Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-11-06
CHRIST WALKED THERE.
soLOMoN'S GROUNDS AND
BETHLEHEM.
Or. Talmage Gives Some Glowing Pict-
ures OF Scenes In Jerusalem and VIcin-
ity-The Wisdom ana Practical work
of Solomon.

| ity-Tho wisdom ana Practical Worl
of Solomon.
Di, Talmage preached his sixth ser
mon on his tour in Palestine in tn,
Brooklyn Tabernacle on Sunday. Tht
sermon was on the gardens and public
works Of Israers magnificent King, anC
the text Eccles. ii, 4-6: II made mt
great works, builded me hous IS,
planted me vineyards, l made me gar
| dens and orchards, and planted trees II
them of all kinds of fruits; l made me
pools Of water TO water Herewith the
wood that bringeth forth trees" DR.
Talmage said
A spring morning and before breakfast
at Jerusaleum. A king with robes
snowy white in chariot decked with gold
drawn by eight horses, high mettled and
housings as brilliant as If scolloped out
Of that very sunrise, and like the winds
for speed, followed by a regiment OF
archers on horseback with hand on gilded
bow, and arrows with steel points flash.
ing 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, and the crack OF
whips, and the halloo of the reckless
cavalcade putting the miles at defiance.
Who is it, and what is it? King Solo
mon is taking an outing before breakfast
from Jerusalem to his gardens and parks
and orchards and reservoirs, six miles
down the road toward Hebron.
What contrast between that and N.Y.
self on that very road one morning last
December.
Come over the piles of gray rock and
here we are at the first of the three res
ervoirs, 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 several sources above
shall descend from basin to basin, the
sediment of the 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 filterings,
and is as pure as when the clouds
rained it.
On that December morning we saw the
water rolling down from reservoir to
reservoir, and can well understand how
in this neighborhood the imperial gar
dens were one great blossom, and the
orchard one great basket of fruit.
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 memorable words
following my text, like dirge played af-
ter grand march, "Behold all was
vanity and vexation of spirit, and there
was no profit under the SUM-" In other
words, 1t don't pay" Would God that
we might all learn the lesson that this
world cannot produce happiness.
Although these Solomonic gardens are
in ruins, there are now growing there
flowers that are to be found nowhere else
in the Holy Land. How do l account for
that? Solomon sent out his ships and
robbed the gardens of the whole earth
for flowers and planted these exotics
mere, and these particular flowers are di-
rect descendants of the foreign plants he
imported. Recently travellers in the Holy
Land speak of the rocky and stony sur
face of nearly all Palestine as an impas-
sable barrier to the future cultivation of
the soil. But if they had examined
minutelY the rocks and stones of the
Holy Land they would find that they are
being skeletonized, and are being melted
into the soil and, being for the most part
limestone, they are doing for that land
what the American and English farmer
does when at great expense and fatigue
he draws his wagon load of lime and
scatters it on the fields for their enrich
ment.
AS look upon this great aqueduct of
Palestine, wondrOuS specimen of
ancient masonry, about seven feet high,
two feet wide, sometimes tunneling the
solid rock and then rolling it's waters
through stoneware pipes, an aqueduct
doing its work ten miles before it gets
to those three reservoirs, and then gath
ering their wealth of refreshment and
pouring it on to the mighty city of
Jerusalem and filling the brazen sea of
her temple, and the bathrooms of her
palaces, and the great pools of Sloan
and Hezekiah and Bethesda, 1 find them
in good condition three thousand years
after construction and it makes me think
than 1t now knows. The great honor
OF our age is not machinery, for the
ancients had some styles of it more won
derful; nor art, for the ancients had art
more exquisite and durable; or archi-
lecture, for Roman Coliseum and Grecian
Acropoiis surpaSs all modern architec-
ture; nor cities, for some of the ancient
cities were larger than ours in the sweep
OF their pomp. But our attempts must
be in moral achievement and Gospel VIC
tory. In that we have already surpassed
them, and in that direction let the ages
push on. Let us brag less of worldly
achievement, and thank God for moral
opportunity. More good men and good
women is what the world wants. To-
ward moral elevation and spiritual at
tainment let the chief struggle be. The
source of all that will show you before
sundown of this day, on which we have
visited the pools of Solomon, and the
gardens of the King.
We are on this December afternoon on
the way to the cradle of Him who called
Himself greater than Solomon. We are
coming upon the chief cradle of all the
world, not lined with satin, but strewn
with straw; not sheltered by palace,
but covered by barn; not presided over
by princess, but lowered over by
peasant girl: yet cradle the canopy of
which is angelic wings, and the lullaby
or which is the first Christmas carol ever
sung, and from which all the events of
the future have and must take date as
being b. c. or A. D.-before Christ or
after Christ. All eternity past occupied
in getting ready for this cradle and all