Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-29

| IS q most tedious ride to Nineveh ana &
| desert. Now see an additional reason
why Jonah did not want to go to Nineyeh
He not only revolted because of the dis
| agreeable message he was called to de-
| liver at NIneveh, but because il was q
| long way and tough, and bandit-iu tested
so he came here TO Joppa and took ship.
But alas, for the disastrous voyage! he
paid his full fare for the whole voyage,
but the ship company did not fill their
part OF the contract. To this day they
HAVE NOT PAID BACK
that passage money. Why people should
doubt the story OF Jonah and the whale
is more of d mystery than the Bible
event itself. 1 do not need the fact that
Pliny, the historiou, records that the
skeleton of whale forty feet long, and
with hide a foot and half thick, was
brought from Joppa to Rome. The
event recorded in the book of Jonah has
occurred 8 thousand times. The Lord
has always a whale outside the harbor
for the man Who starts in the wrong di-
rection. Reoreant Jonah! do not won
der that even the whale was sick of him.
This prophet was put In the Bible, not as
an example, but as q warning, because
the world not only needs lighthouses
but buoys to show where the rocks ars.
The Bible story or him ends by showing
the prophet in a fit of sulks. He was
mad because Niueveh was not destroyed,
and then be went out to pout and sat
under big leaf, using it for shade from
the tropical sun, and when q worm dis
turbed that leaf and it withered and the
sun smoto Jonah, he flew into great
rage and said: cit is better for me to
die than to live.'' A prophet i'll q rage
because he had lost his umbrella! Be-
ware of petulRnce!
But standing here on the housetop at
JoDpa, 1 look off upon the sands ne ar
the beach, and ] almost expect to find
them crimsoned and incarnadined. But
no; the rains long ago washed away the
last sign OF the Napoleonic massacre.
Napoleon was marching on through the
coasts. He had here at Joppa 1000
Albanians, who had been surrendered as
prisoners of war, and under promise
of protection. What shall he do with
them? 1t will be impossible for him TO
take them along, and he cannot afford
to leave soldiers enough
TO GUARD THEM FROM ESCAPE.
It will not be difficult for the man who
broke the heart of lovely Josephine and
who, when asked if the great losses OF
life in his battles were not too dear
price TO pay for his victories, shrugged
his shoulders mirthfully ana said, ''You
must break the egg if YOU want to make
an omelet IL say, it will not be diff
cult for him to decide. The prisoners of
war, by his order. are taken out on the
sands and put to death-l000 of them,
1000 of them, 5000 of them, 1000 OF
them, massacred. And the blood pours
down into the sea, the red of the one
mingliug with the blue of the other, and
making al awful maroon which neither
God nor nation can ever forget. Ye
who are fond of vivid contrasts, put the
two scenes of Joppa side by side, Dorcas
with her needle, aud the immortal
butcher with his knife.
But standing on this Jopna housetop, l
look off on the Mediterranean, and what
is that strange sight L see? The waters
are black seemingly for miles. There
seems TO be great multitude of logs
fastened together. Oh, yes, IL Is great
raft of timbers. They are cedars of Leb-
anon which King Hiram is furnishing
King Solomon in exchange for 20, 900
measures of wheat, 20, 900 baths of oil,
and 20, 900 baths of wiue. These oedars
have been cut down and trimmed in the
men engaged there and with great withes
and iron bolts are fastened together, and
they are floating down to Joppa to be
taken across the land for Solomon's
temple now building at Jerusalem, for
we nave lost our hold of the nineteenth
century and are clear back in the ages.
The RATS of cedsr ars guided into what
is called the Moon Pool, an old harbor
south of Joppa, now
FILLED WITH SAND, AND USELESS.
With long pixies the timbsrs are pushed
this way and that in the water. then with
levers, and many loud long "Io,
heavei' as the carriers get their Shout.
ders under the great weight, the timber
Is fastened to the wagons and the lowing
oxen are yoked to the load. and the pro-
cession of teams moves on with crack of
whip, and drawled-out words which
translated, l suppose, would correspond
with the 'whoa, haw, gee!' of modern
teamsters, toward Jerusalem, which is
thirty miles away, over mountainous
DISTANCES, which for hundreds of years
defied all engineering. And these rough
cedars shall become carved pillars, snd
beautiful affairs, and rounded bannisters,
and traceried panels, and sublime CELL
ing, and exquisite harps, and kingly
chariots. AS the wagon train moves out
from Joppa over the plain of Sharon
toward Jerusalem. say to
myself, what vast numbers of
people helped build that temple of
Solomon, aud what vast numbers of peo-
pie are now engaged in building the
wider, higher, grsnder temple of right
eousness rising in the earth. Our
Christian ancestry toiled at it, amid
sweat and tears, and hundreds of the
generations of the good, and the long
train of Christian workers still moves on,
and as in the construction of Solomon g
temple some hewed with the ak in the
fsr-away Lebanon, and some drove
wedge, and some twisted a withe, and
some trod the wet and slippery RATS on
the sea, and some yoked the OK, and
some pulled at the load, and some showed
the plane, and some fitted the points,
and some heaved up the rafters, and
ALL HELPED BUILD THE TEMPLE,
though some of these never saw it, so
now let US all put our hands, and our
and our hearts to building the
temple of righteousness, which is to fill
the earth; and one will bind q wound,
and another will wipe away tear, and
another will teach class, and another
will speak the encouraging word, and |
all of us will be ready to pull and lift,
and in some way help on the work until |
the milleuial morn shall gid the pinnacle |
of that finished temple, and at its Shin