Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-11-07
REV. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
He Draws Lessons From the
Land of Pharoah.
Egypt tho First Mother OF Civilization
Striking Warning TO Modern Patcr-
nalists-Salvation by the Might
OF the Lord-Present Burdens
OF the Land-Phnroahs In
Modern Times.


this morning. The vast edifce filled
to its utmost capacity with eager list
eners shows how the popular preacher
retains his power over the people.
His text was Isaiah xix, 1: "The
Burden of Egypt
What Is all this excitement about In
the streets OF Cairo, Egypt, this De-
cember morning in 1889? Stand back
We hear loud voices and see the crowd:
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 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
nltary In chariot or carriage. They
are swift and sometimes run thirty or
forty miles at q stretch in front OF an
cquipage. Make way! They are the
feetest iootmen on the earth, but soon
die, for human frame was not made for
such endurance. 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 said:
This is the old custom all up and down
the Bible, footmen running before the
rulers, demanding obelsance, as in Cen
csis before Joseph's chariot the people
were commanded, "Bow the knee" and
as see the swift feet OF the men fol-
lowed by the swift feet OF the horses.
how those old words OF jeremiah rushed
through my mind: IF thou has run
with the footmen and they have wea-
ried thee, how canst thou contend with
horses?"
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 would have you study
far beyond anything that can be said in
the brevity of pulpit utterance. 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 lana. Accord
ing to that Egypt is our great-great.
grandmother. On other Sabbaths l
left you studying what they must have
been in their glory: the Hypostyle Hall
of Karnac, the architectural miracles at
Lugor, the colonnade OF Horemheb, the
cemeteries OF Memphis, the value OF
kingdom in one moment, the Sphinx
which with lips OF stone speak loud
enough to be heard across she centuries
HelioLolis and Zoan, the conundrum OF
archaologists. But all that extraya-
gance OF palace and temple and monu-
ment was the cause OF an oppression
high as heaven and deep as hell. The
weight OF those blocks OF stone heavier
than any modern machinery could lift.
came down upon the Hebre Y slaves and
and their blood mixed the mortar for
the trUwels.
We saw again and again on and along
the Nile boss workman roughly smite
a subordinate who did not please him.
It Is no rare occurrence 10 see long lines
of men under heavy burdens passing by
taskmasters at short distances, flashing
them as they 60 by into greater speed
and then these workingmen, exhausted
with the blasting heats Of the day, ly-
ing down upon the bare ground, sudden
lv chilled with the night air, crying out
in PRAYER: "Ya Allah! va Allah"
which means o God! o God! But what
must have been the olden times cruelty
shown by the Egyptians toward their
Israelitish slaves Is indicated by
picture in the Bsni-Hassan tombS,
where a man is held down on his face
by two men and another holds up the
victims feet while the officials beat the
bare back OF the victim, every stroke,
I have no 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 totlers,
and tears and blood are cheap drink
Tor devils. ''Bricks without straw"
NAV not suggest so much hardship un-
iii YOU know that the bricks were usu-
ally made with crushed straw" straw
crushed by the feet of the oxen In the
threshing, and, this crushed straw de-
MED the workmen, they had TO pick up
here and there 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
Egypt have on the lower layers brick
made with straw, but the higher layers
NJ brick made out Of rough straw, or
rushe,s from the river bank, the truth
- tha hook of Exodus thus written in
the brick walls discovered by the mod
ern explorers.
That governmental outrage has al
vavs been a characteristic OF Egyptian
rulers. Taxation to the point Of starva-
ton was the Egyptian rule in the Bible
times as well as 1t il In our own time.
A modern traveller gives the figures
concerning the cultivation Of seventeen
acres. the value OF the yield OF the field
stated in pinstres: