The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-10-18

ing 100, 600 square feet, three rows of
windows Illumining the inside brill
lance, the hallway wainscoted with all
styles of colored marbles, s~urmounted
by arabesque, vermillion and gold,
looking down on moSaiCS, music OF
waterfalls IN tho garden outside answer
ing the music of tho harps thrummed
by deft fingers inside, banisters over
which Princes and Processes leaned
and talked to Kings and q Teens ascend
ing the stairway. Oh. Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem! Mountain city! City Of Godl
Joy of the whole earthi Stronger than
Gibraltar Ind Sebastopol, surely it never
could have been captured.
But while standing there on the house
top that December afternoon, ear the
crash of the twenty-three mighty sieges
which have come against Jerusalem in
the ages past. Yonder is the pool of
Hezekiah andSiloam, but again and again
were those waters Redeemed with human
gore. Yonder are the towers, but again
and again they fall. Yonder are the
high walls, but again and again they
we're leveled. To rob the treasures
from her temple and palace and de-
throne this queen city of the earth all
nations plotted. David taking the
throne at Hebron decides that he must
have Jerusalem for his capital, and,
coming up from the South at the head
of $50, 900 troops. he captures it. Look,
here comes another siege of Jerusaleml
The Assyrians under S~ennacherib. en-
shaved nations at his chariot wheel,
having taken 100000 captives in his one
campaign, Phnnician cities kneeling at
his feet Egypt trembling at the flash
of his sword, comes upon Jerusalem.
Look. another siege! Tho armies Of
Babylon under observation-disclosures come
down and take a plunder from Jerusa-
lem such as no other city ever had to
yield and 10, 900 Of her citizens trudge
off into Babylonian bondage. Look,
another siege! and NebuchadneZzar and
his hosts by night go through u breach
of the Jerusalem wall, and the morning
finds some of them seated triumphant
in the temple, and what they could not
take away because too heavy they break
up-the brazen sea and the two wreathed
pillars, joachim and Boaz.
Another siege of Jerusalem! and Pom
peY WIFI VIC lhB aulo "hiSh
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 IL, 900 dead, and
the city in the clutch OF the Roman war
eagle. Look, n more desperate siege Of
Jerusalem! Titus with his tenth legion
on Mount of Olives, and ballast ar
ranged on the principle of the pendu-
lum to swing great powders against
walls and towers, and miners digging
under the city making galleries Of beams
underground which. set on fire, tumbled
greaS masses of houses and human be"
ings into destruction and death. All is
taken now but the temple and Titus,
the conqueror, wants to save that UNI
harmed, but a soldier, contrary to Or
ders, hurls a torch into the temple and
1t is consumed. Many strangers were
in the city at the time and 81, 900 cap
tives we're taken, and Josephus says
1, 100, 900 lay dead.
But, looking from this housetop, the
siege that most absorbs us is that of the
crusaders. England and France n all
Christendom wanted to capture the Holy
Sepulcher and Jerusalem, then in pos
session Of the Mohammedans under the
command of one of the loveliest, bravest
and mightiest men that ever lived-for
justice must be done him though he was
o Mohammedan glorious Saladin!
Against him came the armies Of Europe
under Richard Ceur de Lion, King of
England; Philip Augustus, King of
France; Tancred, Raymond, Godfrey
and other valiant men, marching on
through levers and plaques, and battle
charges, and sufferings, as intense
as the world ever saw. Saladin
in Jerusalem, hearing Of the sickness 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
glimpse of the city they fall on their
faces In reverence, and then lift an
thems of praise. Feuds and hatred
among themselves were given up and
Raymond and Tancred. tho Interest
rivals, embraced while the armies looked
on. Then the battering rams rolled,
and the %Gatapults swung, and the swords
thrust, and the carnage ragged. Godfrey
of Bouillon is the first to mount the
wall and the crusaders, a cross upon
every shoulder or breast. have taken the
city, march bare-headed and bare-footed
to what they suppose to be the Holy
Sepulcher, and kiss the tomb. Jerusa-
lem the possession of C~hristendom. But
Saladin retook the city, and for the last
400 years it has been in possession OF
cruel and polluted MohRmmedanismI
Through its gates may we enter when
our work is done, and in its temple,
greater than all the earthly temples
piled in one, may we worship. Russian
pilgrims lined all the roads AROUND the
Jerusalem we visited last winter. They
had walked hundreds OF miles, and their
feet bled OF their way to Jerusalem.
Many of them had spent their last farth-
ing to get there, and they had left some
of those who started with them. dying
or dead by the roadside. An aged Womr
an exhausted with the long way, begged
her fellow pilgrims o to let her die
until she had seen he Holy City. AS
she came to the gate of the city she
could not take another step, but she
was carried in, and then said: Now
hold my head up till can look upon
Jerusalem" and, her head lifted, she
took n look. and said: Now ] die
l have seen it! l have seen 1t"
Some Of US before we reach the heaven
ly Jerusalem may be as tired as that,
but angels Of mercy will help us In, and
one glimpse Of the temple OF God and
the Lamb, and one good look at the
king In His beauty" will more than
for all the tolls and tears
and heartbreaks OF the pilgrimage.
Amen!