The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1890-11-13

Solomon one thousand years before
Christ 80 all Palestine is waiting to
become the richest scene OF horticult.
ure, arboriculture and agriculture.
AS l look upon this great agueduct OF
Palestine, a wondrous specimen Of
ancient masonry, about seven feet high,
two feet wide, sometimes tunneling the
solid rock and then rolling its waters
through stoneware pipes, an aqueduct
doing its work ten miles before 1t gets
to those three reservoirs and then gath
ering their wealth Of refreshment and
pouring 1t on to the mighty city Of Je-
rusalem and filling the brazen sea
Of her temple, and the bath
rooms Of her palaces, and the
great pools OF Sloan. and Heze-
ksah, and Bethesda, find that our cent
ury has no monopoly OF the worlds
wonders, and that the conceited age in
which we live had better take in some
of the sails Of its pride when 1T remem-
bers that 1t is hard work in later ages
to get masonry that will last fifty years,
to say nothing of the three thousand,
and no modern machinery could lift
DlOJhS VI 5JOho llhO opitlO VI tllOSc
standing high up in the walls OF
Baalbec, and that the art OF printing
claimed for recent ages was practiced by
the Chinese fourteen hundred years ago
and that our midnight lightning ex-
press rail train was foreseen by the
Prophet Nahum, when in the Bible he
wrote. ''The chariots shall rage in the
streets, they shall jostle one against
another in the broadways, they shall
seem like torches, they shall run like
lightnings," and our electric telegraph
was forseen by job, when in the Bible
he wrote: "Canst thou send lightnings
that they may go and say unto thee:
Here we are?'"
What is that talking by the light
nings, but the electric telegraph do
not know but that the electric forces
now being year by year more thorough
ly harnessed may have been employed
in ages extinct and that the lightnings
all up and down the sky have beenrun-
ming around like lost hounds to find
their former master
These aqueducts OF Solomon that
visit to-day, finding them in good con-
dition three thousand years after con-
struction, make me think that the world
may have forgotten more than it now
knows The great honor of our age is
not machinery, for the ancients had
some styles of it more wonderful; nor
art, for the ancients had art more ex
quisite and durable; nor architecture,
for Roman Coliseum and Grecian
Acropolis surpass all modern archi-
lecture; nor cities, for some Of the an
cient cities were larger than ours in the
sweep of their pomp. But our attempts
must be in moral achievement and
Gospel victory. In that we have al
ready surpassed them, and in that di-
rection let the ages push on. Let us
brag less of worldly achievement, and
thank God for moral opportunity. More
good men and good women is what the
world wants. Toward moral elevation
and spiritual attainment let the chief
struggle be. The source of all that
will show you before sundown of this
day, on which we have visited the pools
of Solomon and the gardens of the King.
We are on this December afternoon
on the way to the cradle of Him who
called Himself greater than Solomon.
We are coming upon the chief cradle OF
all the world, not lined with satin, but
strewn with straw, Enot sheltered by
a palace, but covered by barn, not
presided over by Princess, but lowered
over by peasant girl; yet cradle the
- toh 10 li,. f,,rr nd
the lullaby OF which is the first Christ
mas carol ever sung, and from which all
the events of the future have and must
take date as being b. c. or A. D.-be-
fore Christ or after Christ. All eternity
past occupied in getting ready for this
cradle, and all eternity to come to be
employed in celebrating its conse-
quences.
said to the tourist companies plan
ming our Oriental journey: "Pnt us in
Bethlehem In December, the place and
the month OF our Lords BIRTH" and we
had our wish. / am the only man who
has ever attempted to tell how Beth
lehem looked at the season Jesus was
born. Tourists and writers are there in
February, or March, or April, when the
valleys are an embroidered sheetof wild
flowers, and anemones, and ranunculus
are flushed as though from attempting
to climb the sleeps, and lark and bull
finch are flooding the air with bird or
chestra. But was there in December,
a winter month, the barren beach be-
tween tho two oceans of redolence
was told must not go there at that
season, told so before started, told SC
in Egypt; the books told me so; all trav'
elers that consulted about it told me
So But l was determined to sec
bethlehem the same month in which
Jesus arrived, and nothing could dis
suade me. Was | not right in wanting
to know how the Holy Land looked
when Jesus came to II? lie did not land
amid flowers and song. When the an
gels chanted on the famous birthnight
all the fields Of Palestine were silent
The glowing skies were answered by
gray rocks. As Bethlehem stood against
a bleak wintry sky, ! climbed up tc
it, as through bleak, wintry sky Je
sus descended upon it. His way down
was from warmth to chill, from bloom
to barrenness, from everlasting June tc
sterile December. II ] were going tc
Palestine as botanist and TO study the
flora of the land, would go in March,
but / went as minister of Christ tc
study Jesus, and so went in December
/ wanted to see how the worlds front
door looked when the heavenly stranger
entered it,
The town OF bethlehem, 20 my sur
prise, is in the shape OF horseshoe,
tho houses extending clear on to the
prongs OF the horseshoe. The whole
scene more rough and rude than car
be imagined. Verify, Christ did not
choose soft, genial place in which tc
be born. The gate through which ouI
Lord entered this world was 6
gate of rock, hard, cold gate,
and tho gate through which ue
departed was swing-gate o.
sharpened spears. We enter a gloomy
church built by Constantine over the
place in which Jesus was born. Filteer