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There is a leji^end handed down both by Hebrews and Greeks, 

 that when Adam had attained the ripe a^e of 900 years, he over- 

 taxed his strenf:jth in uprooting an enormous bush, and that falHng 

 very sick, and feehng the approach of death, he sent his son Seth 

 to the angel who guarded Paradise, and particularly the way to the 

 Tree of Life, to ask of him some of its ambrosia, or oil of mercy, 

 that he might anoint his limbs therewith, and so regain good health. 

 Seth approached the Tree of Knowledge, of the fruit of which 

 Adam and Eve had once partaken. A youth, radiant as the sun, 

 was seated on its summit, and, addressing Seth, told him that He 

 was the Son of God, that He would one day come down to earth, 

 to deliver it from sin, and that He would then give the oil of mercy 

 to Adam. 



The angel who was guarding the Tree of Life then handed 

 to Seth three small seeds, charging him to place them in his 

 father's mouth, when he should bury him near Mount Tabor, in the 

 valley of Hebron. Seth obeyed the angel's behests. The three 

 seeds took root, and in a short time appeared above the ground, in 

 the form of three rods. One of these saplings was a branch of 

 Olive, the second a Cedar, the third a Cypress. The three rods 

 did not leave the mouth of Adam, nor was their existence known 

 until the time of Moses, who received from God the order to cut 

 them. Moses obeyed, and with these three rods, which exhaled a 

 perfume of the Promised Land, performed many miracles, cured 

 the sick, drew water from a rock, &c. 



After the death of Moses, the three rods remained unheeded 

 in the Valley of Hebron until the time of King David, who, warned 

 by the Holy Ghost, sought and found them there. Hence they 

 were taken by the King to Jerusalem, where all the leprous, the 

 dumb, the blind, the paralysed, and other sick people presented 

 themselves before the King, beseeching him to give them the 

 salvation of the Cross. King David thereupon touched them with 

 the three rods, and their infirmities instantly vanished. After this 

 the King placed the three rods in a cistern, but to his astonishment 

 upon going the next day for them, he discovered they had all three 

 firmly taken root, that the roots had become inextricably interlaced, 

 and that the three rods were in fact reunited in one stem which 

 had shot up therefrom, and had become a Cedar sapling, — 

 the tree that was eventually to furnish the wood of the Cross. 

 This reunion of the three rods was typical of the Trinity. The 

 young Cedar w-as subsequently placed in the Temple, but we 

 hear nothing more of it for thirty years, when Solomon, wishing to 

 complete the Temple, obtained large supplies of Cedars of Lebanon, 

 and as being well adapted for his purpose cut down the Cedar of 

 the Temple. The trunk of this tree, lying with the other timber, 

 was seen by a woman, who sat down on it, and inspired with the 



