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

fantry. would have reckoned myse
master of the world"
A SOLEMN AND IMPRESSIVE RIDE.
This ride along the Nile is one Of Il
most solemn and impressive rides of a
my lifetime, and our emotions deepe
as the curtains of the night fall upo
all surroundings. But we shall not I
satisfied until we can take ship an
pass right out upon these wondrou
waters and between the banks crowde
with the story of empires.
According to the lead pencil mark |
my Bible it was Thanksgiving da
morning, Nov. %, 1882 that with IN
family and friends we stepped aboar,
the steamer on the Nile The Moham
medan call to prayers had been sound
ed by the priests of that religion, th'
Muezzins, from the four hundred
mosques of Cairo as the cry went out
"God is great. l bear witness thai
there is no God but God. bear wit
ness that Mohammed Is the apostle oi
God. Come to prayers. Come to sal
vation. God is great There is no
other but God. Prayers are better than
sleep"
The sky and the palm groves and
river shipping were bathed in the light
| IL was not much of a craft that we
boarded 1t would not DO hailed on
any of our rivers with any rapture Of
admiration. It fortunately had but lit
tie speed, for twice we ran aground
and the sailors jumped into the water
and on their shoulders pushed her out.
But what yacht of gayest sportsman,
what deck of swiftest ocean queen
could give such thrill of rapture as a
sail on the Nilel The pyramids in
sight, the remains of cities that are now
only 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 Nilel
As we slowly move up the majestic
river see on each bank the wheels,
the pumps, the buckets for irrigation,
and see a man with his foot on the |
treadle of wheel that fetches up the
water for a garden, and then for the
first time understand that passage in
which says of the Israel
ties after they had got back from
Egypt, "The land whittier thou goest
n to possess it is not as the land of
Egypt from whence We came out, where
hou sowedst thy seed and wateredst
t with thy foot"
Then | understood how the land
ould be watered with the foot. How
10 you suppose felt when on the deck
# that steamer on the Nile looked off
lpon the canals and bitches and sluices
through which the fields are irrigated
~ that river, and then read in Isaiah,
The burden of Egypt; the river shall
70 wasted and dried up and they shall
urn the rivers far away and the brooks
f defense shall be emptied and dried
p; and they shall be broken in the
urposes thereof, all that make sluices
nd ponds for fish," That Thanksgiv- ,
ig morning on the Nile l found my
ext of today.
Pharaoh in this chapter is compared !
, the dragon or hippopotamus sug
ested by the crocodiles that used to -.
ne the banks of this river: "Thus !
nth the Lord God, Behold / am :
gainst thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, :
le great dragon that lieth in the midst ,
his rivers, which hath said my river !
mine own, and | have made it for
lyself. But l will put hooks in thy
TVS and will cause the fish of thy ,
vers to stick unto thy scales, and !
i'll bring thee up out of the midst of
ny rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers ,
lall stick unto thy scales, and the land :
Egypt shall be desolate and waste; ;
nd they shall know that / am the .
ord, because he hath said the river is
line and have made it. :
AS IN BIBLE TIMES. ,
While sailing on this river or stopping
one of the villages, we see people on ,
le banks who verify the Bible descrip
on, for they are now as they were in
ible times, Shoes are now taken off .
reverence to sacred places. Chill
rem carried astride the mothers shoul- :
er as in Hagar's time. Women with ,
of jewelry as when Rebecca
as afiianced. Lentils shelled into the )
Ottage, as when Esau sold his birth :
ght to get such dish. The same
abits of salutation as when Joseph and :
is brethren fell on each Others necks G
ourts of law held under big trees as
olden times. People making bricks {
ithout straw, compelled by circum-
ances to use stubble instead of straw.
Flying over or standing on the banks,
J in Scripture days, are flamingoes, os- :
reys, eagles, pelicans, herons, cuckoos :
nd bulltinches On all sides of this !
yer sepulches, Villages of sepulchers I
ities of sepulchers, Nations of sepul- |
hers. And one is tempted to call it an
mpire of tombs never saw such a ,
lace as Egypt is for graves. And now
-e understand the complaining sarcasm
( the lsraelites when they were on the
'ay from Egypt To Canaan, Because
here are no graves in Egypt hast thou
aiken us away TO die in the wildenessp
)own the river bank come the buffalo
nd the cattle or kline to drink, and it
Tas the assessors of these cattle that
lspired Pharaoh's dream of the lean
inc and the fat kline.
Here we disembark little while for