The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-11-13
SOLOMON'S GARDENS.
DR.. TALMAGE CONTINUES HIS SkET-
CHES OF THE HOLY LAND.

Tabernacle and tho Addresses Delivered
Under the Auspices OF The Christian
Herald-The Resurrection.
BROOKLYN, Nov. 2.-Dr. Talmage
preached the sixth sermon on his tour
In Palestine to-day. To-day's sermon
was on the gardens and public works
OF IsraePS magnificent king, and the
text Eccleslastes ii, 4-6: II made me
great works, | builded me houses, |
planted me vineyards, made me gar
dens and orchards, and planted trees in
them of all kinds of fruits; made me
pools of water to water Herewith the
wood that bringeth forth trees" DR..
Talmage said:
A spring morning and breakfast at
Jerusalem. A king with robes snowy
white in chariot decked with gold,
drawn by eight horses, high mettled,
and housings as brilliant as if scollop-
ed out of that very sunrise, and like
the winds for speed, followed by regi-
ment of archcrs 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
their necks, and the crack of whips
and the halloo of the reckless caval-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who
Is it, and what is it? King Solomon
taking an outing before breakfast from
Jersualem to his gardens and parks and
orchards and reservoirs, six miles
down the road toward Hebron. What
a cor trast between that and myself on
that verySiS9ad one morning last De-
cember gof1g afoot, for our plain We
hicle turned back for Photographic ap-
paratus forgotten; we on the way to
find what is called Solomon's 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
millenniums 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
ever bloomed with all colors or breath
ed with all redolence, for Solomon was
the greatest thorticulturist, the greatest
LotaniSt, the greatest rnithologist, 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
reservoirs, 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 BASH
to basin, the sediment of the water de-
posted in each of the three, so that by
the time it gets down to the aqueduct
which is to take it to Jerusalem it has
had three filterings, and is as pure as
when the clouds rained it. Wonderful
specimens Of masonry are these three
reservoirs. The white cement fasten-
ing the blocks of stone together is now
just as when the trowels three thouS-
and years ago Smoothed the layers.
The highest reservoir $50 feet by 229;
the SECOND, 423 feet by 100, and the
lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 1860, 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 reser-
voir to reservoir, and can we'll under
stand how in this neighborhood the
imperial gardens were one great bios
Of fruit, and that Solomon in his pal
ace, writing the Song of Songs and Ec-
clesiastes, may have been drawing il
Illustrations from what he had seen that
very morning in the royal gardens,
when he alluded to melons, and man
brakes, and apricots, and grapes, and
pomegranates, and figs, and spiken,
and cinnamon, and calamus, and cam
phire, and apple trees among the trees
OF the wood" and the almond tree as
iourishing, and to myrrh and franklin
cense, and represented Christ as 'gone
down into his gardens, and the beds of
spices to feed in the gardens, and to
gather hlles," and to "eyes like fish
pools" and to the voice of the turtle
dove as heard in the land. | think 1t
was when solomon was showing the
Queen Of Sheba through,.these gardens
that the Bible says Of her, "There re-
NAMED no more spirit In her." She
gave 1t up.
But all this splendor did not make
Solomon happy. One day, after get
ting back from his morning ride and
before the horses had yet been cooled
equerry, Solomon wrote the mem orable
words following my text, like dirge
played after grand march, Behold
all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
and there was no profit under the SUM-"
In other words, "It don't payW Would
God that we might all learn the lesson
that this world cannot produce happi-
ness At Marseilles there is castel-
lated house on high ground crowned
with all that grove and garden can do,
ana the whole place looks out upon as
enchanting a landscape as the world
holds, water and hill clasping hands in
a perfect bewitchment Of scenery, buC
the owner Of that place is totally blind,
and to him all this goes for nothing
illustrating the truth that whether one
be physically or morally blind brilliancy
OF surrounding cannot give satisfac.
tion; but tradition says that when thd
"Wise men Of the east" were beinS
guided by the star on the way to Bethg
Of that star, and in despair and exhaust
tion came to well to drink, when look