Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-11-05
DEMOCRATIC NORTHWEST NAPOLEON o, NOVEMBER 5, 1891

Ana It was the ancestors 81 these cattle
that inspired Pharoah's dream Of the lean
kline and the fat kline.
Here we disembark a little while for
Memphis, of from the Nile TO the right.
Memphis founded by the first king Of
Egypt and for a long while the capital. A
city of marble and gold. Home of the
Pharaohs City nineteen miles in circum-
ference. Vast colonnades through which
imposing professions marched. Here stood
the Temple Of the Sun, itself IN brillisncy
a sun shoue on by another sun. Thebes in
power over Thousand ole hundred years,
or nearly ten times as long AS the United
States have existed. Here is recumbent
statue seventy-five feet long. 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. Hosea, Ezekiel, jeremiah
and Isaiah speak Of 1t as something won
derful.
Never did visit city with such exalted
anticipations, and never did my anticipa-
tions drop so fat. Not pillar stands.
Not wall is unbroken. Not fountain
tosses in the sun. Even the ruins have
been ruined aud all that remains are chips
of marble, small pieces of fractured sculp-
ture and splintered human bones. Here
and there letter of some elaborate in
scription, toe or ear of a statue that once
stood in niche Of palace wall. Ezekiel
prophesied its blotting out, and the proph-
ecy has been fulfilled. "Ride on" said
to our party, "and don't wait for me-"
And as stood there alone the city of Mem
phis in the glory of past centuries returned.
And heard the rush of her chariots, and
the dash of her fountains, and the conviv-
iality of her palaces, and saw the drunken
mobiles roll on the floors of mosaic, while
in startling contrast amid all the royalties
of the place saw Pharaoh look up into
the face of aged rustic Jacob, the shepherd,
saying, "How old art thoup
THEBEs.
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 ex-
quisite sculpture and gorgeous dreams
solidified in stone. Statue of Rameses II,
eight hundred and eighty-seven tons in
weight and seventy-fve feet high, but now
fallen and scattered. Walls abloom with
the battlefelds of centuries.
The surrounding hills of rock followed
into sepulchers ON the wall of which are
chiseled in picture and hieroglyphics the
confirmation of Bible story in regard to
the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt so
that, as explorations go on with the work,
the walls of these sepulchers become COM
mentaries of the Bible, the Scriptures
originally written upon parchment here
cut into everlasting stone. Thebes mighty
and dominant five hundred years. Then
she went down in fulfillment of Ezekiel s
prophecy concerning the City of No, which
was another name for Thebes: II will ex-
ecute judgment in No. will cut off the
multitudes of No." jeremiah also proph-
esied, "Thus saith the Lord, 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 confirma.
tions of the Bible until our time, when the
air is full of unbelief about the truthful.
ness of the dear old book? He waited un.
til the printing press had been set up in its
perfected shape, and the submarine cable
was laid, and the world was intelligent
enough to appreciate the testimony, and
then he resurrected the dead cities of the
earth. and commands them, saying: "Oper
your long sealed lips and speak, Memphis
and Thebes, is the Bible true2" 'Truep
respond Memphis and Thebes Babylon
is the Book of Daniel true?" "True!' re
spends Babylon. "Ruins of Palestine anC
Syria, is the New Testament true?'
"True" respond the ruins all the way from
Joppa to the Dead sea and from Jerusalem
to Damascus.
What mercy that this testimony of the
dead cities should come at time when tn,
Bible is especially assailed. And this work
will go on until the veracity of the Scrip
lures Will be as certain to all sensible meI
and women as that two and two make
four, as that an isOsceles triangle is ont
which has two of its sides equal, as thai
the diameter of a circle is line draw
through the center and terminated by tn,
circumference, as certain as any mathe
matical demonstration.
Never did | feel more encouraged thar
when, after preaching a sermon on evi
dences of the truth of the Bible draw
from oriental lands, a distinguished sena
tor of the United States, known and hon
ored everywhere, but now deceased, cam'
up to the platform and said, II wa
brought up in the faith of Christianity
but got speculating on all these subjects
and had given up my faith in the Bible
but those facts and arguments archBolog
ical take me back to my old faith in th
Bible which my father and mother taugh
me-" The tears rolling down his cheek
evince the depth of his emotion. When
read of the senator's death was comfortet
to think that perhaps l may have helpet
him little in the struggle of his life, ant
perhaps given him an easier pillow Of
which to die.
THE BIBLE is THE GREATEST BOOK.
Two great nations, Egypt and Greece
diplomatized and almost came to battl
for one book, copy of "Nschylus. Ptol
emy, the Egyptian king, discovered tina
In the great library at Alexandria ther
was no copy of Hlschylus." The Egyptia1
king sent up tC Athens, Greece, to borrow
the book and make copy Of it. Athen
demanded deposit of seventeen thousan
seven hundred dollars as security. Th
Egyptian king received the book, but RI
fused to return that which he had boz
rowed, and so forfeited the seventeen thot
sand seven hundred dollars.
The two nations rose in contention col
cerning that one book. Beautiful an
mighty book, indeed But 1t is book {
horrors, the dominant idea that we are til
, victims of hereditary influences from whic
there is no escape, and that fate rules tt
; world, and although the author does tie
of Prometheus, who was crucified on I'll
rocks for sympathy for mankind, a powe
full suggestion of the sacrifice of Christ
later years. it is very poor book cor
pared with that book which we hug to OIL