Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-11-03
sss00IL0MONs GARDENS.
Or. rALmAeE CONTINUES HIS
SKETCHES or TIE HOLY LAND.


tian HernId-1he Resurrection.
B9ooKLTN, Nov 2.-Dr. Talmage preach
cd V sixth sermon on his tour in Palestine
toda.l After a pastoratc Of twenty-five
years in this city it is astonishing to see
the crowds OF people who throng the Acad-
envy Of Music every Sunday morning to
listen to his discourses. No less remarkable
are the audiences that New YorlQcity fur
nishes at The Christian Herald services
every Sunday night Today's sermon was
on the gardens and public works Of lsraels
magnificent king, and the text Ecclesiastes
ii, 40: II made me great works, bnilded
ME houses, planted me vineyards, made
me gardens aud orchards, and planted
trees 10 them Of all kinds Of fruits; ! made
me pools Of water to water Herewith the
wood that bringeth forth trees" DR.. Tai
mage said
a spring morningand breakfast at Jeru-
salem. A king with robes snowy white in
chariot decked with gold, drawn by eight
horses, high mettled, and housings rs bril-.
liant az il scolloped out of that very sum
rise, 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 the 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 neclSs. and the crack OF
whips and the halloo Of the reckless caval-
cate putting the miles at defiance. Who
is it, and what is itS King Solomon taking
au outing before breakfast from Jerusalem
to his gardens and parks and orchards
and reservoirs, six miles down the road
toward Hebron. What a contrast be-
tween that and myself on that very road
one morning last December going afoot,
for our plhin vehicle turned back
for Photographic apparatus forgotten;
we on the way to find what Is called Solo
mons pools, the ancient water works OF
Jerusalem, and the gardens Of a king
nearly three thousand years ago. We
cross the aqueduct again and again, and
here we are at the three great reservoirs,
not ruins of reservoirs, but the reservoirs
themselves, that Solomon built three mil
lenniums ago for the purpose of catching
the mountain streams and passing them to
Jerusalem to slake the thirst of the city,
and also to irrigate the most glorious range
of gardens that over bloomed with all
colors or breathed with all redolence, for
Solomon was the greatest horticulturist,
thologist, the greatest capitalist and the
greatest scientist Of his century
woNDERFUL ANCIENT MASONRY,
Come over the piles Of gray rock, and
here we are at the first Of the 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 gathered from
several sources above shall descend from
basin to basin, the sediment Of the water
deposited in each Of the three, so that by
the time il gets down to the aqueduot
which is to take IL To Jerusllcm 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
three thousand years ago smoothed the
LAYERS. The highest reservoir $50 feet by
800; the second, 493 feet by 100 and the
lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 1G9, and deep
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 well understand how in
this neighborhood the imperial gardens
were one great blossom, and the orchard
one great basket Of fruit, and that Solo
mon in his palace, writing the Song Of
Songs and Ecclesastea, may have been
drawing illustrations from what he had
seen that very morning in the royal gar
dens when he alluded to melons, and mar
brakes, and apricots, and grapes, and
pomegranates, and figs, and spiken, and
cinnamon, and calamus, and campfire,
and "apple trees among the trees of the
wood" and the almond tree as llourishing
aud To nyrrh and frankincense, and repre-
scented Christ as "gonc down into his gar
dens, and the beds of spices TO feed in the
gardens, and to gather lilies and to ''eyes
like 1sh pools" and TO the voice of the
turtle dove as heard in the land. ! think
It was when Solomon was showing the
Oneen of Sheba through these gardens that
the Bible says of her, "There remained no
more spirit in her" She gave it up.
But all this splendor did not make Solo
mon happy. One day, after getting back
from his morning ride and before the
horses had yet been cooled of, and rubbed
down by the royal equerry, solomon wrote
the memorable words following my text,
like dirge played after a grand march,
sssBehold all was vanity and veXation OF
spirit, and there was no profit under the
sun." In other words, ut don't payP'
Would God that we might all learn the
lesson that this world cannot produce hap
pinessl At MarseiIles there is castellated
house on high ground crowned with all
that grove and garden can do, and the
whole place looks out upon as enchanting
a landscape MS the world holds, water and
hiu claspinv hands in a perfect bewitch-
ment OF scenery, but the owner of that place
Is totally blind, and to him all this goes
for nothing, illustrating the truth that
whether Que be physically or morally blind
brilliancy of surrounding cannot give sat
lsfaction; but tradition says that when the
s'wise men of the east were being guided
bv the star on the way so bethlehem they
for a little while los, sight of that star
and in despair and yhaustion came TO q
well TO drink when looking down into the
well they saw the ST reflected in the
water and that cheer, them, and they re
sumed their Journey; and have the notion
that though grandeur and pomp of sur
roundings may not afford peace at thu
well of Gods consolation, close by, yot
may find happiness, and the plainest eul
AZ the well of salvation may hold tn,
brightest star that ever shone from thu
heavens.
PALESTINE READY TO BLOOM AGAIN.
Although these Solomonic gardens areil
ruins, there are now growing there flower
that are to be found nowhere else in tn
Holy Land How do / account for that
Solomon sent ont his ships aud robbed tn
gardens Of the whole earth for flowers, ant
planted these exett1s hers, aud these par
tiouiar flowers are direct descendants o
the foreign plants he imported. Mr.. Me