Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-02
PHARAOHS MUST GO.
Modern 0ppressors Likened to the
Rulers of Ancient Egypt,
THE LAND OF CRUELEST SLAVERY.
Burdens Which Now Call for Removal From
the Land of the Nile.
TALMAGES SUNDAY MORNING SERMON

Without Straw, CONTINUATION OF tne Sc
ries on the confirmation of Holy Scripture
which Dr. Talmage found in his journey
from the Pyramids to the Acropolis. His
text WAS, Isaiah Xxx L: ''The burden of
Egypt"
What is all this excitement about in the
streets of Cairo, Egypt, this December morn
ing in 1889: Stand back! We hear loud
voices and see the crowds of people retreat
ing to the sides of the streets. The excite
ment of others becomes our own excitement.
Footmen come in sight. They have rod in
the hand and tasseled cap on head, and their
arms and feet are bare. Their garb is black
to the waist, except as threaded with gold,
and the rest is white.
They are clearing the way for an official
dignitary in q chariot or carriage. They are
swift, and sometimes run so or 40 miles at q
stretch in front of an equipage. Make way!
They arc the fieetest-footed men on earth,
but soon die, for the human frame was not
made for such endurance. asked allaround
me who the man in the carriage was. but no
one seemed to know. Yet as L fell back with
the rest 10 the wall said, This is the old
custom found all up and down the Bible,
fottmen running before the rulers demand
ing obeisance.
Egypt Our Great-Great Grandmother.
Now, my hearers, in this course of sermons
] am only serving you as footman, and clear
ing the way for your coming into the
wonders of Egyptology, a subject that 1
would have you study far beyond anything
that can be said in the brevity of pulpit
utterance. Two hundred and eighty-nine
times does the Bible refer to Egypt and the
Egyptians. No wonder, for Egypt was the
mother of nations. Egypt, the mother of
Greece: Greece, the mother of Rome; Rome,
the mother OF England; England, the mother
of our own land. According to that Egypt
Is our great-great grandmother.
We saw again and again ON and along the
Nile boss workman roughly smite a SUBJ
ordinate who did not please him. 1t is no
rare occurrence to see long lines of men
under heavy burdens passing by task
masters a. short distances, lashing them as
they go by. into greater speed, and then
these workmen, exhausted with the bla sting
heats of the day, lying down upon the bare
CRYING out in prayer: ''Yai Allah,' VA,
Allah!" which means Oh! God! Oh! God!
But what must have been the olden times
cruelty shown by the Egyptians toward
their 1sraelitish slaves is indicated by a
picture in the Beni-Hassan tombs, where a
man is he'd down on his face by two men
and another holds up the victims feet while
the officials beat the bare back of the victim.
The Costly Pyramids Were Cheap.
Now YOU see how the Pharaohs could
afford to build sucli costly works. 1t cost
them nothing Tor wages, nothing but the
tears and blood OF the toilers, ard tears and
blood are cheap drink for devils. Bricks
without straw NAV not suggest so much
hardship until you know that the bricks
were usually made with crushed straw"
straw crushed with the feet of the oxen in
the threshing, and this crushed straw denied
10 the worZmen, they had TO pick up here
and there piece of sIubble or gather rushes
from the waterside. This story of the Bible
Is confirmed by the fact that many Of the
brick walls of Egypt have on the lower lay
ers brick made with straw, but the higher
1aE Ng do nrlt of Gtr
or rushcs from the riverbank, the truth of
the Book of Exodus thus written in the
brick walls discovered by the modern ex-
That Government outrage has always been
Characteristic of Egyptian rulers Taxa
JloC to the point OF starvation was the
Egyptian rule in the Bible times as well rs it is
in our own times. Seventy per cent of what
the Egyptian farmer makes is paid for taxes
TO the Government. Now, that is not so
much taxation as assassination. W hat think
You of that, You who groan under heavy
taxes in America?
The Ancient Hebrews Worse Off Still.
But 20 per cent of Government tax in Egypt
Is a mercy as compared to what the Hebrew
slaves suffered there in Bible times. They
got nothing but 1ood hardly fit for dog,
and their clothing was OF one rag. and their
roof burning sky by day and the stars of
heaven bv night.
The Government owned all the Hebrews.
And let modern lunatics, who in America
and railroads and other things to be run by
Government, see the folly OF letting Govern
ment get its hand on everything.
would rather trust the people than any gov
ernment the United States ever had or will
have. Woe worth the day when legislators
and congresses and administrations get pos
session OF anything more than is necessary
Tor them to have. That would he the reviv-
oil in this land of that old Egytian tyranny
for which God has never had nything but
redhot thunderbolts. But through sucn un-
wise processes Israel pnslnIad in EOynt
and the long line of agonies began all upand
down the Nile.
Where was help TO come from: Not the
throne, Pharaoh sat upon that. Not the
army, Pharaoh's officers commanded that
Not surrounding nations, Pharaoh's threat
made them all tremble. Not the gods AM
Pharaoh built their temples out of the
groans OF this diabolical selvitude.
Moses, the DeIiverer, Is Found.
But one hot day the Princess Thonoris. the
daughter of Pharaoh, while in her bathing
house on the banks of the Nile, has word
brought her that there is a baby afioat on
the river in a cradle made out of big leaves.
Reckless OF the crocodiles who lay basking
themselves in the sun, the maidens wade in
and snatch up the child,a and first one carries
him and then another carries him, and all
the way up the bank be runs gauntle. of
caIesses, till Thonolis rushes out of the bath
ing-house and says; Beautiful founding, /
wear the Egyptian crown and sit on the
Egyptian throne
No. No! No! He is to be the emancipator
OF the Hebrews. Tell it in all the brick -kilns.
Before him sea viii part. On q mountain
ton alone, this one will receive from the AL
mighty a law that is to be the foundation of
all good law while the world lasts. When he
l. dead God viii come down on Nebo, and.
alone, bury him. no man woman or angel
worthy 20 attend the obseques. The child
grows up and goes ont and studies the
horrors of Egyptian oppression and sup.
presses his Indignation, Tor the right time
has not come, although once for a minute,
he let fly, and when he SAW task-master
rut the whip on the back of a workman who
was doing his best
The NationaI Love for the Nile,
To the Egyptians the Nile was a deity Its
waters were then as now very delicious 1t
was the finest natural beverage of all the
earth. We have no such love for the Hud-
son. and Germans have no such love for the
Rhine, and Russians have no such love for
the Nolga, as the Egyptians have love Tor
the Nile.
But one day when Pharaoh comes down to
this river, Moses takes a stick and whiDs the
waters and they turn into the gore of a
slaughter hOGsc.and through the slrices and
fish ponds the incarnadined liquid backs up
into the land and the nalodor " helms every
thing from the mud hovel TO throne room.
Then came the frogs with horrible croak all
over every thing. Then this people, cleanly
almost TO faSt1diousness, were infested with
insects that belong to the filthy and un-
kelnpt, and the air DuZZed and buzzed with
flies, and then the distemper started cows to
following and horses to nelghlnS, and
Camels TO groa aning. as they rolled over and
expired. And thea boils, one of which will
put 4 man III wTetchedness, came in clusters
from the top of the head to the sole of the
loot. And then tie clouds dropped hail and
lightning. And then locusts came IN,
S|aTlGs OF them, worse than the grasshop-
w. = fAr