Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-11-06
REV. DIR. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
subject; "Brlcks without Straw"

a 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, aud the rest is white. They are
clearing the way for an official dignitary in
chariot or carriage. They are swift and
sometimes run thirty or forty miles at
a stretch in front of an equipage Make
way They are the heetest footed men on
earth, but soon die for the human frame
was not made for such endurance.
| askel all around me who the man in the
carriage was, but no one seemed to know,
Vet as fell back with the rest to the wall
said, This is the old custom found all up and
Gown the Bible, footmen running before the
rulers demanding obeisance, as in Genesis
before Joseph's chariot the people were COM
manded, Bow the knee and as / see the
swift feet OF the men followed by the swift
feet OF the horses, how those old words of
Jeremiah rushed through my mind, IF thou
hast run with the footmen and they have
wearie1 thee, how csnst thou contend with
horses"
Now my hearers, in this course Of sermons
I am only serving you as footmau, and clear
ing the way for your coming into the
wonders Of Egyptology, a subject that l
would have you study far beyond anything
that can be said in the brevity of pull
/ pit utterance Two hundred and eighty
]
/ 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, the mother
OF our land. According to that, Egypt is
our -great-gr grandmother.
On other Sabbaths ] left you studying
what they must have been in their glory:
the HypOstyle hall Of Karnac, the archi-
tectural miracles of Luxor, the Colonnade
Of Horemheb, the cemeteries of Memphis,
the Sphinx. which with lips Of stone speaks
LOUD enough to be heard across the centu-
res. Heliopolis and Zoau, the conundrum Of
psychologists. But all that extravaganza
of palace and temple and monument was
the cause of an oppression high as heaven
and deep as he'll. The weight Of those
blocks Of stone, heavier than any modern
machinery could lift, came down upon the
Hebrew saves, and their blood mixed the
mortar for the trOwels.
We saw again and again on and along the
Mica boss workman roughly smite a sub
ordinate who did not please him. 1t is no
rare occurrence to see long lines Of men
under heavy burdens passing by taskmas'
ters at short distances, lashing them as they
go by into greater speed, and then these
worSmeu, exhausted with the blasting heats
Of the day, lying down upon the bare
ground, suddenly chilled with the nigst air,
crying out in prayers VA. Allahr' IVA,
Allah which means o God o God But
what must have been the olden times
cruelty shown by the Egyptians towards
their lsraelitish slaves is indicated by pic
ture in the Benz Hassan tombS, where man
is held down on his face by two men and
another holds up the victims feet while the
officials beat the bare back Of the victim.
every stroke | have no doubt. fetching the
blood
Now you see how the Pharaohs could af.
ford TO build such costly works 1t cost them
nothing for wages-nothing but the tears
and b.ocd of the toilers and tears and blood
are cheap drink for devils Bricks without
straw may not suggest 50 much hardship
until you know that the bricks were usually
made with crushed straw straw crushed
by the feet of the oxen in the thrashing, and,
this crushed straw denied TO the workmen,
they had pick up here aud there a piece
of stubbe OF gather rusheS from the warer-
side. This story Of the Bible is confirmed
BIZ the fact that many OF the brick walls of
Egypt have on the lower layers brick made
with straw. but the higher layers Of brick
made out OF rough straw or PUSHES from the
river bank tine truth of the Book OF Exodus
thus written in the brick walls discovered 10y
the modern explorer
That governmental outrage has always
been q characteristic Of Egyptian rulers.
Taxation to the point of starvation was the
Egyptian rule in the Bible times as well as
IL is in our own time. y modern traveller
gives the figures concerning the cultivation
OF seventeen acres. the value Of the yield OF
the field stated in p.asters:
Produce. .....'....'''''..'' 80
Expenses. Observation-Disclosures u.s..
Clear produce. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ss1
Taxes. ..,..,.,,,,...tt.st... 's'''s'' 400
Amount cleared by the farmer ,,,. 3l515
Or, as my authority declares, 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
You say, why did they stand it, Be.
cause they hai to stand it. You see along
back in the worlds twilight there was q
famine in Canaan. and old Jacob and his
sons came to Egypt for bread The old mans
boy. Joseph. was prime minister, and Joseph
Il suppose the father and the brothers called
him Joe, for it does not make any dfferenc9
how much boy is advanced in worldly sue
cess his father and brothers and sisters al
ways call him by the same name that be was
called by when two years old-Joseph, by
Pharaohs permission gave TO his family
who had Just arrived, the richest part OF
Egypt, the Westchester farms or the Lancas-
ter farms of the ancients. Jacobs descend
ants rapidly multiplied,
After awhile Egypt took turn at famine
and those descendants Of Jacob. the Israel
ties. came to great storehouse which Joseph
bad provided, and paid in money for corn
But after awhile the money gave out and
then they paid in cattle. After awhile the
cattle were all in possession of the govern
ment, and then the Hebrews bought corn
from the government by surrendering them
selves as slaves.
Where was help to come from. Not the
throne Pharaoh sat upon inat. Not the
army, Pharaoh'S officers comman led that.
Not surrounding nations, PharsOhs threat
made them all tremble Not the gods Am
mon and Osiris or the goddess Isis, for
Pharaoh built their temples out OF the groan
Of this diabolical servitude, 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 thai
there is a baby afOat on the river in era
die made out of big leaves.
OF course there is excitement all up an
down the banks, for an ordinary baby in an
ordinary cradle attracts smiling attention
but an infant in q cradle of papyrus rocking
on a river arouses not only admiration. but
curiosity. Who made that boat, Who
made II water tlght with Dltumen: Nht
launchedit? Reckless of the crocodiles. who
lay basking themselves in the sun, the maid
ems wade in aud snatch up the child, and
first one carries him aud then another car
Ties him, and all the way up the hank herun
gantlet OF caresses, till Thonoris rushes out
oil the bathing house and says: Beautiful
founding, | will adop. you as my own. You
shall yet 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
hilns Tell it among all those vino are
writing under the lash, tell it among all
the castles Of Memphis aud HeliopoliS aud
Ioan and Thebes Before him sea will
part On mountain top. alona, this one
VIII receive from the Almighty law that is
to be the foundation Of all good law while
the world lasts. When he is dead. God will
come down on Nebo and alone bury him no
man or woman or angel worthy TO attend
the obsequies
The child grows up and goes out and stud
les the horrors OF Egyptian oppression and
suppresses his indignation, for the right
time has not come. although once for a min
ute he let fly, and when he saw taskmaster
put the whip on the back Of workman who
was doing bis best and hearl the poor fel-
To- a,I