NEW TRADITION OF STONE OF DESTINY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3356, 24 October 1911, Page 7

NEW TRADITION OF STONE OF DESTINY.

“THE ROCK FROM WHICH MOSES DREW WATER.”

It has been left to the twentieth century to add one of the most amazing traditions to the many surrounding the famous “Stone of Destiny,” which for six centuries has reposed beneath the British coronation chair. The most familiar of mediaeval legends is that the stone was the one used by Joseph for his pillow at Bethel. Preaching on a recent Sunday at Westminster Abbey, Archdeacon Wilberforce astonished the congregation by quoting a well-known antiquarian who has specially studded stones _as .saying that the “Stone of Destiny 5 ’ is also the rock from which Moses struck water for the thirsting children of Israel. Hie name of the antiquarian was not mentioned- by Archdeacon Wilberforce, but he was quoted as saying that he was convinced the stone' was really Jacob’s pillow. After its use as such it was considered sacred, and was carried from -place to place by the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness.

The antiquarian showed to Archdeacon Wilberforcc a. cleft in the back of the rook from which ho said he believed water had gushed after Moses had; struck the stone with his staff. The stone, it is believed, was taken to the temple of Solomon, and, after its destruction, to Jerusalem. From: Jerusalem it was taken by Titus to Spain. Thence it reached Ireland, and later was taken to Scotland and brought to London by Edward I.