Among the public works of Solomon which he himself enumerates are “pools of water,”[175] constructed not so much to gratify royal ambition and adorn an already glorious reign as to meet a real necessity, and confer a genuine benefaction upon his subjects. Seven miles south of Jerusalem, and two miles south of Bethlehem, are the “Pools of Solomon.” Collecting the water from one of the largest springs in Palestine into reservoirs, he conveyed it to his capital by means of an aqueduct, which still remains, a distance, including the windings, of more than twelve miles. Following his example, his successors either completed the works which he had projected, or originated new ones as occasion demanded. With a climate unchanged, and a soil as hard as ever, the people of the modern city depend upon living fountains and the clouds of heaven for their supply of water. As of old, the most delicious water is brought from a distance, principally from the fountains in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is brought into the city in goatskins carried on the back of camels and asses. But attached to each dwelling are one or more cisterns, excavated in the limestone rock, and measuring from fifteen to thirty feet long, from eight to thirty broad, and from twelve to twenty deep. The rain-water is conducted, by means of small pipes from the flat-roofed buildings, during the rainy season, into these reservoirs, where it remains pure and sweet for consumption during the dry months of summer and autumn. How beautifully this scarcity of water illustrates many passages of the Bible, imparting to them a freshness and a reality inconceivable by one who is a stranger to life in the East. In the nomadic life of the patriarchs, many were the sharp quarrels and fierce fights over a well of water. “Abraham reproved Abimelech” because the servants of the latter had violently driven the herdmen of the former from the well of Beersheba;[176] the King of Edom refused to allow Moses to lead the Israelites through his dominions lest his fountains might be exhausted;[177] the churlish Nabal enumerates water with the articles he withheld from David;[178] anticipating the feuds that might arise from drinking of another’s fountain, Solomon advises, “Drink water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well;”[179] and, ever drawing his figures from nature and the customs of society, and recalling the value and deliciousness of water, the Savior compares salvation to a “well of water springing up unto everlasting life,” and the perennial joy of piety to the happiness of one who “shall never thirst.”[180] An Oriental can appreciate such an ineffable delight! CHAPTER V.