Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-10-22
GOSPEL OF PYRAMIDS.
DR.. TALMACE'S DISCOURSE AT
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE
The First of Series of Sermons on
Isls Eastern 1our-"What 4 Saw
I'm Egypt aud Greece Coniirmatory
prtho Scriptures

sermon was the first Of series he in
tend, d reaching ON his eastern tour,
entitled What | saw In Egypt and
Greece contrmatory of the scriptures,
Hls text was Isaiah 10: 10, 20; I'm that
duy shall there be an altar to the Lord
In the midst of the land of Egypt and
n pillar AZ the border thereof TO the
ord. And il shall be for sign and
for II witness,
Isaiah no doubt mere refers To the
great pyramid ut Gizeh, the chief
pyramid of Egypt, The text speaks
OF pillar in Egypt, and this Is the
grea est pillar ever LITE |; md the
text says IL Is to be at the border of
the land, and this pyramid is ut the
border of the land; ana the text says
| IL shall be for witness and the OBJ
| ioct OF this sermon Is to tell what this
! pyramid witnesses,
We had, on n morning OF December,
| lisp, landed In Africa. Amid the
| bowling boatmen at Alexandria we
| had come ashore and taken the RAFT
train for Cairo, Egypt along tho
banks OF the most thoroughly hnr-
messed river of all the ", rld-the river
| Nile We had, Mt evon.tidc, entered
the city of Cairo, the city where
Christ dwclt win q staying In Egypt
during the llerodic persecution. IL
was our first night In Egypt,
But how can describe the thrill of
eNrccta ion for to-day we are To see
what all the world has seen or wants
TO tho pyramids Wearc mounted
for an hour and half ride, Thou h
there arc siNty-nino pyramids still
ktnn ing, the pyramid OF Gizeh Is the
monar, h of pyramids
We stand under the shadow OF u
ttru turc that shuts out all the earth
aud | the sky and W. look mp aud
strain our vision TO appreciate the dis
tunt top, and are overwhelmed while
we cry "fhe pyramid! The pyramid!
! our thousand years old ut least.
! had started that morning with the
do ermination of nscen ing tho pyra'
mid. One of my chief oh ects In going
to gypt was not only To see the base
of that granite wonder, but To stand
on the top of " Yet the nearer
came To this eternity In stone the more
nv determination was sh ken. It's
altitude to me was simply appalling.
A great height has always been To me
q most disagrccable sensation. As we
dismountcd at the base OF tho pyrn.
mid snid, "Othors may go
up It, but not |. will
satisfy myself with view from
the base. The as ent of IL would be 10
me foolherdy undertaking But
after had given up all idea of ascend.
ing, | found my daughter was de-
termined to go, and | 6 uld not let her
90 with strangers, and | changed my
mind and we started with guides II
cannot bo done without these helpers,
Two on three times foolhurdy men
have attempted IL alone, but their
bodies came tGmbling down unrc og-
nizablo and lifeless, Each person in
our party bad two or three guides or
helpers. One of them unrolled his tur-
ban and tied II around my waist and
he held tho other end OF the tur.
ban as a matter OF safety. Many
Of tho block, Of stone are four
or five feet high and beyond any
ordinary human stride unless assisted.
But, two Arabs to pull and two Arabs
to push, found myself rapidly ascend
ing from height To height aud on To
attitudes tcrr tic, and AZ last at the tip
top we found ourselves on u lcvo.
space OF about thirty feet square.
Through clearcsL atmosphere we
looked off upon the desert ana Off
upon the winding Nile, and of upon
tile sphinx with its features of ever
lasting st nc. and yonder upon the
minarrts of afro glittering in the sun,
and yonder upon Memphis IN ruins,
and oil uoon the wreck OF empires and
the battle .telds OF ages, n radius Of
view enough to fill the mind and shock
the nerves and oyerwheim ones entire
Icing.
After looking around for awhile, and
n kodacls Ia pictured the group. we
dcs ended. The descent was more
irving than the ascent, for climbing
Won need not see thc depths beneath,
but coming down IL was impossible not
Co see the nbysms below. But two
Ara rs ahead To help us down, and two
Arabs TO hold MS back, we were low
cred, hand below hand, until tho
ground was invitingly near, and amid
the largon OF the Arabs we were safe
ly landed. Then came one of the most
wonderful feats OF during and agility.
One OF the Arabs solicited II dollar,
saying he would run up and down the
pyramids in seven minutes We would
rather have ri en- him dollar not to
ro, but this ascent and descent in seven
minutes he was determined on and so
by the watch in scve minutes he went
To the top and was back again at the
base.
What an antiquity! IL was at least
900 years old when the baby Chri t
was carried within sight OF IL by his
iugitive parents, Joseph and Mary.
The storms of forty centuries have
drenched. bombarded it, Swallowed II.
flashed upon IL, but there 1T stands
ready to take another forty centuries
OF atmospheric attack IL the world
shol Id continue to exist. Tho oldest
buildings of the earth arc Juniors to
this great senior of the centuries.
Hcrodotus says that for ten years pre-
parations were being made for the
building of this pyramid. IL has
81, III 900 cubic feet of masonry. One
hundred thousand workmen at one
u ne toiled in Its erection. 10 bring
the stone from the quarrles a cause
way o feet wide was built. The top
stones were lifted by machinery such
as the world knows nothing OF to-day.
1t is 746 fe I each side OF the base.
The structure is 40 feet igh' higher