Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-13

| what was once Solomon's temple. 1t
was one of the saddsst and most solemn
and impressive scenes l ever witnessed to
| see scores of these descendants
| of Abraham with tears rolling
down their cheeks, and lips
| trem bling with emotion, book of
| psalms open before them, bewaillng the
ruin of the ancient temple and the cap
| tivity of their race, and crying to God
| for the restoration of the temple in Gil its
original splendor. Most affecting scene!
And such q prayer as that, century after
century, am sure God will answer, and
| in some way the departed grandeur will
! return, or something better. 1 looked
| over the shoulders of some of them, and
saw that they were reading from the
mournful psalms of David, while have
cen told that this is the litany which
| some chant:
"For the pie that lies desolste;
| We sit in solitude nd mourn;
| For the palace that is destroyed,
| We sit in solitude and mourn;
| For the walls that overthrow,
We sit in solitude and mourn;
| For our m jesly that is departed,
| We sit in solitude and mourn;
| For our great men that lie dead;
We sit IN solitude AMI mourn;
| For priests who have stumbled,
| We sit in solitude and MOURN
| think at that prayer Jerusalem will
come sgain to more than its ancient
magniticence; it may not be precious
! stones and architectural majesty, but IN
a moral spleudor that shall eclipse for
ever all that David or Solomon saw.
| But l must get back to the house-top
where stood early this morning. and
before the sun sets, that l may catch
wider vision of what the city now is and
once was. Standing here on the house,
3 l,,ne 4. l.t,f1e Co., IL
itury safety. Some old warrior, l war
rant, selected the spot. 1t stands on
hill 2600 feet above the level of the sea,
an deep ravines on three sides 90 the
work of military trenches. Compact as
no other city was compact. Only three
miles journey round, and the three an
Gent towers, Hippicus, Phasaelus, Mari
| anne, frowning death upon the ap-
proach of all enemies.
AS stood there on the house top in the
midst OF the city, SAID, 80 Lord, re-
veal TO me This metropolis of the world,
that may see it as it once appeared. -
No one was with me, for there are some
things you can
SEE MORE WILDLY
with no one but God and yourself pres
| ent. Immediately the mosque Of Omar,
which has stood for ages on Mount
Moriah. the site of the ancient temple,
| Disappeared and the most honored struc-
ture OF all the ages lifted itself in the
light and l saw 1.-THE temple, the
ancient templeI Not Solomon s temple.
but something grander than that. Not
Zerubbabel's temple, but something
more gorgeous than that. 1t was
| Herod 3 temple, built for the one pur-
pose of eclipsing all its architectural
predecessors There 1t stood, covering
nineteen acres, and 10 900 workmen had
been forty-six years in building it. Blaze
of magnificence! Bewilderlng range of
porticos, and ten gateways, and double
arches, and Corinthlan capitals chiseled
into lilies and acanthus. Masonry
bevelled and grooved into such
delicate forms that it seemed to
tremble in the light. Cloistors with
two rows of C0rnthian columns,
royal arches. marble steps pure as though
made out of frozen snow, carving that
seemed like panel of the door of heaven
had let down and set in, the facade of
the building on shoulders at each end
| lifting the glory higher and higher, and
walls wherein gold put out the silver,
and the carbuncle put out the gold, and
the jasper put out the carbuncle. until in
the changing light they would all seem
to come back again into chorus OF har-
monious color. The temple! The
temple! Doxology in stone! An
thems soaring in rafters OF
Lebanon cedar! From side to side and
from foundation to gilded pinnacle, the
frozen prayer of all agesl
From this house-top on the December
afternoon We look out in another direc-
ton and l see the kings palace covering
100 900 square feet, three rows of win
dows illuminating the inside brilliance,
the hallway wHnscoted with all styles of
colornd marbles surmounted by ara
| besque, vermillion and gold, looking
| down on mosiacs, music of waterfalls in
the garden outside answering the music
of the harps thrummed by deft fingers
inside; banisters over which princes and
princesses leaned and talked tolkings and
queens ascending the stairway. o Je-
rusaIem, Jerusalem! Mountain city!
city of God Joy of the whole earth!
Stronger than Gibralter and Sebastopol,
surely it never could have been captured.
But while standing there on the house,
top 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
uEdlU were luUSe WdtcES IcuuCucu will
human gore. Yonder are the towers,
but again and again they fall. Yonder
are the high walls, but again and again
they were leveled.. To rob the treasures
from her temple and palace and dethroue
this queen city of the earth, all nations
plotted. David taking the throne at
| Hebron decides that he must have Jer-
usalem for his capital and, coming up
from the south at the head of $50, 900
troops, he captures it. Look, here
comes another siege of Jerusalem! The
Assyrians under Sennacherib, enslaved
nations at his chariot wheel, having
taken 200, 200 captives IN his one
campaign, Ph9nioian cltie3 kneel-
ing at his feet, Egypt trembling
at the flash of his sword, comes upon Je-
rusalem.
LOOK, ANOTHER SIEGE!
The armies of Babylon under Nebu-
chadnezzar come down and take plumber
from Jerusalem such as no 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
nigh: go through breach of the
Jerusalem wall, and the morn
ing finds. some of them seated tri-
umphant in the temple, and what they
could not take away because too heavy,