The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-05-03
PRICE FIVE CENTS


In the door-yard of my brother John,
missionary in Amcy, China, there is a
tree called the Emperor tree, the two
characteristics of which are that it always
| grows higher than its surroundings, and
| its leaves take the form of a crown. IL
| this Emperor tree be planted by a rose
bush it grows a little higher than the bush
and spreads out above it a crown. If 1t be
planted by the side of another tree, 1t
grows little higher than that tree and
spreads above it crown. Would to God
that this religion of Christ, a more Won
derful Emperor tree, might overshadow
all your lives; are you lowly in ambition
or circumstance, putting over you its
crown; ars you high in talent and position.
putting over you its crown. Oh, for more
| of the saccharine in our lives and less OF
the wormwood.
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve as
stars, but they may fall wormwood.
Tyre--the atmosphere of the desert, fra
| grant with spices, coming in caravans to
her fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the
| keels of her laden merchantmen; her
markets rich with horses and camels from
Togarmah; her bazaars filed with
upholstery from the Ocean, with emeralds
and coral and agate from Syria, with
|
work from Ashur and Chilmad. Where
now the CLEAN of her towers, where the
roar OF her chariots, where the masts of
| her ships? 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 nations. let the barbarians who set
their rude tents where once her palaces
glittered answer the q estion. She was
star, but by her own sin turned to worm
wood and has fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes-for all time to
be the study of the antiquarian and
| hieroglyphist; her stupendous ruins
| spread over twenty-seven miles; her
sculptures presenting in figures of war
rior and chariot the victories with which
the now forgotten kings of Egypt shook
the nations; her obelisks and columns;
Carnac and Luxor, the stipend Us tenn
pies of her pride! Who can imagine the
| greatness of Thebes in those days when
the hippodrome rang with her sports and
foreign royalty bowed at her shrines and
her avenues roared with the wheels of
professions in the wake of returning
conquerors? What dashed down the
| vision of chariots and temples and
thrones? What hands pulled upon the
columns of her glory? What ruthless
ness defaced her sculptured wall and
broke obelisks and left her indescribable
temples great skeletons of granite? What
spirit of destruction spread the
lair of wild beasts in her royal sepul-
chers, and taught the miserable cottagers
of to day to build huts in the courts of
| her temples, and sent desolation and ruin
| skulking behind the obelisks and lodging
among the sarcophagi and leaning against
| the columns and STOPPING under the
| arches and weeping in the waters which
| go mournfully by as though they were
| carrying the tears of all ages? Let the
mummies break their long silence and
come up to shiver in the desolation. and
point to fallen gates and shattered stat
ues and defaced sculpture, responding:
''Thebes built not one temple to God
Thebes hated righteousness and loved sin.
| Thebes was star, but she turned to worm
wood and has fallen"
Babylon, with her two hundred and fifty
towers and her brazen gates and her en-
battled walls, the splendor of the earth
gathered within her palaces, her hanging
| gardens built by Nebuehadnezzar to please
his bride, Amyitis, who had been brought
up in mountainous country and could
| not endure the fiat country round Babylon
| these hanging gardens built, terrace
| above terrace, till at the height of four
hundred feet there were woods waving and
| fountains playing, the verdure, the foliage,
the glory looking as if q mountain were
on the wing. On the tip-top a King walk
ing with his Queen, among statues snowy
white, looking up at birds brought from
distant lands, and drinking out of tank
ards Of solid gold or looking off over riv-
ers and lakes upon nations subdued and
tributary, crying:
''Is not this great Babylon which have
builts"
| What battering ram smote the wallsy
| What plowshare upturned the gardens'
| What army shattered the brazen gatesp
| What long, fierce blast of storm put out
| this light which illuminated the world?
| What crash OF discord drove down the
music that poured from palace window
and garden grove and called the banqa aet-
| ers to their revel and the dancers to their
feet? walk upon the scene of desolation
to find an answer and pick up pieces OF
bitumen and brick and broken pottery,
the remains of Babylon, and as in the
silence of the night hear the surging Of
that billow of desolation which rolls over
The scene, hear the wild waves saying:
| Babylon was proud. Babylon was i'm
| pure. Babylon was star, but by sin she
| turned to wormwood and has fallen"
/ pray that our Nation may not copy tho
| crimes of the nations that have perished,
and our cup of blessing turn to worm
wood and like them we go down. / am
| by nature and by grace an optimist, and
expect that this country will continue to ad-
vance until the world shall put on millen-
/ nial eraand that when Christ shall come
| again He will set His throne somewhere
between the Alleghenies and the Sierra
Nevadas. But be not deceived Our only
safety is in righteousness toward God and
| justice toward man. II we forget the good
\ ness of the Lord to this land and break
| His Sabbaths and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come
! 10 us as a people, and we learn saving
lesson neither from civil war nr,r raging
! epidemic, nor drought, nor mitdew, nor
| scourge of locusts and grasshopper; il
| the political corruption which has
| poisoned the fountains OF public
virtue and beslimed the high places OF
authority. making free government at
| times kissing and byword in all ths
earth; IL the drunkenness and licentious.
ness that stagger and blaspheme in the
! streets of our great cities as though they
were reaching after the fame Of a Corinth
and a Sodom are not repented of, we wild
! yet see the smoke of our Nations ruin;
! the pillars Of our National and State capt.
| tails will fall more disastrously than when
Samson pulled down Dagon; and future
| historians will record upon the page be-
! dewed with generous teas tie story that
| the free nation of the West arose in SPLEEN
| dor which made the world stare. Ithad
magnificent possibilities. 1t forgot God
| 1t hated justice. Il hugged its crime. II
halted on its high march. 1t reeled un
/ der the blow of calamity. 1t fell. And
as it was going down, all the despotism Of
earth from the top Of bloody thrones be-
/ gan TO shout, "Aha, so we have it," while
struggling and oppressed people looked
| out from dungeon bars with tears and