The Red Cloud chief., 1891-10-30
LESSONS LEARNED.
Dr.. Talma0e Commences a Series
of Discourses on His Tour.
Lessons Drawn From the Pyramids OF
cEgypt-The Grandeur Of Mans Labor
and What He Can Accomplish
Heavens Glorious Mementoea

Rev T. De- Witt Talmage recently COM
menced a series of sermons at Brook
: Ign on his eastern tour entitled: From
kfhe Pyramids to the Acropolis or What
saw in Egypt and Greece Confrma-
tory of the Scriptures" His text was
Isaiah xix. 1920: I'm hat day shall
there be an altar TO the Lord in the
midst of the land Of Egypt and a pillar
at the border thereof to the Lord. And
II shall be for a sign and for a witness"
DR.. Talmage said:
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the
great pyramid of Egypt The text
speaks of a pillar in Egypt and this is
the greatest pillar ever lifted; and the
text says il is TO be at the border of the
land, and this pyramid is ut the border
OF the land; and the text says IL shall be
for a witness, and the object of this
sermon is TO tell what this pyramid wit
nesseS-
We had on q morning in December.
lsS9, landed in Africa. Amid the
bowling boatmen at Alexandria we
had come ashore and taken the rail
train for Cairo. Egypt along the bank
OF the most thoroughly harnessed river
OF all the world-the river Nile We
had, at eventide, entered the city of
Cairo, the city where Christ dwelt
while staying in Egypt during the
Herodic persecution. The next morn
ing we We're early awake and at the
window looking upon palm trees in full
glory OF LEAKAGE, aud pom the gardens
Of fruits and flowers at the very sea
son when our homes far away are
%canopied Toy bleak skies and the last
leaf of the forest has gone down in the
e~quinoctials
But how can describe the thrill Of
expectation, for to-day we are TO See
what all the world has seen or wants
TO see-the pyramids. We are mounted
for an hour and a halls ride. We pass
on amid bazaars stuffed with rugs and
carpets, and curious fabrics of all sorts
from Smyrna, from Algiers. from Per
STA, from Turkey, and through streets
where we meet people of all colors and
all garhs, carts loaded with garden
productions. priests in gowns, women
IN black wells, Bedouins in seemingly
superflous apparel, Janissaries in Jacket
of embroidered ~gold-out and on
toward the great pyramid; for though
there are sixty-nine pyramids still
standing, the pyramid OF Gizeh
is the monarch of pyramids The
road we travel is for part
OF the way under clumps of
acacia, and 10y long rows OF sycamore
and tamerisl;, bu. after a while it 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 dragoman as we see II huge
pile Of rock looming in sight: "Drago-
man, what is that" His answer is:
The pyramid" and then il seemed aS
II we were living a century every min
ute. Oar thoughts and emotions were
too rapid and intense for utterance,
and we ride on in silence until we
come to the foot of the pyramid spoken
of IL the text the oldest structure in
;. al the earth, 1000 years old ut least
had started that morning with the
determination of ascending the pyra-
mid. One of my chief objects in going
TO Egypt was not only to see the base
of that granite wonder, but to stand
on top Of it Yet the nearer | camc- IN
eternity of stora .ro more 10y de-
thc w
: amInation WAS shaken Its altitude
/ u me was simply APPALLING As we dis
, mounted AZ the base of the pyramid /
said: Others may go up ii, but not l.
] will satisfy myself with a view from
the base. The ascent of il would be To
me n foolhardy undertaking" But
after | had given up all idea Of ascend
ing | found my daughter WAS deter
mined to go. and ! could not let her go
with strangers and | changed my mind
and we started with guides Ii can
not be done without these helpers
Each person in our party hal
two or three guides or helpers.
one OF them uurolled his turban and
tied il around my waist and he held
the other end of the turban as a mat
ter of safety. Many OF the blocks of
stone. are four or five feet high and be-
yond any human stride unless assisted
But two Arabs to pull and two Arabs
To push, / found myself rapidly as
cending from height to height, and on,
10 attitudes terrific, and at last at the
tin top we found ourselves on a level
space of about thirty feet square.
Through clearest atmosphere we
looked off upon the desert, and off
upon the winding Nile. and off upon
the Sphinx with its features of ever
lasting stoicity. and yonder upon the
minarets of Cairo giittering in the sun,
and yonder upon Memphis in ruins.
md off upon the wreck of empires and
the battlefelds of ages, n radius of
view enough To fill the mind and shock
the nerves and o~thcrwhelm ones en-
tire being.
After looking around for a while.
and a kodack had pictured the group,
we descended The descent was more
irving thar the ascent for climbing
YOU need not see the depths beneath,
but coming down il was impossible not
10 see the abysns below But two
Arabs ahead 10 help us down, and two
Arabs to hold us back. we were low
cred. hand below hand. until the
ground was invitingly near, and amid
the jargon OF the Arabs we were safely
landed
said the dominant color of the
pyramid was gray but in certain lights
il seemed u shake off the gray of
centuries and become a blonde and the
silver turns &C the golden. Ii covers
thirteen acres of ground What an
antiquity. Ii was at least 900 years
old when tue baby Christ vas carried
within sight of it hy His fugitive
parents, Joseph and Mary. The
storms of forty centuries have drenched
il. bombarded it Swallowed it, flashed
upon IL bu. there il stands ready 10
take another forty centuries OF atmos-
pheric attack if the world should con-
tinue 20 exist The oldest buildings on
earth are juniors To this great senior of
centuries Herodotus saw tina: for
ten years preparations were being
made for the building of this pyramid
It1has $. III. 600 cubic feet of masonry.
One hundred thousand workmen toiled
# one time in its erection The top
pnes were lifted by machinery such