Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-11-12
! ON NlIlE.
d. Talmage Gives 4 Vivid Description
Of Sights on The Banks Of Eg,ypt's
Great River.
The Historic Stream Presents the
Same Appearance Now as It Did
In the Days Of Pharaoh.

Talmage preached on Sailing Up the.
Nile, the second sermon OF the series,
entitled "From the Pyramids to the
Acropolis, or What I, saw in. Egypt.
and Greece, Confrmatory of the
Scriptures" His text was Ezekiel
xxx, 8: saThe river is mine and Ihave
made it,"
Aha! This is the River Nile. A
brown. or yellow, or silver cord or
which are hung more jewels of thrilling
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 Zachariah, and Ma
hum, and on it's banks stood the
mighties OF many ages. It was the
crystal cradle Of Moses, and on It's
banks, Mary, the refugee, carried the
nfant 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 emotion of triumph left
for her bestowal, and that she re-
serves for him who shall first
drink from the fountains of the White
Nile under the snow fields of Kiliman-
jaro." But the discovery of the
sources of the Nile by most
people was considered an impossi-
bility. The malarias, the wild
beasts, the savages, the unclima-
BILE sleeps, the vast distances, stopped
all the expeditions for ages. An in
telligent native said to Sir Samuel w.
Baker and wife as they were on Their
way to accomplish that in which
others have failed: "Give up the mad
scheme of the Nile source. How would
it be possible for a 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 sourse OF what was called the
White Nile, and baptized these two
lakes with the names OF Victoria and
Albert. These two lakes, filled by
great rainfalls and by accumulated
SHOWS from the mountains, pour their
waters laden with agricultural wealth
such as blesses no other river, on
down over the cataracts, on between
browning mountains, on between cities
living and cities dead, on for four
thousand miles and through, a CONT
nent. But the White Nile would do
little for Egypt if this were all. 1t
would keep it's banks and Egypt
WOULD REMAIN A 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 ip-
flux into the White Nile, which in con-
sequence rises 80 feet, and their COM
bined 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 dry
ing up Of the river Nile, and the great
est blessing by its healthful and
abundant flow.
AS we start where the Nile empties
into the Mediterranean sea we behold
a wonderful fulfllment of prophecy.
The Nile in very ancient times used to
have seven mouths. AS the great riv.
er approached the sea it entered the
sea at seven different places. Isaiah
prophesied: 1.-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 de-
stroyed but two and Herodotus said
these two remaining are artificial. Up
the Nile we shall go; part of the way
by Egyptian rail train and then by
boat, and we shall understand why
the Bible gives such prominence to
this river which is the longest river Of
all the earth with one exception. But
before we board the train we must
take a look at Alexandria. 1t was
founded by Alexander the Great and
was once The New York, the Par
is, the London Of the world.
Temples, palaces, fountains, gar
dens, pillared and efnorescent
with all architectural and Edenic gran
deur and sweetness. Apollos, the elo.
quent, whom in New Testament times
some people tried to make rival to
Paul, lived here Here Mark, the auth
or Of the second book of the New Tes-
lament, expired under Nero's anath-
ema. From here the ship sailed that
left Paul and the crew struggling in
the breakers of Melita. Pompey's pill
lar is here, about one hundred feet
high, its base surrounded by SO much
filth and squalor / was glad to escape
into an air that was breathable. The
tower was built in honor of Diocletian
for sparing the rebellious citizens.
After having declared that he would
make the blood run to his horses
knees, and his horse fell with him into
the blood and his. knees redo ened,
the tYrant took it for granted that
was sign he should stop the massacre,
and hence this commemorative pillch