The Bossier banner., 1891-12-31

eSQue rags. FOR thousands Oh years
this land has been under very damna-
ton of taxt's. Nothing but Christian
civilization will roll back the influences
which are spelling the Egyptians" ."
There are gardens and palaces, but they
belong to the rulers ---.--
According to the leRd-pencil mark In
my Bible il was Thanksgiving Day
morning, November %, 1889, that with
my family and friends we stepped
aboard the steamer on the Nile. The
Mohammedan call to prayers had been
sounded by the priests of that religion,
the MuezEins, from the four hundred
mosques of Cairo as the cry went out,
God is great. l bear witness that
there is no God but God, 1 bear witness
that Mohammed is the apostle of God.
Come to prayers Come to salvation.
God is great. There is no other but
God. Prayers are better than sleep"
The sky and city and palm groves and
river shipping were bathed in the
light. 1t was not much of craft that
we boarded. 1t would not be hailed
on any Of our rivers with any rapture
of admiration. 1t fortunately had but
little speed, for twice we ran aground,
and the sailors jumped into the water
and on their shoulders pushed her out.
But what yacht of gaYest sportsman,
what deck of swiftest ocean queen could
give such thrill of rapture as a sail on
the Nile? The pyramids in sight, the
remains of cities that are now only
name, the villages thronged with popu-
lation. Both banks crowded with his
torical deeds of forty or sixty centuries.
Oh, what book the Bible is when read
on the Nile!
Here we disembarlz little while for
Memphis, off from the Nile to the right.
Memphis, founded by the first king of
Egypt, and for long while the capital.
A city of marble and gold. Home of
the pharaohs. City nineteen miles in
circumference. Vastcolonnades through
which imposing professions marched.
Here stood the Temple of the Sun, itself
in brilliancy a sun shown on by another
sun. Memphis in power over thou
sand and one hundred years, or nearly
ten times as long as the United States
have existed. Here is a recum bent
statue seVenty-five feet high. Bronzed
gateways. A metropolis called ''the
| haven of the blest." Here Joseph
was prime minister. Here pharaoh
received Jacob. All possible splendors
were built up into this royal city. Ho-
sea, Ezekiel, ..Jeremiahan Isaiah speak
| of it as something wonderful Never
did visit city with such exalted an
ticipations and never did my anticipa-
tions drop so fiat. Not pillar stands
Not wall is unbroken. Not foun-
tain tosses in the sun. Even the ruins
have been ruined and all that remains
are chips of marble, small pieces of
| fractured sculpture and splintered hu-
man bones. Here and there letter of
some elaborate inscription, a toe
or ear of q statue that
once stood in niche of palace
wall Ezekiel prophesied it's blotting
out, and the prophecy has been full
filled. ride on" said to our party,
land don't wait for me-" And, as /
stood there alone, the city of Memphis
in the glory of past centuries returned.
And l heard the rush of her chariots,
and the dash of her fountains, and the
conviviality of her palaces, and saw the
drunken mobiles roll on the floors, of
mosaic, while, III startling contrast,
amid all the royalties of the palace, l
saw Pharoah look up into the face of
aged, rustic Jacob, the shepard, saying:
"How old art thou?"
But back to the Nile and on and UP
till you reach Thebes, in Scripture
called the City of No. Hundred-gated
Thebes. A quadrangular city four
miles from limit to limit. Four great
temples, two of them Karnac and
Luxor, once mountains of exquisits
sculpture and gorgeous dreams solified
in stone. Statue of Rameses H.,
eight hundred and eighty-seven tons in
weight and seventy-fVe feet high, but
now fallen and scattered. Walls a.
bloom with the battlefields of centu-
ries. The surrounding hills of rock hol-
lowed into sepulchers on the walls of
| which are chiseled i'll picture
and hieroglyphics the confirmation
of Bible story in regard to the treat
ment of the Israelites in Egypt so that,
as explorations go on with the work,
the walls of these sepulchers become
commentaries of the Bible, the
Scriptures originally written upon
parchment here cut into everlasting
stone. Thebes mighty and dominant
five hundred years. Then she went
in fulfllment of Ezekiers prophecy
concerning the city of No, which was
another name for Thebes: II will
execute judgment in No. l will cut
off the multitudes of No.
jeremiah also prophesied: Thus
saith the Lord, / will punish the
multitudes of No" This city OF
Thebes and all the other dead cities OF
Egypt iterate and reiterate the veracity
of the Scriptures, telling the same
story which Moses and the prophets
told. Have you noticed how God kept
back these archaeological combinations
of the Bible until our time, when the
air is full of unbelief about the truth
fulness of the dear old Book? He wait.
ed until the printing press had been up
in its perfected shape, and the subma.
rine cable was laid, and the world was
intelligent enough to appreciate the
| fastiuaon.y ou1 than H. ,-o.,,,,,.. "a Il Al :