Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-22

| 10 tnlS pace NO one can leli- lneU 1 uf1 W
| be measured and squared, and comprised,
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 enforcement of iunumer-
able ages" My hearers, that is the auto
biography 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 thous-
| and men built it, and perhaps
| from first to last, two hundred
| thousand men. So with the pyramids
| now rising, pyramids of evil or pyramids Of
| good. The pyramid of drunkenness, rising
| ever since the time when Noah got drunk
| on wine, although there was at his time
such superabundance 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 hui
man 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 steps. hands infantile, hands
octogenarian, masculine hands, female
Changing a trowel. some pulling rope. some
measuring 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 hundreds Of
thousands going up to take their places. and
the pyramids will continue 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 finished
Your business and mine is not to build
pyramid, but to be one Of the hundreds of
thousands who shall ring trowel. or pull
rope or turn the crank of a derrick, or
cry "Yo heave!" while lifting another
block TO its elevation. Though it be seem
ingly q 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 ecumenical
council, now in session at Washington, its
delegates the honored repre-: entatives of
$4,000, 600 Methodists in all parts of the
earth, will at every session do honor to the
memory of John Wesley. but l wonder if
any of them viii think to twist a 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 righteousness will at last be
recognized and rewarded-the mother who
brought her children to Christ, the Sab
bath teacher, who brought her class to the
knowledge of the truth, the unpretending
man man who saved 4 soul. Then the
trowel will be more honored than the
scepter. As great battle was on the
SOLDIERS WERE ORDERED
to the front and a 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 an bui-
ance when he was sick and almost ready to
die. The soldier answered: Doctor, ann
going to the front. / had rather die in 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 affectionateiy remem-
bered. This pyramid and the sixty-nine
other pyramids still standing were built for
sepulchreS, all this great pile of granite and
limestone by which we stand to-day. TO
cover the memory of dead king. 1t was
the great Westminster Abbey of the an
clients. Some say that Cheops was the
king who built this pyramid, but it is I'M
certain. Who was Cheops, anyhow All
that the world knows about him could DC
told in q few sentences. The only thing
certain is that he was bad and that he shut
up the temples of worship and that he was
hated SO that the Egyptians were glad
when he was dead. This pyramid Of rock
740 feet each side of the square base and
$50 feet high wins for him no respect If
bone of his arm or foot had been
found in the sarcophagus beneath
the pyramid, it would have excited
no more veneratiOn than the the skeleton of
a camel bleaching on the Libyan desert yea,
less generation. for when l saw the carcass
of camel on the roadside on my way to
Memphis, said to myself: poor thing, l
wonder of what it died" We say nothing
against the marble or the bronze of the ne
cropolis. Let all that sculpture and flores
ceDce and arboreSCence can do for the
places of the dead be done. if means will
allow it. But if after one is dead there is
some
PIECES OF STONE
there is but little left Some of the finest
monuments are over people who amounted
to nothing while they lived, while some of
the worthlest men and women have not had
above them stone big enough to tell their
name
Joshua, the greatest warrior the world
ever saw, DO monument; Moses. the great
est lawyer that ever lived. no monument;
Paul. the greatest preacher that ever lived,
no monument: Christ, the savior of the
world and the rapture of heaven, no monu-
ument. A pyramid over scoundrelly
Cbeops, but only single with lean pen
Gil epitath over many good mans grave.
Some of the finest obituaries have been
printed about the worst rascals. To-day at
Brussels there is pyramid of flowers on
the grave of Boulanger, the notorious Hber-
tine. Yet it is natural to want to be re-
membered.
While there seems to be no practical use
for post-mortem consideration later than
the time of ones great grandchildren, yet
no one wants to be forgotten as soon as the
obsequies are over This pyramid which
Isaiah says is sign and witness, demon
strates that neither limestone nor red gran
lite are competent to keep one affectionately
remembered; neither can bronze; neither
can Parian marble; neither can Aberdeen
granite do the work. But there is some
thing out of wnich to build an everlasting
monument and that will keep one freshly
remembered four thousand years; yea. for
ever and ever. 1t does not stand in marble
yards. 1t is not to be purchased at mourn
ing stores. Yet it is to be found in every
neighborhood, plenty of it. inexhaustibIe
quantities of it. 1t is the greatest stuff in
the universe to build monuments out Of. I
refer to the memories of those to whom we
can do kindness, the memories of those
whose struggles we may alleviate, the
memories of those whose souls we may
save. All around Cairo and Memphis there
are the remains of pyramids that have gone
down under the wearing away of time. and
this great pyramid of which Isaiah in the
text speaks will vanish if the world lasts
long enough; and if the world does not
loet fha,, xvy,AI @La ~,