Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-11-05
BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW
SERMON PREACHED BY THE REV.
r. DE WITT TALMAGE.
Although the Popular Divine Has
Preached Twenty-four Years in Brook
Iyn, His Audiences We're Never Larger.
"The burden of Egypt" His Text


"The burden of Egypt" His Text.
BRoOKLTN, Nov. 1.-The Tabernacle was
thronged as usual this morning The vast
ediice filled to its utmost capacity with
Eager listeners shows how the popular
preacher retains his power over the people.
Although he has been preaching in Brook
Ign for more than twentyfour years, his
audiences were never so large rs now, ana
although the largest Protestant church in
America has been built for him. there never
was time when SO many persons were
turned away for lack of room. The sub
ject of this mornings sermon was bricks
Without Straw" II continuation of the
series on the confirmation of Holy Scrip
ture which DR.. Talmage found in his jour
ney from the Pyramids to the Acropols.
His text WAS Isaiah xix, l, The burden of
Egypt"
What is all this excitement about in the
streets of Cairo, Egypt, this December
morning in 1889? Stand back! We hear
loud voices and see the crowds of people
retreating to the sides of the street. The
excitement of others becomes our own ex-
element. Footmen come in sight. They
have a 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 i'll chariot or carriage. They
are swift, and sometimes run thirty or
forty miles at a stretch in front of an equi
page. Make wayl They are the neetest
footed men on EARTH but soon die, for the
human frame was not made for such en-.
durance.
asked all around me who the man in
the carriage was, but no one seemed to
know Yet as fell back with the rest to
the wall | said, This is the old custom
found all up and down the Bible, footmen
running before the rulers, demanding
obesance, as in Genesis before Joseph's
chariot the people were commanded, Bow
the knee" and as see the swift feet of
the men followed by the swift feet of the
horses how those old words of Jeremiah
rushed through my mind, "lf thou hast
run with the footmen and they have
wearied thee, how canst thou contend with
horses?"
HE SERVES AS A FooTMAN.
Now, my hea "ers, in this course of ser
mons am only serving you as footman,
md clearing the way for your coming into
he wonders of Egyptology, subject that
would have you study far beyond any
hing that can be said in the brevity of
,upit utterance Two hundred and
.ghty-nne 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 mot her
of Rome; Rome, the mother of England;
England, the mother of our own land Ac-
cording to that, Egypt is our great great
grandmother.
On other Sabbaths | left you studying
what they must have been in their glory:
the llypostyle hall of karnac the archi.
tectura miracles at Luxor, the Colonnade
of HOremheb the cemeteries of Memphis,
the value of "A kingdom in one monument,
the Sphinx, which with lips of stone
speaks loud enough to be heard across he
centuries, Iieliopols and Zoan, the conun-
drum of archPoogists. But all that ex.
travagance of palace and temple and mon
ument was the cause of an oppression high
as heaven and deep as hell. The weigh of
those blocks of stone, heavier than any
modern machinery could lift, came down
upon the Hebrew slaves, and their blood
mixed the mortar for the trowels
We saw again and again on and along
the Nile a boss workman roughly smite q
subordinate who did not please him. 1t is
no rare occurrence to see long lines Of men
under heavy burden, passing by tasiluas-
tiers at short distances, flashing them RS
they go by into greater speed, and then
these wOrkmen, exhausted with the blast
Ing heats of the day, lying down upon the
bare ground, suddenly chilled with tie
night air, crying ont in prayer: "Ia,
Allan" "Ya, Allahr which means Q
Cod O God! But what must have been
the olden times cruelty shown by the
Egyptians toward their Israelitsn slaves
ind ftI Inv .,i,.