The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-10-29

pass rgnt out upon these wondroos
waters and between the banks crowded
with the story Of empires
According e. t!Ic lead pencil mark IN
my Bible II was Thanksgiving day
morning, Nov. %, 1889, that with my
family and friends we stepped aboard
the steamer on the Nile The Mohan-
medan call 10 prayers Ind been sound
sd by the pric3ts OF that religion. the |
Muez1ins, from the four hundred |
mosques Of Cairo rs the cry went out:
"God Is great bear witness that |
there Is no God but God. bear wit |
ness that Mohammed Is the apostle OF |
God. Come to prayers. Come to sal |
walton. God Is great. There Is no
other but God. Prayers are better than
sleep"
Tho sky and the palm groves and
river shipping were bathed In the light.
It was not much of craft that we
boarded. It would not be hailed on
any Of our rivers with any rapture of
admiration. II fortunately had but 1T
tie speed, for twice we ran aground
and the sailors jumped into the water
and on their shoulders pushed her out
But what yacht of gayest sportsman,
what deck Of swiftest ocean queen
could give such thrill Of rapture as a
sail on the Nile1 The pyramids In
sight, the remains Of cities that are now
only a name, the villages thronged
xuifh vNnvNY,Inkt0v% 10th han Id
with historical deeds of forty or sixty
centuries. Oh, what book the Bible
Is when read on the Nile!
As we slowly move up the majestic
river see on each bank the wheels,
the pumps, the buckets for irrigation,
and see a man with his foot on the
treadlo of wheel that fetches up the
water for a garden, and then for the
first time understand that passage In
Deuterono ny which says of the Israel
ties after they had got back from
Egypt, ''The land whittier thou goest
In to possess II Ia not as the land Of
Egypt from whence ye came out, where
thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst
It with thy foot"
Then l understood how the land
could DO 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 irrigated
by that river, and then read In Isaiah,
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" That Thanksgv-
ing morning on the Nile I found my
text Of today.
Pharaoh in this chapter Is compared
to tho dragon or hippopotamus sug-
gested by the crocodiles that used to
line the banks of this river: Thus
saith tho Lord God, Behold I am
ngainst thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
the great dragon that lieth in the midst
of his rivers, which hath said my river
Is mine own, ard have made 1t for
myself. But will put hooks In thy
Jaws and l will cause the fish of thy
rivers DO stick unto thy scales, and
will bring thee up out of the midst OF
thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers
shall stick unto thy scales, and the land
of Egypt shall be desolate and waste
and they shall know that I am the
Lord, because he hath said the river Is
mine and have made it."
AS IN BIBLE TIMES
While sailing on this river or stopping
at one of the villages we see people or
the banks who verify the Bible descrip
ton, for they are now rs they were Ii
Bible times. Shoes are now taken of
In reverence to sacred places. Chill
dren carried astride the mothers shout
der ar In Hagar's time. Women with
profusion Of 1ewelry as when Rebecc,
was afiRnced. Lentils shelled into tn
pottage, as when Esau sold his birth
right to get such q dish. The sam
habits of salutation as when Joseph Ont
his brvthren fell on each others necks
Courts of law held under big trees a
In olden times. People making brick
without straw, compelled by circum
stances to use stubble instead Of straw
Flying over or standing on the banks
as in Scripture days, are damingoes, q
preys, eagles, pelicans, herons, cuckoo
and bullfnches On all sides of thi
river sepulchers. Villages of sepulchers
Cities OF sepulchers. Nations Of sepul
cheers. And one Is tempted to call it q
empire Of tombs. I never saw such
place as Egypt is for graves. And nov
We understand the complaining sarcasr
Of the Israelites when they were on til
way from Egypt to Canaan, 'Becaus
there are no graves In Egypt hast tho
taken rs away to die In the wilderness
Down the river bank come the buffal
and the cattle or kline to drink, and
was the assessors Of these cattle the
inspired Pharaoh's dream of the lea
kline and the fat kline.
Here we disembark little while Il
Memphis, off from the Nile to the RICH
Memphis founded by the first king I
Egypt and for a long while the capita
A city OF marble and gold Home
the PhHfaohs. City nineteen miles In q
curnference. Vast colonnades throue
which imposing professions marche'
Hero stood the Temple Of the Sun,
self IN brflliancy a sun shone ON by a
other sun. Thebes In power over
thousand ons hundred years, or near
ten times As long as the United Stat
have existed. Here Is q recumbe1
statue seventy.fve feet long Bronz.
Eateways. A metropolis called 'tl
haven Of the blest" Here Joseph VI
prime minister. Here Pharaoh receive
Jacob. AL possible splendors we
built up into this royal city. Hose
Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah speak
1t es something wonderful.
Never did visit q city with such O
allied anticipate ms and never did II