Temple 


HEROD'S TEMPLE.



IN the southeastern part of Jerusalem stood, many centuries ago, the temple represented in the picture. It was built on the top of Mount Moriah. Tradition says that this is the same mountain whereon the patriarch Abraham, obeying the divine command, proceeded to offer up his only son as a burnt sacrifice.

Here, too, that renowned warrior, king David, built an altar to the Lord, and confessed his sins. This mighty king was he who first had it "in his mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord." But by the command of God, the work was reserved for his son Solomon; for David "had been a man of war, and had shed blood."

The temple of Solomon, was very beautiful. It was built after the same plan as the tabernacle, only on a larger scale. The most holy place, or oracle, was twenty cubits 

every way, while the outer apartment was forty cubits long and twenty wide. 

A minute description of the building itself may be found in 

1 Kings 6 and in 2 Chronicles 2:3.

In order to obtain an area sufficiently broad, four massive walls were built up from the bottom of the mountain, and the space between the walls and the mountain itself was partly occupied by extensive vaults, and partly filled by the immense quantities of earth and rock obtained in bringing the summit of the mountain down nearly to a level with the top of the walls. These walls, in some places several hundred feet high, were built of stones of enormous size. The top of the mountain, as one might look down upon it from Mount Olivet, is all that is seen in the picture.

On this flat surface were three courts, one rising above another in the form of terraces, as you may see; and on the highest of these stood the temple itself. This edifice was destroyed by the Chaldeans, and afterward rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Some five hundred years later, and a little before the birth of Christ, it was rebuilt, enlarged, and beautified by Herod the Great. His plan was very nearly the same as that followed by Solomon.

Next to the outer wall was a court, called the court of the Gentiles. On three sides it had a double row of porches, and on the south side a triple row. The roofs of these porches were of carved cedar, supported by columns of marble, and marble of various colors formed the floor.

Next within and above the court of the Gentiles was the inner court. 

This had two enclosures. The outer one was enclosed by a wall three cubits high, having at regular intervals pillars on which were engraved inscriptions in Greek and Latin, forbidding any stranger to enter, on pain of death. Between this and the second wall was an open space ten cubits wide. The second enclosure of the inner court was surrounded by a wall forty cubits high on the outside, but only twenty-five on the inside, the interior platform being raised fifteen cubits. This enclosure was divided into two parts; that extending across the east end was called the court of the women; and the remainder, the court of the Israelites. Between the gates of this court were porches smaller but not less beautiful than those in the court of the Gentiles.  Inside of this, and separated from 

it only by a low wall, was the court of the priests. In the midst of this court stood the temple. Only priests were allowed to enter this sacred enclosure, and even when Herod was repairing this place, none but the priests had anything to do with the rebuilding of the temple itself.


The gates leading from the courts to the temple corresponded well with the magnificence of the buildings and the massive grandeur of the walls.

This grand structure was plundered, burned, and demolished by the Romans under Titus. Thus the Saviour's words were fulfilled, when he said to his disciples: "Verily I say unto you, 

There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

At the present there stands upon the supposed site of the temple an imposing structure known as the Mosque of Omar, or Dome of the Rock. Under the dome of this octagonal mosque is a large stone, which tradition says is "the place where Abraham offered up Isaac, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and the site of the holy of holies in Solomon's temple."





WINNIE LOUGHBOROUGH.