Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-10-29

been set up in it's perfected shape. ahd
the submarine cable was laid, and the
world was intelligent enough to APP
| precate the testimony, and then he res
| directed the dead cities Of the earth
and commands them, saying: open
your long sealed lips and speak. Mem.
phis and Thcbes, is the Bible truce
''True!' respond Memphis and Thebes
Babylon, is the Book of Daniel true?"
''Truen' responds Babylon. ruins Of
Palestine and Syria, is the New Tesla,
ment true?" 'True!' respond the
ruins all the way from Joppa to the
Dead Sea and from Jerusalem to Da-
mascus
What q mercy that this testimony Of
the dead cities should come at time
when the Bible is especially assailed.
Two great nations, Egypt and Greece,
diplomatlzed and almost came to battle
for one book a copy of ':Eschylus."
Ptolcmy, the Egyptian King, discovered
that in the great library at Alexandria
there was no copy of ''1Eschylus." The
| Egyptian King sent up to Athens.
Greece, to borrow the book and make a
copy of it. Athens demanded deposit
| of SIT, 700 as security. The Egyptian
King received the book, but refused to
return that Which he had borrowed, and
SO forfeited the ST., REQ,
| The two nations rose in contention
| concerning that one book. Beautiful
and mighty book, indeed. But it is
| book of horrors, the dominant idea that
we are the victims Of hereditary infu-
ences from which there is no escape and
that fate rules the world, and although
the author does tell of Prometheus, who
was crucifcd on the rocks for sympathy
for mankind, a powerful suggestion Of
the sacrifice of Christ in later years, it is
a very poor book compared with that
| book which we hug to our hearts. be-
cause it contains our only guide in life,
our only comfort in DEATH and our only
hope for a blissful immortality. If two
nations could afford to struggle for one
copy of "LEschylus," how much more
can all nations afford to struggle for the
possession and triumph OF the Holy
Scriptures?
But the dead cities strung along the
Nile not only demolish intdelity, but
thunder down the absurdity CT the mod
ern doctrine of evolution which says the
world started with nothing and then
rose and human nature began with moth
| ing but evolved into splendid manhood
and womanhood of itself. Nay, the sculp-
ture of the world was more wonderful
in the days of Memphis and Thebes and
| Carthage than in the days of Boston and
New York. Those blocks of stone
weighing 300 tons high up in the wall at
Karnac imply machinery equal to, if not
SURPRISING, the machinery of the Nine
| teenth century.
How was that statue of Rameses,
weighing 8S7 tons, transported from the
quarries 200 miles away and how was it
lifted? Tell u.s. modern machinists.
How were those galleries of rock, still
standing at Thebes, filled with paintings
surpassed by no artists pencil at the
present day? Tell us, artists of the
Nineteenth century. The dead cities of
Egypt, so far as they have left enough
pillars or statues or sepulchers or temple
ruins to tell the story-Memphis, Mig
dol, Hlerapolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen,
| Carthage-ail of them developing down.
ward instead of upward They have
cvoluted from magniicence into destruc-
ton. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the
only elevator of individual and social ma
tional character. Let all the living cit
les know that pomp and Opulence and
| temporal prosperity are no security.
Those ancient cities lacked nothing
but good morals. Dissipation and sin
slew them, and unless dissipation and
sin are halted, they will some day Stay
our modern cities, and leave our palaces
of merchandise and our galleries of art
and our city hall as fiat in the dust as
we found Memphis on the afternoon of
that Thanksgiving day. And if the
cities go down, the nations will go down.
''Oh," you say, that is impossible; we
have stood so long-yea, over a hundred
years as a nation" Why, what of that?
Thebas stood 500 years. Memphis stood
thousand years. God does not forget
One day with the Lord is as thousand
years and thousand years as one day. !
Rum and debauchery and bad politics
are more rapidly working the destruction
of our American cities than sin Of any
kind and all kind worked for the de-
struction of the cities of Africa, once so
mighty and now so PROSTATE. But their
gods were idols, and could do nothing
except for debaSement. OuE God made |
the Heavens and sent His Son to redeem
the nations. And our cities will not go
down, and our nation will not perish be-
cause the gospel is going to triumph.
Forward all schools and colleges and
churches! Forward! all reformatory
organizations. Forward! all the in
tiuenCCs maYShaled to bless the world. |
Let our modern European and American
cities listen to the voice of those ancient
cities resurrected, and by hammer and
chlsel and croWbar be compelled to
speak.
| notice the voice of those ancient
cities is h0arse from the exposure of
forty centuries and they aGeentuate
slowly with lips that were palsied for
ages, but all together those cities along
the Nile intone these words: Hear us,
for we are very old, and it is hard for us
to speak. We were wise long before
Athens learned her first lesson. We
sailed our ships while yet navigation was