Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-11-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun.
day Sermon.
subject, "Ths Garden. OF solomon"


in them Of all kinds Of fruits; made me
pools Of tcdter to poteT here,cith the rood
that bringch forth trees. "-Ecclesiastes
H., 4-6.
A spring morning and breakfast at Jeru-
salem. A king with robes snowy white in
chariot decSed with gold, drawn by eight
horses, high melted, and housings as brill
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 glded 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, aud the crack OF
whips and the halloo Of the reckless cava,-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who is
it. and what is iti 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 aud
myself on that very road one morning last
December going atOot. for our plain vehicle
turned back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten; we on the way to find what is called
Solomon's pool, the ancient water works Of
Jerusalem, and the gardens Of king nearly
three thousand years ago. We cross the
D.
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 bloomed with all colOrS or breathed
with all redolence, fer Solomon was the
greatest horticultural, the greatest botanist,
the greatest ornithologist, the greatest capt.
talist and the greatest scientist of his CEN
tury.
Come over the piles of gray rock. and hero
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 as when the clouds rained it. Won
derful 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 $50 the second, 423 feet by 100.
and the lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 1853, and
deep enough and wide enough and mighty
enough TO float an ocean steamer.
On that December morning we saw tae
waters rolling down from reservoir TO
reservoir, and can well understand how IN
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
cinnamon, and calamus, and campfire,
and 'apple trees among the trees OF the
wood and the almond tree as hourishing,
and to myTrh and frankincenSe and repre-
sented Christ as gone down into his gar
dens and The beds Of spices to feed in the
gsrdens, and to gather lilies and to ''eyes
ike 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 saws of her: There remained no
more spirit in her." She gave it up.
But all this splendor did not make Solomon
happy. One day, after getting back from
his morning ride and before the horses had
vet been cooled of and rubbed down by the
royal eQuerry, Solomon wrote the me nor
able words following my text, like a 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 paym Would God that we might
all learn the lesson that this world cannot
produce happiness At Marseilles there is a
castellated house on high ground, crowned
with all that grove and garden can do, and
the whole place looks out upon as enchanting
a landscape as the world holds, water aud
hill clasping hands in perfect bewitchment
Of scenery, but the owner of that place Is
totally blind, and to him all this goes for
nothing, illustrating the truth that whether
one be physically or morally blind, brilliancy
of surrounding cannot give satisfaction; but
tradition says that when the wise men Of
the east" were being guide1 by the star on
the way to Bethlehem they for a little while
lost sight of that star, and in despair and ex-
haustion came to a we'll to drink, when look
ing down into the well they saw the star re-
fected 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 Solomonic gardens are in
ruins. there are now growing there flowers
that are to be found nowhere else in tho
Holy Lad. How do account for that
Solomon sent out his ships and robbed the
gardens of the whole earth for flowers and
planted these exotics here. and these par
ticular flowers are direct descendants of the
foreign plants he imported. Mr. Meshullam.
a Christian Israeite, on the very sight OF
these royal gardens, has in our day, by put
ting in his own spade, demonstrated that the
ground is only waiting for the right call to
Weld Just as much luxuriance and splendol
eighteen hundred years after Christ as Il
Welded Solomon one THOUSAND years 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
nearly all Palestine as an impossible barrier
to the future cultivation Of the soil. But II
they had examined infinitely the rocks and
stones of the Holy Land they would find thai
they are being skeletonized and are being
melted into the soil and, being for the mos
part limestone. they are doing for that lano
what the American and English farmer doe
when, at great expense and fatigue, NJ
draws his wagon load Of lime and scatters i
storms the winters, the great midsummer
heats of Palestine by crumbling up anc
dissolving the rocks are gradually preparing
Palestine and Syria to yield product hk'
INTO the luxuriant Westchester farms Of
New York. ana Lancaster County farms
PENNSYLVANIA. and Somerset County farm
of New Jersey and the other magnificent
farm fields Of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and
the opulent orchards of Maryland and Cal
ifornia. Let the Turk be driven out and the
American OF Englishmau or Scotchman g
in and Mohammedanism withdraw its idol
airy and pure Christianity build its alta 5
and the irrigation of which Solomon's pool
was only a suggestion will make all that lane
from Dan to Beersheba as fertile, snC
aromatic an resplendent as on the morning
when the king rode out to his pleasure
grounds in chariot so swift and followed by
mounted riders so brilliant that it was fol
speed like hurricane followed by cyclone
As l look upon this great aqueduct o
Palestine, wondrous specimen OF anclen
masonry, about seven feet high. two fee
wide. sometimes tunneling the solid rocl
and then rolling its waters through stone
ware pipes, an aqueiuct doing its work tel
miles before it gets to those three reservoirs
aud then gathering their wealth of refresh
7 .. t..l.A