Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-10-24

eclipsing all its architectural predecessors.
There it stood, covering ninetee2 acres,
and ten thousand workmen had been forty
six years in building it. Blaze of magnit-
cence! Bewildering range OF pcrticos and
ten gateways and double arches and Corin-
THAN capitals chiseled into lilies and acan-
thus Masonry beveled and groOved into
such delicate forms that it seemed 10 tre1nbie
in the light. Cloisters with two rows of Cor
inthian columns, royal arches, marble steps
pure as though made out of frozen snow,
carving that seemed like panel OF the door
of heaven let down and set in, the facade of
the building on shoulders at each end
lifting the glory higher and higher,
the silver, and the carbuncle pat out the
gold, and the jasper put out the carbuncle,
until in the changing light they would all
seem to come back again into chorus OF
harmonious color. The temple! The temple
Doxology in stone. Anthems soaring In raft
ers of Lebanon cedar! From side 60 side
and from foundation to gilded pinnacle the
frozen prayer of all ages!
From this housetop on the December after
ioon we look out in another direction, and
ZEE the kings palace, covering hundred and
,lxty thousand square feet, three rows OF
windows nlumining the inside brill1ance,
the hallway wainscoted with styles of colored
marbles surmounted by arabesque, vermlllon
and gold, looking down on mosalcs, music OF
waterfalls in the garden outside answering
fingers inside: banisters over which princes
and princesses leaned. and talked to kings
ana queens ascending the stairway. y Jeru-
salem, Jerusalem! Mountain city! City Of
Godl Joy of the whole earthi Stronger
than Gibraltar and Sebastopo1 surely it
never could have been capturedl
But while standing there on the housetop
that December afternoon hear the crash Of
the twenty-three mighty sieges which have
come against Jerusalem in the ages past.
Yonder is the pool of Hezekiah and Sloan,
but again and again were those waters red
dened with human gore Yonder are the
towers, but again and again they fell Yon-
der are the high walls, but again and again
they are leveled. To rob the treasures from
her temple and palace and dethrone 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
two hundred and eighty thousand troops he
captures it. Look, here comes another siege
of Jerusalem!
The Assyrians under Sennacherib. en-
shaved nations at his chariot wheel having
taken two hundred thousand captives in his
one campaign: Phpnician cities kneeling at
his feet, Egypt trembling at the flash of his
sword comes upon Jerusalem. Look an
other siegei The armies Of Babylon under
NebuchadneZZar come down and take q
plumber from Jerusalem such as no other city
ever had to yield, and ten thousand Of her
citizens trudge off into Babylonian bond
age. Look, another siege! and Nebuchad-
nezzar and his hosts by night go through
a breach of the Jerusalem wall. and the
morning finds some of them seated tri
umphant 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 Pompey
with the battering rams which a hundred
I0ofI
forward, would bang against the wall Of the
city, and catapults hurting the rocks
upon the people. left twelve thousand dead
and the city in the clutch of the Roman war
eagle. Look, more desperate siege of Je-
rusalem! Titus with his tenth legion on
Mount of Olives, and ballista arranged on
the principle of the pendulum to swing great
powders against the walls and towers, and
miners digging under the city making gal
leries of beams underground which, set on
fire, tun1bled great masses Of houses and hu.
man beings into destruction and death. All
is taken now but the temple, and Titus the
conqueror, wants to save that unframed.
yuu a soldier, contrary to orders, hurts a
torch into the temple and it Is consumed.
Many strangers were in the city at the time
and ninety-seven thousand captives were
taken, and Josephus says one million one
hundred thousand lay dead
But looking from this house top, the siege
that most absOrbs us is thatof the Crusaders.
England and France and all Christendom
wanted to capture the Holy SepuIcnre anu
Jerusalem, then in possession Of the Moham-
nedans, under the command Of ono OF the
oveliest, bravest and mightiest men that ever
lived: for Justice must be done him, though
ne was a Mohammedan-glorious Saladlnl
A oainst him came the armies of Europe, under
Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England;
Philip Augustus King Of France; Tancred,
RAYMOND, Godfrey and other valiant men,
on thrOI1p}1 fAVarS and plaques and
battle charges and sutterlngs as intense as
5he world ever saw. Saladin in Jerusalem,
nearing 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 horse. With all
the world looking on the armies Of Europe
come within sight of Jerusalem.
At the first glimpse of the city they fall on
their faces in reverence and then lift anthems
Of praise. Feuds and hatreds among them
selves were given up, and Raymond and
rancred the bitterest rivals, embraced while
the armies looked on. Then the battering
rams rolled, and the catapults swung, and the
swords thrust anu the carnage ragged. God
frey, Of Bouillon, is the first to mount the
wall, and the Crusaders, cross on every
shoulder or breast, having taken the city,
march bareheaded and barefooted to what
they suppose to be the Holy Sepulcher, and
kiss the tomb Jerusalem the possession of
Christendom But Saladin retook the city,
and for the last four hundred years it has
been in possession of cruel and polluted
Mohammedanism
Another crusade is needed to start for
Jerusalem, a crusade in this Nineteenth
Century greater than all those of the past
centuries put together. A crusade in
which you and I will march. A crusade
without weapons OF death, but only the
make not a single wound, nor start one
tear of distress nor incendiariza one home