Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1891-10-28
THE PYRAMIDS.
The Gospel of the Colossal ssrve.
lures
| A Road ny Dr. Taimags In Egypt-The
Finest Monuments Over People
Who Amount to Nothing.

A Read ny Dr. Taimage IN Egypt-Ths
Einest Monuments Over People
Who Amount to Nothing.
The subject of DR. Talmage' s discourse
Sunday was titled: Prom tho Pyra-
mids to the Acropolis. or what 1 saw in
Egypt and Greece Confirmatory OF the
Scriptures" His text was Isaiah xix:
10. 20: I'm 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 q sign and for n witness"
Isaiah no doubt refers to the great
pyramid at Gizah, the chief pyramid of
Egypt. The text speaks of pillar in
Egypt, and this is the greatest pillar
ever lifted; and the text says il is to be
ut the border of the land. and this pyr-
amid is Mt the border of the land; and
the text says il shall be for witness.
and the object of this sermon is To tell
what this pyramid witnesses.
We had on n morning of December.
1889, landed in Africa. Amid the howl
ing boatmen mt Alexandria we had
come ashore and taken the rail train
for Cairo, Egypt, along the banks of
the most thoroughly hnrnessed river of
nll the world-the river Nile. We had,
mt even-tide. entered the city of Cairo.
the city where Christ dwelt while stay
ing in Egypt during the Hcrodic perse-
cution. 1t was our first night in Egypt.
No destroying angel sweeping through
as once, but all the stars were out and
the skies were filled with angels of
beauty and angels of light and the air
was balmy As AN American June. The
next morning we were early awake and
at the window, looking upon palm trees
in full glory of LEAKAGE and upon gar
dens of fruits and flowers mt the very
season 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 sce-the Pyramids We are mounted
for an hour and halls ride. We pass
on amid bazars 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 and
auctions, priests in gowns, women in
black wells, Bedouins in long and seem
ingly superfluous apparel, Janissarics
in jacket of embroidered gold-out and
on toward the. great pyramid; for
though there are sixty nine pyramids
still standing, the pyramid of Gizah is
the monarch of pyramids. We meet
camels grunting under their load, and
see buffaloes on either side, browsing in
pasture fields. Tho road we travel
is for part of the way under clumps OF
acacia. and by long rows of sycamore
and tamarisk, but after awhile il 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 MS we see huge pile
OF rock looming in sight: "Dragoman,
what is that?" His answer is The
pyramid" and then il seemed rs IL we
were living n century every minute.
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. 900 years old ut least Here it
is We stand under the shadow of n
structure that shuts out all the earth
and all the sky, and we look up and
strain our vision to appreciate the dis
tant top, and are overwhelmed while
we cry THE pyramid! The pyramidr'
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 granatic wonder. but to stand
on the top of it. Yet the nearer / came
to this eternity in stone. the more my
determination was shaken. It's alti-
tude to me was simply appalling A
great height has always been to me a
most disagreeablc sensation. As we
dismounted ut the base OF the pyramid
said: Others may go up 10. but not !.
j will satisfy myself with view from
the base. The ascent OF il would be to
me n foolhardy undertaking." But after
had given up all idea OF ascending, /
found my daughter was determined to go
and could not let her go with strangers,
and changed my mind and we started
with guides IL can not be done with
out these helpers Two or three times
foolhardy men have attempted il alone
but their bodies came tumhling down
unacceptable and lifeless. Each person
in our party had two or three guides or
helpers. One of them unrollcd his turban
and tied il around my waist and he held
the other end Of the turban as n matter
of safety. Many of the blocks of stone
are four or five feet high and beyond
any ordinary human stride unless as
sisted. But, two Arabs 90 pull and
two Arabs to- push, found myself rap
idly ascending from height 20 height
and on to attitudes terrific. and.
at last, on the tip top, we found
ourselves on n level space about
thirty feet square. Through clearest
atmosphere we looked Oft upon the des-
ert, and off upon the winding Nile, and
off upon the Sphinx, with its features
OF everlasting stone. and yondcr upon
the minarets OF Cairo. glitteriug In the
sun, and yonder upon Memphis in
ruins, and Off upon the wreck OF empires
and the battle fields OF ages, n radius
OF view enough 90 fill the mind and
shock tho nerves and overwhelm ones
entire being.
After looking around for awhile, and
n kodak had pictured tho group we de-
Irsa. .Ns.sN -. Il.