Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-10-30
REV, lori. IAIMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIyINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "THE LESSON OF THE PYRA
MIDS."

TEXT: I'm that day shall Tiers b. an
altar 10 the Lord in the midst of the land
of Egypt and a pillar at the border there
Of TO the Lord. And IL shall be for n sIgn
and for tUitness. Isaiah xix, 10. 30.
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the great
pyramid at Gizeh, the chief 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; aud the text says it shall be for
witness, and the object of this sermon is TO
tell what this pyramid witnesses. This SER
mon is the first of a course OF sermons eu-
titled, From the Pyramids TO the Acropolis
or What saw in Egypt and Greece Con.
frmatory Of the Scripture
We had, ON a morning Of December, 1889,
landed in Africa Amid the bowling boat
men at Alexandria we had come ashore and
taken the rail train at Cairo, Egypt, along
the banks 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 Herodic persecution. 1t
was our first night in Egypt. No destroying
angel sweeping through as once, but all the
stars were out, and the sky was filled with
ange!s Of beauty and angels Of light, and the
air was balmy as an American June. The
next morning we were early awate and at
the window, looking upon the palm trees in
full glory OF LEAKAGE, and upon gardens Of
fruits and flowers at 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 ex.
pectation. 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 aud carpets, aud curious
fabrics OF all sorts from Smyrna, from AL
giers, from Persia, from Turkey, and through
streets where we meet people Of all colors
and all garbS carts loaded with garden pro-
ductions priests in gowns women in black
wells, Bedouins in long and seemingly super
fiuous apparel, Janissaries in jacket Of en-
broidered gold--out and on toward the great
pyramid, for though there are dxty-nipe
pyramids still standing, the pyramid at Gizeh
Is the monarch of pyramids We meet
camels gruntng under their loads, and see
buffaoes on either side browsing in pasture
| fields.
The road we travel Is for part Of the way
under clumps Of acacia aud by long rows OF
| sycamore aud tamerisk, but after awhile it
/ Is 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
great dragoman as we see a huge pile OF rock
looming in sight ''Dragomap. what is thatf'
His answer is THE pyramid" and then 1t
seemed as If we were living a 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-four thou
! sand years old at least. Here IL is. We stand
under the shadow OF a structure that shuts
/ out all the earth aud all the sky, and we look
up and strain our vision to appreciate the
distant top, and are overwhelmed while we
/ cry, The Pyramid The pyramidr'
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 matter
( of safety. Many OF the blocks Of stone are
four or Ave feet high and beyond any ordn-
airy human stride unless assisted. But, two
Arabs to pull and two Arabs to push, found
myself rapidly ascending from heighth to
heiXhth, and on to attitudes terrific, and at
last at the tiptop we found ourselves on a level
space OF about thirty feet square. Through
clearest atmosphere we looked off upon the
desert, and off upon the winding Nile, and
of upon the Sphinx, with its features OF
everlasting stone, and yonder upon the miu-
srets Of Cairo glittering in the sun, and yon
der upon Memphis in ruins and off upon the
wreck Of empires and the battlehelds OF ages,
a radius Of view enough to fll tho mind and
shock the nerves and overwhelm ones entire
being.
After looking around for awhile, and a
kodak had pictured the group, we descended.
The descent was more trying than the
ascent, for climbing you need not see the
depths beneath, but coming down 1t was I'M
possible not to SEQ the abysms below. But
two Arabs ahead to help US down. and two
Arabs to hold US back, we were lowered,
hand below hand, until the ground was In
vitingly near, and amid the jsrgon OF the
Arabs we were safely landed. Then came
one Of the most wonderful feats Of daring
and agility. One OF the Arabs SOLICITED a
dollar, saying he would run up and down
the pyramid in seven minutes We would
rather have given him dollar not to go,
but this ascent and descent in seven minutes
he was determined on, and so by the watch
In seven minutes he went to the top and was
back again at the base 1t was a bloodcur-
ding spectacle.
| said the dominant color OF the pyramid
was gray, but in certain lights it seems to
shake of the gray of centuries and become
O blond, aud the silver turns TO the golden
1t covers thirteen acres of ground. What
an antiquity 1t was at least two thousand
years old when the baby Christ was carried
within sight Of it by His fugitive parents
Joseph and Mary. Thsstorms Of forty cen.
turtles have drenched Il, bombarded IL
shadowed IT. flashed Upon Il but there /
stands, ready to take another forty cen
turies Of atmospheric attack II the world
should continue to exist. The oldest build
ings of the earth ara juniors to this great
senior OF the centuries.
Herodotus says that for ten years prepa
rations were being made for the building oi
this pyramid. 1t has eighty-two million
one hundred and eleven thousand cubic fee
OF masonry. One hundred thousand workmer
atone time toiled in its erection. To bring tn,
stone from the quarrles n causeway sixty
feet wide was built. The top stones wer,
lifted by machinery such az the worlc
knows nothing of to-day. II is seven hun
dred and forty-six feet each side OF the
square base. The structure is four hundred
and fifty feet high; higher than the cathe
drals OF Cologne, Strasburg, Rouen st
Peters and st. Paurs No surpriss to me
that 1t was put at the head OF the seven Won
ders OF the world. 1t has subtarraneou,
room OF red granite called the "xing's cham
Der" and another room called the 'uueen's
chamber, and the probability is that there
are other rooms yet unexplored.
The evident design OF the architect was tc
make these rooms as inaccessible as possible.
After all the work OF exploration and all the
digging and blasting, If you would entel
these subterraneous rooms, you must u
through n passage only three feet eleven
inches high and less than four feet wide. A
sarcophagus OF red granite stands down un
der this mountain of masonry. Tht
sarcophagus could not have been carried ii
arter the pyramid was built. 1t must have
been put there before the structure wal
reared. Probably in that sarcophagus once
lay a wooden coffin containing dead king
but time has destroyed the coffin and de
stroyed the last vestige Of human remains,
For three thousand years this sepuchral
room was unopened, and would have beer
until to-day probably unopened had not ,
superstitious impression got abroad that tn
heart OF the pyramid was filed with silve
and gold and diamonds, and under A
Mamoun an excavating party went TO work
and having hored md hlasted th rnuoh q hun