Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-10-13

think at that prayer Jerusalem will
come again to more than its ancient
magniffcence. 1t may not be precious
stones and architectural majesty, but
in a moral splendor that shall eclipse
forever all that David or Solomon saw.
A MILITARY CITY.
But | must get back to the house
ton where [ stood early this morning,
and before the sun sets, that I may
catch a wider vision of what the city
now is and once was. Standing here
on the housetop | see that the city
was built for military safety. Some
old warrior, [ warrant, selected the
SPOT. 1t stands on a hill twenty-six
hundred feet above the level of the
sea. and deep ravines on three sides do
the work of military trenches-com-
pact as no other city was compact.
ONLY three miles journey round, and
the three ancient towers, Hippicus,
Phasaelus, Marianne, frowning death
upon the approach of all enemies.
As I stood there on the housetop, in
the midst of the city, l said, 90 Lord,
reveal to me this metropolis of the
world, that [ may see it as it once APP
peared." No one was with me, for
there are some things you can see more
wildly with no one but God and your
self present Immediately the mosque
of Omar, which has stood for ages on
Mount Moriah, the site of the ancient
temple, disappeared and the most hon
ored structure of all the ages lifted it
self in the light and | saw 1.-THE tenn
pie, the ancient templei Not Solo
mons temple, but something grander
than that. Not Zerubbabel's temple,
but something more gorgeous than
that 1t was Herods temple, built for
the one purpose of eclipsing all its
architectural predecessors. There it
stood, covering nineteen acres, and TO-
900 workmen had been forty-six years
in building 1t. Blaze Of magnificencel
Bewildering range OF porticos and ten
gateways and double arches and Co
rinthian capitals chiseled into lilies and
acanthus.
Masonry beveled and groved into
such delicate forms that it seemed to
tremble in the light. Cloisters with
two rows of Corinthian columns, royal
arches, marble steps pure as though
made out of frozen Snow, carving that
seemed like panel of the door OF
heaven let down and set in, the facade
of the building on shoulders at each
end lifting the glory higher and higher,
and walls wherin gold put out the sill
yer, and the carbuncle put out the
gold, and the jasper put out the car
buncle, until in the changing light they
would all seem to come back again
into a chorus of harmonious color
The temple The temple! Doxology
in stonel Anthems soaring in rafters
of Lebanon cedarl From side to side
and from foundation to gilded pima
Gle, the frozen prayer of all agesl
THE KINGS PALACE.
From this housetop on the Deem
Der afternoon we look out in another
direction, and see the kings palace,
covering a hundred and sixty thousand
square feet, three rows of windows IL
lumining the inside brilliance, the hall.
way wainscoted with all styles of col
ored marbles surmounted by arabesque,
vermilion and gold looking down on
mosaics, music of waterfalls in the gar
den outside answering the music of the
harps thrummed by deft fingers inside.
Banisters over which princes and prin'
cesses leaned, and talked to kings and
queens ascending the stairway. o Jer
usalem, Jerusaleml Mountain ethyl
City of God! Joy of the whole earthl
Stronger than Gibraltar and Sebasto
pol Surely it never could have been
captured.
But while standing there on the
housetop that December afternoon
hear the crash Of the twenty-three
mighty sieges which have come against
Jerusalem in the ages past. Yonder is
the pool of Hezekiah and Sloan, but
again and again were those waters
redeemed with human gore. YondeI
are the towers, but again and again
they fell. Yonder are the high walls,
but again and again they were leveled.
To rob the treasures from her temple
and palace and dethrone this queen
city of the earth all nations plotted.
David taking the throne at Hebron de
cides that he must have Jerusalem fol
his capital, and coming up from the
south at the head of two hundred and
eighty thousand troops he captures it.
Look, here comes another siege of Jer
usalemi
The Assyrians under Sennacherib
enslaved nations at his chariot Wheel
having taken two hundred thousand
captives in his one campaign; Phonician
cities kneeling at his feet, Egypt
trembling at the flash of his sword,
comes upon Jerusalem. Look, another
siege! The armies of Babylon, under
Nebuchadnezzar, come down and take
plumber from Jerusalem such as nc
other city ever had to yield, and ten
thousand of her citizens trudge off into
Babylonian bondage. Look, another
siege! and Nebuchadnezzar and his
hosts by night go through breach OF
the Jerusalem wall, and the morning
finds some of them seated triumphant
in the temple, and what they could not
take away because too heavy they
break up-the brazen sea and the two
wreathed pillars, joachim and Boaz.
AssAILED BY THOUSANDS.
Another siege of Jerusalem, and
Pompey, with the battering rams which
a hundred men would roll back, and
then at full run forward would bang
against the wall of the city, and cata'
pulls hurting the rocks upon the peo
pie, left twelve thousand dead, and
the city in the clutch of the Roman
war eagle. Look, a more desperate
siege of Jerusaleml Titus, with his
tenth legion on Mount of Olives, and
ballista arranged on the principle of the
pendulum to swing great powders
against walls and towers, and miners
digging under the city making galleries
of beams underground, which, set on
fire, tumbled great masses of houses
and human beings into destruction and
death. All is taken now but the tenn
pie, and Titus, the conqueror, wants
to save that unframed, but a soldier,
contrary to orders, hurls a torch into
the temple and it is consumed. Many
strangers we're in the city at the time,
and ninety-seven thousand captives
vpara taken and TOSaDbI1S saws OnA