The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-11-08
THE WISE KING.
DR.. Talmage Disoourses on the
Works of Solomon.

Wondrous Reservoirs and Acqueducts of
b Holy Land achievements OF the
Past Compared with the Present.
The savIour's Birth Place.
In his sixth sermon on the Holy Land
Rev. I. De Witt Talmage described the
gardens and public works of King Solo
mon. His text was Ecclesiastes II. 4-8:
II made me great works, l builded me
houses, / planted me vineyards, l made
me gardens and orchards and planted
trees in them of all kinds Of fruits; l
made me pools Of water to water there
with the wood that bringeth forth
trees" DIR. Talmage said:
A spring morning and before break
fast at Jerusaleml A King with robes
snowy white in chariot decked with
gold, drawn by eight horses, high met
tied, and housings as brilliant as If
scolloped out Of that very sunrise, and
like the winds for speed. followed by q
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 hatr sprinkled W tn gold dust, all
dashing-down the road the horses at
full rum the roins loose on their
necks, and the crack of whips
and the halloo OF the reckless caval-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who
Is 1t and what Is IL? King Solomon
taking an outing before breakfast from
Jerusalem to his gardens and parks and
orchards and reservoirs, six miles down
the road towards Hebron. What o con-
trast between that and myself on that
very road n morning last December.
going afoot, for Ii plain vehicle turned
back for photograph Q apparatus for
gotten, we on the way to find what Is
called Solomon's pools, the ancient
waterworks of Jerusalem, md the gar
dens OF a King nearly 3, 900 years ago.
We cross the acqueducta again and again
and here w are AZ the three greatreser-
voirs, not min OF reservoirs, but the
reservoirs themselves, thai solomon
built throe millentntns a95 for the pur-
pose d HAtr1l1f the mountain streams
ana passing them to Jerusalem to slake
the thirst of the city, and also to irri-
gate the most glorious range of gardens
that over bloomed with all colors, or
breathed with all redolence, for Solo
mon was the greatest ho%rticulturist the
greatest botanist, the greatest ornithol-
ogist the greatest capitalist and the
greatest scientist of his century.
Come Owe the piles OF gray rock. and
here we are at the first OF 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, 8 20 arranged that the
waters gather 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 1t
gets down to the ~acqueduct which is to
take 1t to Jerusalem 1t 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 5000 years ago smoothed
the layers. The highest reservoir $50
feet by 800; the second, 42S by 100; and
the lowest reservoir $50 feet by 169. 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 we'll understand
how in this neighborhood the imperial
gardens were n great blossom, and
the orchard n great basket OF fruit,
and that Solomon in his palace, writing
the Song of Songs and Ecclesfastes,
may have been drawing illustrations
from what he had seen that very morn
Ing in the royal gardens when he allud-
cd to melons, and mandrakes, and april
cots, and grapes, and pomegranates, and
figs, and spikenard, and cinnamon, and
calamus, and campfire, and "apple
trees among the trees OF the wood" and
the almond tree as fiourishing. and to
myrrh and frankincense, and repre-
scented Christ as gone down into His
gardens and the beds Of spices to feed
in the gardens, and to gather lilies, I"
and to ''eyes like fish pools" and to the
voice OF the turtle dove as heard in the
land.
But all this splendor did not make
Solomon happy. One day, after getting
back from his morning ride and before
the horses had yet been cooled off and
rubbed down by the royal equerry,
Solomon wrote the memorable words.
following my text. like a dirge played
after u grand march: Behold all was
vanity and vexation OF spirit. and there
was no profit under the sun" In other
words, 1T doesn't pay?" Would to God
that we might all learn the lesson that
this world al not produce happinessI
Although these Solomonic gardens are
in ruins, there are now growing there
Covers that are to be found nowhere
else in the Holy Land. How do lac
count for that? solomon sent out his
ships and robbed the gardens Of the
whole earth for flowers and planted
these exotics here, and these particular
flowers are direct descendants Of the
foreign plants he imported.
As l look upon this great aqueduct of
Palestine. a wondrous specimen Of an
cient masonry, about seven feet wide.
sometimes tunneling the sod rock and
then rolling its waters through stone
ware pipes, an aqueduct doing Its work
ten miles before 1t gets to those three
reservoirs, i find that our century has
no monopoly OF the worlds wonders,
that the conceited age in which we
had better take in some of the sails
of its pride when 1t remembers that 1t
IA hard work In later ages to get ma
sonry that will last fifty years, to say
nothing OF the 8, 600, and no modern
machinery could lift blocks of stone
like some OF those standing high up In
the walls of Baalbec, and that the art
of printing claimed for recent ages was
precticed by the Chinese I, 400 years ago
and that our midnight lightning express
rail train was foreseen by the prophet
Nahum, when in the Bible he wrote:
sThe chariots shall rage in the stresta
they shall jostle one against another in
the broadways, they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like lightnings."
and our electric telegraph was foreseen
by Job, when in the Bible he wrote:
'Canst thou send llghtnings that they
may go and say unto thee:' Here we
What Is that talking by light
nings but the electric telegraph?
Embalmment was q more thorough AFT
., 600 years ago than to-day. Dentistry.
that we suppose one OF the important
arts discovered in recent centuries, Is
proven to be 1000 years old by the
filled teeth OF the mummies in the
at Cairo, Egypt and artificial
on gold plates found by Betzoni
In the tombs OF departed nations. We