The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-10-30
SAILING UP THE NILE
SECOND SERMON IN Or. TALMAGE's
SERIES ON HIS TRAVELS,

River Is Mine, and l Have Made It."
A Sermon That sIay he Read and Pom
dered to Publication.
BROOKLYN, Oct, 25,-The render
ing of the First Sonata in d Minor, by
Guilmant, ON the great organ of the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, by
Professor Henry Eyre Browne, the or
ganist held the vast congregation
spellbound with profound emotion,
DIR, Tahmage preached on Sailing up
the Nile" the second sermon of the
series, entitled From the Pyramids to
the Acropolis; or, What Saw in Egypt
and Greece Contlrmatory of the Scrip
lures" His text was Ezekiel xxx, .,
''The river is mine and have made il, !"
Aha! This is the River Nile. A
brown or yellow or silver cord on
which are hung more jewels of thrill
ing interest than on any river that was
ever twisted in the sunshine. 1t Triples
through the book of Ezekiel, and flashes
in the books of Deuteronomy and
Isaiah and Zechariah and Nahum, and
on It's banks stood the mighties of
many ages. 1t was the crystal cradle
of Moses, and on its banks Mary, the
refugee, carried the infant Jesus. To
find the birthplace of this river was the
fascination and defeat of expeditions
without number.
Not many years ago Bayard Taylor,
our great American traveller, wrote,
''Since Columbus first looked upon San
Salvador the earth has but one emo
ton of triumph left for her bestowal,
and that she reserves for him who shall
first drink from the fountains of the
White Nile under the snow fields OF
Kilima-Njaro." But the discovery of
the sources of the Nile by most people
was considered an impossibility. The
malarias, the wild beasts the savages,
the unclimbable sleeps, the vast dis
tances, stopped all the expeditions for
ages.
An intelligent native said to Sir Sam
uel w. Baker and wife as they We're on
their way to accomplish that in which
others had failed: "Give up the mad
scheme of the Nile source. How would
it be possible for Il lady young and del.
icate to endure what would kill the
strongest MANI Give it up" But the
work went on until Spoke and Grant
and Baker found the two lakes which
are the source of what was called the
White Nile, and baptized these two
Albert.
These two lakes filled by great rain
falls and by accumulated SHOWS from
the mountains, pour their waters, laden
with agricultural wealth such as blesses
no other river, on down over the cata-
racts, on between frowning mountains,
on between cities living and cities dead,
on for four thousand miles and through
a continent. But the White Nile would
do little for Egypt if this were all. 1t
would keep its banks and Egypt would
remain desert
But from Abyssinia there comes what
is called the Blue Nile, which, though
dry or nearly dry half the year, under
tremendous rains about the middle of
June rises to great momentum and
this Blue Nile dashes with sudden in
flux into the White Nile, which in con
sequence rises thirty feet, and their
combined waters inundate Egypt with
a rich soil which drops on all the fields
and gardens as it is conducted by
bitches and sluices and canals every
whittier.
The greatest damage that ever came
to Egypt came by the drying up of the
River Nile and the greatest blessing by
its healthful and abundant flow. The
famine in Joseph's time came from the
lack of sufficient inundation from the
Nile. Not enough Nile is drouth, too
much Nile is freshet and plague. The
rivers of the earth are the mothers of
its prosperity. If by some convulsion
of nature the Mississippi should be
taken from North America, or the Am
azon from South America, or the Dan
ube from Europe, or the Yenisei from
Asia-what hemisphere calamity. Still
there are other rivers that could fer
tilize and save these countries
Our own continent is gulched, is rib.
boned, is glorilicd by innunerable
water courses. But Egypt has only onc
great river, and that is harncsscd to
draw all the properties of realms
in acreage seni-intinte. What hap,
pens to the Nile happens to Egypt.
The Nllomctcr was to me very sugges-
tive us we went up and down its damp
stone steps and saw the pillar marked
with notches telling just how high OF
low are the waters of the Nile. When
the Nile is rising, four criers every
morning run through the city announc-
ing how many feet the river has risen
ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet,
twenty-four feet-and when the right
height of water is reached the gates Of
the canals are flung open and the liquid
and refreshing benediction is pro
nounced on all the land
A WONDERFUL FULFILLMENT OF
PROPHECY.
| As we start where the Nile empties
into the Mediterranean sea we behold
wonderful fulfillment of prophecy
The Nile in very ancient times used tc
have seven mouths AS the great river
approached the sea it entered the sea
at seven different places. Isaiah proph
esied, THE Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea and
shall smite it in the seven streams
The fact is they are all destroyed bu
two, and Herodotus said these two re
! manning are artificial Up the Nile WI
shall go; part of the way by Egyptian
J rail train and then by boat, and We
shall understand why the Bible give
such prominence to this river, which il
the largest river of all the earth will
one exception.
, But before we board the train W,
| must take a look at Alexandria.