrous Reservoirs and Acqueducts of
the Holy acknowledgements of the
Past Compared with the Present
The Saviour's Birth Place.

Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage described the
gardens and'public works of King Solo
mon His text was Ecclesiastes ii. 4-6:
II made me great works, l builded me
houses, l planted me vineyards, 1 made
me gardens and orchards and planted
trees in them of all kinds of fruits; /
made me pools of water to water there
with the wood that bringeth forth
trees DR.. Talmage said:
spring morning and before break
fast at Jerusalem! A King with robes
snowy white in chariot decked with
gold, drawn by eight horses, high met
tied, and housings as brilliant as if
scolloped out of that very sunrise, and
like the winds for speed, followed by a
regiment of archers on horseback with
hand on gilded bow and arrows with
steel points flashing in sthe sun, clad
from head to foot in Tyrian purple and
black hair sprinkled with gold dust, all
dashing down the road the horses at
full run, the reins loose on their
necks, and the crack of whips
and the halloo of the reckless caval-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who
is it and what is it? King Solomon
taking an outing before breakfast from
Jerusalem to his gardens and parks and
orchards and reservoirs, six miles down
the road towards Hebron. What a con-
trast between that and myself on that
very road one morning last December
going afoot for our plain vehioae turned
back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten, we on the way to find what is
called Solomon's pools, the ancient
waterworks of Jerusalem, and the gar
dens of a King nearly 5000 years ago
We cross the acqueduct again and again
and here we are at the three greatreser-
voirs, not ruins of reservoirs, but the
reservoirs themselves, that Solomon
built three milleniums ago for the pur-
pose of catching the mountain streams
and passing them to Jerusalem to Stake
the thirst of the city, and also to irri-
gate the most glorious range of gardens
that ever bloomed with all colors, or
breathed with all redolence, for Solo
mon was the greatest horticulturist, the
greatest botanist the greatest ornithol-
ogist the greatest capitalist and the
greatest scientist of his century.
Come over the piles of gray rock, and
here we are at the first of three reser-
voirs, which are on three great levels,
the base of the top reservoir higher
than the top of the second. the base of
the second reservoir higher than the
top of the third so arranged that the
waters gather from several sources
al holl 1ncnnrI r., -
the sediment of the water deposited in
each of the three, so that by the time it
gets down to the acqueduct which is to
take it to Jerusalem it has had three
offerings, and is as pure as when the
clouds rained it. Wonderful specimens
of masonry are these three reservoirs.
The white cement fastening the blocks
Of stone together is now just as when
the trowels 5000 years ago smoothed |
the layers. The highest reservoir $50 |
feet by 229; the second, 423 by 100; and |
the lowest reservoir $50 feet by 169, and |
1eep enough and wide enough, and |
mighty enough to float an ocean
steamer.
On that December morning we saw
the waters rolling down from reservoir
to reservoir, and can we'll understand
how in this neighborhood the imperial
gardens were one great blossom, and
The orchard one great basket of fruit,
Ind that Solomon in his palace, writing
The Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes,
nay have been drawing illustrations
rom what he had seen that very morn
ng in the royal gardens when he allud-
ID to melons, and mandrakes, and april
lots, and grapes, and pomegranates, and
igs, and spikenard, and cinnamon, and
'alamus, and campfire, and "apple
rees among the trees of the wood" and
he almond tree as flourishing, and to
nyrrh and frankincense, and repre-
ented Christ as gone down into His
.ardens and the beds of spices to feed
n the gardens, and to gather lilies"
md to eyes like fish POOLS" and to the
'oice of the turtle dove as heard in the
and.
But all this splendor did not make
solomon happy. One day, after getting
Jack from his morning ride and before
he horses had yet been cooled off and
ubbed down by the royal equerry,
solomon wrote the memorable words.
my text. like dirge played
fter grand march: Behold all was
anity and vexation of spirit, and there
vas no profit under the sum-" In other
words, 1T doesn't pay?" Would to God
hat we might all learn the lesson that
his world can not produce happiness!
AT Marseilles there is a castellated ;
ouse on high ground crowned with I
Il that grove and garden can do, and 4
he whole place looks out upon as en-
hanting landscape as the world holds,
Tater and hill clasping hands in per- {
oct bewitchment of scenery, but the [
wner of that place is totally blind, and
D him all this goes for nothing, illus
rating the truth that, whether one be
physically or morally blind brilliancy {
surrounding can not give salts
action. But tradition says that when
the wise men OF the East were being I
uided by the star on the way to Beth
chem, they, for little while. lost |
ght of that star, and in despair and c
xhaustion came to we'll to drink, t
hen looking down into the well they c
wv the star reflected in the water, and t
nat cbeered them, and they resumed 8
heir journey, and l have the notion I
nat though grandeur and pomp of sur l
'undings may not afford peace, at the a
ell of Gods consolation, close by, you q
ay find happiness, and the plainest I
up at the we'll of salvation may hold
lie brightest star that ever shown from s
le heavens.
Although these Solomonic gardens are t
ruins, there are now growing there ]
overs that are to be found nowhere {
CO in the Hnlu Land Hnu do a. L