Forlong - Rivers of Life

162
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
The Rev. T. Wilson in his Archeological Dict., art. “Sanctum,” tells us that “the
Ark of the Covenant, which was the greatest ornament of the first temple, was wanting
in the second, but a stone of three inches thick, it is said, supplied its place, which they
(the Jews) further assert is still in being in the Mahomedan mosk, called the Temple of
the Stone, which is erected where the Temple of Jerusalem stood.” My figures Nos. 64,
93, pages 181 and 218, make this matter clear, and show that the lingam of “three inches
thick,” if it ever existed on the ovate mass of stone which covers the present rock and
cave, must have been so during the reign of Lingamites, and that these therefore were
dominant over Yonites when the second temple was built. It of courae is always admissible
in Sivaik lore to substitute the Eduth, “covenant,” or “testimony” which dwelt
inside the ark, for the ark itself. I cannot help thinking that this lingam of “three
inches thick” is the one precisely of this size, which has been built into the corner of
the AI-Kaba of Meka, regarding which see a drawing in my chapter ix. p. 436, Vol. II;
for Moslems conquered and long held Jerusalem, and would very likely purloin this
relic. The Rev. Mr. Wilson calls the “holy of holies, the most holy place and the
oracle.” . . . The roof, contrary to the Eastern custom. was not flat, but sloping, 1 and
covered all over with golden spikes. . . . The length of the Sanctum Sanctorum
was twenty cubits. Its situation was towards the west, and its entrance towards the
east.” It was a sort of crypt such. as mythology usually connects with the idea of
Ceres, and would present some such appearance as I give in illustration No. 93, page
218, Fig. III. Seeing, then. that the natural rock, and a stone three inches broad,
was a great treasure of this late period, is it wonderful that the poor wanderers put
stones into their itinerating ark-box?
Newman, in his “Hebrew Monarchy,” rightly says that the Jews were “not
Monotheistic in the sense of denying the existence of other gods, but that their creed
rather degraded them to devils;” 2 but it is scareely possible thus to generalise,
for the Jewish writers who have become celebrated amongst us were no doubt thought
dangerous and unorthodox men by the mass of the people, just as our “Essayists and
Reviewers,” Stanleys and Colensos, are held to be. The greater number of men and
women detest thought and uncertainty, and usually love churches ritualistic and
ornate—though some think it evangelical to be Puritan and rode; and so it was with
Jews; they for a long time, opposed a grand temple, preferring simple Bctyls, Ba-als,
and “Groves,” and erecting them all over their land “on high places,” on the banks of
all rivers, the bases of all mountains, and in the centre of open spots, as at Gilgal or
Jericho; where their judges, and favourite seers circumambulated thcse stones or circles
of stones, and prayed for the people before such emblematical gods. The tribes had not
many feelings in common when they came to be writers and told us what they thought
of each other;—as a. role they bitterly reviled each other’s gods and temples. Moriah,
that is Meroo or Miriam, the female element, scorned and detested Gerizim, the male
1 On this account I show a low sloping roof to the Sanctum in my Fig. 39.
2 P. 22.