The Globe-republican., 1891-11-19
The Tabernacle Pulpit,

The Tabernacle Pulpit
The subject of this mornings sermon
was Bricks Without Straw" a continue
ton of the series On the confirmation of
Holy Scripture which DR.. Talmage
found in his journey from the Pyramids
to the Acropolis His text was Isaiah
xix. 1. ''The burden 0f Egypt"
What is all this excitement about in
the streets of Cairo. Egypt. this Deem
Der morning in 1889? Stand back! We
hear loud voices and see the crowds of
people retreating to the sides of the
street The excitement of others be-
comes our own excitement Footmen
come in sight. They have rod in the
hand and tasseled 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 dig
nitary in chariot or carriage. They
are swift and sometimes run thirty or
forty miles at q stretch in front Of an
equipage- Make way! They are the
fleetest footed men on earth, but soon
die, Tor the human frame was not made
for such endurance.
Now, my hearers, in this course Of
sermons am only serving you as foot
man, and clearing the way for your
coming into the wonders of Egyptology,
subject that l would have you study
far beyond anything that can be said
in the brevity of pulpit utterance. Two
hundred and eighty-nine 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 England; England,
the mother of our own land. Accord
ing to that. Egypt is our greatest
grandmother
On other Sabbaths l left you studying
what they must have been in their glory;
the Hypostyle Hall of Karnac, the archi-
tectural miracles at Luxor, the Colon
made of HOremheb, the cemeteries Of
Memphis, the value of a kingdom in one
monument, the Sphinx, which with lips
of stone speaks loud enough to be heard
across the centuries, HeliOpOlis and ZOan,
the cOnundrum of psychologists. But all
that extravaganza of palace and temple
and monument was the cause of an OPP
preston high as Heaven and deep as
hell. The weight of those blocks Of
stone, heavier than any modern ma
chinery 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 boss workman roughly smite
a subordinate who did not please him.
1t is no rare occurrence to see long lines
of men under heavy burdens passing by
taSkmaSterS at short distances, flashing
them as they go by into greater speed,
and then these wOrkmen, exhausted with
the blasting heats of the day. lying down
upon the bare ground, suddenly chilled
with night air, CRYING out in prayer:
IVA, Allah!" IVA. Allah!' which means
o God! o God! But what must have
been the Olden times cruelty shown by
the Egyptians toward their Israelltish
slaves is indicated by picture in the
Beni-HaZZan tombs, where a man % held
down on his face by two men and an
other holds Up the victims feet while
the officials beat the bare back of the
victim. every stroke, l have no doubt,
fetching the blood.
Now you see how the Pharaohs could
afford to build such costly works. 1t
cost them nothing for wages, nothing
but the tears and blood of the toilers,
and tears and blood are a cheap drink
for devils. 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,
ard, this crushed straw denied to the
workmen, they had to pick up here and
there a piece of Stubble or gather
ruShes from the waterSide. 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 straw or rushes
from the river bank, the truth of the
book of Exodus thus written in the
brick walls discovered by the modern
explorers.
That Government outrage has always
been a characteristic of Egyptian rulers.
Taxation to the point Of starvation was
the Egyptian rule in the Bible times as
well as in our own time. A modern
traveller gives the figures concerning the
cultivation OF seventeen acres, the value
OF the yield of the gold stated in pias-
tres:
froduce -.....-.-.-------.-. 1,sG2
Clear produce. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Scs,s
Amount cleared by the farmer. .. 3I5Ia
Or, as my authority declares, 20 per
cent of what the Egyptian farmer
makes is paid for taxes to the Govern
mcnt- Now, that is not so much taxa
ton as assassination. What think you
of that, those who groan under heavy