Sharp County record., 1891-11-19
BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Contin-
ues to Talk ON Egypt.
rhe Expressions ,I the Children of Israel
by the Pharsohs of Old Find Pa
raIleI in the Methods OF
Modern Egypt.


peNitt Talmage, delivered in the Brook
I'm tabernacle, is the third of his seri IS
On what he saw From the Pyramids TO
the Acropolis." His text was:
The burden nf Egypt-Isaiah XIX, l.
What is all this excitement about In
the streets of Cairo, Egypt, this Decem'
Der no 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 tasseled cap on head, and
their arms and feet are bare. Their
Rarb Is black to the waist, except as
threaded with gold, and the rest is
white. They are clearing the way for
a official dignitary in chariot or car
riage They are swift and sometimes
run thirty or forty miles at stretch in
front of an equipage. Make way!
They are the feetest-footed men on
earth, but soon die, for the human
frame was not made for such endur-
ance. asked all around me who the
man in the carriage was, but no one
seemed to know. Yet as | fell back
with the rest to the wall l said: This
Is the old custom found all up and
down the Bible, footmen running be-
fore the rulers, demanding obeisance,
as In Gennesis before Joseph's chariot
the people were commanded, Bow the
knee" and us l see the swift feet of
the men followed Ivy the swift feet of
the horses, how those old words of
Jeremiah rushed through my mind:
"f thou hast run with the footmen
and they have wearied thee, how canst
thou contend with horses?"
We saw again and again on and along
the Nile boss workman roughly smite
subordinate who did not please him.
1t is no rare occurrence to see long
lines of men under heavy burdens pass
ing by task-masters at short distances,
lashing them as they go by into greater
speed, and then these workmen, ex-
hausted with the blasting heats of the
day, lying down upon the bare ground,
suddenly chilled with the night air,
crying out in prayer: "Ya! Allah"
"Ya! Allah! which means, Oh. God!
But what must have been the olden
times cruelty shown by the Egyptians
toward their Israelitsh slaves is in
dicated by picture in the Beni,Has-
san tombs, where man is held down
on bis face by two men and another
holds up the victims feet while the
officials beat the bare back of the vic
tim, every stroke, have no doubt,
fetching the blood.
The governmental outrage has al
ways been characteristic of Egyptian
rulers. Taxation to the point Of starva-
ton was the Egyptian rule in the
Bible times as well as it is in our time.
A modern traveller gives the figures
concerning the cultivation OF seventeen
acres, the value of the yield of the field
states in piastres:
= ~,->N N'''' ''''''''''s'.. loUk
hxpehses' .........................,.. 1884
Oiear produce. ........,."............... SOSl2
AMOUNT cleared by the farmer....... 3l5Ia
Or, as my authority declares, seventy
per cent of what the Egyptian farmer
makes is paid for taxes to the govern
ment Now that is not so much taxa
tion as assassination. What think you
OF That? You who groan under heavy
taxes in America | have heard that
IN Egypt the working people have q
song like this: "They starve us, they
starve us, they beat us, but there's
some one above, there's some one
above, who will punish them we'll,
who will punish them we'll" But sew.
enty per cent of government tax in
Egypt is a mercy as compared to what
the Hebrew slaves suffered there in
Bible times. They got nothing but food
hardly tit for dog, and their clothing
was OF one rag, and their roof a
burning sky by day and the 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 there was famine in
Canaan, and old Jacob and his sons
came to Egypt for bread. The old
mans boy Joseph was prime minister
and Joseph suppose the father and
the brothers called him Joe, for it does
not make any difference how much n
boy is advanced in worldly success, his
father and brothers and sisters always
call him by the same name that he was
called by when two years old--,Joseph,
py Pharoh's permission, gave to his
family, who had just arrived the rich.
est part of Egypt, the Westchester
1erms or the Lancaster farms Of the
ancients, Jacobs descendants rapidly
multiplied' After awhile Egypt tool,
turn ut famine, and those descendants
ofJacob, the Israeites came to great
store-house which Joseph had provided,
end paid in money for corn. But after
oWhile the money gave out and then
tney paid In cattle. After awhile the
cattle were all in possession of the pov.
ment and then the Hebrews bought
corn from the government by surren.
dering themselves as slaves.
Then began slavery In Egypt The
MuXHrn NiAnt IN A.