The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-11-04

went down in fulillment OF EZekiel'S
prophecy concerning the City OF No
which was another name for ThebeS; "l
will execute judgement in No. | will
cut off the nuititudes OF No." Jere'
miah also prophesied, "Thus saith the
Lord, / will punish the mullitudes OF
| No"
This city Of Thebes and all the other
dead cities Of Eg! pt iterate and reiter'
ate the vecacitv Of the Scriptures tell
ing the same story which Moses and the
prophets told. llsve you noticed how
| God kept back these archaeological con,
iirmations of the Bible until our time
when the air is full of unbeiief about
the thruthfulneSs Of the dear old book
he waited until the printing press had
been set up IL It's perfected shape, and
the submarine cable was laid, aud the
world was Intelligent enough to appre.
the testimony, and then he resurrectett
the dead cities OF the earth, and com
inanGS them, saying: Open your lons
sesled lips and speak, Menlphi: and
Theoes. is the Bible true?:' True. re-
spond Memphis and Thetes. Babylon
is the Book OF Daniel true?' True"
respond babylon. ruins OF Palestine
and Syria, is the New Testament tTue?'
"rrucw. respond the ruins all the way
from Joppa to the Dead sea and from
Jerusalem } to Damascus.
WHAT Z mercy that this testimony OF
the dead cities should come at a time
when the Bible is especially assailed
And this work viii go on until the We
racity OF the Scriptures will be as Ger
tain to all sensible men and women rs
that two and two make four, as that an
lsosceles triangle is one which has two
OF its sides equal, rs that the diameter
| of a circle IS a line drawn through the
center and terminated by the clrcum.
| ference, as certain any mathematical
demonstration.
Two great nations, Egypt and Greece,
diplomatiZed and almost came to battle
| for one book, q copy OF "Lt5chylus.
Ptolemy, the Egyptian king, discover
ed that in the great library at AleXaa-
dria there was no copy of "LEschyluS.
The Egyptian king sent up to Athens,
Greece, to borrow the book and make a
copy OF it. Athens demanded a deposit
seventeen OF thousaxd seven hundred
dollars az security. The Egyptian king
received the book, but refused to return
that which he had borrowed, and so for
feited the seventeen thousand seven
hundred dollars.
The two nations rrSe in contention
concerning that one book. Beautiful
and mighty book indeed. But it is a
book OF horrors, the dominant idea that
We are the victims of hereditary influ-
ences from which there Is no escape,
and that fate rules the world, and al
though the author does tell Of Prone
theuS. who was crucified on the rocks
for sympathy for ma lkind, a powerful
suggestion Of the sacrifice OF Christ IN
later years, it is a very poor book com.
pared with that book which we hug to
our hearts, because it contains our only
guide in life, our OILY comfort in
death, and our only hope for blissfnl
immortality. II two uattons could af-
ford to struggle for ore copy OF "IEschy-
lus," how much more can ali nations
afford to struggle for the possession
and triumph Of the Holly Scriptures?
Bat the dead cities strung along the
Nile not only demolish intidelity, but
thunder down the absurdity of the
modern doctrine of evolution which
says the world started with nothing
and then rose, and human nature began
with nothing but evolved into splendid
manhood and wOmanhond of itself.
Nay, the sculpture Of the world was
more wonderful in the days of Mem
phis and Thebes and Carthage than in
the DAYS of Boston and New York.
Those blocks Of stone weighing three
hundred tons high up in the wall at
karnac imply machinery equal to, II
not SURPRISING, the machinery OF the
Nineteenth century.
How was that statue OF Rameses,
weighing eight hundred and eighty
seven tons, transported from the quar-
ries two hundred miles away and how
was it lifted? Tell us, modern ma
chinists. How were those galleries of
rock, still standing at Thebes, filed
with paintings surpassed by no arti SITS
pencil of the present day? Tell US,
artists of the Nineteenth century. The
dead cities of Egypt, 50 far as they have
left enough pillars or statues or sepul-
chers or temple ruins to tell the story
Memphis, Migdol, Hierapoiis, ZoaD,
Thebes, Goshen, Carthage-all of them
developing downward instead oI up
ward. They have evoluted from mag.
liticence into destruction. The Gospel
of Jesus Christ is the only elevator Of
individual and social national charac-
ter. Let all the living cities know that
pomp and opulence and temporal pros
perlty are no security.
Those ancient cities lacked nothing
cut good morals. Dissipation and sin
slew them. and unless dissipation and
sin ar halt-d, they will sons day slay
cur modern cities, and leave our palaces
OF merchandise and our galleries OF AIT
and our city hall as fiat ii the dust as
we found Memphis on the afternoon
Of that Iha nEsgivlng day. And II tue
cities so down, the nation will go
down. "Oh," you say. that IS impos-
sihle; we have stood SO long-yea, over
a hundred years as nation" Why,
what of that? Ihebes stood 1--we hua.
Gred Years. Memphis stood a thousand
years. Goa does not forget. One day
with the Lord is as a thousand years
and Il thousand years as one day.
Rum and debauchery and bad politics
are more rapidly working the destruc-
tion OF our American cities than sin OF
auy kind and all kinds worked for the
destruction OF the cities Of Africa, once
so mighty and now 80 PROSTATE. But
their gods were idols, and could do
nothing except for depaseEnent. Our
God maize the heavens and sent his Son
to redeem the nations And our cities
will not go down. and our nation will
not perish because the gospel is going
to triumph. Forward. all schools and
colleges aud churches! forward, all
reforratory and missionary organlza-
tions. Forward! all the eiatluences mar-
shaled to bless the world. Let our
modern European and American cities
listen to the voice of those ancient
cities resurrected, and by hammer and
chi,el and crowbar be compelled 10
speak.
notice the voice Of those ancient
MT svnnSpra pf