CEDAR OF LEBANON. 163 



vision," and this monument, which displayed 

 the power and the riches of the wisest mon- 

 arch that ever existed, has had its stones 

 turned into dust, and its gigantic beams of 

 cedar into ashes, that have flown before the 

 wind, "leaving not a wreck behind." The 

 biblical reader will form an idea of the an- 

 cient extent of the cedar forest, by the four- 

 score thousand hewers which Solomon sent to 

 hew the timber on Mount Lebanon, and it is 

 probable that from that time Mount Lebanon 

 never recovered the devastation then made, 

 for " he covered the temple with beams and 

 boards of cedar. And he built chambers 

 against it, which rested on the house with 

 timber of cedar. And the cedar of the house 

 within was carved with knops and open 

 flowers : all was cedar there was no stone 

 seen. And he built the inner court with 

 three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar 

 beams." 



Hiram also built many palaces for Solomon, 

 within and without the walls of Jerusalem, 

 all of which we may conclude were formed 

 of this favourite timber, for we read that " So- 

 lomon's house, also of the forest of Lebanon, 

 was covered with cedar upon the beams : and 

 the porch of judgment was covered with cedar 

 from one side of the floor to the other. And 



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