The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-10-23

l.
menced series of sermons at Brook |
Ign on his eastern tour entitled: ''From /
the Pyramids to the Acropoiis, or What /
! saw in Egypt and Greece COnfrma-
tory of the Scriptures" His text was |
Isaiah xix. 1920: in that day shall /
there be an altar to the Lord in the |
midst of the land of Egypt and pillar !
at the border thereof to the Lord. And |
it shall be for a sign and for a witness" /
DR.. Talmage said:
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the |
great 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 witness, and the object of this
sermon is to tell what this pyramid wit
nesses.
We had on morning in December,
1889, landed in Africa. Amid the
bowling bOatmen at Alexandria we
had come ashore and taken the rail
train for Cairo, Egypt. along the bank
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
HeTodic persecution The next morn
ing we were early awake and at the
To-
glory of LEAKAGE, and upon the gardens
of fruits and flowers at the very sea
son when our homes far away are
canopied by bleak skies and the last
leaf of the forest has gone down in the
equinoctials
But how can describe the thrill of
expectation, 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 halFs ride. We pass
on amid bazaars stuffed with rugs and
carpets, and curious fabrics of all sorts
from Smyrna, from Algiers, from Per-
STA, from Turkey, and through streets
where we meet people of all colOrs aud
all garbs,. carts loaded with garden
productions, priests in gowns, women
in black wells, BedOuins in seemingly
superfious apparel, Janissaries in jacket
of embroidered go1d-out and on
toward the great pyramid; for though
there are sixty-nine pyramids still
standing, the pyramid of Gizeh
road we travel is for part
of the way under clumps of
acacia, and by long rows of sycamore
and tamerislr, but after while it is a
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 dragoman as we see a huge
man, what is that?" His answer is:
q 1.-The pyramid, " and then it seemed as
if we were living a century every min
ute Our thoughts and emotions were
too rapid and intense for utterance.
and we ride on in silence until we
come to the foot OF the pyramid spoken
of in the text, the oldest structure in
all the earth, 4, 200 years old at least
had started that morning with the
determination of ascending the pyra-
mid One of my chief objects in going
to Egypt was not only to see the base
of that granite wonder, but to stand
on top of it Yet the nearer came to
the eternity of stone the more my de-
termination was shaken Its altitude
to me was simply APPALLING. AS we dis
mounted at the base OF the pyramid I
said: 'Others may go up it, but not 1.
1 will satisfy myself with a view from
the base. The ascent of it would be to
me a fOolhardy undertaking" But
after I had given up all idea of ascend
ing found my daughter was deter
mined to go, and I could not let her go
with strangers and I changed my mind
and we started with guides. It can
not be done without these helpers.
Each person in our party had
two or three guides or helpers.
One of them unrolled his turban and
tied it around my waist, and he held
the other end of the turban as a mat
ter of safety. Many of the blocks OF
stone are four or five feet high and be-
yond any human stride unless assisted.
But two Arabs to pull and two Arabs
to push, I found myself rapidly as
cending from height to height, and on
to attitudes terrific, and at last at the
tip top we found ourselves on q ieve
space OF about thirty feet square
Through clesrest atmosphere we
looked off upon the desert and of
q upon the winding Nile, and off UpOT
the Sphinx with its features of ever
lasting stOieity, and yonder upon the
ninarets of Cairo glittering ia the sun
and yonder upon Memphis in ruins
and off upon the wreck Of empires anC
the battle of ages. q radius o.
view enough to ill the mind and shock
the nerves and OtherwheIm ones en-
tire being.
After looking around for a while
and a lSOdacls had pictured the group
we descended The descent was NOR
3 trying than the ascent for climbing
you need not see the depths beneath
but coming down 1t was impossible no
TO see the abysTns below. But tvv,
Arabs ahead to help us down, and TIVE
Arabs to hold MS back, we were low
cred, hand below hand, until tn
ground was fnvitingly near, and ami,
the jargon of the Arabs We were safely
landed.
7 said the dominant color of tn,
pyramid was gray but in certain light
it seemed to shake off the gray o
centuries and become a blonde and tbs
silver turns tC the golden It cover
thirteen acres of ground. What al
antiquity It was at least 9, 600 year
old when the baby Christ was carries
within sight of it by His fugitiv
parents, Joseph and Mary. TIL
storms OF forty centuries have drenche'
it BON arded it, shsdowed it, Aashei
upon it. but there it stands ready Z
take another forty centuries OF atmos
pherie attack if the world should cor
tiuue to exist The Oldest buildings o.
earth are juniors 20 this great senior Q
centuries Hercdotus says that 70
ten years preparations were bein
made for the building OF this pyramid
1t has So, III. 600 cubic feet OF masonry
One hundred thousand worlcmen toile
at one time 10 its erection The to
stones We're lifted by machinery sue
as the world knows nothing of tl-da