Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-06
DR.. TALMAGE's SERMON.
A DISCOURSE ON BRICKS WITH
OUT STRAW.
Though tho Pharaohs of Old Egypt Anve
Been Dead for Many Centuries. There
Are Sttll Many Fharaohs Who Arc De-
manding Bricks without Straw.
The Tabernacle Pulpit.

tlon OF the series on the confirmation OF
Holy Scripture which DIR. Talmagc
found in his journey from the Pyramids
to the Acropolis. His text was Isaiah
xix, l. 1.-THE burden of Egypt"
What is all this excitement about in
the streets of Cairo, Egypt, this Deccm-
Der morning in 1889? Stand back. We
hear loud voices and see the crowds of
people retreating to the sides of the
street. The excitement of others be-
comes our own excitement Footmen
come in sight. They have rod in the
hand and tasselcd cap on head, and their
arms and feet are bare. Their garb is
black to the waist. except as threaded
with gold, and the rest is white. They
are clearing the way for an official dig
nitary in chariot or carriage. They
arc swift and sometimes run thirty or
forty miles at stretch in front of an
cquipage. Make way! They are the
feetest footed men on earth, but soon
die, for the human frame was not made
for such endurance.
Now, my hearers, in this course of
sermons am only serving you as foot
man, and clearing 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 brcvity of pulpit utterancc. Two
hundred and eighty-nine times does the
Bible refer to Egypt and 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; England,
the mother of our own land. Accord
ing to that, Egypt is our greatest
grandmother.
On other Sabbaths left you studying
what they must have been in their glory;
the Hypostyle Hall OF Karnac the archi-
tectural miracles at Luxor, the Colon
made of Horemheb, the cemeteries of
Memphis, the value of a kingdom in one
monument, the Sphinx, which with lips
of stone speaks loud enough to be heard
across the centuries, Heliopolis and Zoan,
the conundrum of arch1ologists. But all
that extravaganza of palace and temple
and monument was the cause of an OPP
preston high as Heaven and deep as
hell. The weight of those blocks of
stone, heavier than any modern ma
chinery could lift, came down upon the
Hebrew slaves, and their blood mixed
the mortar for the trowels.
We saw again and again on and along
the Nile boss workman roughly smite
q subordinate who did not please him.
| 1t is no rare occurrence to see long lines
| of men under heavy burdens passing by
| taSkmaSterS at short distances, laShing
| them as they go by into greater speed,
| and then these workmen, exhausted with
| the blasting heats of the day. lying down
upon the bare ground, suddenly chilled
| with night air, crying out in prayer:
"Ya, AIlah!" ''Ya Allah!'' which means
o God! O God! But what must have
| been the olden times cruelty shown by
the Egyptians toward their lsraelltish
slaves is indicated by picture in the
Beni-HaZZan tombs, where a nan is held
down on his face by two men and an
other holds dp the victims feet while
the officials beat the bare back of the
victim. every stroke, l havelno doubt,
fetching the blood.
Now you see how the Pharaohs could
afford to build such costly works. 1t
cost them nothing for wages, nothing
but the tears and blood of the toilers,
and tears and blood are cheap drink
for devils. Bricks without straw" may
not suggest so much hardship until you
know that the bricks were usually made
with s'crushed straw" straw crushed by
the feet of the oxen in the thrashing,
ard, this crushed straw denied to the
workmen, they had to pick up here and
there q piece of stubble or gather
rushes from the waterside. This story
of the Bible is confirmed by the fact
that many of the brick walls of Egyp,
have on the lower layers brick made
with straw, but the higher layers OF
brick made out of rough straw or rushes
from the river bank, the truth of the
book of Exodus thus written in tho
brick walls discovered by the modern
explorers.
That Government outrage has alway!
been characteristic of Egyptian rulers
Taxation to the point of starvation wa.
the Egyptian rule in the Bible times a.
we'll as in our own time. modern
traveller gives the figures concerning tn,
cultivation of seventeen acres, the value
of the yield of the gold stated in pias
tres:
Produce. SOP
Expenses. Observation-Disclosures. $685.
Clear produce. Observation-Disclosures. S0S,
IaAes.. ...................... 193
Amount cleared by the farmer. ...... 3l5l
; Or, as my authority declares, 70 pc
cent. of what the Egyptian farme
makes is paid for taxes to the Govern
lncnt Now, that is not SO much taxa
ton as assassination. What think yo1
OF that, those who groan under heav,
taxes in America? have heard that il
Egypt the working people have a SOM
like this, ''They starve us, they starv
j u.s. they beat us, they beat us; bu
there's some one above, there's som
one above, who will punish them well
who will punish them WE'LL" But z
per cent. of Government tax is mere
! as compared to what the Hebrew slave
suffered there in Bible times. They 60
nothing but food hardly fit for dog
and their clothing was of one rag, an
their roof a burning sky by day and tn
J stars of Heaven by night,
} You say, "Why did they stand it?
: Because they had to stand it, You see
along back in the worlds twilight, thcr
was "a famine in Canaan, and old Jaco
: and his sons came to Egypt for breac
3 The old mans boy, Joseph, was prim
E minister, and Joseph suppose the fl
, ther and the brothers called him Joe, fo
l it does not make any difference no,
r much a boy is advanced in worldly SUI
q cess, his father and brothers and sister
. always call him by the same name tina
he WAS called nv when two wears old