The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1891-11-05


Cities and Rivers and Place, of Long
Ago.
BROOKLYN, Oct. 25.-The render
ing of the First Sonata in d Minor, bv
Guilmant, on the great organ of the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, by
Professor Horny Eyre Browne, the Or
ganlst, held tic vast congregation spell
bound with profound emotion. DR.. Tai
mage preached Oh "Saling Up the Nlle,"
the second serruon of the series entitled
''From the pyramles 10 the Acropolis;
or, What l saw IN Egypt and Greece
Contlrmatorv of the Scriptures" His
text was Ezekiel xxx, 9, 1.-The River
Is Mine and L Have Made It.''
Aha! This is the River Nile. A brown
or yellow Or silver cord on which arc
hung more jewels of thrilling interest
in the sunshine. 1t rilples through the
book of Ezekiel, and flashes in the books
OF Deuteronomy and Isaiah and Zecharia
and Nahum, aud on its banks stood the
mlghtIes OF many ages. 1t was the
crystal cradle Of Moses, and on its banks
Marry the refugee, carried the infant
Jesus. TO tiud The birthplace OF this
river was tie fascination and defeat of
expeditions wilhouG number.
Not many Years ago Bayald Taylor,
our great A'ucrcan traveller, wrote.
"Sincc (OlunA 1us :irsL looked upon San
SalvadCr the Garth has but one ONO
ton OF trlu npN left tor her bestowal, aud
that she reserves for him who shall first
drink from tie fountains Of the White
Nile under TIC SHOW fields Of Kilma-
Njaro.' Bu> the discovery OF the
sources o( the Nile by most people was
considered au imNossibi!ity. The ma.
larias, the wll! beasts, the savagcs, the
unclimDnhle sleeps, tie vast distances,
stopped all the expeditions for ages.
But the White Nile would do little
for EGvrt if this were all. 1t would
keep lis bankS and Egypt would remain
a desert. Blu: from Abvssinia there
comes what is called the Blue Nile,
which, though dry or nearly dry half
the year, under tremo ndous rains about
lie middle OF June rises to great mo-
mentum, and 'his Blue Nile dashcs with
sudden influx into The White Nile, which
in consequence rises thirty feet and
their combined waters lnundate Egypt
with a rich soil which drops on all the
fields and gardens as it is conducted by
bitches and sluiccs 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
it's healtbful and abundant flow. The
famine IN Joseph's time came from the
lack lf sufficient inundation from the
Nile. Not enough Nile is drought; too
much Nile ls trcshet and plague. The
nj Of hn hn &c;
prosperity. II by some convulsIon Of
nature the Mississippi should be taken
from North America, or the Amazon
from South America. or the Danube
from Europe, or the Ycnisei from Asia
what hemisphere calamity! Still,
there are other rivers, that could fertil-
ize and save these countries.
What happens to the Nile, happens to
Egypt. The Nilomctcr was to me very
suggestive as we went mp and 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, twcn-
ty-four teet-and when the right height
or water is reached the gates of the ca
mails are tlurg open aud the liquid and
refreshing bcncdiction is pronounced on
all the land.
AS we start where the Nile emptcs
into Il Mediterranean sea, we behold
wonderful iuilllment Of prophecy. The
Nile In very ancient times used to have
seven mouths. AS the great river APP
preached the sea it entered the sea at
seven different places. Isaiah prophcst-
ed, 1.-The Lord shall utterly destroy the
tongue OF the Egyptian sea and shall
smite 1t in the seven streams" The
TACT is they arc all destroyed but two,
and Hcrodotus said these two remain
ing are artificial. Up the Nile we shall
90; part OF the way by Egyptian rail
train and then by boat, and we shall un-
derstand why !hc Biblc gives such prom
inence to this river, which is the largest
river of all the earth with one exception.
But before we board the train we must
take II look at Alexandria. 1t was
founded by Alexander the Great, and
WIS ,ancc the New York, the Paris, the
London of the word. Temples, paIa-
ees, fountains, gardens, pillarcd and ct-
florescent with all architectural and
Edcnic grandeur and sweetness. Apol-
los, the eloQut Mt whom in New J'csla-
mept times some people tried to make a
rival 10 Paul. lived here. Here Mark,
the author OF the second book Of the
New Testament. expired under Ncr0's
anathema. From here the ship sailed
that left Paul and the crew struggling in
the breakers Of Mclita. But AlcXan-
der, fascinating for this or that thing.
according to ti,c + ste Of the visitor, was
to me most entertaining because it had
been the site u the greatest library that
the world ever saw, considering the fact
that the art OF printing had not been in
vented. Seven hundred thousand vol.
umes and all the work of slow pen.
But down it all went under the torch OF
besie9ers. Built again and destroyed
again. Built again, but the Arabs came
along Tor its final demolition and the
four thousand baths of the city were
heated with those volumes, the fuel last
ing six months, and were ever fires kim