Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-11-14
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Gardens of Solomon"

TEXT: II nen0e me great 1coTES, L Outtneh
me houses, planted me vineyards, made
me gardens and orchards, and planted trees
in them of oil kinds of fruits; made me
pools Of tCdteT to 1cdter theretClth the rood
that bringeh forth trees. "-Ecclesiastes
IL, 4-G.
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 ii 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 sun, clad from
head to foot in Tyrian purple, and black
hair sprinkled with gold dust, all dashing
down the road, the horses at full run, the
reins 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 it: King Solomon taking an
outing before breakfast from Jerusalem to
his gardens and parks and orchards and res
ervoirs, six miles down the road toward
Hebron. What contrast between that and
myself on that very road one morning last
December going afoot, for our pain vehicle
turned back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten; we on the way to find what is called
SolOmOns pool, the ancient water works OF
Jerusalem, and the gardens of king nearly
three thousand years ago. We cross the
aqueduct again and again, and here we ara
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
Stake the thirst of the city, and also to irri-
gate the most glorious range of gardens that
ever doomed with all colOrs or breathed
with all redolence for Solomon was the
greatest hOrticulturist, the greatest botanist,
the greatest OrnithOlOgst the greatest capi-
talist and the greatest scientist of his CEN
fury.
Come over the piles of gray rock. and here
we are at the frs 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 the several
sources above shall descend from basin to
basin, the sediment of water deposited 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 offerings, and is
as pure when the clouds rained it. Won
derfm specimens Of masonry are these three
reservoirs. The white cement fastening the
blocks of stone together is now just as when
the trOwels three thousand years ago
smoothed the layers. The highest reservoir
$50 feet by 529 the second 423 feet by 160
and the lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 1863, 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 III
this neighbOrhOOd the imperial gardens
were one great blossom, and the orchard
one great basket Of fruit, and that Solo
mon IN his palace, writing the Song of
Songs and Ecclesiastes, 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
and CalamuS
and apple trees among the trees OF the
wood" and the almond tree as fourishing,
and to myTrh and frankincense, and repre-
sented Christ gone down into his gar
dens and 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
it was when Solomon was showing the
Queen of Sheba through these gardens that
the Bible says of her: ''There remained no
more spirit i'll her" She gave it up.
But all this splendor did not make Solomon
happy. One Gay, after getting back from
his morning ride and before the horses had
vet been cooled off and rubbed down by the
royal eGuerry, Solomon wrote the memoir
able 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 sun" In other words,
sit don't payr' Would God that we might
all learn the lesson that this world cannot
produce happiness! At Marseilles there is a
castelated house on high ground, crowned
VIII all that grove and garden can do, and
the w&oe place looks out upon as enchanting
a landscape as the world holds water and
hill claspnlg hands in perfect bewitchment
of scenery but the owner OF that place is
totally blinG, and to him all this goes for
nothing, illustrating the truth that whether
one be physically or morally blind, brilEancy
OF surrounding cannot give Satisfaction; but
tradition says that Wnen the wise men of
the east" were being guided by the star on
the way to Bethlehem they for little while
lost sight Of that star, and in despair and eX-
haustlOn came to well to drink when look
ing down into the we'll they saw the star re-
f1ected 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 plainest cup of the
well of salvation may hold the brightest star
that ever shone from the heavens.
Although these Solomonc gardens are in
runs, there are now growing there flowers
that are to be found nowhere else in the
Holy Land. How do | account for that?
Solomon sent out his ships and robbed the
gardens of the whole earth for flowers aud
planted these exotics here and these par
ticuar flowers are direct descendants of the
foreign plants he imported. Mr. Meshullam.
a Christian lsraelite, on the very sight of
these royal gardens, has in our day, by put
ling in his own spade, demonstrated that the
ground is only waiting for the right call to
yield just as much iuxuriance and. splendOr
eighteen hundred years after Christ as 1t
vie def Solomon one thousand wears 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 surface of