The Bossier banner., 1891-12-31
Two great nations, Egypt and 6leece,

Tor one book, copy or Aschylus'
Ptoleny, the Egyptian king, discovered
that in the great library at Alexandria
there was no copy of Eschylus. The
Egyptian king sent up to Athens,
Greece, to borrow the book and make
copy Of it. Athens demanded de-
posit of SIT, 700 as security. The Egyp-
tian king received the book, but re-
fused to return that which he had bor-
rowed and SO forfeited the SIT, 700. The
two nations rose i'll contention concern"
ing that one book. Beautiful and mighty
book indeed! But it is book of horrors,
the dominant idea that we are the
victims of hereditary influences from
which there is no escape, and that fate
rules the world, and although the au-
thor does tell of Prometheus who was
crucified on the rocks for sympathy for
mankind, powerful suggestion of the
sacrifice of Christ in later years, it is
very poor book compared with that
book which we hug to our hearts be-
cause it contains our only guide IN life,
our only comfort in death, and our
only hope for blissful immortality. If
two nations could afford to struggle for
one copy of Eschylus, how much more
can all nations afford to struggle for
the possession and triumph of the Holy
Scriptures2
But the dead cities strung along the
Nile not only demolish inidelity, but
thunder down ,he absurdity of the
modern doctrine of evolution which
says the world started with nothing and
then rose, and human nature began
with nothing, but evolved into splendid
manhood and womanhood of itself.
Nay; the sculpture of the world was
more wonderful in the days of Memphis
and Thebes and Carthage than in the
days of Boston and New York. Those
blocks of stone weighing three hundred
tons high up in the wall at Karnac i'm
ply machinery equal to, if not surpass-
ing, the machinery of the nineteenth
century. How was that statue of
Rameses, weighing eight hundred and
eighty-seven tons, transported from
the quarries two hundred miles
away and how was it lifted? Tell us,
modern machinists. How were those
galleries of rock, still standing at
| Thebes, filed with paintings surpassed
by no artists pencil of the present day?
Tell US, artists of the nineteenth cen.
tury, The dead cities of Egypt so faI
as they have left enough pillars or
statues or sepulchers or temple ruins
to tell the story Memphis, Migdol,
Hierapolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen,
Carthage-nll of them developing
downward instead of upward. They
have evoluted from magnifcence
into destruction. The Gospel of
Jesus Christ is the only ele-
vator of individual and social ma
tional character. Let all the living
cities know that pomp and opulence
and temporal prosperity are no security,
Those ancient cities lacked nothing but
good morals. Dissipation and sin slew
them, and unless dissipation and sin are
halted they will some day slay our mod
ern cities, and leave our palaces of mer-
chandise and our galleries of art and
our city halls as fat in the dust as we
found Memphis on the afternoon of that
Thanksgiving day.
And if the cities go down, the nation
will go down. "Oh," you say. ''that is
impossible; we have stood so long-yea,
over a hundred years as a nation" j"
Why, what of that? Thebes stood five
hundred years: Memphis stood thou
sand years. God does not forget that.
One day with the Lord is as a thousand
years and a thousand years is as one
day. Rum and debauchery and bad
politics are more rapidly working the
destruction of our American cities than
sin of any kind, and all kinds worked
for the destruction of the cities of
Africa, once so mighty and now SO pros
trate. But their gods were idols, and
could do nothing except for debase-
ment. Our God made the heavens and
sent His Son to redeem the nations.
And our cities will not go down, and
our nation will not perish because the
Gospel is going to triumph. Forward!
all schools and colleges and churches.
| Forward! all reformatory and mission
airy organizations. Forward! all the In
fuences marshaled to bless the world.
Let our modern European and Amer
lean cities listen to the voice of those
ancient cities resurrected, and by ham
mer and chisel and crowbar compelled
to speak.
l notice the voice of those ancient
cities is hoarse from the exposure OF
forty centuries, and they accentuate
slowly with lips that were palsied for
ages, but altogether those cities along
the Nile intone these words: Hear lis
for we are very old, and it is hard for us
to speak. We were wise long before
Athens learned her first lesson. We
sailed our ships while yet navigation
was unborn. These obelisks, these
pyramids, these fallen pillars, these
wrecked temples, these colossi of black
granite, these wrecked sarcophagi under
the brow of the hills, tell you of what
was in grandeur, and of what | am
coming down to be. We sinned and we
fell. Our learning could not save us.
See those half obliterated hieroglyphics
on yonder wall Our architecture could
not save us. See the painted columns
of Phil8e, and the shattered temple of
Esneh. Our heroes could not save us:
Witness Menes, Diodorus, Rameses and
Ptolerny. Our gods Ammon and Osiris