The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1891-11-27


the story of empires
According to the lead pencil marks
In my Bible II was Thanksgiving-day
morning. November 2S, 1889, that with
my family and friends we stepped
aboard the steamer on the Nile The
Mohammcdan call To prayers had been
sounded Ivy the priests OF that religion,
the Muezzins, from the 400 mosques OF
Cairo as the cry went out: God is
great bear witness that there Is no
God but God. bear witness that Mo-
manned is the apostle of God. Come
to prayers. Come TO salvation
God is great There is no 9th.
or but God. Prayers arc better
than sleep" The sky and city and
palm groves and shipping were bathed
in the light. II was not much of n craft
that we boarded 1t would not be hail
ed on any of our rivers with any rap
ture of admiration. 1t fortunately had
but little speed. for twice we ran
aground and the sailors jumped into
the water and on their shoulders push
ed her out But what yacht of gayest
sportsmen, what deck of swiftcst ocean
queen could give such thrill of rapture
rs sail on the Nile? The pyramids in
sight, the remains of cities that are
now only n name, the villages thronged
with population Both banks crowded
with historical deeds of forty or sixty
centuries. Oh, what book the Bible
is when read on the Nile.
As we slowly move up the majestic
river ! see on each bank the wheels,
the pumps, the buckets for irrigation,
and see man with his foot on the
water for n garden, and then for the
first time understand that passage in
Deuteronomy which says of the Israel
ties after they had got back to Egypt:
THE land whittier thou goest in to pos
sess it is not as the land of Egypt, from
whence yc came out, where thou sow
cdst thy seed and watcredst it with thy
foot" Then | understood how the land
could be watcrcd with the foot. How
do you suppose felt when on the deck
of that steamer on the Nile / looked off
upon the canal and bitches and sluices
which the fields are irri-
gated by that river and then
read in Isaiah 1.-THE burden OF
Egypt; the river Shall be wasted and
dried up. and they shall turn the rivers
far away and the brooks of defense
shall be empticd and dried up, and
they shall be broken In the purposes
ponds for fish" That Thanksgiving
on the Nile l found my text
Of to-day. Pharaoh in this chapter is
to the dragon of hippopota-
mus suggested by the crocodiles that
used to line the banks of this river:
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold,
am against thee. Pharaoh, the King OF
Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in
the midst of his rivers, which hath said
It for myself. But will put hooks in
thy jaws and / will cause the fish of
thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and
will bring thee up out of the midst of
thy rivers and all the Ash of thy rivers
shall stick unto thy scales, and the
and of Egypt shall be desolate and
waste; and they shall know that l am
he Lord; because he hath said the river
S mine, and have made it."
While sailing on this river or stop
ping at one of the villages we see peo-
pie on the banks who verify the Bible |
for they are now as they |
we're in Bible times. Shoes are now |
taken off in reverence to sacred places. |
Children carried astride the mothers |
shoulder, as in Hagars time. Women |
with profusion of jewelry, as when Re-
Decca was affianced. Lentils shelled |
INTO the potage, as when Esau sold his |
birthright TO get such a dish. The same |
na bits of salutation as when Joseph and |
lis brethren fell on each others necks. |
Courts of law held under big trees, as in |
,!den times People making bricks with.
lut straw, compelled by circumstances
20 use stubble instead Of straw. Fly.
ng over or standing on the banks, as
n Scripture days. are flamingoes, os-
oreys, eagles, pelicans herons, cuckoos,
and bullhnches. On all sides of this |
river sepulchcrs, villages of sepulchers,
cities of sepulchers, nations of sepul- |
,hers, and one is tempted to call 1t an |
empire of tombs. i never saw such |
place as Egypt is for graves. And now
we understand the complaining sarcasm
of the. Israelites when they were on the |
way from Egypt TO Canaan: Because
here are no graves in Egypt hast thou |
aiken us away to die in the wilder
less?" Down the river bank come the |
buffalo and the cattle or kline TO drink.
A nd il was the ancestors OF these cattle |
that inspired Pharaoh's dream of the
can kline and the fat kline.
Here we disembark n little while for |
Memphis. off from the Nile to the |
right. Memphis, founded by the first |