News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-29

a copy of it. Athens demanded a de
Dosit of seventeen thousand seven hun
dred dollars as security. The Egyptian
king received the book, but refused to
return that which he had borrowed,
and so forfeited the seventeen thousand
seven hundred dollars.
The two nations rose in contention
concerning that one book. Beautiful
and mighty book, indeed But it is
book of horrors, the dominant idea
that we are the victims of hereditary
influences from which there is no
escape, and that fate rules the world,
and although the author does tell OF
Prometheus who was crucified on the
rocks for sympathy for mankind, a
powerful suggestion of the sacrifice OF
Christ in later years, it is very poor
book compared with that book which
we hug to our hearts, because it con
tains our only guide in life, our only
comfort in death and our only hope
for a blissful Immortality. If two ma
tions could afford to struggle for one
copy of "Eschylus, how much more
can all nations afford to struggle for
the possession and triumph of the Holy
Scriptures2
But the dead cities strung along the
Nile not only demolish infdelity, bul
thunder down the absurdity of tn
modern doctrine of evolution which
saws the world started with nOthin
and then rose, and human nature be
gan with nothing but evolved int
SPLENDID manhood and womanhood oil
itself. Nay; the sculpture of the world
was more wonderful in the days OF
Memphis 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 al
Karnac, imply machinery equal to If
not surprising the machinery of the
Nineteenth century. How was that
statue of Rameses, weighing eight hun
dred and eighty seven tons, transport
ed from the quarries, two hundred
miles away, and how was it lifted? Tell
us, modern machinists. How were
those galleries of rock, still standing at
Thebes, filled with paintings surpassed
by no artists pencil of the present day
Tell US, artists of the Nineteenth cen
tury. The dead cities of Egypt, so fa1
as they have left enough pillars or
statues or sepulchers (. temple ruins to
tell the Memphis Migdol, HER
opolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen. Carthage
all of them developing downward in
stead of upward They have cvoluted
from magnificence into destruction.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
elevator of individual and social ma
tional character. Let all the living
cities know that pomp and opulence
and temporal prosperity are no security.
Those ancient cities lacked nothing but
good morals. Dissipation and sin slew
them, and unless dissipation and sin
are halted they will some day Stay ou1
modern cities, and leave our palaces OF
and our galleries of art.
and our city halls as flat in the dust as
we found Memphis on the afternoon OF
that Thanksgiving day. And if the
cities go down the nation will go down
ooh" you say, that is impossible; we
have stood so long-yea, over hun
dred years as nation" Why, what
of that2 Thebes stood five hundred
years; Memphis stood a thousand
years. God does not forget One day
with the Lord is as a thousand years
and a thousand years as one day.
Rum and debauchery and bad poll
ties are more rapidly working the de
struction of our American cities than
sin of any kind and all kinds worked
for the destruction of the cities of Afr
ca, once so mighty and now so pros
trate. But their gods were idols, and
could do nothing except for debase-
ment. Our God made 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. Toward
all schools and colleges and churches
Forward! all reformatory and mission
airy organizations Forward all the
influences marshaled to bless the
world. Let our modern European and
American cities listen to the voice of
those ancient cities resurrected, and
by hammer and chisel and crowbar
be compelled to speak
VOICES FROM THE PAST.
I notice the voice of those ancient
cities is hoarse from the exposure OF
forty centuries, and they accentuate
slowly with lips that were palsied for
ages, but all together those cities along
the Nile intone these words Hear Us
for we are very old, and it is hard fol
us to speak. We were wise long before
Athens learned her first lesson. We
sailed our ships while yet navigation
was unborn These obelisks, these pyr.
amids. these fallen pillars, these wrecked
these colossi of black granite.
these wrecked sarcophagi under the
brow of the hills, tell you of what was
In grandeur and of what | am coming
down to be. We sinned and we fell. Oul
could not save us. See those
half obliterated hieroglyphics on yon.
der wall. Our architecture could moi
save us: See the painted columns OF
Phil8 and the shattered temple of Es.
neh. Our heroes could not save us:
Witness Menes, Diodorus, Rameses and
Ptolemy. Our gods Ammon and
Osiris could not save u.s. See THEN
fallen temples all along the four thou
sand miles of Nile. Oh, ye modern
cities, get some other Coda God who
can help, a God who can pardon, a
God who can save. Called up as we
are for little while to give testimony,
again the sands of the desert will bury
US. Ashes to ashes, dust to DUST" And |
as these voices of porphyry and granite
ceased, all the sarcophagi under the
nils responded, "Ashes to ashes!" and |
lhe capital of a lofty column fell grind
ng itself to powder under the rocks, |
md responding, Dust to Dust"
Strangers in the House of Commons
The number of strangers admitted to
he various galleries of the house of
commons in each session of the present
parliament appears, from the returns
granted to Mr.. Childers on July 81 last,
o have been, in the second session of
1856, 6,229, or a daily average of pol; |
n 1887, 81, 54S, or daily average of
'Q3; in 1888, 35, 033, or a daily average
If 219. i'm 1899 25 5S7 or a daiIv ayar
lge of 210; in 1890, 30, S17, or daily
Lverage of 238, and in 1891, 90, S32, or a
laily average of 1862.
The total number of sittings of the