Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-10-30
SAILING UP THE NILE.
DR.. TALMAoE breaches A
GREAT DESCRIPTIVE SERMON.
How tho History OF the World Ho-
peats Itself--A Chapter Taken From
the DIvine's Travels Thanksgiving
Day, 1850.

II
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, by
Prof. Henry Eyre Browne, the organ
list, held the vast congregation spell
bound with profound emotion. DIR.
Talmage preached on ''Sailing Up the
Nile" the second sermon of the series,
entitled "From the Pyramids OF the
Acropolis, or What Saw in Egypt and
Greece Confrmatory of the Scriptures. J"
His text was Ezekiel 1868: 1.-THE river
is mine and have made it"
Aha! This is the river Nile. A
brown, or yellow, or silver cord on
which are hung more jewels OF thrill
ing interest than on any river that was
ever twisted in the sunshine. 1t rip
pies through the Book of Ezekiel, and
flashes in the Books of Deuteronomy,
and Isaiah, and Zechariah, and Ma
hum, and ON it's banks stood the
mighties of many ages. 1t was the
crystal cradle of Moses, and on its
banks Mary, the refugee, carried the
infant Jesus. To find the birth
place of this river was the fascination
and defeat of expeditions without num-
Der. Not many years ago, Bayard
Taylor, our great American traveller,
wrote: "Since Columb bus first looked
upon San Salvador, the earth has but
one emotion of triumph left for her
bestowal, and that she reserves for
him who shall first drink from the
fountain of the White Nile under the
snow fields of Kilimanjaro." But the
discovery of the sources of the Nile by
most people was considered an inn
possibility. The malarias, the wild
beasts, the savages, the unclimable
sleeps, the vast distances, stopped all
the expeditions for ages. An intelli-
gent native said to Sir Samuel W..
Baker and wife as they were on their
way to accomplish that in which
others had failed: "Give up the mad
scheme of the Nile source. How
would it be possible for 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 source of what
was called tho White Nile. and bap-
tised these two lakes with the names
of Victoria and Albert. These two
lakes, filed by great rainfalls and by
accumulated SHOWS from the noun
tains, pour their waters, laden with
agricultural wealth such as blesses no
other river. on down over the cataracts,
Ou DtIWctn browning VII
between cities living and cities dead,
on for four thousand miles and
through continent. But the White
Nile would do little for Egypt If this
were all. 1t would keep its banks ana
Egypt would remain desert But
from Abyssinia there comes what is
called the Blue Nile, which, though
dry or nearly dry half the year, under
f1aunnnhnttc ms n hn11t ha ft1i6Ala IF
June rises to great momentum, and
this Blue Nile dashes with sudden
influx into the White Nile, which
in consequence rises thirty feet.
! and their com bined waters inundate
Egypt with rich soil that drops on
all the fields and gardens as it is con-
Quoted by bitches, and sluices, and can
ais every whittier, The greatest dana ge
that ever came to Egypt came by the
drying up of the river Nile. ard the
greatest blessing by it's healthful and
abundant flow. The famine in
Joseph's time came from the
lack of sufficient inundation from
the Nile. Not enough Nile is
drouth, too much Nile is freshet and
plague. The rivers of the earth are the
mothers of ats prosperity. If by some
convulsion of nature the Mississippi
should be taken from North America,
or the Amazon from South America,
or the Danube from Europe, or
| the Yenesei from Asia-what hemis-
pheric calamity! Still There are
| other rivers that could fertilize
and save these countries. Our
own continent is gulched, is ribboned,
is glorifed by innumerable water
courses But Egypt has only one great
river, and that is harnessed to draw all
the properties of realms in acreage
semi-infnite What happens to the
Nile, happens to Egypt The Milo
meter was to me very suggestive as
we went up and down its damp stone
steps, and saw the pillar
marked with notches telling just how
high or low are the waters of the
Nile. When the Nile is rising, four
criers every morning run through the
! city announcing how many feet the
river has risen-ten feet, fifteen feet,
twenty feet, twenty-four feet-aud
when the right height of water is
reached the gates of the canals are
flung open and the liquid and refresh
ing benediction is pronounced on all
the land.
AS we start where the Nile empties
into the Mediterranean sea we be.
hold a wonderful fulfillment of the
prophecy. The Nile in very ancient
times used TO have seven mouths AS
the great river approached the sea il
entered the sea at the 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 destroyed but two and Herodstus
said these two remaining are ARTIFICIAL.
This ride along the Nile is one Of the
most solemn and impressive rides Of all
my lifetime, and our emotions deeper
as the curtains of the night fiji upo.
all surroundings But we shall net be
satisfied NATL we can take a ship and
pass right out upon these wosdrous
waters and between the banks crowded
with the story of empires.
According to the lead pencil mark in
my bible it was Thanksgiving day
morning, November IS, 1882, that with
my family and friends we stepped
aboard the steamer on the Nile. The
Mohammedan call TO prayers had
been sounded by the priests of that
religion, the Muezzins, from the four
hundred mosques of Cairo as the cry
went out: God is great l bear wit
ness that there is no God but God. /