Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-11-05
OF much of a craft that we boarded.

But what yacht of gayest sportsman, what
| deck OF swlftest ocean queen could give such
thrill OF rapture as sail on the Nile? The
/ pyramids in sight tho remains Of cities that
| are now only name, the villages thronged
with population. Both banks crowded with
historical deeds OF forty or sixty centuries.
Oh. what book the Bible is whea rad on
the Nilet
AS we slowly move up the majestic river
see on each bank the wheels, the pumps, the
buckets for irrigation, and see man with
his foot on thetreadle Of whee! that fetches
| up the water for garden and then for the
| first time understand that rassage in
-,ssssr assssss 32
| Deuteronomy which says OK the lsraelites
after they had got back from Egypt, ''The
land whittier thou goest in to possess it is not
as the land Of Egypt, from whence ye came
| out, where thou sowedst thv seed, and
wateredst it with thy foot" Then under
stood how the land could be watered with
the foot. How do you suppose l felt when
| on the deck of that steamer on the Nile
] looked off upon the canals and bitches and
sluices through which the fields are irri-
gated by that river, and then read in Isaiah
1.-THE burden Of Egypt-~the river shall be
wasted and dried up and they shall turn the
| rivers far away and the brooks Of defense
shall be emptied and dried up; and they
shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all
that make sluices and ponds for fish,"
| w ulo SAILING Oh UulS river OF stopping dD
| one OF the villages we see people on the
banks who verify the Bible description, for
they are now as they were in Bible times.
| Shoes are now taken off in reverence to
sacred places. Children carried astride the
mothers shoulder as in Hagar's time. Wo-
men with profusion OF jewelry as when Re
becca was affianced. Lentis sheled into the
pottage, as when Esau sold his birthright to
get such dish. The same habits Of saluta-
ton as when Joseph and his brethren fell on
each others necks. Courts of law held un-
der big trees as in olden times. People MAX
ing bricks without straw, compelled by
circumstances to use stubble instead of
straw
Flying over or standing on the banks as in
Scripture days are famingoes, ospreys,
eagles, pelicans, herons, cuckoos and bull
finches. On all sides of this river sepulchers.
Villages of sepulchers. Cities of sepulchers.
Nations Of sepulchers. And one is tempted
to call it an empire of tombs. never saw
such place as Egypt is for graves. AND
now we understand the complaining sarcasm
of the lsraelites when they were on the way
from Egypt to Canaan, Because there are
no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away
to die in the wilderness" Down the river
bank come the buffalo and the cattle Of kline
to drink. And it was the ancestors Of these
cattle that inspired Pharoah's dream of the
lean kline and the fat kline
Here we disembark little while for
Memphis, off the Nile to the right. Memphis
founded by the first king of Egypt and for a
long tina the capital A city Of marble and
gold. Home Of the Pharaohs City of nine
teen miles in circumference. Vast colon
nades through which imposing professions
marched. Here stood the Temple Of the
Sun. itself in brilliancy sun shone on by
another sun. Thebes in power over thou
sand and hundred years. or nearly ten times
as long as the United States have existed.
Here is a recumbsnt statue seventy-fve feet
long. Bronzed gateways. A metropolis
called ''the haven of the blsst." Hers
Joseph was prime minister Here Pharaoh
received Jacob. ALI possible splendors were
built up into this royal city. Hosea, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah ana Isaiah speak Of it as some
thing wonderful
Never did visit city with such exalted
anticipations, and never did my anticipa-
tions drop SO fat. Not pillar stands. Not
wall is unbroken Not foundation losses
in the sun. Even the ruins have been ruined
and all that remains are chips of marble.
small pieces OF fractured sculpture and spiin-
tered human bones. Here and there letter
OF some elaborate inscription, q toe or ear
of a statue that once stood in niche of palace
wall. Ezekiel prophesied its blotting out.
aud the prophecy has been fulfilled. .'Ride
o." Isaid to our party, 'tand don't wait for
me-" And as I stood there alone the city of
Memphis in the glory OF past centuries re-
turned. And heard the rush of her chart
OTIS, and the dash of her fountains, and the
conviviality of her palaces, and saw the
drunken MOBILES roll on the floors of mosaic,
while in startling contrast amid all the re-
galities of the place saw Pharaoh look up
into the face of aged rustic Jacob the shap-
herd. saying, How old art thouY'
But back to the Nile and on and up till you
reach Thebes, in Scripture called the City Of
No. Hundred gated Thebes. A quadran.
gular city four miles from limit to limit.
Four great temples two Of them Karnac
and Luxor once mountains Of exquisite
sculpture and gorgeous dreams solidifed in
stone. Statue of Rameses II, eight hundred
and eignty-seven tons in weight and seven
ty-ive feet high, but now fallen and scat
tered Walls abloom with the battlefelds of
centuries.
The surrounding hills of rock followed
into sepulchers on the wall of which are
chiseled in picture and hieroglyphics the
confirmation of Bible story in regard to the
treatment of the Israelites in Egypt so that,
as explorations go on with the work, the
walls Of these sepulchers become COM
mentaries of the Bible. the Scriptures
originally written upon parchment here cut
into everlasting stone. Thebes mighty and
dominant five hundred years. Then she went
down in fulallment of Ezekiel's prophecy
concerning the City of No, which was another
name for Thebes: 81 win execute Judgment
in No. will cut off the multitudes Of No."
Jeremiah also prophesied, Thus saith the
Lord, will punish the multitudes of No."
This city of Thebes and all the other dead
cities OF Egypt iterate and reiterate the
veracity of the Scriptures. telling the same
story which Moses and the prophets told.
Have you noticed how God kept back these
archaeological combinations Of the Bible un-
til our time, when the air is full of unbelief
about the truthfulness Of the dear old book?
He waited until the printing press had been
set up in its perfected shape, and the subma-
rine cable was laid, and the world was in
telligent enough to appreciate the testimony,
and then He resurrected the dead cities Of
the earth. and commanded them, saying:
open your long sealed lips and speak,
Memphis and Thebes is the Bible true@'
"Truer responds Memphis and Thebes.
Babylon, is the Book of Daniel truew
"True!v responds Babylon. Bruins of Pal
estine and Syria, is the New Testament
truer' ''Truep respond the ruins all the
way from Joppa to the Dead Sea and from
Jerusalem to Damascus.
What mercy that this testimony Of the
dead cities should come at a time when the
Bible is especially assailed. And this work
will go on until the veracity of the Scrip.
lures will be as certain to all sensible men
and women as that two and two makes four.
as that anasosceles triangle is one which has
two of its sides equal, as that the diameter
of a circle is a line drawn through the centre
and terminated by the circumference, as
certain ~ any ~ than, n icsl day1orsfrs ti<v,