The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-04-26

and come up to shiver in the .desolation,
and point to fallen gates and shattered
statues and defaced sculpture, respond
ing: "Thebes built not one temple to
God. Thebes hated righteousness and
loved sim Thebes was a star but she
turned to wormwood and has fallen"
Babylon, with her $50 towers and her
brazen gates and her embattled walls,
the splendor Of the earth gathered within
her palaces. her hanging gardens built
by Nebuchadnezzar to please his bride
Amyittis, who had been brought up in a
mountainous country and could not en-
dure the fat country round Babylon,
these hanging gardens built, terrace
above terrace, till at the height of 400
feet there were woods waving and foun-
tains playing. the verdure, the foliage,
the glory looking as il mountain were
ON the wing. On the tip top 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 off over rivers
and lakes upon nations subdued and
tributary, crying: sis not this great
Babylon which I have builta'' What bat
tering ram smote the walls2 What plow-
share upturned the gardens7 What army
shattered the brazen gates7 What long,
fierce blast Of storm put out this light
which inumined the worldf What crash
sx discord dreys down the music that
poured h6ln palace window and garden
grove and called the banqueters to their
revef and the dancers to their feeta
walk upon the scene Of desolation to find
an answer and pick up pieces of bitumen
and brick and broken pottery, the re-
mains of Babylon, and, as in the silence
of the night I hear the surging Of that
billow Of desolation which rolls over the
scene, l hear the wild waves saying:
Babylon was proud. Babylon was Inn
pure. Babylon was a star; but by sin
she turned to wormwood and has fallen. :"
From the prosecutions Of the Pilgrim
fathers and thu Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores nation. The
council fires Of the aborigines went out
IN the greater light of q free govern
ment The sound of the war whoop was
exchanged for the thousand wheels Of
enterprise and progress. The mild win
ters, the fruitful summers, the healthful
skies charmed from other lands race of
hardy men who loved God and wanted
to be free. Before the woodman's ak
forests fell and rose again into ships
masts and churches pillars. Cities On
the bank Of lakes begin to rival cities by
the sea. The land quakes with the
rush Of the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel Fabulous bushels OF
western wheat meet ON the way fabulous
tons of eastern coal Furs from the
north pass on the rivers fruits from the
south. And trading In the same market
Is Maine lumberman and South Carolina
rice merchant and Ohio farmer and
Alaska fur dealer. And churches and
schools and asylums scatter light and
love and mercy and salvation upon sixty
millions Of people.
pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes Of the nations that have
perished, and our cup Of blessing turn to
wormwood and like them we go down.
am by nature and by grace an optimist,
and expect that this counAry will con-
tinue to advance until the world shall pu,
on millennial era, and that when Christ
comes again he will set his throne some.
where between the Alleghanies and the
Sierra Nevadas. But be not deceived
Our only safety is In righteousness toward
God and justice toward man. If we for.
get the goodness Of the Lord to thit
land and break his Sabbaths and inn.
prove not by the dire disasters tina,
have again and again come to ul
as a people, and we learn saving
lesson neither from civil war nor raging
epidemic, nor drought. nor mildew, MOI
scourge Of locust and grasshopper, if the
political corruption which has poisoned
the fountains of public virtue, and be
slimed the high places Of authority,
making free government at times /,
Kissing and byword in all the earth, Il
the drunkenness and icentiousness tina,
stagger and blaspheme in the streets o.
our great cities, as though they wer'
reaching after the fame Of q Corinth ane
q Sodom, are not repented Of, w
will yet see the smoke Of our naticnh
ruin; the pillars Of our national and stat
capitals Win fall more disastrously thar
when Sampson pulled down Dagon; anl
future historians win record upon tn
t5So 0CUOWCA WAtl &cucIOAS Uc<1I6 ekA'
story that the free nation Of the ives
arose in splendor which made the worlt
stare. It had magnificent possibilities
1t forgot God It hated justice. I
hugged its crime. It halted on its higl
march. 1t reeled under the blow Of CO
lamity. It fell. And as It was goint
down all the despotisms Of earth, iron
the top Of bloody thrones. began to shout
"Aha, 80 would we have 1t, while strug
Cling and oppressed peoples looked ou
from dungeon bars with tears and groan
and cries Of untold agony, the scorn o
those and the woe Of these uniting in tn
exclamation: 'Look yonderl There fel
great star from heaven, burning as
were lamp, and it fell upon tho thir'
| part Of the rivers and upon the fountain
| Of waters; and the name of the star l
called WmmwoodI'