The Red Cloud chief., 1890-11-14

tho walls Of Baalbec. and th.t h. A.,
OF printing claimed for recent .ues w,,
practtced by the Chinese I. e., vesr. 40.
and thstour midnight lightning exnres,
rail- train was ~forescen BY tho nronhe,
Nahum. when In tho Bible he vrot.
The char.ots shall rage In the streets
they shall jostle nj against another r.
the brosdwayA they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like lightnines,'
and our electric telegraph was ~foreseer
by Job. when in the Bible he wrote,
'Canst thou send l~'ghtnings that they
may 60 and say unto thee: Here We
are?'" What is that talking by light.
nings but the electric telegraph?
Embalmment was . more thorough ar,
:. 600 years ago than to-day. Dentistry,
that we suppose one Of the importan,
arts discovered in recent centuries, il
proven to be 1000 yeats old by the
filled teeth Of the mummies in the
museums at Cairo. Egypt and artificial
teeth on gold plates found by Betzonl
in the tombs of departed nations. We
have been taught that Harvey discov.
cred the circulation OF the blood SO ,a.e
as the seventeenth century. o, no!
Solomon announces it in Ecclesiastes,
where first having shown that he under.
stood the spinal cord. silver colored as
it is, and that 1t relaxes in old age.
the silver cord be loosed." goes on to
compare the heart to a pitcher at a we'll,
the three canals OF the heart TO re.
ceive the blood like a p tcher, ',or the
pitcher be broken at the fountain"
What is that but the circulation OF the
blood. found out 1900 years before
Harvey was born? After many centuries
OF exploration and calculation, astron.
omy finds out that the world is round.
Why, Isaiah knew 1t was round thou
sands of years before when in the Bible
he said: The Lord stitch upon the
circle OF tho earth"
In the old cathedrals of England,
modern painters in the repair of win
dows are trying to mako something as
good as the window painting OF 400
years ago and always failing by the
unanimous verdict of all who examine
and compare. The color of modern
painting fades in fifty years while the
color OF the old masters is as we'll pre-
served after 500 years as after one year.
] saw last winter on the walls OF ex-
humed Pompeii paintings with color as
fresh as though made the day before.
though they were buried $500 years
ago. The making of Tyrian purple is
an i~mpossibility now. In our modern
potteries We are trying hard to make
cups and pitchers and bowls as exquisite
those exhumed from 'Herculaneum,
and our artificers are attempting to
make jewelry for ear and neck and fin
ger equal to that brought up from the
mausoleums Of 1000 years before Christ
We have in our time glass in all shapes
and cOlors. but Pliny, more than I, 800
years ago. described a malleable glass
which, il thrown upon the ground and
dented. could be pounded straight again
by the hammer or could be twisted
around the wrists. and that cOnfounds
all the glass manufactures OF our own
time.
These aqueducts of Solomon that l
to-day. finding them ingoOd con-
5000 years after construction,
make me think that the world may have
forgotten more than 1t now knows. The
great honor Of our age is not machinery,
for the ancients had some styles of it
more %wonderful; nor art for the ancients
had art more exquisite and durable; nor
for Roman coliseum and
acropOlis surpass all modern
architecture; nor cities, for sOme Of the
ancient cities were larger than ours in
tho sweep of their pomp But our at
tempts must DO in moral achievement
and gospel victory. In that We have
already surpassed them, and in that di-
let the ages push on. Let us
brag less OF worldly achievement. and
thank God for moral opportunity.
We are on this December afternoon
On the way TO the cradle OF Him who
called Himself greater than Solomon.
We are coming upon the chief cradle Of
all the world, not lined with satin, but
with straw. not sheltered by q
but covered by a barn. not pre-
sideded over by a Princess. but lowered
over by q peasant girl; yet a cradle the
canopy OF which is angelic wings, and
the lullaby of which is the first Christ
mas carol ever sung. and from which all
the events of the past and all the events
of the future have and must take date
as being L. C. or A. n-befOre Christ or
Christ
said to tho tourist companies plan
ming our Oriental journey: Put US in
in December. the place and
the month our Lords BIRTH" and we
had our wish. I am the only man who
has ever attempted to tell how Bethle-
hem looked at the season Jesus was
born. Tourists and writers are there in
February or March or April. when the
are an embroidered sheet of wild
and anemones. and ranunculus
are flushed as though from attempting
to climb the sleeps, and lark and bull.
finch are flooding the air with bird
But l was there in December. q win
ter month. the barren beach between
the two oceans of redo!ence. / was told
! must not 60 there at that season.
told SO before I started, told SO in
the books told me so, all travel
ers that l consulted about it told me so.
But l was determined to see Bethle-
hem the same month in which Jesus ar
and nothing could dissuade me.
Was ] not right in wanting to know
how the Holy Land looked when Jesus
to 1t? He did not land amid
and song. When the angels
on the famous birthnight all
The fields Of Palestine were silent The
skies were answered by gray
rocks As Bethlehem stood against q
bleak, wintry sky. I climbed up to it,
IS through . bleak. wintry sky Jesus
upon it His way down was
warmth to chill, from bloom to
from everlasting June to
sterile December. II l e going Il,
as . botanist and to study
he flora Of the land. I would go in
but 1 went rs . minister OF
christ to study Jesus. and so I went in
The town OF Bethlehem, to nv sur
wise. is in the shape Of . horse shoe.
he houses extending clear onto the
49,