Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-10-23
GOSPEL OF PYRAMIDS.
DR. TALMAoE's DISCOURSE AT
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
The First OF Series of Sermons ON
His Eastern Tour--"uhat 4 Saw
I'm Egypt and Greece ConIirmatory
OF the scrlpture.o.

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 witness.
Isaiah no doubt mere refers TO the
great pyramid at Gi7eh. the chief
pyram d of Egypt. The text speaks
OF a ri lar ia Egypt, and this is the
grea G, t pillar ever LITE 1; and the
text says it is TO be at the border of
the land, and this pyramid is at the
border of the land; ana the text SAYS
il shall be for a witness. and the OBJ
j1ct of this sermon is TO tell what this
pyramid witnesses.
We had, on a morning OF December.
1859. landed in Africa. Amid the
bowling boatmen at Alexandria we
had come ashore and taken the rail-
train for Cairo, Egypt, along the
banks of the most thoroughly har-
messed river of all the w rld-the river
Nile. We had, at even-tide, entered
the city of Cairo, the city where
Christ dwelt win e staying in Egypt
during the Herodic persecution. 1t
was our first night in Egypt.
But how can / describe the thrill of
expecta ion, 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. Thou h
there are sixty-nine pyramids still
stan ing, the pyramid of Gizeh Is the
monarch of pyramids.
We stand under the shadow Of n
structure that shuts out all the earth
and the sky and we look up and
strain our vision to appreciate the dis
tant top, and are overwhelmed while
we cry 1.-The pyramid The Pyramid
-Four thousand years old at least.
had started chat morning with the
determination of ascending the pyra-
mid. One of my chief objects in going
to Egypt was not only to see the base
of that granite wonder, but to stand
on the top of it. Yet the nearer l
came to this eternity in stone the more
my determination was sh ken. Its
altitude to me was simply appalling.
A great height has always been to me
a most disagreeable sensation. AS we
dismounted at the base of the pyra-
mid said, "Others may go
/ satisfy myself with a view from
the base. The assent of it would be to
me a foolhardy undertaking. But
aibtk Il huo ANOh UP oiA AACh VI aoNChb-
ing, l found nv daughter was de-
termined to go, and 1 uld not let her
go with strangers, and / changed my
mind and we started with guides It
cannot be done without these helpers
Two or three times foolhar,iy men
have attempted it alone, but their
bodies came tum6ling down unre og-
nizable and lifeless Each person in
our party had two or three guides or
helpers. One of them unrolled his tur-
ban and tied it around my waist and
he held the other end of the tur-
ban as a matter of safety. Many
Of the blocks of stone are four
or five feet high and beyond any
ordinary human stride unless assisted.
But, two Arabs TO pull and two Arabs
to push, found myself rapidly ascend
ing from height To height aud on. to
attitudes terri fc, and AT last ut the tip
top we found ourselves on q leve-
space of about thirty feet square.
Through clearest atmosphere we
looked Off upon the desert. ana off
upon the winding Nile, and off upon
the Sphinx with its features OF ever
lasting stone. and yonder upon the
minarets of Cairo glittering in the sun,
and yonder upon Memphis in ruins,
and of UPON the wreck OF empires and
4 the battle-ields of ages, a radius of
view enough to fill the mind and shock
| the nerves and overwheIm ones entire
being.
After looking around for awhile, and
J kodack 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 it was impossible not
to see the abysms below. But two
Arabs ahead to help us down. and two
Arabs 10 hold ms back. we were low
cred, hand below hand, until the
ground was invitingly near. and amid
the jargon of the Arabs we were safe
ly landed. Then came one of the most
wonderful feats of daring and agility.
One of the Arabs solicited collar.
saying he would run up and down the
pyramids in seven minutes. We would
rather have gi, en- him a 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.
What an antiquity 1t was at least
1000 years old when the baby Chri t
WAS CdTTlcu WlJtlln SlBDb ol IL NY MS
fugitive parents. Joseph and Mary.
The storms of forty centuries have
drenched, bonn barded it, shadowed it.
flashed upon it, but there it stands
ready to take another forty centuries
of atmospheric attack il the world
should continue to exist The oldest
+ buildings of the earth are juniors to
this great senior of the centuries.
Herodotus says that for ten years pre-
partitions were being made for the
building of this pyramid 1t has
So, Ill, 900 cubic feet of masonry. One
hundred thousand workmen at one
time toiled in Its erection. TO bring
the stone from TIE quarrles a cause
way GO feet wide was built The top
stones were lifted by machinery such
as the world knows nothing of to- day.
1t Is s46 fe each side of the base.
The structure is $50 feet high, higher
than the cathedrals of Cologne. Stras-
burg, Rouen. st. Peters, and -
raul's No surprise 10 me that IL was
put at the head of the seven wonders of
the world.
wonder not that this mountain of
limestone and red granite has been
the fascination OF scholars, OF scientists,
of intelligent Christians in all ages.
Well, of what is this Cyclopean ma
sonry n sign aud witness? Among