Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-02

Aho bNTufh u AENHl' MS Text
BRooKLYN Nov. 1.-The Tabernacle was
thronged as usual this morning The vast
editice filled TO its utmost capacity with
eager listeners shows how the popular
preacher retains his power over the people.
Although he has been preaching in Brook
Ign for more than twenty four years, his
audiences were never SO large as now, and
although the largest Protestant church IN
America has been built for him, there never
was q time when 50 many persons were
turned away for lack Of room The sub
Ject OF this mornings sermon was Bricks
Without Straw" II continuation of the
series on the confirmation of Holy Scrip
ture which DR.. Talmage found in his jour.
ney from the Pyramids to the Acropolis
His text was Isaiah xix, l. "The burden Of
Egypt"
What is all this excitement about in the
streets OF Cairo, Egypt this December
morning In 1889? Stand backl We hear
loud voices and see the crowds of people
retreating TO the sides Of the street The
excitement of others becomes our own ex.
element Footmen come in sight. They
have rod in the hand and tYeseled 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
dignitary IN n chariot or carriage. They
are swift, and sometimes run thirty or
forty miles Mt a stretch in front of an equi.
page. Make wayl They are the feetest
footed men on EARTH but soon die, for the
human frame was not made for such en-.
durance.
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
found all up and down the Bible, footmen
running before the rulers, demanding
obeisancc, as in Genesis before Joseph's
chariot the people were commanded, "Bow
the knee" and rs see the swift feet Of
the men followed by the swift feet of the
horses, how those old words of jeremiah
rushed through my mind, "lf thou hast
run with the footmen and they have
wearied thee, how cnnst thou contend with
horsesp
HE SERVES rs A FooTMAN
Now, my hearers, in this course of ser
mons am only serving you as footman
and clearing the way for your coming into
the wonders of Egyptology, n subject that
would have you study far beyond any
thing that can be said in the brevity Of
pulpit tltterance. Two hundred and
eighty-nne 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 Eugland
England, the mother of our own land. Ac
cordlng to that, Egypt is our great-great.
grandmother.
On other Sabbaths left you studying
what they must have been in their glory
the Hypostyle hall of Karnac, the archi
tectural miracles at Luxor, the Colonnade
of Horemheb, the cemeteries of Memphis,
the value of II kingdom in one monument,
the Sphinx, which with lips of stone
speaks loud enough to be heard across the
centuries, lIeliopolis and Hoan, the conun.
drum of archBologists. But all that eX
travagance of palace and temple and mon
ument 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 Hebrew slaves, and their blood
mixed the mortar for the trowels.
We saw again and again on and along
the Nile a boss workman roughly smite n
subordinate WHO did not please him 1t is
no rare occurrence to see long lines of men
under heavy burdens passing by tasllmas.
tiers at short distances, lashing them as
they go by into greater speed, and then
these workmen, exhausted with the blast
ing heats of the day, lying down upon the
bare ground, suddenly chilled with the
night air, crying out in prayer: "Ya,
Allah" "Ya, Allah! which means OF
God o God But what must have been
the olden times cruelty shown by tho
Egyptians toward their Israelitsh slaves
is indicated by n picture in the Benz
Hassan tombs, where Il man is held down
on his face by two men and another holds
up the victim feet while the officials beat
the bare back of the victim, every stroke,
! have no doubt, fetching the blood.
HOW THEY COULD AFFORD IT.
Now you see how the Pharaohs could af-
ford to build such costly works. 1t cost
them nothing for wages-nothing but the
tears and blood of the toiIers, and tears and
blood are Rcheap drink fordevils. Bricks
without straw" may not suggest so much
hardship until you know that the bricks
were usually made with Crushed straw,
straw crushed by the feet of the oxen in
the thrashinG, and, this crushed straw de.
MED to the worlmen, they had to pick mp
here and there II piece of stubbie or gather
rushes from the watersido 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 OF brick made out Of
rough stray or PUSHES from the river
bank, the truth of the Book of Exodus
thus written in the brick walls discovered
by the modern explorers
That governmental outrage has always
been characteristic Of Egyptian rulers
Taxation to the point of starvation was the
Egyptian rule in the Bible times rs we'll as
it is in our own time. \ modern traveller
gives the figures concerning the cultlya-
ton of seventeen acres, the value Of the
yield of the field stated in piasters'
Produce, .....,............,,,.l,SG
Expenses. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 993ia
Clear produce ,,.,.......,,.,,,.,,..,.,.. eoS'a
Taxes, '.....''''''....'.''''': Avs
Amount cleared by the fnrmor......... 3l5la
Or, as my authority declares, seventy per
cent of what the Egyptian farmer makes
is paid for taxes to the government Now,
that is not so much taxation As assassina-
ton. What think you of THAT you who
oroan under heavy taxes in America? !
have heard that in Egypt the working
people have song like this, "lhey starve
us they starve us, they beat us, they beat
us; but there's some one above, there's
some one above who will punish them
well, who will punish them WE'LL But
seventy per cent. of government tax in
Egypt is mercy rs compared to what
the Hebrew slaves suffered there in Bible
times. They got nothing but food hardly
fit for dog, and their clothing was Of one
rag, and their roof burning sky by day
nnd tho sLnrs Of LnnNnn hN nIuhL