Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-10-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subjects "The Lesson of the Pyramids

TEXT: I'm that day shall there he an
altar 10 the Lord in the midst Of the land
Of EguDf, and q pillar at The border there
of to tie Lord And IL shall be for n sign
and for tcitneSs Isaiah xix, 10, -
Isaiai no doubt here refers to the great
pyramid at Gizeh, the chief pyramid OF
Egypt The text speaks OF pillar in Egypt.
and this is the greatest pillar ever lifted;
and the text says it is to be at the border OF
the land and this pyramid is at tho border
of the land aud the text says it shall be for
a witness. and the object OF this sermon is to
tell what this pyramid witnesses. This ser
mon is the first of a course OF sermons en-
titled From the Pyramids to the Acropolis'
or What saw in Egypt AMI Greece Con
frmatory of the Scriptures"
We bad, on a morning Of December, 1889.
landed in Africa. Amid the bowling boat
men at Alexandria we had come ashore and
taken the rail train at Cairo, Egypt, along
the banks of the most thorouy hly harneSsed
river OF all the world the river Nile. We
had az eventide entered the city of Cairo, the
city where Christ Gwelt while staying in
Egypt during the Hero1ic persecution. IL
was our first night in Egypt. No destroying
angel sweeping through as once. but all ths
stars were out, and the sly was filled with
ange.s of beauty and angels of light and the
next morning we were early awake and at
the window, looking upon the palm trees in
full glory OF LEAKAGE and upon gardens OF
fruits and flowers at the very season when
our homes far away are canopiet by bleak
skies and the last leaf OF the forest has gone
down in the equinoctials.
But how can / describe the thrill of ex-
pectation. for to-day we are to see what all
the world has seen or wants to see-tne
pyramids We are mounted for an hour
and a half's ride. We pass on amid baz1ars
stuffed with rugs and carpets, and curious
fabrics of all sorts from Smyrna, from AL
Ciers. from Persia, from Turkey, and through
streets where we meet people of all colors
and all garbs, carts loaded with garden pro-
auctions. priests in gowns, women in black
wells Bedouins in long and seemingly super
fiuous ap arel, JaniSsarieS in jacket of en-
broiderei gold--out AMI on toward the great
pyramid. for though there are sixty-nine
pyrami S still standing. the pyramid at Gizeh
Is the monarch OF pyramids. We meet
camels granting under their loads. and see
buffa,oes on either side browsing in pasture
fields
The road we travel is for part of the way
under clumps Of acacia and by long rows of
sycamore and tamerisk, but after awhile IL
is a path of rock and sand, and we find we
have reached the margin OF the desert, the
great Sahara desert. and we cry out to the
great dragoman as we see a huge pile OF rock
looming in sight, "Dragomlu. what is that
His answer is The pyramid, and then IL
seemed as if we were living a century every
minute Our thoughts and emotions were
toorap.d and intense for utterancs, and we
ride on in silence until we come TO the foot
of the pyramid spoken Of in the text, tho
Oldest structure in all the earth-four thou
sand years old at least. Here it is We stand
under the shadow OF a structure that shuts
out all the earth and all the sky, and we look
up and strain our vision to appreciate the
distant top. AMI are overwhelmed while We
cry. THE pyramid The pyramid"
Each person in our party had two or three
guides or helpers One OF them unrolled his
turhan and tied il around my waist and he
held the other end OF the turban as a matter
OF safety Many OF the blocks of stone are
four or five feet high and beyond any or lin
airy human stride unless assisted. But, two
Arabs to pull and two Arabs TO push, found
myself rapidly ascending from heighth TO
heighth. and on to attitudes terrific, and at
last at the tiptop found ourselves on level
space Of about thirty feet square Through
clearesi atmosphere we looked oil upon the
desert aud off upon the winding Nile, and
off upon the Sphinx, with its features OF
everlasting stone and vonder upon the min
arets OF Cairo gttering IN the sun. and yon'
der upon Memphis in RUNS and off upon the
wreck of empires and the battl fields OF ages
O radius Of view enough to fill the mind and
shock the nerves and oyerwhelm ones entire
being
After looking around FOR awhile. AMI a
kodak had pictured the group, we descended.
The descent was more trying than the
ascent. for climbing you need not see the
depths beneath, but coming down It was Ina
possible not 10 see the abySns below. But
two Arabs ahead to help Us down, AMI two
Arabs to hold lis back, we were lowered,
hand below hand, until the ground was in
willingly near, an amid the iargon o. tho
Arabs we were safely landed. Then cane
one of the most won ierful feats OF daring
and agility One Of the Arabs solcte
dollar saying he would run IN AMI down
the pyramid in seven minutes We would
rather have given him n dollar not TO go,
but this ascent and descent in seven minutes
he was determined on, and SO by the watch
in seven minutes he went to the top and was
back again at the base. II was bloodcur-
ding spectacle.
said the dominant color OF tde pyramid
was gray, but in certain lights 1t seams 70
shake off the gray OF centuries and become
a blond, and the silver turns TO the golden.
It covers thirteen acres of ground What
an antiquity, It was at least two thousand
years old when the baby Christ was carried
within sight Of it by His fugitive parents,
Joseph ami Mary The storms Of forty can
turtles have drenched it, bombaried it.
Swallowed it, flashed upon it, but there it
stands, ready t. take another forty cen
turtles Of atmospheric attack if the world
should continue to exist The oldest build.
ings Of the earth are juniors - tbs great
senior OF thu centuries.
Hero1otus says that for ten years prepa-
retiOns were beng made for the building of
this pyramid. It has eighty-two million
one hundred aud eleven thousand cubic feet
OF masonry One hundred thousand workmsn
atone time tOiled in its erection. To bring the
stone from the quarries a causeway sixty
feet wide was built. The top stones wer.
lifted by machinery such as the world
knows nothing o. to-day IL Is seven hun
dred and forty-six feet eacl side Of the
square base. The structure is four hundred
and fifty feet high; higher than the CATH
drais Of Cologne, Strasburg, Rouen. st.
Peters and st. Paurs. No surprise 10 M
that it was put at the head o. the seven won
ders Of the world. 1t has su5tsrransous
room ofred granite called the ".dng's cham
Der, and another room E.lie1 tin queens
chamber, and the probability is thai there
are other rooms yet unexplored.
The evident design OF the architect was t.
make these rooms as inaccessible as possible
After all the work of exploration aud all the
digging and blasting, if you would enter
these suoterraneous rooms. you must go
through passage only three fe3t eleven
inches high and less than four feet wide. A
sarcophagus of rel granite stands down un.
der this mountain OF masonry. The
sarcophagus could not have been carried in
after the pyramid was built. It must have
been put there before the structure was
reared. Probably in that slrco2hagu, olcs
lay wooden GOTTA coat timing a deal kiag
but Ii ne has destroyed ths coffin and de
stroyed the last veStige OF hu nan remains
For three tho1sinl years this sepu'c irll
room was unopened and would have been
until TO- lay probably un)pe lel hal not
superstitious i'm preston got abroad that thu
heart OF the pyramid was filled with silver
and gold AMI diamonds, and under AL
an excavltiny party went 70 work,
and having bored AMI blasted through a hun
ired feet of roci, they founl no opening
ahead, and were about to give up the at
tempt when the workman heard a stone roll |
down into a seemingly hollow place, AMI en-
by that they resumed their work I
and came into the un ierSrouu1 rjoms.
The disappointment o, thu workmsa in |
finding the sarcophagus empty Of all silver !
aud gold and precious stonss was SO great |
that they would have assassinatei AL Ma |