The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-12-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Thc Gardens of Solomon

TEXT: II made me great Uorks IJu,tded
me houses, picnted me rineyords, made
me gardens aud orchards, dad planted tree:
an them of all kinds Of fruits; Imade me
pools of lcdte3' TO trdte, NereUith the ,cOod
that bringeih forth trees. "-Ecclesiaste
IL, 4-6.
A spring morning and breakfast at Jeru.
salem. A king with robes snowy white in
chariot decked with gold, drawn by eight
horses, high melted, and housings as bril-.
liant as il scolloped out of that very sunrise
and like the winds for speed, followed
by regiment of archers on horseback,
with hand on gilded bow and arrows with
steel points flashing in the sum- clad from
head to foot i'll Tyrian purple and black
hair sprinkled with gold dust, all dsshing
down the road, the horses at full run, the
relns loose on their necss, and the crack OF
whips and the hai!oo 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 Jerusalem TO
his gardens and parks and orchards and res
ervolrS, six miles down the road toward
Hebron. What contrast between that and
myself on That very road one morning last
December gong afOot, for our pain vehicle
turned back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten: we on tie way to tint what is called
SoiomonS pool the ancient water works Of
Jerusalem. and the gardens of 4 king nearly
aqueduct again and again, ami here we ere
al the three great reservoirs. not ruins OF
rcScrNoIrs, but the reservoirs themselves
that solomon built three niieEniumS ago
Tor the purpose 81 catching the mountain,
streams and passing them to Jerusalem 10
siake the thirst OF the city, and also to irri-
gate the most glorious range OF gardens that
ever bloomed with all colors o. breathed
with all redolence, for Solomon was the
greatest horticultural, the greatest botanist,
the greatest ornitholoSist, the greatest CAPT.
talst and the greatest scientist of his CEN
fury.
Come over the piles OF gray rock. ami here
We are at the first of the three reservoirs.
which are on three great levels the bas. of
the top reservoir higher than the top of the
second, the base OF the second reservoir
higher than the top of the third, 50 arranged
that the waters gathered from the several
sources above stall descend from basin 20
basin, the sediment of wGteg daDosited in
each OF the three, 50 that by the time it gets
down TO the aGueduct which Is to take il to
Jerusalem ii has had three fiitarings AMI is
as pure as when the clouds rainei it, Won
derful specimens OF masonry are these three
reservoirs. The white cement fastenin. the
biocIs OF stone together is now Just as when
the trowe,s three thousand wears ago
smoothed the layers. The highest Reservoir
$50 Feet by 523, the second, rs feet bv 100
and the lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 169 and
deep enough and wide enough and mighty
enough to float an ocean STEINER
On that December morning we saw the
waters rolling down from reservoir 20
reservoir, and can wei, understand how IN
this neighborhood the imperial gardens
we're one great blossom, and the orchard
one great basket of fruit and that Solo
mon III his palace, writing the Song of
Songs and Eccle,astes may have been
drawing illustrations from what he had
seen that very morning in the royal gar
dens when he alluded to melons, and man.
brakes, and apricots, and grapes, and
pomegranates. and figs ami spiken. and
cinnamon. and calamus, and campfire,
and apple trees among the trees of the
weed" and the almond tree as nourishing,
and to myrrh and frankincenSe and repre-
sented Christ as gone down into his gar
dens, ana the beds of spices to feed in the
gardens. and to gather lilies" 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 remained no
more spirit in her." She gave it up
But all this sp!endor did not make Solomon
happy. One Gay. after getting back from
us morning ride and before the horses had
YET been cooled off and rubbed down by the
royal equeriy, Solomon wrote the memoir
able words following my text, like a dirge
played after a grand march, Behold all was
vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was
no profit under the sun" In other words,
1T don't paym Would God that we might
all learn the lesson that this world cannot
produce happiness, At Marseilles there is 4
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 as the world holds, water aud
hands N q Ea tfhn IF
Of scenery, but 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 satisfaction; but
tradition says that when the wise men of
the ssst were being guided by the star on
the way to Bethlehem they for little while
lost sight OF that star. anu in despair and ex-
haUStion came TO well to drink, when look
ing down into the well they saw the star re-
dected in the water and that cheered them,
and they resumed their journey; and have
the notion that though grandeur and pomp
Of surroundings may not afford peace at the
well of Gods consolation. close by, you may
find happiness, and the painest cup OF the
well of salvation may hold the brightest star
J that ever shone from the heavens.
| Although these Solomonic gardens are in
| ruins. there are now growing there towers
tbar are to be found nowhere else In the
| Holy Land How dol account for that's
Solomon sent out his ships and robbed the
| gardens Of the whole earth for flowers and
| planted these exotics here, and these par
! ticuIar flowers are direct descendants OF the
/ foreign plants he imported. Mr.. Meshullam.
| a Christian 1sraelite on til. very sight Of
these royal gardens. has in our day, BY put
ting in his own spade, demonstrated that the
! ground is only waiting for the right call TO
! yield Just rs much luxuriance and splcndor
eighteen hundred years alter Christ as it
yielded Solomon one thousand years before
/ Christ. So all Palestine IS waiting to become
the richest scene Of horticulture, arboricul-
ture and agriculture.
Recent travellers in the Holy Land
| speak of the rocky and stony .Ilrface Of