The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-04

and God must have directed it.
All astronomers, geometricians and scien-
fists say that it was scientifically and mathe-
matically constructed before science apd
mathematics were born. From the lnScrlp-
tions on the pyramid. from its proportions,
from the points Of the compass recognlzsa
in its structure from the direction IN wnlca
its tunnels run, from the relative position OF
the blocks that compose it, scientists. Cnrls-
tians and infidels have demonstrated that
the being who planned this pyramid must
have known the worlds sphericity, and tna0
its motion was rotary, and how many miles
it was in diameter and circumference, anu
how many tons the world weighs, ana kue"
at what point in the heavens certain SUITS
would appear at certain periods of time.
Not in the four thousand years since the
putting up Of that pyramid has single tac5
In astronomy or mathematics been found 20
contradict the wisdom of that structure.
Yet they had not at the age wnen bne
pyramid was started an astronmer or an ar
chitect or a mathematician worth menGion'
ing. Who then planned the pyramid: VINO
superintended its erection? Who from lts nrSS
foundation stone to its capstone erscesI
everything? Itmust have been Goa. !salah
was right when he said in my text, "A pu.
lar shall he at the border of the laud OF
Egypt and it shall be for a sign and VIII
ness" The pyramid is Gods first Bible.
Hundreds. if not thousands, Of years before
the first line of the Book of Genesis was
written, the lesson of the pyramid was writ
ten.
Well, of what is this Cyclopsan masonry'a
sign and witness? Among other things
of the prolongation of human work CON-
pared with the brevity OF human life. In
all the four thousand years this pyramid has
only lost eighteen feet in width; ons side Of
its square at the base chaugei only from
seven hundred and sixty-four feet to seven
hundred and forty-six feet, aud the most OF
that eighteen feet taken off by architects to
furnish stone for building in the city OF
Cairo. The men who constructed the pyra-
mid worked at it only few years, and then
put down the trowel, ami the compass, and
the square, and lowered the derrick which
had lifted the ponderous weights; but forty
centuries has their work stool, and it will be
good for forty centuries more.
All Egypt has been shaken By terrible
earthquakes ana cities have been prostrated
or swallowed, but that pyramid has deiei all
volcanic paroxysms. 1t has looked upon
some Of the greatest battles ever fought
who constructed it? Their bodies gons to
dust and even the dust scattered. Even the
sarcophagus in which the kings mummy
may have slept is empty.
So men die but their work lives on. We
are all building pyramids not to last four
thousand years, but forty thousand, forty
million, forty trillion, forty quadrillon,
forty quintillion. For while we WELD the
trowel, or pound with the hammer, or meas
ure with the yarI stick, or write with the
pen. or experiment with the scientific bat.
1lo tha fo a u.ni lQ
the foot walks and the eye sees, and the ear
hears, and the tongue speaks. All the good
words or bad words we speak ara spread out
into one layer for a pyramid. All thu kind
deeds or malevolent deeds we do are sprsad
out into another layer. All the Christian or
un- Christian example we set is spread out in
another layer. AL 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 pyramid is sign and witness that
big tombstones are not the best way Of
keeping ones self affecrionately remem-
bered. This pyramid and the sixty-nine
other pyramids still standing were built for
sepulchers, all this great pile of granite and
limestone by which we stand to-day, to cover
the memory of dead king. 1t was the great
Westminster abbey of the ancients. Some
say that Cheops was the king who built this
pyramid, but it is uncertain. Who was
Cheops anyhow. All that the world knows
about him could be told in few sentences.
Tne only thing certain is that he was bad,
and that he shut up the temples OF worship.
and that he was hated so that the Egyptians
were glad when he was dead.
This pyramid of rock seven hundred and
forty feet each side Of the square base and
four hundred and fifty feet high wins for
him no respect. If a bone Of his arm or foot
had been found in the sarcophagus beneath
the pyramid, it would have excited no more
veneratioa than the skeleton Of a camel
bleaching on the Libyan desert: yea, less
veneration, for when saw the carcass OF
camel by the roadside on the way to Mem
phis said to myself, "Poor thing, wonder
Of what it died." We say nothing against
the marble or the bronze Of the metropolis.
Let all the sculpture and horeScence and ar
borescence can do for the places Of the dead
be done, if means will allow it. But If after
one is dead there is nothing left to remind
the world OF him but some pieces OF stone,
there is but little left.
While there seems to be no practical use
for post mortem consideration later than the
time Of ones great-graudchildren, yet no one
wants to be forgotten as soon as the ooSsques
are over. This pyramid. which Isaiah says
is sign anda witness, demonstrates that
neither limestone nor red granite are COM
petsnt to keep one affectionately remsm-
bered; neither can bronze; neither can
Pariau marble; neither can Aberiesn
granite do the work. But there is something
out Of which to build an everlasting moa-
umeut and that will keep ons freshly re-
membered four thousand years-yea, for
ever and ever. It does not stand in marble
yards. 1t IS not to be purchased at mourn
ing stores. Yet it is to be found in every
neighborhood. plenty of it, inexhaustible
quantities OF it. 1t is the greatest stuff in
the universe to build monuments out of.
refer to the memories Of those to whom We
can do kindness, the memories OF those
whose struggles we may alleviate, the mem.
cries OF those whose souls we may save.
A minister passing along the street every
day looked up AMI smiled to baby in the
window. The father and mother wondered
who it was that thus pleasantly greeted their
child. They found out that be was the pastor
OF church. They said, "We must 20 and hear
him preach" They went AMI heard him and
both were converted to Goi Will there bs
any power in fifty million years to erase
from the souls of those parents the memoir
of that man who by his friendliness brouch.
them to God? Matthew Cranswick, an
evangelist said that he hal the names of two
hundred souls saved through his singing the
hymn, Arise, my soul, arise" Will any Of
those two hundred soulsin all eternity forget
Matthew Cranswick? Will any of the four
hundred and seventy-nine women and chill
dren imprisoned at Lucknow, India, waiting
for massacre by the Sepoys forget Havelock
and Outram and Sir David Beard, who broke
in and effected Their rescues
As in Egypt that December afternoon,
1889, exhausted in body, mind and soul, We
mounted to return to Cairo, we to5k our last
look of the pyramid at Gizeh. And you
know there is something in the air toward