Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-10-29


The book and make copy Of It. Athens
demanded a deposit of seventeen thousand
seven hundred dollars rs security. The
Egyptian king received the book, but re-
fu.ed to return that which he had bor-
rowed, and so forfeited the seventeen thou
sand seven hundred dollars.
The two nations rose in contention con-
corning that one book. Beautiful and
mighty book, indeedl But it is a book of
horrors, the dominant idea that we are the
victims of hereditary influences from which
there is no escape, and that fAte rules the
world, and although the author does tell
of Prometheus, who was cruciiied on the
rocks for sympathy for mankind, power
fll suggestion Of the sacrifice of Christ in
later years, it is very poor book com
pared with that book which we hug to our
hearts, because it contains our only guide
in life, our only comfort in death, and our
only hope for blissful Immortality. II
two nations could afford to struggle for
one copy of "41Ischylus," how much more
can all nations afford to struggle for the
possession and triumph of the Holy Scrip
lures?
But the dead cities strung along the Nile
not only demolish inGdelity, but thunder
down the absurdity of the modern doctrine
of evolution which says the world started
with nothing and then rose, and human
nature began with nothing but evolved
into splendid manhood and womanhood Of
itself. Nay, the sculpture of the world
was more wonderful in the days of Mem
phis and Thebes and Carthage than in the
days Of Boston and New York. Those
blocks of stone weighing three hundred
tons high up in the wall at karnac imply
machinery equal to, if not surprising, the
machinery of the Nineteenth century.
How was that statue of Rameses, weigh
ing eight hundred and eighty-seven tons,
transported from the quarries two hundred
miles away and how was it lifted? Tell
us, modern machnists. How were those
galleries of rock, still standing at Thebes
filled with paintings surpassed by no
artists pencil of 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
Migdol, Hierapolis. Zoan, Thebes, Goshen,
Carthage-all of them developing down
ward instead of upward. They have evo-
luted from magniiceucc into destruction
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
elevator of individual and social national
character. Let all the living cities know
that pomp and opulence and temporal pros
perity are no security.
If MORALITY Is GONE, ALL IS LOST.
Those ancient cities lacked nothing but
good mora,s. Dissipation and sin slew
them, and unless dissipation aud sin arc
halted, they viii some day Stay our
modern cities and lcav' our palaces of
merchandise and Our galleries of art aud
ri m a fnt in, no 4,
Memphis on the afternoon Of that Thanks
giving day. And if the cities go down, the
nation will 20 down. CON-" you say, that
is impossble; we have stood SO long-vea
over hundred years rs a nation.n Why
what Of that? Thebes stood five hundred
years. Memphis stood a thousand years.
God does not forget. One day with the
Lord is as Il thousand years and a thousand
years as one day.
Rum and debauchery and bad politics
are more rapidly working the destruction
OF oar American cities than sin of any kind
and all kinds worked for the destruction
Of the cities of Africa, once so mighty and
now 50 PROSTATE. But their gods were
idols, and could do nothing except for de
basement. Our God made the heavens
and sent his son to redeem the nations
And our cities will not 80 down, and our
nation will not perish because the gospel
is going to triumph. Forward! all schoo!
and colleges Hnd churches. Forward! all
rclurmatury and m --ioHary organiZI' ions,
Forward! ali the. Influences mar,naicd 10
bless the world. Let our modern European
and American cities listen to the voice Of
those ancient cities resurrected, and by
hammer and chisel and crowbar be com
PEELED to speak.
notice the voice Of those ancient cities
is hoarse from the exposure of forty CEN
turlcs and they aCceutuHte slowly with
lips that were palsied for ages but all to-
gether those cities along the Nile intono
these words: Hear us, for we are very old,
and 1t is hard for us to speak. We were
wise long before Athens learned her first
lesson. We sailed our ships while yet
navigation was unborn. These obelisks,
these pyramids, these fallen pillars, these
wrecked temples, these colossi of black
granite, these wrecked sarcophagi under
the brow of the hills, tell you of what was
in grandeur and of what l am coming
down to be, We sinned and we fell.
Our learning could not save us. See
those half obliterated heroglyphics on
yonder wall. Our architecture could not
save us. See the painted columns of
phlR, and the shattered temple of E,neh.
Our heroes could not save us. Witness
Menes, DiodOrus, Rameses and Ptolemy.
Our Gods Ammon and Osiris could not
save us. See their fallen temples all along
the four thousand miles of Nile. Oh,
ye modern cities get some other God: II
God who can help, a God who can pardon,
God who can save. Called up rs we are
for little while to give testimony, again
the sands of the desert will bury us. Ashes
to ashes, dust to dust" And as these
voices of porphyry and granite ceased, all
the sarcophagi under the hills responded,
ashes to ashes!" and the capital of lofty
column fell grinding itself to powder
among the rocks and responding, dust
to dust?"
POWDER AND BALL.