The light of life is fading, And through its twilight shading RACINE, Feb. 3, 1857. CONSECRATION HYMN. SUNG AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE NEW BUILDING FOR RACINE COLLEGE, JULY 4, 1857. ALMIGHTY God, thy name to praise, This stone we lay, these walls we raise. Be Thou our Architect divine, Each master hand, wilt Thou direct, On those whose zealous hands have striven, We ask Thy blessing from above! And bless the youth who hither come RACINE, June 5th, 1857. NOTES TO "JERUSALEM." 3109 [The numbers refer to the sections into which the Poem is divided.] 1. THE Poem here presented, is intended to be simply historical and religious. Therefore it has been the writer's aim to conform strictly to facts, throughout, according to the best authorities within his reach; and to follow a strictly chronological order. It will be seen that the History of Jerusalem is wonderfully suggestive; being, in fact, the nucleus of the History of the World. It is linked with the History of Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria; with that of Persia, Greece and Rome; with that of the Mohammedan conquests in the East; and with that of the Christian nations in the West, at least through the Middle Ages. And its Prophetic History doubtless reaches to the Millennium; as it is also a type of the New Jerusalem, so glowingly described in the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse. 3. See Genesis, chapter xiv. ; from the third verse of which it appears that the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboïm were situated in the vale of Siddim; at the southern extremity of which was the city of Bela, or Zoar; and by the destruction of the former cities, and submersion of their site, this valley was converted into the Salt, or Dead Sea.The name of Melchizedek is derived from the Hebrew words, melech, king; and zedek, righteousness: and the name Salem, is the Hebrew word for peace; whence comes the oriental salutation, "Salaam," i. e. "Peace be with you." (See Hebrews, vii. 1, 2.)—The learned Bishop Patrick, in his excellent Commentary, maintains that the Salem above referred to, was not Jerusalem, but a town on the east side of the river Jordan, called Salim in St. John's Gospel, chap. iii. v. 23. But Josephus, in his Jewish War, Book vi., chap. x., expressly declares that Melchizedek built Jerusalem; (according to Calmet, 2023 B. C. ;) and this is the statement most commonly received. 4. See Genesis, chap. xxii. That the Moriah here referred to, is the same on which the temple was afterwards built by Solomon, is expressly declared by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, Book i., chap. xiii. This mountain was then no part of Jerusalem, though near it, and afterwards included within its walls. The designation of this place for the sacrifice of Isaac, was doubtless a divine intimation of the holy use to which it should afterwards be applied.—The virtual sacrifice of Isaac took place, according to Archbishop Usher's Chronology, which is commonly received, 1872 years before the Christian Era; but according to Dr. Jarvis, whom we prefer to follow, it took place 1885 B. C. 5. See Joshua, chap. x.; also chap. xv., 63; and Judges, xix. 10. Calmet, in his Dictionary of the Holy Bible, article Jerusalem, states that the Jebusites captured this city, about a century after its foundation, and built a citadel on Mount Zion.-The similarity of the names of Melchizedek and of Adoni-zedek, (king of righteousness, and lord of righteousness,) affords a strong presumption that as the latter was a king of Jerusalem, so also was the former.-The city was taken by Joshua, 1450, or according to Dr. Jarvis, about 1463 B. C.-Calmet has a long argument to prove that Jerusalem was regarded as a holy place before it became the site of the temple; and Josephus says that Melchizedek gave the city its present name. But the name Jerusalem first occurs in Joshua, chap. x.; and, as Bishop Patrick observes, appears to have been given to the city by the Israelites. The name is probably derived from the Hebrew, Jeru, they shall see; and Salem, peace: but the Greek form of the name, Hierosolyma, is evidently compounded of the word hieros, holy; probably by a corruption of the Hebrew, to make it significant. (Anthon, Class. Dict.) 6. See 1 Samuel, xvii. 54; and xxi. 9. The ark of the Lord appears to have been kept at this time in the house of Abinadab, in Gibeah, which signifies the hill, of Kirjath Jearim; (2 Sam. vi. 3, and 1 Chron. xiii. 6, 7;) but Ahimelech, the high priest, resided at Nob, near Kirjath Jearim, and north-west of Jerusalem, where the holy tabernacle was probably then standing, as Ahimelech could only furnish David with show-bread, taken from the holy table. (1 Sam. xxi. 6.) The stronghold of Zion was taken, for David, by Joab, 1048, or according to Dr. Jarvis, 1062 B. α. (1 Chron. xi. 6.) This was about fifteen years after the death of Goliath. 8. See 2 Samuel, ch. xxiv.; 1 Chronicles, ch. xxi.; and 2 Chron. iii. 1. That Mount Moriah should have been divinely appointed as the place for David's sacrifice, is another proof of its holy character, both retrospective and prospective. Araunah is thought to have been a descendant of the ancient royal family of the Jebusites; and Calmet, (Art. Jerusalem,) conjectures that the name Ornan was given to him by the Israelites. 9. See 1 Kings, chapters v., vi., and vii.; and 2 Chronicles, chapters ii., iii., iv., and v. The silence observed in building the temple was doubtless significant of God's operation in the human heart, as also of the peace and quietness which should prevail in the Christian church. (1 Kings, vi. 7.) 10. The blowing of the Sabbath horn is mentioned by |