Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-11-05
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMAeE's SECOND SERMON ON
HIS OLD WORLD JOURNEYS.

his OLD WOhlO JOURNEYS.
He FINDS Conformation of the Truth of
the Scriptures In the Testimony of the
Cities aud Rivers and Places Of Long
Ago.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 25.-The rendering Of
the First Sonata in Minor, by Guilmant,
on the great organ of the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle this morning, by Professor Henry
Eyre Browne, the organist, held the vast
congregation spellbound with profound
emotion. DR.. Talmage preached on sail
I ing Up the Nile" the second sermon Of the
series entitled From the Pyramids to the
Acropolis; or, What | Saw in Egypt and
Greece ConfirmatOry of the Scriptures"
His text WAS Ezekiel xxx, 8, "The River
| Is Mine and Have Made It,"
Ahal This is the River Nile A brown
or yellow or silver cord on which are hung
more jewels of thrilling interest than on
any river that was ever twisted in the sun.
shine 1t ripples through the book of Eze-
kiel, and flashes in the books of Deuteron-
| omy and Isaiah and Zecharia and Ma
hum, and on its banks stood the mighties
!
Moses, and on its banks Mary, the refugee,
carried the infant Jesus. To find the birth
place of this river was the fascination and
defeat of expeditions without number
Not many years ago Bayard Taylor, our
great American traveller, wrote, "Since
Columbus first looked upon San Salvador
the earth has but one emotion of triumph
left for her bestowal, and that she reserves
for him who shall first drink from the
fountains of the White Nile under the snow
fields of Kilima-Njaro." But the discovery
of the sources of the Nile by most people
was considered an impossibility. The ma
larias, the wild beasts, the savages, the un.
climbable sleeps, the vast distances,
stopped all the expeditions for ages.
An intelligent native said to Sir Samuel
W. Baker and wife as they were on their
way to accomplish that in which others
had failed: "Give up the mad scheme of
the Nile source. How would it be possible
for lady young and delicate to endure
what would kill the strongest man2 Give
it up" But the work went on until Speke
and Grant and Baker found the two lakes
which are the source of what was called
the White Nile, and baptized these two
lakes with the names of Victoria and AL
bert. These two lakes, filled by great rain
falls and by accumulated SHOWS from the
mountains, pour their waters, laden with
agricultural wealth such as blesses no other
river, on down over the cataracts, on be-
tween frowning mountains, on between
cities living and cities dead, on for four
thousand miles and through continent.
But the White Nile would do little for
| nn ,Nr
banks and Egypt would remain a desert.
But from Abyssinia there comes what is
called the Blue Nile, which, though dry or
nearly dry half the year, under tremendous
rains about the middle of June rises to
great momentum, and this Blue Nile
dashes with sudden influx into the White
Nile, which in consequence rises thirty
feet and their combined waters inundate
Egypt with a rich soil which drops on all
the fields and gardens as it is conducted
by bitches and sluices and canals every
whittier.
The greatest damage that ever came tc
Egypt came by the drying up of the River
Nile, and the greatest blessing by its
healthful and abundant flow. The famine
In Joseph's time came from the lack of suf
ficient inundation from the Nile Not
enough Nile is drought; too much Nile il
freshet and plague. The rivers of the earth
are the mothers of its prosperity. If by
some cOnvulsion of nature the Mississippi
should be taken from North America, Of
the Amazon from South America, or tn,
Danube from Europe or the Yenisei from
Asia-what hemisphere calamity Still
there are other rivers that could fertiliz
and save these cNrntries.
Our own {. ..Dent is gulched, is rib
boned, is glori.,rl by innumerable wate
courses But Lgypt has only one grea
J river, and that is harnessed to draw al
the properties of realms in acreage semi
infinite. What happens to the Nile, hap
! pens to Egypt. The Nilometer was to nj
very suggestive as we went up and dowI
its damp stone steps and saw the pilla
marked with notches telling just hov
high or low are the waters of the Nile
When the Nile is rising four criers ever,
morning run through the city announc
ing how many feet the river has risen
ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet, twenty
; four feet-and when the right height o
water is reached the gates of the canal
are flung open and the liquid and refresh
ing benediction is pronounced on all tn
land.
! IT'S SEVEN MOUTHS CHANGED.
r AS we start where the Nile empties int
the Mediterranean sea, we behold won
derful fulfillment of prophecy. The Nil
! in very ancient times used to have sevel
9 mouths. AS the great river approaches
the sea it entered the sea at seven differen
, places. Isaiah prophesied, "The Lord shal
lap pfroy fho Tor Of ha EtrVn 10
sea and shall smite it in the seven streams
The fact is they are all destroyed but two
q and Herodotus said these two remainin
c are artificial. Up the Nile we shall &c
a part of the way by Egyptian rail train an
i then by boat, and we shall understan
why the Bible gives such prominence t
this river, which is the largest river of al
the earth with one exception.
But before we board the train we mus
take look at Alexandria. 1t was founde
by Alexander the Great, and was once th
New York, the Paris, the London of th
world. Temples, palaces, fountains, gal
dens, pillared and effiorescent with a
architectural and Edenic grandeur an
sweetness Apollos, the eloquent, whoI
In New Testament times some people trie
d to make a rival to Paul, lived her,
Here Mark, the author of the second boo
of the New Testament, expired unde
!" Nero's anathema. From here the shi
sailed that left Paul and the crew stru!
Cling in the breakers of Melita. Pompey
pillar is here, about one hundred feet higl
its base surrounded by SO much filth an
squalor / was glad to escape into an a
that was breathable. This tower was bui
= in honor of Diocletian for sparing the r
10 bellious citizens.
After having declared that he wou,
make the blood run to his horses knee
rs and his horse fell with him into the bloc
and his knees Redeemed, the tyrant took
@ for granted that was sign he should ste