The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-25
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Bricks Without Straw"

TEXT: THE Burden Of Egypt" Isaiah
xix, 1.
/ What is all this excitement about in the
streets Of Cairo, Egypt, this December
morning in 1889? Stand backl We hear
loud voices and see the crowds Of people re-
treating to the sides Of the street. The e1-
element Of others becomes u own excite
ment. Footmen come in sight. They have
0 rod in the hand and tasseled cap on head,
and their arms and feet are bare. Their
garb is black to the waist, except as threaded
with gold. and the rest is white. They are
clearing the way for an official dignitary in
. chariot or carriage. They are swift, and
sometimes run thirty or forty miles at
. stretch in front Of an equipage. Make
way! They are the feetest footed men on
earth. but soon die, for the human frame
was not made for such endurance.
Iasked all around me who the man in the
carriage was, but no one seemed to know.
Yet as I fell back with the rest to the wall I
said, This is the old custom found an up and
down the Bible, footmen running before the
rulers demanding obeisance, as in Genesis
before Joseph's chariot the people were com-
manded, "Bow the knee;;" n as I sec the
swift feet of the men followed by tho swift
feet Of the horses, how those old words Of
Jeremiah rushed through my mind, eff thou
hast run with the footmen n they have
wearied thee, how canst thou contend with
hcrses?'
Now, my hearers, in this course of sermons
I am only serving you as footman, and clear
ing the way for your coming into the
wonders Of Egyptology, a subject that l
would have you study far beyond anything
that can be said in the breyity Of pull
pit utterance. Two hundred and eighty
nine times does the Bible refer to Egypt and
the Egyptians. No wonder, for Egypt was
the mother of nations. Egypt, the mother
OF Greece; Greece, the mother OF Rome;
Rome, the mother Of England, the mother
of our land. According to that, Egypt Is
our great-great-grandmother.
On other Sabbaths I left you studying
what thew must have been in their glory:
the Hypostyle hall Of Karnac, the archi-
tecturai miracles of Luxor, the Colonnade
of Horemheb, the cemeteries Of Memphis,
the Sphinx, which with lips Of stone speaks
loud enough to be heard across the centu-
ries Heliopolis and Zoan, the conundrum OF
psychologists. But all that extravaganza
of palace and temple and monument was
the cause of an oppression high as heaven
and deep as hell. The weight OF those
blocks Of stone, heavier than any modern
machinery could lift, came down upon the
Hebrew slaves, and taelr olooo mi4eo lne
mortar for the trowels.
We saw again and again on and along the
Mica boss workman roughly smite a sub
ordinate who did not please him. It is no
rare occurrence to see long lines OF men
under heavy burdens passing by taskmas-
ters at short distances, lashing them as they
90 by into greater speed, and then these
WorSmen, exhausted with the blasting heats
of the day, lying down upon the bare
ground, suddenly chilled with the night an,
crying out in prayer: va Allah" 7
AllahP which means o God!o God! But
what must have been the olden times
cruelty shown by the Egyptians towards
their 1sraelitish slaves is indicated by a pic
lure in the Beni-Hassan tombs, where q mar
Is held down on his face by two men
another holds up the victims feet while the
officials beat the bare back of the victim,
every stroke, / have no doubt fetching the
blood.
Now you see how the Pharaohs could at.
ford to build uchcostly works. 1t cost them
nothing for w~ages-.nothing but the tears
and blood Of the %toilers, and tears and blood
are cheap drink for devils. 'Bricks without
straw" may not suggest SO much hardship
until you know that the bricks were usually
made with crushed straw" straw crushed
by the feet Of the oxenin the thrashing, and,
this crushed straw denied to the worknen,
they had to pick up here and there a piece
of stubble or gather rushes from the water
side. This story OF the Bible Is conhrmeo
by the fact that many Of the brick walls OF
Egypt have on the lower layers brick made
with straw, but the higher layers OF brick
made out OF rough straw or rushes from the
river bank, the truth Of the Book Of Exodus
thus written in the brick walls discovered by
the modern explorer.
That governmental outrage has always
been q characteristic Of Egyptian rulers.
Taxation to the point Of starvation was the
egyptian rule in the Bible times as well as
it is in our own time. A modern traveller
gives the figures concerning the cultivation
Of seventeen acres, the value Of the yield OF
the field stated in plasters:
i,ooS
Expenses. ooo7s
Clear produce. eOS19
4So
Amount cleared by the farmer ..... 315H