Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-03
THE HOLY LAND.
The Sixth of DR.. Talmage's Series
On His Recent Journey.
An Eloquent Sermon on the Gardens
and Public Works OF Israel's
Magnificent King.
Description of King Solomon Taking an
Early Outing from Jerusalem 10 His Gar
dens and Parks - A Contrast.
Special TO the Gazette.

Special to the Gazette.
BRoOKLYN, n. Y. Nov. DIR. Tai
mage preached the sixth sermon on his
tour in Palestine to-day. After pastor
ate of twenty-five years in this city it is
astonishing to see the crowds of people
who throng the Academy of Music every
Sunday morning to listen to his dis
courses. No less remarkable are the
! audiences that New York City furnishes
at the Christian Herald services every
Sunday night. To-day's sermon was on
the gardens and public works Of Israel g
magnificent king. and the text, Ecoles-
tastes 2: 4-6: al made me great works,
yards, made me gardens and orchards,
and planted trees in them OF all kinds of
fruits; made me pools of water to water
Herewith the wood that brlngeth forth
trees. - DR.. Talmage said:
A spring morning and before breakfast
at jerusalem: A king with robes snowy
white in chariot decked with gold, drawn
sSpfsS%aEfit horses, hgh-mettled. and
Pshousings as brilliant rs il scolloped out
of that very sunrise, and like the winds
for speed, followed by regiment OF
archers on horseback with hand on
giIded bow, and arrows with steel points
flashing IN the sun, clad from head 10
foot in Tyrian purple, and black hair
spriukled with gold dust, all dashing down
the road, the horses at full run, the
reius loose on their necks, and the crack
of whips. and the haioo of the reckless
cavalcade putting the miles at defiance.
Who is it, and what is it2
KING SOLOMON
taking an outing before breakfast, from
Jerusalem TO his gardens and parks and
orchards and reservoirs, six miles down
the road towards Hebron. What con-
tr8st between that and myself on that
very road one morning last December,
going afOot, for our plain vehicle turned
back for Photographic apparatus forgot
ten, we on the way TO find what is called
SOlomon's pools, the ancient water
works of Jerusalem, and the gardens of
q king nearly 5000 years ago. We cross
the 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
catching the mountain streams and pass
ing them TO Jerusalem to slake the thirst
of the city, and also to irrIgate the most
glorious range OF gardens that ever
blOomed with all colors or breathed with
all redolence for Solomon was the great
est horticulturist, the greatest botanist,
the greatest ornithologst, the greatest
capitalist and the greatest scientist of his
century.
Come over the piles of gray rock and
here we are at the first 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 several sources
above shall descend from basin to basin
the sediment of the water deposited In
each of the three, 80 that by the time
II gets down to the aqueduct which is to
take it to Jerusalem, 1t has had three
filteriugs, and is as pure as when the
clouds raiusd it.
WONDERFUL SPECIMENS OF MASONRY
are these three reservoirs. The white
cement fastening the blocks of stone TO-
gether Is now just as when the trowels
5000 years ago smoothed the layers. The
highest reservoir $50 feet by 229: the
second, 423 feet by 100; and the lowest
reservoir $50 feet by 169; 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 well understand how
in this neIghborhood the imperial gar
deus were one great blossom, and the or
ako I'D nrra hn, lrof nf fr,,i q I,t
Solomon In his palace, writing the song
of songs and Fcolesiastes, may have been
drawing iilustrationf from what he had
seen that very morning in the royal gar
dens when he alluded to melons and
msndrakes, and spricots, and grapes,
and pomegranates. and figs, and spike
nard, and cinnamon, and calamus, and
campfire, and "apple trees among the
trees OF the wood, aud the almond
tree as fiourisbInE, and to myrrh and
frankinceuse. and represented Christ as
gone down into His gardens, aud
the beds of spices to feed in
the gardens, 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 the Bible says 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 riue, and before
the horses had yet been cooled off and
rubbed down by the royal equerry, Solo,
mon wrote the memorable words follow
ing my text, like dirge played after
and veIation of spirit, and there was no
profit under the SUM- In other words,
'sIT DON'T PAY!''
Would God that we might all learn the
lesson that this world cannot produce
happiness! At MarseIlles there is a cas-
tellated house on high ground crowned
with all that grove and garden can do,
and the whole place looks out upon as
q landscape as the world