But in this city of marble and cedar-covered palaces, the Templemount stands alone and unrivaled in its grandeur.

Terrace upon terrace its courts ascend, and on its summit stands the Temple itself, high above the city, in the midst of marble cloisters, richly ornamented, while the brightness of its gold-plated walls blinds the spectator with its radiance when beheld in the light of the rising sun. "I was glad when they said unto me," repeats Samuel, "let us go into the house of the Lord; our feet are standing within thy gates. How is it adorned with goodly stones and offerings! What manner of stones, and what manner of build ings!" "Alas," sighs Zachary, "who is left among us that saw this house in its former glory? and how do we see it now? is it not in our eyes as nothing?" "If thou quotest the prophet," replies Samuel, "thou must quote the whole prophet. 'Yet now be strong all ye people of the land, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts; yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.'" "Whatever future glory may be in store for the house of the Lord," answers Zachary, "the words of Asaph have been verified for the present: O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy Temple have they defiled. And though they have not laid Jerusalem on heaps, nor given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat unto the fowls of heaven, or the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth, still we are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, O Lord! wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name." Samuel sincerely confesses that he does not understand the reason of Zachary's lamentation. "Is not the Temple rebuilt more magnificently than ever? is not even now Herod priding himself in the splendor and magnificence of the Lord's house? and are not

those hundreds of workmen and masons who busily swarm around the outer wall, engaged in beautifying and enlarging the special inheritance of Jehovah?" "Truly," says Zachary, "thy bones are full of the foolishness of thy youth. When fourteen years ago Herod began the work of building, priests and people rose up in a body and protested against his bold attempt. A thousand priests were, however, provided with new sacerdotal garments, and some of them were instructed in the arts of stone cutters and carpenters; then ten thousand most skilled workmen were selected, one thousand wagons gotten ready and the Temple of Zerubbabel was pulled down, part after part." "Mar," says Samuel, "if thou speakest truth, what shall become of the prophecy of Haggai, according to which the latter glory of the second Temple is to be greater than that of the first? do not our teachers tell us that this greater glory will result from the presence of king Messiah in the second Temple? and now the second Temple has passed away, and king Messiah has not entered it" "Son," replies Zachary, "be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God. When this house of Jehovah was building, they made curtains for the Temple and curtains for the court; and then they built the walls of the Temple outside the curtains, but those of the court inside the curtains. Thus the ordinances of the worship were continued while the Temple was building; the sacrifices were not interrupted, nor were any of the sacred vessels and implements displaced. During the same time it did not rain in the day-time, but the showers fell in the night, so that the work was not hindered. Thus the Temple itself, Holy of Holies, Holy and Vestibule, were built by the priests in a year and six months, upon which all the people were full of joy. And presently they returned thanks to God. They feasted and celebrated this restoration of the Temple, and were especially glad that His continuance of God's house had not been interrupted. The king himself sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, and the rest, every one according to his ability. The number of these sacrifices I cannot give, for no one could count them." "And was there hammer or axe or tool of iron heard, while the Lord's house was building?" asks Samuel.

"The house was built of stone," replies Zachary, "made ready in the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was building." Zachary's answer was, no doubt, perfectly intelligible to Samuel. Had he not often been told that when his grandfather Josiah, together with the members of the Sanhedrin, was slain by Herod's servants, his father Ananiah had been concealed in the quarry for three days? It was owing to the exertions of Zachary that Ananiah escaped from that den, now called the "Cotton Grotto," and situated near the present Gate of Damascus. In 1852 an opening was accidentally discovered in a rubbish heap. One could enter it only by stooping and letting oneself drop down to the floor. Of late, the rubbish heap has been cleared away. First, one sees a rough floor of earth, and then solid rock. Huge stones lie scattered about in the heart of the quarry with mason's marks abounding on them. The marks appear so fresh that one quite fancies it must be dinner hour, and the workmen will return ere long. A huge mass of stone chippings makes it plain that the stones were dressed in this place. And those red marks! Early explorers of the foundation walls of the Temple were sorely puzzled over the mysterious letters and marks found in the tunnels which they drove along the ancient groundworks. Now we understand the Phenician lettering and numbering, containing instructions for the masons where to lay each stone. Did Herod employ Phenician workmen at the Temple, or must all of these Phenician builder directions be referred back to about three thousand years ago, when Solomon erected his Temple under the supervision of Hiram? The modern estimate that the weight of single stones in the foundation walls amounts to a hundred tons, and that their length is in several instances thirty-eight feet nine inches, fully explains Samuel's admiration of the stones.