The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-11-06

nc SAl anu city anu PAIN BhOfCo duo
river shipping were bathed in the
light. 1t was not much of craft that
we boarded It would not be hailed
on any of our rivers with any rapture
of admiration. 1t fortunately had but
little speed. for twice we ran aground,
and the sailors jumped into the water
and on their shoulders pushed her out
But what yacht of gavest sportsman,
what deck of swiftest ocean queen could
give such thrill OF rapture as a sail on
the Nile? The pyramids in sight, the
remains of cities that are now only a
name, the villages thronged with popu-
lation. Both banks crowded with his
torical deeds of forty or sixty centuries
oh, what book the Bible is when read
on the Nile!
While sailing on this river, or stop
ping at one of the villages, we see peo-
pie on the banks who verify the Bible
description, for they are now as they
were i'm Bible times Shoes are now
taken off in reverence TO sacred places.
Children carried astride the mothers
shoulder as in Hagar's time. Women
with profusion of jewelry, as when
Rebecca was affianced. Lentils shelled
into the pottage, as when Esau sold his
birthright to get such dish. The same
habits of salutation as when Joseph
and his brethren fell on each others
necks Courts of law held under big
trees as in the olden times People
making bricks without straw, COM
peeled by circumstances to use
stubble instead of straw. Flying
over or standing on the bank.
as in Scripture days, are fiamingoes,
nspreys, eagles, pelicans, herons, cuk-
COS and bullfinches. On all sides of
this river sepulchers. Villages of Sc
butchers. And one is tempted to call
it an empire of tombs- / never saw
such place as Egypt is for graves.
And now we understand the complain
ing sarcasm of the Israelites when they
were on the way from Egypt to Cana
an: because there are no graves in
Egypt hast thou taken us away to die
in the wilderness?" Down the river
bank come the buffalo and the cattle or
kline to drink. And it was the ances-
tors of these cattle that inspired Pha-
raoh's dream of the lean kline and the
fat kline.
Here we disembarl little while for
Memphis, off from the Nile to the right.
Memphis, founded by the first king OF
Egypt, and for long while the capital.
A city of marble and gold. Home OF
the pharaohs City nineteen miles in
circumference. Vast colSnnades through
which imposing professions marched.
Here stood the Temple of the Sun, itself
in brilliancy a sun shown on by another
sun. Memphis in power over thou
sand and one hundred years, or nearly
ten times as long as the United States
have existed. Here is recumbent
statue seventy-fve feet high. Bronzed
gateways. A metropolis called ''the
haven of the blest." Here Joseph
was prime minister. Here pharaoh
received Jacob. All possible splendors
were built up into this royal city. Ho-
sea, Ezekiel, jeremiah and Isaiah speak
of it as something wonderful. Never
did j visit city with such exalted an
ticipations and never did my anticipa-
tions drop SO fiat. Not prila- stands.
Not a wall is unbroken. Not a foun-
tain losses in the sun. Even the ruins
are chips of marble, small pieces Oh
fractured sculpture and splintered hu.
man bones. Here and there letter OF
some elaborate inscription, toe
or ear of statue that
once stood in niche of palace
wall. Ezekiel prophesied its plotting
out, and the prophecy has been full
filled. 'Ride on" said to our party,
''and don't wait for me-" And, as j
stood there alone, the city of Memphis
in the glory of past centuries returned.
And / heard the rush of her chariots,
and the dash of her fountains, and the
conviviality of her palaces, and saw the
drunken mobiles roll on the floors OF
mosaic, while, in startling contrast,
amid all the royalties of the palace, 1
saw Pharoah look up into the face of
aged, rustic Jacob, the shepard, saying.
SLOW old art thou?"
But back to the Nile and on and up
till you reach Thebes, in Scripture
called the City of No. Hundred-gated
Thebes. A quadrangular city four
miles from limit to limit Four great
temples, two of them Karnac and
Luxor, once mountains of exquisits
sculpture and gorgeous dreams solificd
in stone. Statue of Rameses H.,
eight hundred and eighty-seven tons in
weight and seventy-five feet high, but
now fallen and scattered Walls a
bloom with the battlefelds of centu-
ries. The surrounding hills of rock hol-
lowed into sepulchers on the walls of
which are chiseled in picture
and hieroglyphics the confirmation
of Bible story in regard to the treat
ment of the Israelites in Egypt so that,
as explorations go on with the work,
the walls of these sepulchers become
commentaries of the Bible, the
Scriptures originally written upon
stone. Thebes mighty and dominant
five hundred years. Then she went
in fulfllment of Ezekiels prophecy
concerning the city of No, which was
another name for Thebes: II will
execute Judgment in No. / will cut
off the multitudes of No"
jeremiah also prophesied: THUS
saith the Lord, l will punish the
multitudes of No" This city of
Thebes and all the other dead cities of
Egypt iterate and reiterate the veracity
of the Scriptures, telling the same
story which Moses and the prophets
told. Have you noticed how God kept
back these archaeological combinations
of the Bible until our time, when the
air is full of unbelief about the truth.
fitness of the dear old Book? He wait
ed until the printing press had been up