St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1891-12-12
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
EHE DROOgLN DIVINEg sUNnAs
SERMON.
Subject Sailing Up the Nile.'

TEXT: '7he River Is Mine and I Har
Made f."-EzaSe XXX, 9.
Aha! This Is the River Nile A brown O.
yellow or silver cord on which ara hun.
more jewels Of thrilling interest than on any
| llVer that was ever twistc III the sunshine
| 1t rlppteS through the book Of Ezekiel an.
| flashes in the books of Deuteronomy an
isaiah and Iecharia AMI Nahum, and on it:
banks stood the mighties OF many ages. il
was the crystal cradle of Moses, and on it
hanAS, Mary, the rafu gee, carried the Infant
Jesus. 10 lind the birthplace of this rivel
was the fascination and defeat of expedi.
| tons without number.
Not many years ago Bayard Taylor, olll
! 81 eat American traveller, wrote, ".Siuca Co
| lumbus first looked upon San Salvador, the
| earth has but one emotion OF triumph left
LOT her bestowal, and that she reserves for
him who shall first drink from the fountains
or the W hlte Nile under the snow fields OF
| hlllma-Njaro.n But the discovery of the
| sources OF the Nile by most people was con.
sldered On lmpos:ibillty. The malarias, the
VIA beasts, the savages, the unclimabe
Sleeps, the vast distances, stopped all the ex.
petitions for a2es
An intelligent native said to Sir SAMUEL
w. BAKER and wife as they were on their
way to accomplish that in which others had
! tailed: Give I'D the mad scheme of the Nile
a
young and delicate to endure what woul.i
XII the strongest man? Give it up" But
me Work Went Oh until Spoke and Grant and
BAKER lound the two lakes which are the
source OF what was called the White Nile,
ana baptized shese two lakes with the names
OF Victoria and Albert. These two lakes,
hlied by great rainfalls and by accumulated
SHOWS from the mountains, pour their
waters, laden with agricultural wealth such
as DieSS1S no of her river IN Hnyvi, ba
cataracts, on between trowning mountains
on between cities living and cities dead, on
Tor four thousand miles aud through con-
tinent.
But the White Nile would do little for
Egypt II this were all. 1t would keep its
banks and Egypt would remain desert.
But from Abyssinia there comes what is
called the Blue Nile, which, though dry Or
nearly dry half the year. under tremendous
rams 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 com.
bined waters inundate Egypt with rich soil
which drops on all the fields and gardens as
tbs conducted by bitches and sluices and
canals every whittier.
The greatest damage that ever came to
Egypt came by the drying up of the River
Nile, and the greatest blessing by its health
1ul and abundant flow. The famine in 10.
senh's time came from the lack OF sufficient
lnundatiOn from the Nile. Not enough Nile
Is drought; too much Nile is freshet and
plaque The rivers OF the earth are the
mothers OF its prosperity. IT by some con-
vuSion OF nature the Mississippi should be
taken from North America, or the Amazon
from South America, or the Danube from
Europe, or tire Yenisei from Asia-what
hemisphere calamity. Still, there are other
rivers that could tertiliZe and save thess
countries
As we start where the Nile empties into
the Mediterranean Sea, We behold a Won
GerGuj fulillment of prophecy. The Nile in
Very ancient times used to have seven
mouths. AS the great river approached the
sea at seven different places. Isaiah prophe-
s:ed, THE Lord shall utterly destroy the
tongue of the Egyptian sea and shall smite
it in the seven streams" The fact is they are
all destroyed but two and HerodotuS said
these two remaining ara artificial. Up the
Nile we shall go; part of the way by
Egyptian rail train and then by boat, and
we snail understand why the Bible gives such
prominence to rhlsrlver, which is the largest
river OF all the earth with one exception.
But before we board the train we must
take lock at Alexandria, 1t was founded
by Alexander the Great, ana was once the
New YORK, the Paris, the London of the
world. Temples, palaces, fountains, gar
dens pillared and effiorescent with all archi-
tectural and Edenic grandeur and sweetness.
Apollos, the eloquent, whom in the New
Testament times some people tried to make
q rival to St. Paul lived here. Here Mark,
the author of the second book of the New
Testament, expired under Nero's anatnema.
From here the ship sailed that left Paul and
the crew struggling in the breakers of
Melita. Pompey's pillar is here, about one
hundred feet nigh, its base surrounded 10y so
much filth and squalor | was glad to escape
into an air that was breathable.
But Alexandria, fascinating for this or
that thing, according to the taste Of the Wis
ltor, was to me most entertaining because it
had been the site Of the greatest library
that the world ever saw, considering the
fact that the art of printing had not been
invented. Seven hundred thousand volumes
and all the WORK OF slow pen. But down
it all went under the torch of beseigers.
Built again and destroyed again. Built
again, but the Arabs came along for its
final demolition and the four thousand baths
of the city were heated with those volumes,
the fuel lasting six months, and were ever
fires klntiled at such fearful cost? What
holocausts of the worlds literature! What
of books. How many of them
have gone down under the rage Of nations.
Only one book has been able to withstand
the Commandment, and that has gone through
without smell Of fire on it's Tide. No sword
OF spear or musket for its defense. An un.
armed New Testament. An unarmei Old
Testament. Yet invulnerable AMI tri-
nmphant. There must be something supeH-
natural about it. Conqueror of boohs
Monarch of books! All the books of all the
ages in all the libraries outshone by this one
book which you and [ carry to church in I
pocket. So methought amid the ashes of
libraries.
But all aboard the Egyptian rail train
going up the banks Of the Nile Look out
If the window and sea those canlels kneelng
or the imposition Of their load. And | |
hink we might take from them a lesson,
md, instead of trying to stand upright in |
'ur own strength, become conscious Of our |
weakness and need of divine help before we |
AXE upon us the heavy duties Of the year Or !
he week or the day, and so knsel for the |
BURDEN. We meet PROFESSIONS of men and |
Beasts on the way from their days work, |
tut alas, for the homes to which the poor |
inhabitants are going, for the most part |
ovels of mud. But there is something in |
he scene that thoroughly enlists us. 1t is |
he novelty of wretc1edness and a scene of |
picturesque rags. For thousands o. years |
his land has been under very damnation |
0 taxes. Nothing but Christian civilization
7ill roll back the influences which ara
spelling the Egyptians" There are gar
ems and palaces, but they belong to the
ulers.
This ride along the Nile is one of the most
olemn and impressive rides of all my life
me, and our emotions deepened as the cur
aims of the night fall upon all surround
lgs. But we snail not be satisfied until we
an take a ship and pass right out upon
lese wondrous waters and between the
anks crowned with the story Of empires.
According to the lead pencil mark in my
ible it was Thanksgiving day morning,
ovember 90, 1889, that with my family
nd friends we stepped aboard the steamer
n the Nile. The Mohammedan call to
rayers had been sounded by the priests. of
lat religion, the Muezzins, from the four
uudred mosques of Cairo as the cry went
1T: God is great. I bear witness that
lere is no God but God. I bear witness !
lat Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come
} prayers. Come to salvation. God is great.
here is no other but God. Prayers are bet