The Holbrook news., 1911-10-06

NN HE MOslems of Palestine have
 been rioting with fanatical tur-
 bulence and all Christendom
 has been exercised because the
 sacrilege of stealing the Ark of the Covenant was wrongfully imputed to Captain the Honorable Montague Parker of the First Life Guards of the English army, and a party of archeol- ogists whom he commanded. He was aided and abetted. it was alleged. by Lieut. Robin Duff. an officer of the Second Life Guards and relative of King George V.
 Assisted by the connivance of the Turkish government and by bribes to Mohammedan soldiers, the English men are accused of rifling the sacred bowels of Mount Moriah. the site of the Temple of Solomon and of the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, and of making off with the Ark, after un- earthing the venerable coffer from it's purported place of concealment for more than twenty centuries. The ex- plorers. according to news cablegrams. were pursued to the coast by the hue and cry of scandalized Moslems, and echoes of their pious indignation are reverberating through Europe and America.
 Mortified clergymen have predicted that some such fate would overtake the English officer as befell the men of Bethshemesh. of whom 50.070 are declared in the Old Testament to have been smitten of the Lord because cer- tain of their townsmen ventured to look inside the Ark; or as happened to Uzzah. who put forth his hand to steady the holy chest when 1t rocked upon its cart, and who was slain flor his error" by Jehovah, in his suddenly kindled wrath.
 Explorers Invited to Continue Work.
 The outcry of sacrilege has not been completely quieted by Capt Parker's solemn declaration that he found no Hebrew antiquities whatever beneath the Mosque of Omar. and that he was not searching for the Ark. but for the tombs of David and Solomon A con- elusive refutation of the accusation is the fact that the Turkish authorities have invited the Englishmen to renew luCl1 CAOdNdllOAb HEAL UT Jerusalem and its relics are as hal lowed to a Moslem as they are to a Jew, because Mahomet is reputed to have begun at the Holy City his fabled expedition to the Seven Heavens.
 Besides, 1t is the opinion of most students of the Bible that the Ark was probably destroyed when the temple 1I h-v RT1H that it had certainly disappeared be- fore the composition of the book II Maccabees
 Speculation as to the present exis- tence of the Ark is perhaps due to the remarkable phenomenon of it's abrupt disappearance from Holy Writ. In one verse of the book of II Chron- icles the Hebrew palladium is restored with rejoicings to the Temple of Solo mon. In another verse of the same chapter it is dismissed as with wave of the hand. in the worlds. And there 1t is until this day" Except meta phorically or incidentally. the Ark is but once again mentioned in the Bible.
 While most scholars believe that the Ark was lost immediately before or during the Hebrew captivity in Baby lon, some hold that 1t was taken by the conquerors to the capital city of the Chaldees. But, if so. 1t was almost certainly restored when the Jews were reinstated in Jerusalem, in 520-16 B. c.
 Others declare that the Ark was not taken into captivity. but was hidden away in the secret chambers of the temple, in the apartment where wood was kept. and 1t is related that a cer- tain priest. while working in the apart ment. noticed that some stones pro jected above the others. He no soon- CT began to tell the story to a fellow priest than he.exp!red. That was re- garded as a sure sign that the Ark was buried in that place.
 However, if the Ark was really ta- ken to Babylon. which most scholars doubt. it seems to have been returned to Jerusalem. according to the sequel related in the book of Ezra.
 It is possible. some writers say, that the Ark had declined in esteem among the Hebrews themselves, during the calamities which befell their nation. Perhaps, also. the leaders may have taken alarm over the honors of wor- ship paid to the Ark from the day when Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the Ark of the Lord until eventide, he and the elders of Israel. and put dust