The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-11-07
THE WISE KING.
DR.. TaInage Disoourses on the
Works Of Solomon.
Wondrous Reservoirs and Acgueduets Oh
the Holy acknowledgements of the
Past Compared With the Present
The ssviour's Birth Place

gardens and public works of King Solo
mon. His text was Ecolesiastes ii. 40:
II made me great works I builded me
houses. planted me vineyards, / m ade
me gardens and orchards and planted
trees in them of all kinds of fruits;
made me pools of water to water there
with the wood that bringeth forth
trees DR.. Talnsge saids
A spring morning and before break
fast at Jerusalem; A King with robes
snowy white in chariot decked with
gold, drawn by eight horses, high met
tied, and housings as brilliant as if
scollcped out of that very sunrise. and
li>e the winds for speed, followed by
regiment of archers on horseback with
hand on gilded bow and arrows with
steel points flashing in the sun, clad
from head to foot in Tyrian purple and
black hair spr .nkled 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 hallco of tho reckless caval-
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 reservoirs six miles down
the road towards Hebron. What a con-
trast between that and myself on that
very road one morning last Dece Der,
going afoot, for our plain vehicle turned
back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten, VIC on the way to find what Is
called Solomon's pools. the ancient
waterwop1s of Jerusalem, and the gar
dens CT King nearly 5. 600 years ago
We cross the ecq ueduet again and again
and here We are at the three great reser-
Voirs, not ruins of reservoirs, but the
reservoirs themselves, that Solomon
built three milleniums ago for the pur-
pose of catching the noun tain 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, for Solo
mon was the greatest horticul turist the
greatest botanist, the greatest ornith OIL
ogist, the greatest capitalist and the
greatest scientist of his century.
Come over the piles of gray rock, and
hero we are at the first of three reser-
voirs, 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 gather from several sources
above shall descend from basin to basin,
She sediment of the water deposited in
each oEthe three, SO that by the time it
gets down to the acqueduct which is to
take it to Jerusalem it has had three
offerings, and is as pure as when the
clouds taiDed 1t. Wonderful specimens
of masonry are these three reservoirs.
The white cement fastening the blocks
of stone together is now just as when
the trowels 5000 years ago smoothed
the layers. The highest reservoir $50
feet by 800; the second, 4a3 by 100; and
the lowest reservoir $50 feet by 100, 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 reservoirs
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 Solomon in his palace writing
the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes,
may have been drawing illustrations
from what he had seen that very morn
ing in the royal gardens when he allud-
ed to melons, and mandrakes, and april
cots, and grapes, and pomegranates, and
figs, and spikenard, and cinnamon, and
calamus, and campfire, and "apple
trees among the trees of the wood. )" and
the almond tree as fiouPishing, and tC
myrrh and fFankincense. and repre-
sented Christa as gone down into His
gardens and the beds of spices to feed
in the gardens, and to gather lilies. u
and to eyes like fish pools" and to the
voice of the turtle dove as heard in the
s land
But all this spIendor 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 euuerry,
Solomon wrote the memorable words
following my text, like a dirge played
after q grand march: behold all was
vanity and vexation of spirit, and there
was no profit under the sun" In Other
words, 1T doesn't pay?" Would to God
that we might all learn the lesson thai
this world can not produce happiness!
at Marseilles there is casteliated
house on high ground crowned with
all that grove and garden can do, anC
the Whole place looks out upon as en-
chanting landscape as the world holds
water and hill clasping hands in per
feet bewitchment of scenery. but the
owner of that place is totally blind, and
TO him all this goes for nothing, illus
trating the truth that, whether one be
physically or morally blind hri1liancy
of surrounding can not give salts
faction. But tradition says that when
the wise men of the East" were being
guided by the star on the way to Beth
lehem. they, for a little while los
sight of that star, and in despair an6
exhaustion came to o we'll to drink
when looking down into the we'll they
saw the star reflected in the water and
that cheeEed them, and they resumed
their journey. and l have the notion
that though grandeur and pomp of sur
roundings may not afford peace, at tht
we'll of Gods consolation. close by, 20,
may find happiness, and the PLANES
cup at the we'll of salvation may hole
the brightest star that ever shown from
the'heavens-
Although these Solomonic gardens ar.
in ruins, there are now growing thers
flowers that are to be found nowhere
else in the Holy Land How do 1 &C
count for thai? solomon sent out hil
sh ps and robbed the gardens of tbs
whole earth for flowers aud planted
these exotics here. and these particular
flowers are direct descendants of the
foreign plants he imported
The storms. the winters, the grea
midsummer heats of Palestine, by
crumbling up and dissolving the rocks.
are gradually prepar. ng Palestine and
Syria to yield product like unto tbs
luxuriant Westchester farms of New
York. and Lancaster County farms o
Pennsylvania, and Somerset Count,