Connecticut western news., 1890-10-15

inscribed with the words 'sHaggai the
 Son of Shebnaiah," showing it be-
 longed to the Prophet Haggai, and to
 that seal ring he refers in his prophecy,
 saying, ''I will make thee as a signet. !"
 I walk further on far under ground,
 and find myself in Solomon's stables, | and see the places worn in the stone 1 pillars by the halters of some of his | twelve thousand horses. Further on,
 look at the pillars on which Mount l Moriah was built You know that the mountain was too small for the temple,
 and so they built the mountain out on pillars, and saw eight of those pillars, each one strong enough to hold 8 l mountain.
 THE MOSQUE OF OMAR.
 Here we enter the mosque of Omar, throne of Mohammedanism, where we are met at the door by officials who bring slippers that we must put on be- fore we take a step further, lest our feet pollute the sacred places. A man attempting to go in without these slip pers would be struck dead on the spot. These awkward sandals adjusted as well as we could we are led to where we see a rock with an opening in it through which, no doubt, the blood of sacrifice in the ancient temple rolled down and away. At vast expense the mosque has been built, but so somber is the place I am glad to get through it and take off the cumbrous slippers and step into the clear air.
 Wonder is curve of stone which is part of a bridge which once reached l from Mount Moriah to Mount Zion, and over it David walked or rode to prayers in the temple. Here is the wailing place of the Jews, where for centuries almost perpetually during the day time whole generations of the Jews have stood putting their head or lips against the wall of what was once Solomon's temple. It was one of the saddest and most solemn and impress i've scenes I ever witnessed to see scores of these descendants of Abraham with tears rolling down their cheeks, and lips trembling with emotion, a book of psalms open before them, bewailing the ruin of the ancient temple and the cap | tvity of their race, and crying to ! God for the restoration of the tenn pie in all it's original splendor! Most affecting scene! And such a prayer as that, century after century, I am sure God will answer, and in some way the departed grandeur will return, or something better. looked over the shoulders of some of them, and saw that they were reading from the mourn ! full psalms of David, while I have been ! told that this is the itany which some chant:
 For the temple that lies desolate We sit in solitude and mourn;
 | For the palace that is destroyed We sit in solitude and mourn;
 For the walls that are overthrown We sit in solitude and mourn;
 For our majesty that is departed We sit in solitude and mourn; For 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 will | come again to more than it's ancient magnif1cence. It may not be precious l stones and architectural majesty, but in moral splendor that shall eclipse forever all that David or Solomon saw A MILITARY CITY.
 But must get back to the house. ! top where stood early this morning, ] and before the sun sets, that may ! catch wider vision of what the city ! now is and once was. Standing here | on the housetop see that the city was built for military safety. Some ! old warrior, I warrant, selected the spot It stands on a hill twenty-six ! hundred feet above the level of the sea, and deep ravines on three sides do ! the work of military trenches-com- pact as no other city was compact. Only three miles journey round, and ! the three ancient towers, Hippicus, ! Phasaelus, Marianne, drowning death ] upon the approach of all enemies. As stood there on the housetop, in the midst of the city, I said, 70 Lord reveal to me this metropolis of the | world, that l may see it as it once ap- ! peared." No one was with me, for
 there are some things you can see more wildly 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, disappeared and the most hon.
 ored structure of all the ages lifted it. self in the light and I saw 1.-the tenn | pie, the ancient temple! Not Solo, mons temple, but something grander \ No4 o13
 but something more gorgeous than
 that. It was Herod's temple, built for l the one purpose of eclipsing all it's architectural predecessors. There it
 stood, covering nineteen acres, and 1O,- 1 900 wss:kmen had been forty-six years
 in building it. Blaze of magnificencel
 Bewildering range of porticos and ten
 gateways and double arches and Go,
 rinthian capitals chiseled into lilies and ! acanthus.
 Masonry beveled and groved into
 such delicate forms that it seemed to
 tremble in the light. Cloisters with ! two rows of Corinthian columns, royal
 arches, marble steps pure as though
 made out of frozen snow, carving that
 seemed like a panel of the door o.
 heaven let down and set in, the facade
 of the building on shoulders at eacl
 end lifting the glory higher and higher [ and walls wherin gold put out the sil
 yer, and the carbuncle put out tht ! gold, and the jasper put out the car
 buncle, until in the changing light they 1 would all seem to come back agai1 ! into chorus of harmonious color l The temple! The temple! Doxology
 in stone! Anthems soaring ill rafter
 of Lebanon cedar! From side 70 side ! and from foundation to cilded pima