West-Jersey pioneer., 1867-05-03
CT 0 R RI


On Heliepols end the Pyramids, Jv Rev. Chas.
.. R06inson, D. D., Of BROOKLYN, N. T.
Grosscups Hall was well filed upon Mon
day evening last to listen to description of
these places from the lips Of this ELOQUENT
Divine, whose services had been secured by
the Young Mems Christian Association Of this
city. The lecturer possessed the advantage
OF having gone over the scenes he described,
which enabled him to impart freshness and
vitality to his word painting which could not
otherwise have been obtained. HIS style was
plain, yet elegant, and while seldom rising
into the eloquence of diction, yet was slways
full of delicate power of expression; that
higher eloquence which constantly pictures
the idea upon the mind. Under his word
painting the land of Goshen, where the feet OF
Moses trod, became as visible to the mind as
the plains of New York; the old Egyptian
Sphinxes looked out with their wierd intelli-
gence upon the passers by as they had looked
for so many centuries, their almost superhuman
expression visible under his singularly plain
depictings The Pyramids-those wonders Of
all ages-seemed to loom up grandly before
the vision; and the condition of Egypt, once
the proudest. butnow The basest, of kingdoms,
was made painfully apparent. The lecturer
in forcible manner connected the prophecies
of Scripture with the present condition of that
land. Its position as the seat of learning and
power gradually reduced by successive spolia-
tions from successive conquerers; the extinc-
tion of its arts and sciences through political
calamities. The sad decay of all its history so
that it was impossible to tell even what was
represented by its colossal monuments; the
subiugations of its people under depth of
oppression that had not left single song OF
joy unto all the nation; the task master taking
all the ayails of labor until the more necessities
of life was a problem to the oyerworked
peasantry; the stupid ignorance which had
supplemented the old intelligence--all these
were made apparent as the fulflment of the
prophetical curse upon the land of the
Pharaohes. Some of the Scrptural expressions
also, which in themselves are enigmatical to
the ordinary reader, were made plain by these
descriptions. The Egyptian reed, bending
under the slightest breath of passing air, and
bruising its delicate bark at the slightest
touch, pictured beautifully, "The bruised reed
will He not break"
There was a vein of quiet wit running
through the lecture, developing itself in ac-
counts of excursions up the Pyramids under
the help of the Arabs where the breath was
regularly jerked out of his body at intervals of
about ten minutes, and the olamorou GUS demands
of these Arabs for "Bucksheesh"- boy
who ran for twenty-eight miles before his
donkey to clear the way and prevent people
from being run over by that formidable animal
the crooked streets of old Cairo-the efforts
of Yankeedom and Ishmalite to understand
each other-all these were carried along upon
a strain of unobtrusive wit that was both en-
tertaining and refreshing.
Lectures of this kini both instruct and
please, and we should be glad if opportunity
favored that Mr.. Robinson should visit our
city again and once more tell us his experiences
and observations upon these classic shores of
Egypt.