Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-30
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINEs SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: THE Lesson Of the Pyra-
mids"


altar to the LORD in the midst of the land
of Egypt, and pillar at the border there
of to the Lord And it shall be for n s1gn
and for Uitness. Isaiah xix, 10. %.
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the great
pyramid at Gizeh, the chief pyramid Of
Egypt. The text speaks of pillar in Egypt
and this is the greatest pillar ever lifted |;
and the text says it is to be at the border of
the land, and this pyramid is at the border
of the land; and the text says it shall be for
a witness, and the object of this sermon is TO
tell what this pyramid witnesses. This ser
mon Is the first of a course Of sermons en-
titled From the Pyramids to the Acropolis.
or What | saw in Egypt and Greece Con-
firmatory of the Scriptures"
We had, on a morning OF December, 1889.
landed in Africa Amid the bowling boat
men at Alexandria we had come ashore and
taken the rail train at Cairo, Egypt, along
the banks of the most thoroughly harnessed
river of all the world the river Nile. We
had at eventide entered the city of Cairo, the
city where Christ dwelt while staying in
Egypt during the Herodic persecution. It
was our first night in Egypt No destroying
angel sweeping through as once, but all the
stars were out. and the sky was filled with
angels OF b-auty and angels of light, and the
air was balmy an American June. The
next morning we were early awake and at
the window, looking upon the palm trees in
full glory OF LEAKAGE, and upon gardens of
fruits and flowers at the very season when
skies and the last leaf of the forest has gone
down in the equinOctials.
But now can l describe the thrill of ex-
pectatiOn. for to-day we are to see what all
the world has seen or wants to see-the
pyramids. We are mounted for an hour
and half's ride. We pass on amid bazaars
stuffed with rugs and carpets, and curious
fabrics of all sorts from Smyrna from AL
giers, from Persia, from Turkey, and through
streets where we meet people of all colors
and all garbs, carts loaded with garden pro-
auctions, priests In gowns, women in black
wells, Bedouins in long and seemingly super
fuous apparel, Janissaries in jacket of en-
broidered gold-out and on toward the great
pyramid, for though there are sixty-nine
pyrami IS still standing, the pyramid at GiZeh
Is the monarch of pyramids. We meet
camels granting under their leads and see
buffaoes on either side browsing in pasture
fields.
The road we travel is for part of the way
under clumps of acacia and by long rows of
sycamore and tamerisk, but after awhile it
Is path Of rock and sand, and we find we
have reached the margin of the desert, the
great Sahara desert, and we cry out to the
great dragOman as we see huge pile OF rock
looming in sight, ''Dragomau, what is that?'
His answer is, 1.-THE pyramid, " and then it
seemed as if we were living a century every
minute. Our thoughts and emotions were
too rapid and intense for utterance, and we
ride on in silence until re come to the foot
Oh the pyramid spoken Oh In the GexC, Cno
Oldest structure in all the earth-fOur thou
sand years old at least. Here it is. We stand
under the shadow OF a structure that shuts
out ali the earth and all the sky, and we look
up and strain our vision to appreciate the
distant top, and are overwhelmed while we
cry, The pyramid! The pyramidw
Each person in our party had two or three
guides or helpers. One o. them unrolled his
turban and tied it around my waist and he
held the other end of the turban as matter
of safety. Many of the blocks of stone are
four or five feet high and beyond any ordln-
airy human stride unless assisted. But, two
Arabs to pull and two Arabs to push, found
myself rapidly ascending from helghth to
heighth. and on to attitudes terrific, and at
last at the tptop we found ourselves on level
space Of about thirty feet square. Through
ciearest atmosphere we looked off upon the
desert, and off upon the winding Me, and
off upon the Sphinx, with its features OF
everlasting stone, and yOnder upon the min
aretS Of Cairo giUtering i'll the sun, and yon-
der upon Memphis in ruins, and OFT upon the
wreck of empires and the battlefields OF ages
radius of view enough to fill the mind and
shock the nerves and overwhelm ones entire
being.
After looking around for awhile, and a
koiak had pictured the group, we descended.
The descent more trying than the
ascent for climbing you need not see the
depths beneath but coming down it was I'M
possible not to see the abySms below. But
Two ARABS dnoau 10 u6lp uO"u, Stu0 C"O
Arabs to hold us back, we were lowered,
hand below hand, until the ground was in
willingly near, and amid the jargon OF the
Arabs we were safely landed. Then came
one of the most wonderful feats of daring
and agility. One of the Arabs solicited
dollar, saying he would run up and down
the pyramid in seven minutes. We would
rather have given him dollar not to go,
but this ascent and descent in seven minutes
he was determined on, and SO by the watch
in seven minut. he went to the top and was
back again at TIC base. 1t was bloodcur-
ding spectacle.
said the dominant color OF the pyramid
was gray, but in certain lights it seems to
shake off the gray OF centuries and become
q blond, and the silver turns to the golden.
it covers thirteen acres OF ground. What
an antiquity! 1t was at least two thousand
years Old when the baby Christ was carried
within sight Of it by His fugitive parents,
turtles have drenched it. bombarded it.
Swallowed 1t, flashed upon it, but there it
stands ready to take another forty CEN
turtles of atmospheric attack IL the world
should continue to exist. The oldest build
1ngs of the earth are juniors to this great
senior of the centuries.
Herodotus says that for ten years prepa-
rations were being made for the building of
this pyramid. It has eighty-two million
one hundred and eleven thousand cubic feet
of masonry. One hundred thousand workmen
at one time toiled in its erection. To bring the
stone from the quarries a causeway sixty
feet wide was built. The top stones were
lifted by machinery such as the world
knows nothing OF to-day. It is seven hun.
dred and forty-six feet each side of the
square base. The structure is four hundred
and fifty feet high; higher than the cathe-
drals of Cologne, Strasburg, Rouen. St.
Peters and ST. PauPs. No surprise to me
that it was put at the head OF the seven Won