Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-10-22

or experiment with the SclenIl0c battery,
or plan with the brain, and for awhile
the foot walks and the eye sees, and the
ear hears, and the tongue speaks. All
the good words or bad words we speak
are spread out into one layer for pyra-
mid. All the kind deeds or malevolent
deeds we do are spread out into another
layer. All the Christian or un-Chrstian
example we set is spread out in another
layer All the indirect influences OF our
lives are spread out in another layer.
Then the time soon comes when we put
down the implement of toll and pass
away, but the pyramid stands.
The Twentieth century will not rock it
down. nor the Thirtieth century. The
earthquake that rocks this world to
pieces will not stop our influence for good
or evil.
Ny hearers, that is the autobiography
of one block of the pyramid. Cheops
didn't build the pyramid. Some boss
mason in the worlds twilight didn't
build the pyramid. One hundred thous-
and men built it, and perhaps from first
to last 200, coo men. So with the pyra-
mids now rising, pyramids Of evil or
pyramids of good. The pyramid of drunk
ennesS rising ever since the time Noah
got drunk on wine, although there was
at his time such q superabundance of
water. All the salOOniStS of the ages
adding their layers Of ale casks and wine
pitchers and rum jugs until the pyramid
overshadOWS the great Sahara desert Of
desOlated homes and broken hearts and
destroyed eternities. And as the pyra-
mid still rises, layers of human skulls
piled on top of human skulls and other
mountains of human bones to Whiten the
peaks reaching unto the heavens, hum
dreds of thousands of people are building
that pyramid.
SO with the pyramid of righteousness.
Multitudes OF hands are toiling on the
sleeps, hands infantile, hands Octoge-
marian, masculine hands, female hands,
strong hands, weak hands. Some clang-
ing trowel, some pulling rope, some
measuring the sides. Layers of Psalm
books on top of layers of sermons
Layers Of prayers on top of layers of
holy sacrifice. And hundreds of thou
sands coming down to sleep their last
sleep, but other hundreds Of thousands
going up to take their places, and the
pyramids will continue to rise until the
milennial morning gilds the completed
work, and the tOilers on these heights
shall take off their aprons and throw
down their trOWels, crying, sit is fin
iShed."
While there seems to be no practical
use for post mOrtem consideration later
than the time of ones great-grandchil
dren, yet no one wants to be forgotten as
soon as the ObsequieS are over. This
pyramid which Isaiah says is a sign and
witness demonstrates that neither
limestone nor red granite is competent to
keep one atfectionately rememb ered.
Neither can bronze, neither can Parian
marble, neither can Aberdeen granite do
the work. But there is something out
of which to build an everlasting monu-
ment, and thai will keep one freshly re-
membered four thousand years-yea.
forever. 1t does not stand in marble
yards. 1t is not to be purchased at
mourning stores. Yet it is to be found
in every neighborhood, plenty of it, in
eXhaustble quantities of it. 1t is the
greatest stuff in the universe to build
monuments out of. | refer to the mem
Dries of those to whom we can do kind
ness, the memories Of those whose strug-
giles we may alleviate, the memories of
those whose souls we may save.
All around Cairo and Memphis there
are the remains of pyramids that have
gone down under the wearing away CT
time, and this great pyramid of which
Isaiah in the text speaks will vanish ii
the world lasts long enough; and il the
world does not last, then with the earth'S
dissolution the pyramid will also dis
solve. But the memories OF those with
whom we associate are indeStructible.
They will be more vivid the other side
of the grave than this side. 1t is posi-
bic for me to do you a good and for you
to do me d good that will be vivid in
memory as many years after the world
is burned up as all the sands of the sea-
shore, and all the leaves of the forest,
and all the grass blades of the field, and
all the stars of Heaven added together,
and that aggregate multiplied by all the
figures that all the bookkeepers of all
time ever wrote.
AS in Egypt that December afternoon,
in 1889, exhausted in body, mind and
soul, we mounted to return to Cairo, we
took our last look at the pyramid Of Gil
Zeh. And You know there is something in
the air toward evening that seems pro-
ductive of solemn and tender emotion,
and that great pyramid seemed to be hui
maniZed and with lips of stone it seemed
to speak and cry out:
''Hear me, man, mortal and immortal!
My voice is the voice OF God. Ne de-
signed me. Isaiah said [ would be a sign
and q witness. | saw Moses when he was
q lad. | witnessed the long procession of
IsraelJes as they started to cross the
Red Sea and Pharaoh's hosts in pursuit
of them. The falcons and the eagles of
many centuries have brushed my brow.
stood here when Cleopatra's barge landed
with her soceries, and Hypatia for her
yir+,, c1oiY in
Alexander the Great, SeSOstriS and
Ptolemy admired my proportions Her
odotus and Pliny sounded my praise.
am old, | am very old. For thousands
of years | have watched the coming and
going of generations. They tarry only
a little while, but they make a lasting
impression. l bear on my side the mark
of the trowel and chiseI of those who
nrn th four a nllS nd