The morning call., 1892-07-30

ton of the church was begun under the
empire, continued under the republic and
completed in very satisfactory manner.
1t is now nearly as it was in the time Of the
earliest Christians.
In 1878 the French Government handed
the church over to Cardinal Lavigerie, who
founded there an orien tai seminary. Among
the professors In this seminary is Father
Gre, who las raised m>elt to high place
among arch biologists. One day the father
was on his way to the poultry yard of the
seminary when he caught sight of a stone
Of rounded shape, half buried in the earth,
of which the top was rounded out This
hollow was filled with water. to which
chickens and ducks came to quench their
thirst. AT first the dlscoverer thought it
might be ball LETT from the siege of Jeru-
salem bv the Romans. On a slightly closer
INSPECTION ne found the object bore an in
scriptiOn.
He pulled it up and washed it. and then
the inscription was distinct. 1t consisted
OF series of strokes, angles and poipts
inns showed him that it was no missile
Ills next proceeding was to ascertain the
weight Of the stone, which turned out to be
A. Kilograms, or 81 pounds 9h ounces Eng
lish weight. This meant much to Father
Gre 1t was the exact weight of the stand
ard talent placed In the temple at JeTuSa-
lem in the time of King David. The shekel
weighed ILL., grams, and the talent, accord
ing 10 Exodus. was equal To 5000 shekelS.
He Immediately set to work to examine
all his available authorities. He found that
the talent was IOund in form, which share
Is Indicated by its Hebrew name, Xix kar
that the material of which it was originally
made was stone. and that there was no
specimen to be found IN the Louvre, in the
British Museum or In the museum al Berlin.
There Was slight hatteniDg OF the side
OF the stone, evidently made for the pur-
pose OF preventing 1t from rolling. The use
OF tn 0tiiEe hollow at Que end soon be-
cs-ue a9pareut 10 him. IL was there to
eaaaie tGe talent 30 be raised and carried.
81 ishauI II TINS stone would have been a
verg difficult thing 10 handle. Another
advantage OF this shape was that Il Afforded
the maker good opportunity to reduce the
stone TO the exact weight after ehsseling the
egg-shaped object.
sfiev these sa,ass.ielal assarvetsons ~
COX up the task OF deeipheIiag the ;uscI4.,
tons. He noted the resemblance eff one of
the Signs 30 tie character Chin which is
only found IN Samaritan. archaic Ph9niciaii
and in hier0glyphs. The other signs were
not at all similar to tie known Hebrew
writing. bat rather to the earliest forms Of
hleroglyphc writing. But if it was
Hebrew talent it must be inscribed in the
Hebrew language. As the inscription was
Hebrew and hleroglyphic, it was clear that
il must have been made more than six CEN
turtles before the Christian era, that is TO
say before ESdras caused the Hebrews to
adopt the characters that are familiar TO
modern Hebrew scholars. The value Of his
find was then greatly enhanced by the fact
that on it was written the only specimen of
this primitive Hebrew ia existence.
Months of study of Phwnician and
Assyrian hieroglyphs enabled MIN TO ex-
tract the secret of the inscription. The
signs meant this: Three thousand shekels,
ght of King David" The standard
weights of the nation were called The
Kings Weights" Muses. intr oduced stan
dard weights and placed them in the taber-
nacle, and they were then known ms
weights Of the Sanctuary" In David's
time they were called "Weights of the
King" because he made obligatory the use
of the Mosaic standard in all Israel.
1t was therefore not only talent that
Father Gre had discovered, but, much
more. standard talent Of the time Of King
David, which had been placed in the first
temple of Jerusalem. The seminary and
the Church Of St. Anne are only distant the
width of a street from the terraces of the
Temple of Solomon. For thousand years
it has rested there and the Roman soldiers
after sacking the temple no doubt left it
lying among the ruins. Then when the
mosque of Omar was raised on the site of
the temple it was thrown TO the place where
Father Gre found IL.