Richard I., Coeur de Lion, who went
with a crusading army to recover Jerusalem from the hands of the
Saracens, when he caught sight of the Holy City from the same
spot, is said to have placed his hands before his eyes and exclaimed,
"Let me never see thee, except I win thee."
A greater than Richard once sat upon this mountain gazing upon
the city when it was far more glorious in appearance. It was Jesus,
surrounded by His disciples, and the temple before them, as beautified
by Herod during forty-six years, rose in all its majesty and grandeur.
Conspicuous were those large stones of white marble, decorated
with plates of silver, glittering in the rays of the sun, so dazzling
to the eyes of the spectators as to make them turn aside their
gaze. Here stood Solomon's Porch, built on the top of the high
wall facing the valley and mountain. Well might the disciples
call their Master's attention to "these great stones"
and "what manner of buildings." Josephus, who saw them,
says they were forty-three feet long, twenty-one feet wide, and
fourteen feet thick. They might well say "these stones;"
and He sorrowfully told them that in a few years there would not
remain one stone upon another.
Solomon's Porch was one of the outer courts of the temple, but
covered in, and Jesus often walked here with His disciples, and
taught the people, and one reason is here given why - "and
it was winter."
How wonderful is the course of seasons! Our annual course round
the sun at a speed of nearly twenty miles in a second of time
gives us spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and our daily revolution
of six hundred miles an hour gives us day and night. Did you ever
notice the turning of a grindstone? If it is turned fast it throws
the water off; if it is turned at moderate speed it just keeps
the water on; if slowly the water remains at the bottom. What
wisdom there is in the exact speed of the earth and all these
arrangements! Our daily revolution gives us night and day, night
for rest and day for labour; and in the vegetable kingdom summer
for growth, and winter for rest.
Spring flowers, summer fruits, and autumn corn are all gathered,
and cold winter has come like a deep sleep upon the face of the
country. The trees
