The Russellville Democrat., 1890-10-23


seen. It was bereavement OF the
heavensl Darkerl Until tho towers Of
the tcmple were no longer visible.
Darkerl Until the surrounding hills dis
appeared Darkerl Until the inscrip-
ton above the middle cross becomes IL
| legible. Darker! Until the chin OF the
dying Lard falls upon the breast and
He sighed with His last sigh the words:
1T is fnishedm
Bnt we must haston back to the G ity
! There are stones in the wall which
solomon had lifted. Stop here and see
a startling proof Of the truth Of proph-
eey. In Jeremiah, thiry-first chapter
and fortieth verse, it is said that Jeru-
salem shall be built through the
ashes. What ashes? people have been
asking. Were those ashes Just put into
| the prophecy to fill up2 No, the
meaning has been recently dis
covered. Jerusalem is now being built
out In a certain direction where
the ground has been Submitted
to chemical analysis, and it has
been found to be tho ashes cast out
from the sacrifices OF the ancient tenn
1 flAcf tiSA4to "a NIt hOOA anu 4SIdo Va
bones of animals. There are great
mounds of ashes, accumulation of cent
uries Of sacrifices 1t has taken all
these thousands of years to discover
what Jeremiah meant when he said:
behold, the days shall come, saith the
Lord, that the city shall be built to the
Lord from the tower of Hananeel INTO
the gate of the corner, and the whole
valley of the dead bodies and Of
the ashes" The people of Je-
rusalem are at this very time
fulfilling the prophecy. One handful
Of that ashes on which they are build
ing is enough to prove the divinity Of
the Scriptures Pass by the place where
the cornerstone OF the ancient temple
was laid three thousand years ago by
! Solomon. Explorers have been digging
and they found that cornerstone seven
ty-fve feet beneath the surface. 1t is
fourteen feet long and three feet eight
| inches high, and beautifully cut and
| shaped, and near it was an earthen Jar
that was supposed to have contained
the oil of conservation used at the cere-
| mony of laying the cornerstone Yon-
der, from depth OF forty feet signet
ring has been brought up. inscribed
with the wards "Haggai, the Son of
! Shebaniah," showing ii belonged to the
prophet Haggai, and TO that seal ring he
refers in his prophecy, saying; Il will
make thee signet." ! walk further
on, far underground, and / find myself
in Solomon's stables, and see the places
worn in tho stone pillars by the halters
Of some of his twelve thousand horses.
Further on, look at the pillars on which
Mount Moriah was built. You know
that the mountain was too small for the
temple, and so they built the mountain
out on pillars, and l saw eight Of those
| pillars, each one strong enough to hold
a mountain.
/ Here we enter the mosque of Omar. a
| 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
we'll as we could, we are led to where
we see rock with an opening in II
through which, no doubt, the blood oil
sacrifice in the ancient temple rolled
down and away. At vast expense the
mosque had been built, but so sober is
the place l am glad to get through it
and take off the cumbrous slippers, and
step into the clear air.
| Yonder is curve Of stone which is
part OF bridge which once reached
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 daytime
whole generations of the Jews have
stood, putting their head or lips against
the wall of what was once Solomon:
temple. 1t was one of the saddest and
most solemn and impressive scenes
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
captivity OF their race, and crying &c
/ God for the restoration of the temple in
/ all its original splendor Most affect.
ing scenel And such a prayer as that,
century after century, am sure God
1 will answer, and in some way the do.
parted grandeur win return, or some
thing better. / looked over the Shout
/ ders Of some of them and saw that they
were reading from the mournful psalms
/ OF David, while have been told that
this is the litany which some chant;
| For the temple that lies desolate,
| Wesit in solitude and moura;
For the palace that Is destroyed,
| We sit In soltnde aad mourn;
/ For the walls that are overthrow
| We sit In solitude aud mour n;
For our majesty that Is departed
We sit In sOlitud and mourn;
| For our great men that lie dead
1 We sir in solitude and mourn;
\ "a For priests who have stumbled,
| We sit In solitude and mourn.
! think at that prayer Jerusalem will
| come again to more than its ancient
magnifieence; 1t may not be precious
stones and architectural majesty, but
in a moral splendor that shall eclipse
forever all that David or solomon saw.
| But ! must get back to the house-top
whore stood early this morning. and
before the sun sets, that / may catch a
wider vision OF what the city now is and
once was. Standing here on the house
topp see that the city was bgiltfor mill
/ tary safety. Some Old warrior l war.
rant, selected the spot IL stands ON a
hill twenty-six hundred feet above the
level of the sea, and tho deep rayines
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,
Hippicus, Phasaelus, Marianne. frown-
ing death upon the approach OF all enc
I mics
As ! stood there on the house-top In
the midst Of the city, said: 20 Lord,
1 reveal 70 me this metropolis Of the
world, that may see ii as it once APP
peared. No one was with me, for there
ara some thinpS Won can see more yiv-