Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-10-29

"
One Hundredth century. The earthquake
that rocks this world to pieces will not
stop our influence for good or evil. You
modestly say, "That is true in regard 70
the great workers FOR good or evil, and Of
gigantic geniuses, Miltonian or Talluy
randian, hut not Of me, for live and work
on a small scale" My hearer, remember
that those who built the pyramids were
common workmen. Not one Of them
could lift one Of those great stones. It
took dozen Of them TO lift one stone. and
others Just welded trowel, clicking il on
the hard edge or smoothing the mortar be-
tween the layers. One hundred Thousand
men toiled on those sublime elevations.
II one Of those granite blocks that Just
touch with my feet on this December
morning in 1889 as the two Arabs pull me
and the two other Arabs push me, could
speak out and tell its history it would say:
''The place of my nativity was down in the
great stone quarry of MOkattam or As.
swan. Then they began to bore at my
sides, and then to drive down great iron
wedges, crushing against me till the whole
quarry quaked and thundered. Then ]
was pried out with crowbars and levers,
scores of men putting their weight on the
leverage. Then chains were put around
me and | was hoisted with wheels that
groaned under the weight, and many
workmen had their hands on the cranks
and turned until the muscles on their arms
stood out in ridges, and the sweat rolled
from their dusky foreheads,
"Then was drawn by long teams ofoxen,
yoke after yoke, yoke after yoke. Then
was put on an inclined plane and hauled
upward and how many iron tools, and how
many human arms, and how many beasts
of burden were employed to get me to this
place no one can tell Then | had to be
and squared and compassed
and fitted in before / was left here to do
my silent work of thousands of years. God
only knows how many hands were busted
in getting me from my geological cradle in
the quarry to this enthronement of innu-
merable ages" Ny hearers, that is the
of one block of the pyramid
Cheops didn't build the pyramid. Some
boss mason in the worlds twilight didn't
build the pyramid. One hundred Thousand
men built it and perhaps from first to last
two hundred thousand men.
So with the pyramids now rsing-pyra-
mids Of evil or pyramids of good. The
pyramid of drunkenness, rising ever since
the time when Noah got drunk on wine,
there was at his time such q su-
perabundance of water. All the saloonists
of the ages adding their layers of ale casks
and wine pitchers and rum jugs until the
pyramid overshadows the Great Sahara
desert of desolated homes and broken
hearts and destroyed eternities. And as
the pyramid still rises, layers of human
skulls piled on top of human skulls and
other mountains of human bones to whiten
the peaks reaching unto the heavens, hun
dreds of thousands of people are building
that pyramid.
So with the pyramid of righteousness
Multitudes of hands are toiling on the
sleeps, hands infantile, hands oetogenari-
an, masculine hands, female hands, strong
hands, weak hands. Some Changing a
trowel, some pulling a rope, some meas
uring the sides. Layers of psalm books on
top of layers of sermons Layers of prayers
on top of layers of holy sacrifice. And
hundreds of thousands coming down to
sleep their last sleep, but other hun
dreds of thousands going up to take
their places, and the pyramids will con-
tinue to rise until the millennial morning
gilds the completed work, and the toilers
on these heights shall take off their aprons
and throw down their trowels, crying, at
is inishedW
BUILDING FOR ETERNITY.
Your business and mine is not to build a
M i'll h,1t tO ha ~ l,, i =
thousands who shall ring trowel or pull
a rope or turn the crank Of derrick, or
cry, "Yo, heaveW while lifting another
block to it's elevation. Though it be seem
lngly small work and brief work, it is
a work that shall last forever In the last
day many man and woman whose work
has never been recognized on earth will
come to special honor The EcumGnical
now in session at Washington, its
delegates the honored representatives of
fifty million Methodists in all parts of the
earth, will at every session do honor to the
of John Wesley, but wonder if
any of them will think to twist garland
for the memory of humble Peter Boiler,
the Moravian, who brought John Wesley
into the kingdom of God.
rejoice that all the thousands who have
been toiling on the pyramid of righteous
ness will at last be recognized and re-
mother who brought her chill
dren to Christ the Sabbath teacher who
brought her class to the knowledge of the
truth, the unpretending man who saved a
soul. Then the trowel will be more hon
ored than the scepter. AS a great battle
was going on the soldiers were ordered to
the front and sick man jumped out of an
ambulance in which he was being carried
to the hospital. The surgeon asked him
what he meant by getting out of the am
bulance when he was sick and almost
ready to die. The soldier answered: "Doc-
tor, am going to the front. had rather
die on the field than die in an ambulance" :"
Thank God; if we cannot do much we can
do little.
Further, carrying out the idea of my
text, the pyramid is a sign and witness
that big tombstones are not the best way
Of keeping ones self affectionately remem-
oered. This pyramid and the sixty-nine
other pyramids still standing were built
FOR sepulchers, all this great pile of granite
and limestone by which we stand today, to
was the great Westminster abbey of the
lncients. Some say that Cheops was the
King who built this pyramid, but it is IN
certain. Who was Cheops anyhow? All
ihat the world knows about him could be
'old in few sentences. The only thing
certain is that he was bad, and that he
shut up the temples of worship, and that
1e was hated so that the Egyptians were
glad when he was dead.
This pyramid of rock seven hundred and
'orty feet each side of the square base and
our hundred and fifty feet high wins for
him no respect. If bone of his arm or
DOT had been found in the sarcophagus
beneath the pyramid, it would have ex-
,ited no more veneration than the skele-
on of camel bleaching on the Libyan
lesert; yea, less veneration, for when |
aw the carcass of camel by the roadside
IN the way to Memphis, said to myself,
Poor thing, | wonder of what it died"