News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-22
News and Citizen
MORRISVILLE and HYDE PARK,
Thursday. October 22, 1891.
BUILD FOR ETERNITY.
SUBLIME LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE
GREAT PYRAMID OF GlZEH.

Entitled, From the Pyramids to the
AcropOIis," Enforcing and Illustrating
the Truths of Scripture.
BROOKLYN, Oct. '1S-The vast con-
rregation at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
his morning was delighted by an ex-
Tuisite rendering, by Professor Henry
Eyre Browne, on the new organ, of
Denier's second sonata in G. DR..
Talmage's sermon was the first of a
series he intends preaching on his east
ern tour, entitled, From the Pyramids
to the Acropolis, or What l Saw in
Egypt and Greece Confirmatory of the
Scriptures His text was Isaiah xix, 10,
20: I'm that day shall there be an altar
to the Lord in the midst of the land of
Egypt and a pillar at the border thereof
to the Lord. And it shall be for sign
and for a witness"
Isaiah no doubt here refers to the
great pyramid at Gizeh, the chief pyra-
mid of Egypt. The text speaks of a
pillar in Egypt, and this is the great
est pillar ever lifted; and the text says
it is to be at the border of the land,
6ad this pyramid is at the border of
the land; and the text says it shall be
for witness, and the object of this
sermon is to tell what this pyramid
witnesses. This sermon is the first of
course of sermons entitled, From
the Pyramids to the Acropolis, or
What l Saw in Egypt and Greece Con-
fir1natory of the Scriptures"
We had, on a morning of December,
1889, landed in Africa Amid the howl
ing boatmen at Alexandria we had come
ashore and taken the rail train for
Cairo, Egypt, along the banks of the
most thoroughly harnessed river of all
the world-the river Nile. We had, at
eventide, entered the city of Cairo, the
city where Christ dwelt while staying
in Egypt during the Herodic persecu-
tion. 1t was our first night in Egypt.
No destroying angel sweeping through
as once, but all the stars were out and
the skies were filled with angels of
beauty and angels of light, and the air
was balmy as an American June. The
next morning we were early awake and
at the window, looking upon palm trees
in full glory of LEAKAGE, and upon gar
dens of fruits and flowers at the very
season when our homes far away are
canopied by bleak skies and the last
leaf of the forest has gone down with
the equinoctials.
But how can 1 describe the thrill of
expectation, for today we are to see
what all the world has seen or wants
to see-the pyramids. We are mount
ed for an hour and a half's ride. We
pass on amid baZaars stuffed with rugs
and carpets and curious fabrics of all
sorts from Smyrna, from Algiers, from
Persia, from Turkey, and through
streets, where we meet people of all
colors and all CARDS, carts loaded with
garden productions, priests in gowns,
women in black wells, Bedouins in long
and seemingly superfiuous apparel,
Janissaries in jackets of embroidered
gold-out and on toward the great
pyramid; for though there are sixty
nine pyramids still standing, the pyra-
mid at Gizeh is the monarch of pyra-
mids. We meet camels grunting under
their load, and see buffaloes on either
clAC OiOWSll15 III pasture ISluS
The road we travel is for part of the
way under clumps of acacia, and by
long rows of sycamore and tamerisk,
but after awhile it is a path of rock
and sand, and we find we have reached
the margin OF the desert, the great
Sahara desert, and we cry out to the
dragoman as we see a huge pile of
rock looming in sight. 'Dragoman, what
is thatP' His answer is, The pyra-
mid" and then it seemed as if we were
living a century every minute Our
thoughts and emotions were too rapid |
and intense for utterance, and we ride |
on in silence until we come to the foot |
of the pyramid spoken of in the text, |
the oldest structure in all the earth, |
four thousand years old at least. Here
it is. We stand under the shadow of
structure that shuts out all the earth |
and all the sky, and we look up and |
strain our vision to appreciate the dis
ti,nt top, and are overwhelmed while |
we cry, 1.-The Pyramid The pyramid!'
AFRAID OF THAT WHICH IS HIGH"
| had started that morning with the
mid. One of my chief objects in going
to Egypt was not only to see the
base of that granite wonder, but to
stand on the top of it. Yet the nearer
] came to this eternity in stone the
more my determination was shaken
Is altitude to me was simply appalling.
+ great height has always been to Inc
.,ef A.
{ mounted at the base of the pyramid
| said: 'Others may go up it, but
not l. will satisfy myself with a
view from the base. The ascent of it
would be to me foolhardy undertake
ing"
But after had given up. all idea Of
ascending I found my daughter was de
termined to go, and | could not let her
q with strangers, and | changed my
md, and we started with guides. 1t
cannot be done without these helpers.
Two or three times foolhardy men have
attempted it alone, but their bodies
came tumbling down unacceptable
and lifeless Each person in our party
had two or three guides or helpers. One
of them unrolled his turban and tied il
around my waist, and he held the other
end of the turban as matter of safety
Many of the blocks of stone are four or
five feet high and beyond any ordinary
human stride unless assisted. But, two
Arabs to pull and two Arabs to push,
found myself rapidly ascending from
height to height, and on to attitudes
terrific, and at last at the tip top we
found ourselves ON a level space of
about thirty feet square
Through the clearest atmosphere we
looked off upon the desert, and of
upon the winding Nile, and off upon
the Sphinx with it's features of ever
lasting stone, and yonder upon the
minarets of Cairo glittering in the sun,
and yonder upon Memphis in ruins,
and off upon the wreck of empires and
,he battlefelds of ages, radius of
view enough to fill the mind and shock
the nerves and overwhem ones entire
being
liter looking around for awhile, and
kodak had pictured the group we
descended. The descent was more
lying than the ascent, for climbing you
need not see the depths beneath, but
corning down it was impossible not to
see the abysIns below. But, two Arabs
ahead to help us down and two Arabs
to hold us back, we were lowered hand
L = L. L