Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-10-29
WHAT l SAW coNFlRMAToRY OF
THE Sculptures"

on His Observations In the Eastern
Lands The Wonderful Pyramid Of
Gizeh and the Lessons 1t Teaches.
BROOKLYN, Oct 1S.-The vast congrega-
tion at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morn
ing was delighted by an exquisite render
ing, by Professor Henry Eyre Browne, on
the new organ, of Denier's second sonata
In q. DR.. Talmage's sermon was the first
OF series he intends preaching on his
eastern tour, entitled, From the Pyramids
10 the Acropolis, or What Saw in Egypt
and Greece Confirmatory of the Scrip
lures" His text was Isaiah xix, 49, 2O
"In that day shall there be an altar to the
Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt,
and a pillar at the border thereof to the
Lord. And it shall be for sign and for a
! witness"
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the great
pyramid at Gizeh, the chief pyramid of
Egypt. The text speaks of a 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; and the text says it
shall be for witness, and the object of
this sermon is to tell what this pyramid
witnesses. This sermon is the first of
course of sermons entitled, ''From the
Pyramids to the Acropolis, or What Saw
in Egypt and Greece Confirmatory of the
! Scriptures"
| 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 for 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 per
secution. 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, look
ing upon palm trees in full glory of leaf
age, and upon gardens of fruits and flow
ers 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.
FIRST VIEW OF THE PYRAMID.
But how can | describe the thrill of ex-
pectation, for today we are to see what all
the world has seen or wants to see-the
pyramids. We are mounted for an hour
and half's ride. We pass on amid ba-
zaars stuffed with rugs and carpets, and
curious fabrics of all sorts from Smyrna,
from Alglers a'a Persia, from Turkey,
and through IS, cts where we meet people
of all colors / all garbs, carts loaded
with garden projections, priests in gowns
women in black wells, Bedouins in long
and seemingly superfuous apparel, Jams
saries in jacket of embroidered gold-out
and on toward the great pyramid, for
though there are sixty-nine pyramids still
standing, the pyramid at Gizeh is the mon
arch Of pyramids. Wemeet camels grunJ,
ing under their loads, and see butfaloes on
either side browsing in pasture fields
The road we travel is for part of the way
under clumps of acacia and by long rows
of sycamore and 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 dragoman as we see huge pile of rock
looming in sight, "Dragoman, what is
that~ His answer is, THE pyramid"
and then it seemed as if we were living
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 thousand years old at least.
Here it is. We stand under the shadow of
structure that shuts out all the earth
and 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 pyramidP'
had started that morning with the de-
termination of ascending the pyramid
One of nay chief objects in going to Egypt
was not only to see the base of that gra-
nttic wonder, but to stand on the top of it.
Yet the nearer came to this eternity in
stone the more my determination was
shaken. Its altitude to me was simply
appalling. A great height has always
been to me a most disagreeable sensation.
AS we disn9ounted at the base of the pyra-
mid, said: "Others may go up it, but not
/. l will satisfy myself with view from
the base The ascent of it would be to me
a foolharuy undertaking." But after |
had given up all idea of ascending, I found
my daughter was determined to go, and
could not let her go with strangers, and
changed my mind and we started with
guides. 1t cannot be done without these
helpers. Two or three times foolhardy men
have attempted it alone, but their bodies
came tumbling down, unrecognizable and
lifeless
Each person in our party had two or
three guides or helpers One of them un-
rolled his turban and tied it around my
waist and he held the other end of the tur-
ban as matter of safety. Many of the
blocks of stone are four or five feet high
and beyond any ordinary human stride un-
less assisted. But, two Arabs to pull and
two Arabs to push, found myself rapidly
ascending from height to height, 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 off
upon the Sphinx, with its features of ever
lasting stone, and yonder upon the min |
arets of Cairo glittering in the sun, and |
yonder upon Memphis in ruins, and off |
upon the wreck of empires and the battle
fields of ages, radius of view enough to
fill the mind and shock the nerves and
overwhelm ones entire being.
A STARTLING ARRAY OF FIGURES.
After looking around for awhile, and a
kodak had pictured the group, we de-
The descent was more trying
than the ascent, for climbing you need not
see the depths beneath, but coming down
It was impossible not to see the abysms be-
low. 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 invitingly near, and amid the
jargon of the Arabs we were safely landed.
Then came one of the most wonderful feats
ofsdiaiQg and agtlity.- One Of the Arabs