The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-04
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ''The Lesson Of the Pyra-
midS."


Isaiah no doubt here refers to the great
pyramid at Gizeh, the chief pyramid of
Egypt. The text speaks Of pillar in Egypt,
and this is the greatest pillar ever lifted;
and the text says it is to be at the border Ct
the land, and this pyramid is at the border
of the land; and the text says it shall DO for
q witness, and the object OF this sermon is to
tell what this pyramid witnesses. This SER
mon is the first Of a course Of sermons en-
titled, "From the Pyramids to the Acropolis,
or What saw in Egypt and Greece Con-
6rmatory of the Scriptures
We had, on morning Of December, 1889,
landed in Africa Amid the bowling boat
men at Alexandria we had come ashore and
taken the rail train at Cairo, Egypt, along
the banks of the most thoroughly harneSsed
river of all the world-t the river Nile. We
had at eventide enteredt the city Of Cairo, the
city where Christ dwelt while staying in
Egypt during the Herodic persecution. 1t
was our first night in Egypt. No destroying
angel sweeping through as once, but all the
stars were Out. and the sky was filled with
angels of beauty and angels of light, and the
air was baimy as an American June. The
next morning we were early awate and at
the window, looking upon the palm trees in
full glory OF LEAKAGE, and upon gardens or
fruits and flowers at the very season when
our homes far away are canopied by bleak
skies and the last lear OF tae toresC mas gone
down in the equinoctials.
But how can I describe the thrill OF ex-
pectation. for to-day we are to see what all
The world has seen or wants to see-the
pyramids. We are mounted for an hour
and half's ride We pass on amid bazaars
stuffed with rugs aud carpets, and curious
fabrics Of all sorts from Smyrna, from Al
giers, from Persia, from Turkey, and through
streets where we meet people of all colors
and all garbs, carts loaded with garden pro-
ductions, priests in gowns, women IN black
wells, Bedouins in long and seemingly super
huous apparel, Janissaries in jacket of em.
broidered gold-out and on toward the great
pyramid, for though there are sixty-nine
pyramids still standing, thepyramid at Gizeh
Is the monarch of pyramids. We meet
camels grunting under their loads, and see
bufaoes on either side browsing in pasture
fields.
The road we travel is for part of the way
under clumps of acacia and by long rows OF
sycamore and tamerisk, but after awhile it
is path Of rock and sand, and we find we
have reached the margin of the desert, the
great Sahara desert. and we cry out to the
great dragoman as we see huge pile OF rock
looming in sight, "Dragoman, what is that|
His answer is "The pyramid" and then it
seemed as if we were wing century every
minute. Our thoughts and emotions were
too rapid and intense for utterance, and we
ride on in silence until we come to the foot
of the pyramid spoken Of in the text, the
oldest structure in all the earth-four thou
sand years old at least Here it is. We stand
under the shadow OF structure that shuts
out all the earth apd all the sky, and we look
up and strain our vision to appreciate the
distant top, and are overwhelmed willie we
cry, "The pyramid! The pyrsmidp'
Each person in our party had two or three
guides or helpers. One OF them unrolled his
turban and tied it around my waist and he
held the other end of the turban as matter
Of safety. Many Of the blocks Of stone are
four or five feet high and beyond any ordin-
ary human stride unless assisted. But, Two
Arabs to pull and TWO Arabs to push, found
myself rapidly ascending from heighth to
heighth. and on to attitudes terrific, and at
last at the tiptop we found ourselves on level
space Of about thirty feet square. Through
clearest atmosphere we looked off upon the
desert, and off upon the winding Nile, and
off upon the Sphinx, with its features OF
everlasting stone, and yonder upon the min
arets Of Cairo glittering in the sun, and yon-
der upon Memphis in ruins, and off upon the
wreck Of empires and the battlehelds OF ages,
a radius of view enough to fill the mind and
being.
After looking around for awhile, and
kodak had pictured the grouo, we descended.
The descent was more trying than the
ascent for climbing you need not see the
depths beneath but coming down it was I'M
possible not to see the abysus below. But
two Arabs ahead to help us down, and two
Arabs to hold us back, we were lowered,
hand below hand, until the ground was in
vitingly near, and amid the jargon OF the
Arabs we were safely landed. Then came
&c &ho Nf
and agility. One of the Arabs solicited a
dollar, saying he would run up and down
the pyramid in seven minutes. We would
rather have given him dollar not to 60,
but this ascent and descent in seven minutes
he was determined on, and so by the watch
in seven minutes he went to the top and was
back again at the base. 1t was a bloodcur-
ding spectacle
I said the dominant color Of the pyramid
was gray, but in certain lights it seems to
shake of the gray OF centuries and become
a blond, and the silver turns TO the golden.
1t covers thirteen acres of ground. What
an antiquity! 1t was at least two thousand
wears old when the baby Christ was carried
within sight OF it by His fugitive parents,
Joseph anu Mary. The storms of forty c.n-
turies have drenched it, bombarded it,
Swallowed il, flashed upon it, but there it
stands, ready to take another forty GEN.
turies Of atmospheric attack if the world
should continue to exist The oldest build
ings Of the earth are juniors to this great
senior of the centuries.
Herodotus says that for ten years prepa-
rations were being made for the building Of
this pyramid. It has eighty-two million
one hundred and eleven thousand cubic feet
OF masonry. One hundred thousand workmen
atone time toiled in its erection. TO bring the
stone from the quarries causeway sixty
feet wide was butt. The top stones were
lifted by machinery such as the world
knows nothing OF to-day. It Is seven hun
dred and forty-six feet each side Of the
square base. The structure is four hundred
and fifty feet high; higher than the cathe-
drals Of Cologne, Strasburg, Rouen. st.
Peters and st. Paurs. No surprise to me
that it was put at the head of the seven won
ders of the world. 1t has a Subterraneous
room of red granite called the Kings cham
Der" and another room called the queens
chamber, and the probability is that there
are other rooms yet une1plored.
The evident design Of the architect was to
make these rooms as inaccessible as possible.
After all the work of exploration aud all the
digging and blasting, If You would enter
these subterraneous rooms. you must go
through passage only three feet eleven
inches high and less than four feet wide. A
sarcophagus Of red granite stands down un-
der this mountain of masonry. The
sarcophagus could not have beer carried in
after the pyramid was built. II must have
been put there before the structure was
reared. Probably in that sarcophasus oncs
lay wooden coffin containing a deal king,
but time has destroyed ths cofia and de-
stroyed the last vesSige of human remains.
For three thousand years this ss2uic lra
room was unopened and would have bssn
until to-day probably unooeaei had not a
heart OF the pyramid was filled with silver
and gold and diamonds, aud under AL