The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-11-14

machinery could lift blocks of stone
like some of those standing high up in
the walls of Baalbec, and that the art
of printing claimed for recent ages was
practiced by the Chinese 1, 400 years ago
and that our midnight lightning express
rail train was foreseen by the prophet
Nahum, when in the Bible he wrote:
1.-The chariots shall rage in the streets,
they shall jostle one against another in
the broadways, they shall seem like
torches, they shall run like lightnings,"
and our electric telegraph was foreseen
by Job, when in the Bible he wrote:
''Canst thou send lightnings that they
may go and say unto thee: Here we
are%" What is that talking by light
nings but the electric telegraph?
Embalmment was more thorough art
5000 years ago than to-day. Dentistry,
that we suppose one of the important
arts discovered in recent centuries, is
proven to be 1000 years old by the
filled teeth of the mummies in the
museums at Cairo, Egypt and artificial
teeth on gold plates found by Betzoni
in the tombs of departed nations. We
have been taught that Harvey discov-
cred the circulation of the blood so late
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 it relaxes in old age,
''the silver cord be loosed," goes on to
compare the heart to pitcher at well,
for the three canals of the heart to re-
ceive the blood like 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 calcula alton, astron-
omy finds out that the world is round
Why, Isaiah knew it was round thou
sands of years before when in the Bible
he said: THE Lord stitch upon the
circle of the earth"
In the old cathedrals of England,
modern painters in the repair of win
dows are trying to make some thing 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 well 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 1,SO0 years
ago. The making of Tyrian purple is
an impossibility now. In our modern
potteries we are trying hard to make
cups and pitchers and bowls as exquisite
as those exhumed from Herculaneum,
and our artiticers are attempting to
make jewelry for ear and neck and fin
ger equal to that brought up from the
of 1000 years before Christ
We have in ourNtime glass in all shapes
and colors, but Pliny, more than 1,SOO
years ago, described malleable glass
which, ii 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 manufac tories of ou- own
time.
These aqueducts of Solomon that l
visited to-day, finding them in good con-
1ition 5000 years after construction,
make me think that the world may have
forgotten more than it now knows. The
great honor OF our age is not machinery,
'or the ancients had some styles of it |
more wonderful; nor art, for the ancients |
lad art more exquisite and durable; nor
for Roman coliseum and |
5recian acropolis surpass all modern |
nor cities, for some OF the |
Incient cities were larger than ours in
he sweep of their pomp But our at
empts must be in moral achievement
md gospel victory. In that We have
,lready surpassed them, and in that d.
ection let the ages push on. Let us
rag less of worldly achievement and
hank God for moral opportunity.
We are on this December afternoon
N the way to the cradle of Him who
allied Himself greater than Solomon.
We are coming upon the chief cradle of
ii the world, not lined with satin, but
trewn with straw not sheltered by
alace, but covered by barn, not pre-
ideded over by Princess, but lowered
yer by a peasant girl; yet a cradle the
anopy of which is angelic wings, and
he lullaby of which is the first Christ
las carol ever sung, and from which all
he events of the past and all the events
the future have and must take date
$ being b. c. or A. D.-before Christ or
fter Christ
i said to the tourist companies plan
ing our Oriental journey: Put US in
bethlehem in December, the place and
he month our Lords BIRTH" and we
ad our wish. am the only man who
as ever attempted to tell how Bethle-
EN- looked at the season Jesus was
orn. Tourists and writer's are there in
ebruary or March or April, when the
alleys are an embroidered sheet of wild
overs. and anemones, and ranunculus
re flushed as though from attempting
} climb the sleeps, and lark and bull
nch are flooding the air with bird
rchestra
But / was there in December. a win
sr month, the barren beach between
ne two oceans of redolence. / was told
hat / must not go there at that season,
old so before l started, told so in
gypt, the booSs told ne so, all travel
IS that consulted about it told me so.
ut was determined to see Bethle-
EN- the same month in which Jesus ar
we'd, and nothing could dissuade me.
Vas l not right in wanting to know ,
ow the Holy Land looked when Jesus :
lme to it? He did not land amid ,
overs and song. When the angels ,
lanted on the famous birthnight all ,
lie fields of Palestine were silent The
lowing skies were answered by gray {
,cks AS Bethlehem stood against a 8
leak wintrv sku | climb nm To IL |