The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-11-13

THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject, "THE GARDENS OF SOLOMON. "

TEXT; ~ made me great works, Ibuilded
me houses, planted me vineyards, made
me gardens and orchards, and planted trees
IN them of all kinds of fruits, made me
pools Of ,oater TO wdter therewita the ,oood
hat bringeth forth trees, -Ecclesiastes
H., 40.
spring morning and breakfast at Jeru-
salem. A king with robes snowy white in
chariot decAed 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 SUI, clad from
head To loot IN Tyrian purple, aud 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 cayal-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who is
IT. 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 atoot, for our plain vehicle
turned back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten; we on the way to find what is called
soiomon's pool, the ancient water works of
Jerusalem and the gardens Of king nearly
three thousand years ago. We cross this
aqueduct again and again, and here we are
at the three great reservoirs, not ruins of
reservoirs, but the reservoirs themselves,
that Solomon built three millenniums ago
Tor 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
fn. SAl A.
greatest horticuturist the greatest botanist,
the greatest ornithologist, the greatest capt.
taiist 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 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 529, the second, 423 feet by 100,
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 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 fiourishiug,
and to myrrh and frankincense, and repre-
sented Christ as gone down into his gar
dens, and the beds of spices to feed in the
gerdens, and to gather lilies" and to "eyes
like fish pools" and to the voice of the
turtle dove as heard in the land. l think
it was when Solomon was showing the
Queen of Sheba through these gardens that
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
yet been cooled off and rubbed down by the
royal equerry, 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,
ut don't paym Would God that we might
all learn the lesson that this world cannot
produce happiness! At Marseiles there is =
castellated house on high ground, crowned
with all that grove and garden can do, and
the whole place looks out upon as enchanting
landscape as the world holds, water ard
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 OF morally blind, brilliancy
of surrounding cannot give satisfaction; but
tradition says that when 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-
haustion came to well to drink, when look
ing down into the well they saw the star re-
flected 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 the
Holy Lard. How do Il account for thats
Solomon sent out his ships and robbed the
gardens of the whole earth for flowers. aud
planted these exotics here, and these par
ticular flowers are direct descendants of the
foreign plants he imported. Mr.. Meshulam.
Christian lsraelite, on ths 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
yield just as much luxuriance and splendor
eighteen hundred years after Christ as it
yielded 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 il
they had examined infinitely the rocks ant
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 lane
what the American and English farmer doe.
when, at great expense and fatigue. HI
draws his wagon lead of lime and scatters il
on the fields for their enrichment. The
storms, the winters the great midsummer
heats of Palestine, by crumbling up and
dissolving the rocks are gradually preparing
Palestine and Syria to yield a product like
unto the luxuriant Westchester farms OF
New York, ana Lancaster County farms Of
-nnSvlvania, and Somerset County farms
New Jersey and the other magnificent
farm fields Of Minnesots and Wisconsin, ENC
the opulent orchards of Maryland and Cal
ifornia. Let the Turk be driven out and 'ht
American or Englishman or Scotchman g
in and Mohammedanism withdraw its idol
airy and pure Christianity build its affairs
and the irrigation OF which Solomon's pool
was only suggestion will make all that lane
from Dan to Beersheba as fertile, ant
aromatic and resplendent as on the morning
when the king rode out to his pleasur,
grounds in chariot so swift and followed by
mounted riders so brilliant that it was fol
speed like a hurricane followed by a cyclone
As l look upon this great aqueduct o.
Palestine, a wondrous specimen of ancient
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
and then gathering their wealth of refresh
ment and pouring it on to the mighty cit
OF Jerusalem AMI filling the brazen sea of ne
temple, and the bathrooms OF her palaces
and the great pools of Sloan. and Hezskiah
I