Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-10-26

, that Ua are the victims OF nefeditar
influences from which there is n
escape. and that fate rules the world
, and although the author does tell G
/, Prometheus who was crucilied on tn
rocks for sympathy for mankind,
powerful suggestion of the sacrifice o
Christ in later years, it is very poo
book compared with that book whicl
we hug to our hearts, because it con
tains our only guide in life, our onl,
comfort in death and our only hopt
for blissful immortality. If two ma
tions could afford to struggle for one
copy of "AIschylus, how much more
can all nations afford to struggle fo
the possession and triumph of The Holy
Scriptures
But the dead cities strung along the
Nile not only demolish infidelity, but
thunder down the absurdity of the
modern doctrine of evolution which
says the world started with nothing
and then rose, and human nature be-
gan with nothing but evolved into
splended manhood and wolnanhood of
itself. Nay; the sculpture of the world
was more wonderful in the days of
Memphis 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, weighing eight hun
dred and eighty-seven tons, transport
ed from the quarries, two hundred
miles away, and how was it lifted? Tell
us, modern machinists. How were
those galleries of rock, still standing at
Thebes, filled with paintings surpassed
by no artists pencil of the present day2
Tell us, artists of the Nineteenth cen
tury. 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, Hier-
opolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen, Carthage
all of them developing downward in
stead of upward. They have evoluted
from magniticence into destruction.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
elevator of individual and social ma
tiOnal character. Let all the living
cities know that pomp and opulence
and temporal prosperity are no security.
Those ancient cities lacked nothing but
good morals. Dissipation and sin slew
them, and unless dissipation and sin
are halted they will some day slay our
modern cities and leave our palaces of
merchandise, and our galleries of art,
and our city halls as fiat in the dust as
we found Memphis on the afternoon of
that Thanksgiving day. And if the
cities go down the nation will go down.
"Oh, you say, that is impossible; we
have stood so long-yea, over hun
dred years as a nation" Why, what
of that1 Thebes stood five hundred
years; Memphis stood a thousand
years. God does not forget. One day
with the Lord is as a thousand years
and a thousand years as one day.
Rum and debauchery and bad poll
tics are more rapidly working the de-
struction of our American cities than
sin of any kind and all kinds worked
for the destruction of the cities of Afri-
ca, once so mighty and now so pros
trate. But their gods were idols, and
could do nothing except for debase-
ment. Our God made the heavens and
sent his Son to redeem the nations.
And our cities will not go down, and
our nation will not perish because the
Gospel is going to triumph. Toward!
all schools and colleges and churchesl
Forward! all reformatory and mission
airy organizations. Forward! all the
influences marshaled to 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 compelled to speak.
VOICES FROM THK PAST.
/ notice the voice of those ancient
cities is hoarse from the exposure of
forty centuries, and they accentuate
slowly with lips that were palsied for
ages, but all together those cities along
the Nile intone these words: Hear us
for we are very old, and it 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 pyr-
amids, 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 am coming
down to be- We sinned and we fell. Our
learning could not save us. See those
half obliterated hieroglyphics ON yon-
der wall Our architecture could not