Milford chronicle., 1891-10-30
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DR.. TALMAeE'S SECOND SERMON ON
HIS OLD WORLD JOURNEYS.

He Finds Confirmation OF the Truth o
the Scriptures in the Testimony OF th'
cities and Rivers and Places Of Ions
Ago.
BROOKLYN, oct. 25.-The rendering o
the First Sonata in d Minor, by Guilmant
on the great organ of the Brooklyn Taber
nacle this morning, by Professor Henry
Eyre Browne, the Organist, held the vas
congregation spellbound with profound
emotion. Dr. Talmage preached on sail
ing Up the Nile,n the second sermon of th'
series entitled ''From the Pyramids to th,
Acropolis; or, What I Saw in Egypt anC
T Greece Confrmatory of the Scriptures.
His text was Ezekiel xxx, Q, 1.-The Rivel
Is Mine and Have Made It..
Ahal This is the River Nile. A brown
or yellow or silver cord on which are hung
more Jewels Of thrilling interest than OF
any river that was ever twisted in the snu
shine. It ripples through the book Of Eze
kiel, and flashes in the books Of Deuteron
omy and Isaiah and Zecharia and Ma
hum, and on its banks stood the mightie!
of many ages. It was the crystal cradle o
Noses and on its banks Mary, the refugee
Carried the infant Jesus. To find the birth
place Of this river was the fascination and
defeat of expeditions without number.
Not many years ago Bayard Taylor, Oul
great American traveller, wrote, "SincC
Columbus first looked upon San Salvador
the earth has but one emotion OF triumph
left for her bestowal, and that she reserves
for him who shall first drink from the
fountains of the White Nile under the snow
fields of Kilima-Njaro." But the discovery
. of the sources of the Nile by most people
was considered an impossibility. The ma
larias, the wild beasts, the savages, the un
climbable sleeps, the vast distances
stopped all the expeditions for ages.
An intelligent native said to Sir Samuel
W. Baker and wife as they were on theil
way to accomplish that in which Others
had failed: "Give up the mad scheme OF
the Nile source. How would it be possible
for a lady young and delicate to endure
what would kill the strongest man? Give
it up." But the work went on until Speke
and Grant and Baker found the two lakes
which are the source of what was called
the White Nile, and baptized these two
lakes with the names of Victoria and Al
bert. These two lakes, filed by great rain
falls and by accumulated SHOWS from the
mountains, pour their waters, laden with
agricultural wealth such us blesses no other
river, on down over the cataracts, on be
tween frowning mountains, on between
cities living and cities dead, on for -four
thousand miles and through continent.
But the White Nile would do little fol
Egypt if this were all. 1t would Keep its
banks and Egypt would remain desert.
But from Abyssinia there comes what is
called the Blue Nile, which, though dry or
nearly dry half the year, under tremendous
rains about the middle of June rises to
great momentum, and this Blue Nile
dashes with sudden influx into the White
Nile, which in consequence rises thirty
feet and their combined waters inundate
Egypt with a rich soil which drops on all
the fields and gardens as it is conducted
by bitches and sluices and canals every
whittier
The greatest damage that ever came to
Egypt came by the drying up of the River
Nile, and the greatest blessing by its
healthfu and abundant flow. The famine
in Joseph's time came from the lack Of suf-
flcient inuudation from the Nile Not
enough Nile is drought; too much Nile is
freshet and plague, The rivers Of the earth
are the mothers of its prosperity. If by
some oonvulSion of nature the Mississippi
should be taken from North America, or
the Amazon from South America, or the
Danube from Europe, or the Yenisei from
Asia--what hemisphere calamity Still,
there are other rivers that could fertilize
and save these countries.
Our own continent is gulched, is rib
boned, is gloriied by innumerabe water
courses. But Egypt has only one great
river, and that is harnessed to draw all
the prosperities of realms in acreage semi
infinite. What happens TO the Nile, hap
pens to Egypt. The Nilometer was to me
very suggestive as we went up aud down
its damp stone steps and saw the pillar
marked with notches telling just how
high or low are the waters of the Nile.
When the Nile is rising four criers every
morning run through the city announc-
ing how many feet the river has risen
ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet, twenty
four feet-and when the right height Of
water is reached the gates of the canals
are flung open and the liquid and refresh
ing benediction is pronounced on all the
land