Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-11-12

1ect taken OH Oy 8rCuItccCS 10 1ufulSn
stone for building in the city of Cairo
The men who constructed the Pyramid
worked at 1t only few years and then
end the square and lowered the derrick
which had lifted the ponderous weights;
but forty centuries have their work
stood and it will be good for forty
centuries more. All Egypt has been
shaken in terrible EARTHQUAKES and
cities have been Frustrated or swal-
lowed, but that Pyramid has defied all
volcanic paroxysms. 1t has looked
upon some OF the greatest battles ever
fought since the world stood. Where
are the men who Quilt it? Their bodies
gone to dust and even the dust
scattered. Even the sarcophagus in
which the kings mummy may have
slept is empty.
So men die but their work lives on.
We are building pyramids not to last
four thousand years. but forty thou
sand, forty million, forty trillion, forty
quadrilliOn, forty quintillion. For q
while we WELD the trowel or pound
with the hammer or measure with the
yard-stick or write with the pen, or
experiment with the scientific battery,
or plan with the brain, and for . while
the foot walks and the eye sees, and
the ear hears and the tongue speaks.
All the good words or bad words we
speak are spread out into one layer for
a pyramid. All the kind deeds or
malevolent deeds we do are spread out
into another layer. All the Christian
or unchristian example we set is spread
out in another layer. All the indirect
influences of our lives are spread out
In another layer. Then the time soon
comes when we put down the imple-
ment of toll and pass away,
but the pyramid stands.
Your business and mine 10 not to
build pyramid but to be one OF the
hundreds of thousands who shall ring
trowel, or pull rope or turn . crank
of derrick, or cry ''Yo heavev' while
lifting another block to it's elevation.
Though it be seemingly small work
and a brief work, It is work that
shall last forever. In the last day
many a man and woman whose
work has never been recognized on
earth will come to q special honor.
The Ecumenical council. now in ses-
sion at Washington its delegates the
lion Methodists in all parts of
do honor to the memory of John
Wesley, but wonder if any of them
will think to twist q garland for the
memor of humble Peter Bohler, the
Moravian, who brought John Wesley
into the Kingdom Of God. I rejoice
that all the thousands who have been
toiling on tho pyramid of righteous
ness will at last be recognized and re-
warded-the mother who brought ner
children to Christ, the Sabbath school
teacher who brought her class to the
knowledge of the truth, the unpre-
tending man who saved q soul
Then the trowel will be moro honored
than the sceptre.
Further, carrying out the idea of my
text, the Pyramid is sign and q wit
ness that big tombstones are not the
best way of keepings ones self affec-
tionately remembered. This Pyramid
and the sixty-nine other pyramids
still standing were built for sepul-
chres, all this great pile of granite and
limestone by which we stand to day,
to cover the memory OF q dead king.
1t was the great Westminster Abbey
of the ancients
But if, after one is dead, there is moth
ing left to remind the world of him
but some pieces of stone, there Is but
little left Some Of the finest monu-
ments are over people who amounted
to nothing while they lived, while
some of the worthicst men and women
have not had above them a stone big
enough to tell their name. Joshua,
the greatest warrior the world ever
saw, no monument; Moses, the greatest
lawyer that ever lived, no monument;
Dus h. 10
lived, no monument; Christ, the Sa-
heaven. no monument A pyramid
over scoundrel Cheops, but only q
single with q lead pencil epitaph
over many q good mans grave. Some
of the finest obituaries have been
printed about the worst rascals. To.
day at Brussels there is o pyramid of
flowers on the grave of Boulanger, the
notorious libertine. Yet it is natural
to want to be remembered.
While there seems to be no practical
use for post-mortem consideration later
than the time of ones great grand.
children, yet NO ono wants to be for
gotten ~ soon - the obsequies are
over. This pyramid which Isaiah says
10 sign and . witness demonstrates
that neither limestone nor red granite
are competent to keep one affection
ately remembered; neither can bronze;
neither can Parian marble; neither can
Aberdeen granite do the work. But
there Is something out Of which to
build IN everlasting monument and
that will keep one freshly remembered
four thousand years; yea, for ever and
ever. It does not stand in marble
yards. It is not to be purchased 1t
mourning stores Yet 1t Il to be found
in every neighborhood. plenty Of it, in
exhaustible quantities Of it. 1t 10 the
greatest stun in the universe to build
monuments out of. refer to the
memories Of those to whom we can do
. kindness, the memories of those
whose struggles we may alleviate, the
memories of those whose souls we may
save. All around Cairo and Memphis
there are the remains of pyramids that
have gone down under the wearing
away of time. and this or. at Pyramid
of which Isaiah in the text speaks will
vanish il the world lasts long enough;
and il the world does not last, then
with the earth's dissolution the Pyra-
mid will also dissolve. But the memo
ries Of those with whom we associate
are indestructable. They will be more