Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-10-30
SAILING UP THE NILE.
DIR. TALMACE breaches A
GREAT DESCRIPTIVE SERMON.
How the History OF the world Re
peais Itself--A Chapter Taken From
the Divine's Travels Thanksgiving
Day, 1850.

oulludnJ On inc BIedI olBuh VI VIZ
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, by
Prof. Henry Eyre Browne, the organ
list, held the vast congregation spell
bound with profound emotion. DIR.
Talmage preached on Sailing Up the
Nile" the second sermon of the series,
entitled From the Pyramids of the
Acropolis, or What / Saw In Egypt and
Greece Confrmatory of the Scriptures
His text was Ezekiel 29:9: 1.-The river
/ is mine and have made it."
| 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 rip
! Piles through the Book of Ezekiel, and
flashes in the Books of Deuteronomy,
and Isaiah, and Zechariah, and Ma
hum, and ON its 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 birth
| place of this river was the fascination
and defeat of expeditions withoutnum-
] Der. Not many years ago, Bayard
/ Taylor, our great American traveller,
wrote: "Since Column bus first looked
upon San Salvador, the earth has but
| bestowal, and that she reserves for
| him who shall first drink from the
fountain of the White Nile under the
snow fields of Kilimanjaro. But the
/ discovery of the sources of the Nile by
most people was considered an inn
possibility. The malarias, the wild
beasts, the savages, the unclimable
sleeps, the vast distances, stopped all
| the expeditions for ares An intelli-
| gent native said to Sir Samuel w.
Baker and wife as they were 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 lady young
and delicate TO endure what would
kill the strongest man? 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 tho White Nile. and bap-
tised these two lakes with the names
! of Victoria and Albert. These two
lakes, filed by great rainfalls and by
accumulated SHOWS from the noun
tains, pour their waters, laden with
agricult! ra! wealth such as blesses 20
other river. on down over the cataracts,
on between frowning mountains, on
between cities living and cities dead,
! on for four thousand miles and
through continent But the White
| Nile would do little for Egypt if this
were all. 1t would keep its banks ana
| 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
| influx into the White Nile, which
| in consequence rises thirty feet.
J and their com bined waters inundate
Egypt with rich soil that drops on
all the fields and gardens as IL is con-
Quoted by bitches, and sluices, and can
ais every whittier. The greatest dana ge
that ever came to Egypt came by the
drying up of the river Nile, ard 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
CONFUSION of nature the Mississippi
should be taken from North America,
or the Amazon from South America,
or the Danube from Europe, or
pheric calamity Still There are
and save these countries Our
own continent is gulched, is ribboned,
is glorifed by innumerable water
courses. But Egypt has only one great
river, and that is harneSsed TO draw all
the properties of realms in acreage
semi-intnite. What happens TO the
Nile, happens to Egypt. The Milo
meter was to me very suggestive as
we went up and down its damp stone
steps, and saw the pillar
marked with notches telling just how
high or low are the waters of the
Nile. When the Nile is rising, four
criers every morning run through the
city announcing how many feet the
river has risen-ten feet, fifteen feet,
twenty feet, twenty-four feet-aud
when the right height of water is
reached the gates of the canals are
flung open and the liquid and refresh
ing benediction is pronounced on all
the land.
AS we start where the Nile enpties
into the Mediterranean sea we be.
hold wonderful fulf!lment of the
prophecy. The Nile in very ancient
times used to have seven mouths AS
the great river approached the sea il
entered the sea at the seven differen,
places. Isaiah prophesied: Tho Lord
shall utterly destroy the tongue of the
Egyptian sea and shall smite 1t in the
seven streams" The fact is they are
all destroyed but two and Herodotus
SAID these two remaining are arti fcial
This ride along the Nile is one of the
most solemn and impressive rides of al
my lifetime, and our emotions deepen
as the curtains of the night IL upon
all surroundings. But we shall not be
, satisfied until we can take a ship and
pass right out upon these wondrous
, waters and between the banks crowded
with the story of empires.
According TO the lead pencil mark in
my bible ii was Thanksgiving day
morning. November 20, 1889, that with
my family and friends we stepped
aboard the steamer on the Nile. The
Mohammedan call to prayers had
} been sounded by the priests of thai
religion, the Muezzins, from the -four