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and begged to give to great Augustus the same allegiance that had once been Anthony's strength in Syria and the East. It was a mag nificent stroke, and it won. The Jews were there, too, to congratulate Augustus, and cry again, "We will not have this man to rule over us." All that he had given Cleopatra was re turned, and the enlarged kingdom of Herod was not almost exactly the long, long gone kingdom of David in Israel's golden prime! This was just about twenty-six years before the birth of Jesus. When Ilerod left Jerusalem he appointed a faithful servant, Soenms, his deputy. He had his family (doubtless for prudential reasons) removed to the palace at Samaria. lie gave Soemus the same cruel charge relative to the Queen. "If I die, she is to be executed." Again Salome guessed the fatal secret. Again she determined to get rid of the Queen if in trigue could do so. Salome called in Herod's mother to help. Herod returned from Rhodes with great, grand news to tell. Of all his victories on battlefield or at council table this was his great est, as the crisis had been most acute, and every chance was stacked against him. His one great desire was to tell Mariamnc. Maybe at last she would come to love the king of David's kingdom, once again restored after a thousand, weary years. He pushed his horse at furious speed along the valley roads that led to Samaria. He dung himself on his couch and commanded that Mariamnc lie brought to him at once. Shy t ame as cold and proud as a marble statue. Sin* refused to rejoice at his success. She scorned his affectionate caresses. She groaned at his anient demonstrations of love, and posi tively refused all his demands. It was a tragic scene. The King was perplexed, then he grew angry, then jealous. She taunted him with his repeated command to kill her, if he fell at Rhodes. And she especially denounced him for the murders of her kindred, her brother, the little High I'riest, her grandfather, the old king, and her uncle. Herod had forgiven Mariamnc much. He loved her to distraction. Rut like many a good general, and many an unwise woman, the Queen pushed her advantage too far. No doubt life held but slight attractions for her, living in a perpetual hell, and bound helplessly and hopelessly to such a bloody, brutal monster. The King's fury now overleaped all bounds, as a river that bursts its banks and devastates all the plains. He roared like a maniac. He raved like a madman. His intense passion made liini ill, and his jealousy ami fury turned his reason. King Herod was never mentally normal after this. At the critical moment his mother and sister Salome gained access to him. They insisted that the Queen was faithless. They named the deputy, Soemus. as her new lover. They played upon his passion, his disappointment, his sus picions and his jealous rancor until the wild King ordered the instant execution of Soemus and the arrest and trial of the Queen. At the trial Mariamne's own mother turned against her. The brave woman faced her ac cusers with scorn. The courage that came to her with the blood of the heroic Maccabees was her possession. She did not hesitate, nor trem ble. When they pronounced her guilty she did not turn color, but met the death that fol lowed immediately as though death were a relief. With the execution of his beautiful and be loved Queen, Herod's malady grew worse. His love and ardor returned upon him. Oh, for Mariamne, the only being that he ever loved, or could love! The most exaggerated parox ysms of grief seized upon him. Passionate longing for the touch of her hand tormented him. He walked the marble colonades, calling piteously, "Mariamne, Mariamne. " He fell in tits upon the floor and writhed like a serpent, crying, and demanding that Mariamne come to comfort him. He had the servants call her, and listened as they went down the long arcades and through the royal gardens summoning the dead Queen into the presence of her royal hus band. Ah, Herod, you had the power to loose the silver eord, but can you "back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?" Can you "provoke the silent dust" or reach the "dull cold ear of death?" The ancient Jews told the story again and again. They shook their bearded heads. It was God's judgment on the bloody tyrant. No doubt they were right. Conscience is a terri ble master. With Mariamne the light of Herod's life was extinguished. He snnk deep er and ever deeper into the slough of sin, and the hopeles agony of demented grief. In painful contrast to the misery of the King was the brilliant success of his government. Taxe? were heavy, but times were good, money plentiful, crops abundant, business brisk, jus tice was done after the Koman fashion. Great roads were constructed and cities were built. On the seacoast under the steep ram parts of Mount Carmel, Herod built a Roman seaport and named it Caesarea ? for Caesar, of course. The ancient and oft-ruined acropolis of Sa maria he rebuilt, almost wholly, also on the Koman model, with strong walls, lofty gates and towers, a magnificent boulevard and many elegant palaces and public buildings. The name was changed to Sebaste, Greek for Au gustus. Caesarea and Sebaste, port and capital, ( "aesar Augustus. Sixteen years before the birth of Christ Herod began to ornament Jerusalem. His one diversion was vest and grand buildings. It fell in with his personal tastes, with the glory of his reign, and with the religions prejudice of the Jews that he should rebuild the Temple; once so splendid, and now so shabby. For nine years they labored upon it. Neither time, wealth nor art was spared to make the Temple of Herod rival the Temple of Solomon. But such a vast, intricate and magnificent pile is never completed. See the cathedrals of Eu rope and onr great American buildings. When Jesus began his ministry they said to him, ac curately, forty and six years is the temple in building. At Jericho Herod built a magnificent palace, the slight remains of which still may be seen in the desert wastes. To the south of Bethle hem on one of the highest points in the land, he constructed the Herodium, one of the great tombs in the world. He shaped up a truncated peak at vast labor and expense as his mauso leum. Queen Mariamne left frve children, two daughters and three sons. The bpys were edu cated at Rome to be near great Caesar. One of them died there. It was generally under stood on all that hands that the sons of Mariamne were to succeed their father. The King had ten wives and many children. His palaces were fetid spots of corruption and in trigue. Plots and counter-plots flew ever thick in the air. Princes and princesses, court syco phants, women of the harem, eunochs, politi cians and all manner of schemers took a hand. But the chief plotter and the very Queen-of Devils was the same Salome. The hatred that brought Mariamne to the block, she now trans f erred to Mariamne's two sons ? the crown princes. It is a long, sad story. At last the old King gave the order and her two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, the last of the Mac cabees, were strangled in the palace of Sa maria ? the palace that had seen the wedding of their mother ? her final break with the King ? her trial and assassination. The princes were laid in the Alexandrinm as it is called ? in the province of Samaria ? two years before the birth of Jesus! The younger of the princes left a daughter named Herodias ? the granddaughter of Mariamne. She married two of her own half brothers, Philip and Antipas. She and her (laughter, Salome, who danced, were the mur derers of John the Baptist. Herod's oldest son was now recalled from exile. He was. to succeed his father, for Herod was dying. But the heirapparent couldn't wait. lie was detected by Salome in plots to kill his dying father. Just then Jesns Christ was born. The wise men came from the East. The innocent, children of Bethlehem wer.-* murdered. Herod's oldest son was executed for his unnatural treason just five days befo the old King died. From Jericho they bore his body through Jerusalem to Bethlehem and to the Herodium that towers to this day over the Field of Watching and in plain sight of the cave in which the King of the Jews was born. And there he lies today ? as I suppose ? to await the Resurreetion of the Just and Unjust. When Herod rises from the Herodium, as come he must and will, the "King of the Jews" by Caesar's order and the Roman Senate's proclamation will face in judgment the King of the Jews by (Jod Almighty's order and the proclamation of angels. The "King of the Jews" searched for the Infant Christ, but did not find Him. The "King of the Jews" will meet the Christ, whom once he sought with murderous hand, when the judgment hour strikes. OUR VACANT CHURCHES. By Mr. B. C. Mooraaw. The editorial of A. A. L. in Presbyterian of the South of April 26th, on the subject of "Our Vacant Churches," is interesting to elders in general, but fails to touch the core of the prob lem of vacant pulpits. Capable and consecrated elders are perfectly willing to "labor in word and doctrine" when necessary, but they will not put themselves in the attitude of appearing to do so on their own motion, and without the initiative of their Presbytery, or its authorized committee. If this initiative, or authority, should come to them in the shape of a form#' request from their Presbytery, or appropriate committee, that they, the elders, should con tinue regular church services in the absence of a pastor, and the church also be requested to encourage them thereto, most of the numerous vacant pulpits would be immediately occupied There are circumstances which make elders sensitive on this point when perhaps they should not be; and again, there are cases and localities where the activity of an elder in taining the regular services is interpreted ?s a substitution for a pastor, or as having a ten dency to make it more difficult to find one, or at least causing a longer delay. In the absence of a pastor all last year Sink ing Spring Church sustained regular services, held four revival meetings with large congr*1 gations, added forty-three members by baptism This yeai^for reasons above indicated nothing is going on but Sunday school work. Barber, Va.