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having stood four hundred and twenty-four years, three months, and eight days.

After lying in ruins fifty-two years, Zerubbabel and the Jews, whom Cyrus permitted to return from Babylon, began to rebuild it, and after twenty-one years of difficulty and opposition from the Samaritans and others, it was completed and dedicated in the year B. C. 515. The height and breadth of this second temple were double those of Solomon; so that the weeping of the old men, who had seen and admired the first temple, was not because it was inferior in size, but in glory.

It wanted five things which the first temple had, viz. the ark, and the mercy-seat; the glory of the Lord, or the visible Shechinah; the holy fire on the altar; the Urim and Thummin, which are supposed to have been ornaments or little plates on the garment of the high-priest; and lastly, the spirit of prophecy. This second temple was afterwards plundered by the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and again repaired by Judas Maccabeus. But it was still in a decayed state, and rapidly fell into ruins. Thirty-seven years before the birth of Christ, Herod the

Great, in order to atone for his cruelties, resolved to rebuild the temple. The Jews, being suspicious of his designs, would not permit him to remove a stone of the old building till he had prepared all the materials for the new. Two years were employed in making preparations, in which one thousand wagons and ten thousand workmen, besides one thousand priests to direct the works, were employed. The works were not completed even at the birth of Christ, nor till several years after that event. It appears from John ii. 20, that the building of the temple occupied forty-six years, and during this whole time, eighteen thousand workmen are said to have been employed. It was in view of this immense labour that the Jews said to Christ," forty-and-six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?"

The temple, then, which was standing in the days of Christ, and at the time when Selumiel visited it, was Herod's temple. It was larger than that of Zerubbabel even, but in almost every other respect was like Solomon's.

William. You are very kind, Mr. Anderson, to answer all the questions I ask. I have

long had a great curiosity to know more about the temple. There is a picture of it in a book which mother gave me a great while ago, and I have ever since been anxious to hear a description of it.

Mr. Anderson. I will now proceed with my narrative. At the first sound of the trumpet, all Jerusalem was in motion. It was now about the eighth hour, and the pilgrims were all anxious to go up to the temple. Helah led his guests through the valley of Cheesemongers, round Mount Ophel, which you see lies south-east of the temple, into the valley of Jehoshaphat, in order that they might enter the temple by the eastern gate, which is the principal entrance, and through which their approach would be most favourable and impressive. Looking up from the valley of Kidron, above them rose the temple, at the height of four hundred and fifty feet, as I told you before. They ascended a flight of steps in the outer wall, and stood upon the broad area on which the temple was built. A few steps brought them within the pillars of the porch of Solomon. This porch was the eastern portion of the court of the gen

tiles. This court, which entirely surrounded the temple, embraced an area of more than fourteen acres. Into it the people of all nations were permitted to enter, and Simon and Jonathan saw here more persons of different nations than they had ever seen in the market of Joppa. The confusion of languages which they heard was like that of the builders of Babel. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia Minor, Phrygia, and Pamphilia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians were assembled for devotion or curiosity, and the immense space was already nearly full. The whole of this vast court was paved with beautiful marble, elegantly variegated, as you have seen some specimens, with different colours. In the southern portion of this court, between the three rows of pillars which I have before described, were arranged the stalls of those who sold lambs, kids, and doves for the sacrifices, and in one portion of it were arranged the tables of the money-changers, who ex

changed different coins for the shekels and half-shekels, which alone could be cast into the treasury of the temple.

George. Mr. Anderson, were not those the persons whom Christ drove out of the temple?

Mr. Anderson. Yes, George; and I have often thought what a look of majesty and tone of authority Jesus must have assumed in order to do it. When I think of the great number of the buyers and sellers, and the multitudes of people that stood around them in the court, and think of Jesus, who was thought to be nothing but a poor and despised Galilean, driving them all out with a whip of small cords in the presence of all the people, it seems to me that there must have been something supernatural in his very appearance. Zeal for the honour of his Father's house had so eaten him up, and transported him beyond his usual calm, meek demeanour, that they shrunk away before him in astonishment and awe.

When Selumiel with his little boys reached the Beautiful gate, it was scarcely possible to pass, so great was the crowd of men and lambs. This gate led from the court of the

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