Milford chronicle., 1888-04-27

nVes; are you lOwly IN ambition or circum
stance, putting over you its crown; are yo
: high in talent and position, putting over yo
It's crown Oh, for more Of tine saccharin
IN our lives andless Of the wormwoodf
What is true Of individuals is true Of ma
tons. God sets them up TO revolve as stars
but they may fall wormwood
Iyre-the atmosphere OF the desert fra
grant with spices coming in caravans to hel
fairs; all seas cleft into foam By the keels o
her laden merchantmen: her markets ricl
with horses and camels from Togarmah
her hazaars filed with upholstery from
Dednn, with enleralds and coral and agate
from Syria, with wines from Helbon. will
embroidered work from Ashur and Chi.
mad. Where now the glcam Of her towers.
where the roar Of her chariots, where the
masas Of her shipsi Let the fishermen who
dry their nets where once she stood, let the
sea that rushes upon the barrenness where
once she challenged the admiration of all ma.
tons, let the barharians who set tEeir rude
tents where once her palaces glittered. an
swer the question She was star. but by
her own sin turned to wormwood and has
fallen
( Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to be
the study Of antiquarian and hiero-lyphise.
her stupendous ruins spread over twenty
seven miles, her sculptures presenting in
figures Of warrior and chariot tho victories
with which the now forgotten kingsof l.,vpt
shook the nations; her ohelisks and columns
Carnac and Luxor, the stupenious telnples
OF her pride. Who can imagine the greatness
of Thebes in those days, when tile hippodrome
rang with her sports and foreign ROYALTY
bowed at hor shrines and her avenues roared
Wlth-the wheels OF professions in the wake of
returning corqucrerst What dashed down
the vision Of chariots and tenrles and
thrones! What hands pulled upon the
columns of her gloryi What rutblcssness
dcfaced the scultured wall and broke obelisks
and left her indescribable temples front
skeletons Of grauitei What spirit of de
struction spread the lair Of wild beasts ia her,
royal sepulchers, and taught the miserable
eottagers OF today 20 build huts in the courts
of her temples, and sent desolation and ruin
skulking behind the ohelisks and doirius-
among the sarcophagi and leaning against
the columns and STOPPING I'm Ter the arches
and weeping iii the waterA which 20 mourn
fully by, as though they we're carrying the
tears OF all ages, Let tho niummies break
their long silence and come mp TO shiver in
the desolation and point = fallen gates and
shattered statues and defaced sculpture. re-
spending: 'Thebes built not one temple TO
God. Thebes hated Righteousness and loved
sir. Thebes, was a star, but she turned to
wormwood and has fallen"
Babylon-with her 80 towers and her
brazen gates and her embatted walls the
splendor Of the earth gathered within. her
palaces, her hanging gardens built by
Nebuchadnezzar to please his bride Amyittas.
who had been brought up in a mountainous /
eftsrro afafsr 81
round Babylon, those hanging gardens built. {
terrace above terrace, till at the height of I
400 feet there were woods waving and
fountains playing, the verduro, the foliage. .
the glory looking as if mountain were on .
the wing On the tip top a king walking
with his queen, among statues snowy white.
looking up at birds brought from distant
lands, and drinking out Of tankards of solid
gold, or looking of over rivers and lakes up-
on nations subdued and tributary, CRYING. is
not this great Babylon which have builtF
What battering ram snote the walls. What
plowshare upturned the gardensl What ar.
my shattered the brazen gates! What
long, fierce blast of storm put out this
light which Illuminated the worldl What
crash Of discord drove down the music
hat poured from palace window and gar
len grove, and called the banqueters to their
'evel and the dancers to their feet2 | walk
ipon the scene of desolation 10 find an an
wer and pick up pieces of bitumen and
prick and broken pottery, the remains of
Babylon, and as in the silence of the night
lear the surging of that billow of desola-
ion which rolls over the scene, hear the
Wild waves saying, Babylon was proud
Babylon was impure. Babylon was a star.
nut by sin she turned to wormwood and has
allen"
From the prosecutions OF tie Pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
iod set upon these shores a nation. The
ouncil fires Of the aborigincs went out in
he greater light Of free government. The
ound of the war whoop was exchanged for
he thousand wheels Of enterprise and pro-
ress The mild winters, the fruitful sum
lers, the healthful skies charmed from other
lnds a race of hardy men who loved God
nd wanted TO be free Before the wood
lan's AK forests fell and rose again into
iips' masts and churches pillars. Cities
n tho banks Of lakes begin to rival
tics by the sea. The land quakes with /
ie rush Of the rail car and The I
aters are churned white with the I
wheel. Fabulous bushels Of western Z
heat meet on tie way fabulous tons Of /.
lstern coal Furs from the north pass on \
le rivers fruits from the south. And trad-
e in the same market is Maino lumber;nap
al South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio
rner and Alaska fur dealer And churches I
ID schools and asylGins scatter light and s
We and mercy and salvation upon CO. 0OO. eco n
people. i
/ pray that our nation may not copy the ~
imos Of the nations that have persisted, and q
II cup Of blessing turn u wormwood and n
Ie them we 20 down. am by nature and "
grace an optinIist, and I expect that this Il
untry will continue to advance until the n
orld shall put on milleanial era, and that W
hen Christ comes again he will set his throne IL
mewhere between the Alleghanies and tht N
ezra Nevadas But be not deceived. Or M
ly safety is in righteousness toward {, h,
d Justice toward man. If we forget the in
odness Of the Lord TO this land, and break al
S Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire N
asteys that have again and again come to w
as people, and we learn saving lesson vi
ther from civil war nor raging epidemic, in
+ drought nor nlildew nor scourge OF locust he
/ grasshopper, if the political corruption th
ich has poisoned the fountains of public Oh
tue and beslimed the high places of author OF
making free government at times a hiss M
ana uyWofu N all thc earth; II the al
lnkenness and licentiousness that stagger VI
blaspheme in the streets of our great a
les, as though they were reaching after the ru
ne Of Corinth and a Sodom, are not re- ca
tied Of we will yet see the smoke Of our pu
ions ruin; the PILLARS Of our national and Be
te capitals viii fall more disastrously
n when Sampson pulled down Dagon:
future historians win record upon the
e bedewed with generous tears the story thi
t the free nation Of the west arose in wo
.ndor which made the world stare It it.
magnificent possibilities. It forgot God. an
hated justice 1t hugged its crime It Of
led on its high march. It rcelcd under hin
blow Of calamity It fell And as it Civ
going down all the despotisms Of earth ing
n the top of bloody thrones began to the
ut; 'Aha, so would we have it." while ho,
ggling and oppressed peoples looked out les;
n dungeon bars with tears and groans stlf
cries Of untold agony, the scorn Of those ces
tho woe of these uniting in the exclama- No
u Look yonderl There fell a great star par
a heaven, burning as it were a lamp ter
it fell upon the third part Of the rivers is a
upon tho fountains Of waters; and the luts
Ia of fine star IL oallod lVorr,sroolrn ~ r