28 REV. J. LESLIE PORTER, D.D. 
of wealth, luxury, and art, and that of some of the ancient 
palaces and temples of Greece I shall show presently. 
The building of the Temple occupied seven years, and when 
it was finished, Solomon built a palace for himself, and 
decorated it in a corresponding style of splendour. In this 
work thirteen years were spent. There were evidently several 
distinct courts in the palace, each having suites of apartments, 
just as we find in modern Oriental palaces. There was appa- 
rently one court containing the Judgment-hall and public 
offices; another, the private apartments of the king and his 
male attendants; another, or perhaps several, for females. 
The House of the Forest of Lebanon was apparently the royal 
armoury. ‘The recent excavations of Schliemann in the 
citadel of Tiryns, one of Greece’s most ancient capitals, have 
brought to light the plan and foundations of a palace which 
resemble that described by the sacred writers. The architects 
were of the same nationality, for Tiryns was founded by 
Phoenicians (Schliemann, T%ryns, p. 28). 
DIFFERENCES IN STYLE. 
In comparing the sacred architecture and art of the Jews 
with other nations, the fundamental difference between their 
religious principles and forms of worship must be kept in 
mind. A purely spiritual faith forbade any visible repre- 
sentation of Deity. The Divine command was singularly 
clear :—‘‘ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is 
in the earth beneath. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to 
them nor serve them.” The Fetichism of Hgypt, Phcenicia, 
and Assyria, as well as its subsequent more intellectual 
development in Greece, was thus sweepingly prohibited. In 
the Jewish temple, however, we have the ark, with its mercy- 
seat and overshadowing cherubim, the altars of incense and 
burnt offering, and all the vessels and utensils connected 
therewith. No scope for the prurient fancy, no sphere for 
the materialistic tendencies of the human mind, and, above 
all, no opening for debasing and licentious symbolism, were 
here afforded in Jewish art. The grand truth that God is 
Spirit, and that those who worship Him aright must worship 
Him in Spirit, was enshrined from the very outset in the 
Jewish religion, and exhibited in the decorations and arrange- 
ments of the Temple. Under it no form of idolatry was, or 
could be, tolerated. 
In Phoenicia, and indeed among all the aboriginal tribes 
