Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-10-18


We sit In solitude and mourn;
For the walls that are overthroWn.
We sit in solitude and mourn;
For our majesty that Is departed,
West in solitude and mourn;
For our great men that lie dead,
We sit In solitude and mourn;
For priests who have stumbled,
We sit in solitude and mourn.
think at that prayer Jerusalem viii come
again to more than its ancient maguihcence;
it may not be precious stones and architec-
tural majesty, but in a moral spiendor that
shall eclipse forever all that David or Solo
mon saw.
But must get back to the housetop where
l stood early this morning, and before the
sun sets, that l may catch wider vision of
what the city now is and once wac. Stand
ing here on the housetop | see that the city
was built for military safety. Some old
warrior, warrant, selected the spot. 1t
stands on a hill 1900 feet above the level of
the sea, and deep ravines on three sides do
the work of military trenches. Compact as
no other city was compact. Only three miles
Journey round, and the three ancient towers,
Rippicus, Phasaelus. Marianne, frowning
death upon the approach of all enemies.
As / stood there on the housetop in the
midst of the city said, 30 Lord, reveal 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 vividly with no one but God and your
self present. Immediately the mosque of
Omar which has stood for ages ON Mount
Moriah, the site of the ancient temple, disap-
peared, and the most honored structure of
all the ages lifted itself in the light, and |
saw 1.-THE temple. the ancient temple Not
Solomons temple, but something grander
than that. Not Zerubbabers temple, but
something more gorgeous than that. 1t was
Herods temple, built for the one purpose of
eclipsing all its architectural predecessors.
There it stood, covering nineteen acres,
and ten thousand workmen had been forty
six years in building it. Blaze of magnif-
cencel Bewildering range of pcrticos and
ten gateways and double arches and Corin-
THAN capitals chiseled into lilies and acan-
thus. Masonry beveled and grooved into
such delicate forms that it seemed to tremble
In the light. Cloisters with two rows of Cor
inthiau columns, royal arches, marble steps
pure as though made out Of frozen snow,
carving that seemed like panel of the door
OF heaven 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
harmonious color. The tenplel The tempel
Doxology in stone! Anthems soaring IN raft
ers of Lebanon cedar! From side to side
and from foundation to gildei pinnacle the
frozen prayer of all agesl
From this housetop on the December after
noon we look out in another direction, and
see the kings palace, covering hundred and
sixty thousand square feet, three rows of
windows illumining tho inside briiliance,
the hallway wainscoted with styles of colored
marbles surmounted by arabesque, vermiion
and gold, looking down on mosaics, music of
waterfalls in the garden outside answering
the music of the harps thrummed by def
fingers inside; banisters over which princes
and princesses leaned, end talked to kings
and queens ascending the stairway. o Jeru.
salem, Jerusalem Mountain ethyl City of
God Joy of the whole earthl Stronger
than Gibraltar and Sebastopol, surely it
never could have been captured!
But While standing thera on the housetop
that December afternoon l hear the crash OF
the twenJy-three mighty sieges which have
come against Jerusalem in the ages past
Yonder IS the pool of Hezekiah aud Sloan,
but again and a2ain were those waters red
dened with human gore Yonder are the
towers, but again and again they fell Yon-
der are the high walls, but again and again
they are leveled. To rob the treasures from
her temple and palace and dethrone this
queen city of the earth all nations plotted.
David taking the throne at Hebron decides
NAhsS LC LAueS nave JeI uSsitGu LOT MS CaDiE2I,
and coming up from the south at the head OF
two hundred and eighty thousand troops he
captures 1t. Look, here comes another siege
of Jerusalem
The Assyriaus under Seunacheria, en-
s!aved nations at his chariot wheel, having
taken two hundred thousand captives in his
one campaign: Ph9n;cian cities llneelng at
his feet, Egypt trembling at the fash of his
sword, comes upon Jerusalem. Look, an
other siege! The armies of Babylon under
NebucaadneZzar come down ard take q
piunder from Jerusalem such as no other city
ever had to yield, and ten thousand of her
citizens trudge of into Ba6ylouian bon l.
age. Look, another siegel and Nebuchad-
nezzar and his hosts by night go through
breach of the Jerusalem wall, and the
morning finds soma of them seated tri.
umphant in the temple, and what they could
not take away because too heavy they break
uU-the brazen sea, and the two wreathed
pillars, joachim and Boaz
Another siege of jerusalem, and Pompey
with the battering rams which a hundred
men would roll back, and then, at full run
forward, would bang against the wall of the
city, and catapults hurting the rocks
upon the people, left twelve thousand dead
aud the city in the clutch of the Roman war
eagle. Look, a more desperate siege of Je-
rusaleml Titus with his tenth legion on
Mount OF Olives, and ballista arranged on
the principle of the pendulum to swing great
powders against the walls and towers, and
miners digging under the city making gall
leries of beams underground which, set on
fire. tumbled great misses of houses and hui
man beings into destruction and death. All
Is taken now but the temple, and Titus tho
eonqueror, wants to save that unharne1.
but soldier contrary to orders, hurts
torch into the temple and it is consumed.
Many strangers were in the city at the tina
and
taken, and Josephus says one million one
hundred thousand lay dead.
But looking from this house top. the sieg1
that most absorbs us is that of the Crusaders.
England and France and all Chr:stendom
wanted TO capture the Holy Sepulchre and
Jerusalem, then in possession OF the Moham-
medans, under the command of one of the
love,iest, brayest and mightiest men that ever
lived; for justice must be done him, though
he was Mohammedan-glorious Saladinl
Against him came the armies of Europe, under
Richard C9ur de Lion, King of England
Phllip Augustus, King of France: Tancred
Raymond, Godfrey and other valiant men,
marching on through fevers and plaques and
battle charges and suner.ngs as intense a
the world ever saw. Saladin in Jerusalem,
hearing of the siekn ass of King Richard, his
chief enemy, sends him his own physician.
and from the walls OF Jerusalem. seeing King
Richard afoot, sends him a horse. With all
the world looking on the armies of Europe
come within sight of Jerusalem.
At the first glimpse of the city they fall on
their faces in reverence and then lift anthems
of praise. Feuds aud hatreds among Them
selves were given up, and Raymond aud
. Tancred, the bitterest rivals embraced while
the armies looked on. Then the batteriug
rams rolled and the catapults swung, and the
swords thrust, and the carnage raget. God
frey, of Bouillon, is the first to mount the
wall and the Crusaders, cross on every
shoulder or breast, having taken the city,
march bareheaded and barefooted TO what
they suppose to be the Holy Sepuicher, and
kiss the tomb. Jerusalem the possession OF
Christendom. But Saladin re5ook the city,
and for the last four hundred years it has
been in possession of cruel and polluted
Aohammedanismi
Another crusade is needed TO start for
Jerusalem, crusade in this Nineteenth
century greater than all those Of the past
centuries put together. A crusade in
which you and | will march. A crusade
without weapons of death, but only ths
sword of the Spirit. A crusade that will
make not single wound, nor start oas
tear Of distress, nor incendiarizs one home
stead crusade of Gospel Peacei And
the Cross again be lifted on Calvary, not
as once an instrument Of pain, but signal
Of invitation, and the mosque Of Omar