Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-11-07
GREAT BABYLON.
FOR IN ONE EOUR IS Thy JUDGMENT COME
Dr.. Talmags Discusses on the Rise snd Fall Of
Nations II Political Bribery Threatens 70
Annihilais American InS6mholS-Ul-
GERS Upon The Body P1.i-1.


Talmage to-day selected fer his sermon
a subject sufficiently appropriate for
these times, when, throughout the
United States, great political questions
are being discussed and the nation is
about to 20 to the ballot box and decide
who shall rule in neighbOrhood, town,
city and nation, The text chosen was
Rev. is: lO-''Alas, alas, that great city
Babylon, that mighty citYl for In one
hour Is thy judgment come"
Modern scientists are doing Splen-
did work IN excavating the tomb Of
daad empire holding in its arms dead
city, mother and child OF the same
name-Babylon. The ancient mound
Invites the spades and shOvels and
croRbarS, while the unwashed natives
look on in surprise. These scientists
fnd yellow bricks still Impressed with
the name OF Nebuchadnezzar, and they
20 down into the sarcOphaguS of mon
archy buried more than two thousand
years ago. May the explorations of
Rawlison and Layard and Chevalier
and 0ppertO and Lotus and CheSney
be eclipsed By the present arch@olog-
ical uncOverlng.
But is IL possible this is sll that re-
mains Of Babylon? city once five
times larger than London and twelve
times larger than New York? Walls
three hundred and seventy-three feet
high and ninety-three feet thick.
Twenty-Five FURNISHED gates on each
side, with streets running clear through
TO corresponding gates on the other
side. Six hundred and twenty-five
squares.
MORE POSIP AND WEALTH
and splendor and sin than could be
found in any five modern cities COM
bined. A city Of palaces and temples.
A city of palaces and temples. A city
having within 10 q garden on an arti-
fetal hill four hundred feet high, the
sides OF the mountain terraced. All
this built 20 keep the kings wife, Amy
It's, FROM becoming bOmesick for the
mountainous region Ia which she had
spent her girlhO0d. The waters Of the
EuphrGtes SpOuted up 30 irrgate this
great altitude into fruits and flowers
and arbOrescence Uuimaginable. A
great river running from north 70 south
clear through the city, bridges over 1t,
tunnels under IT, boats on it.
A city of baZarS and market places,
unriyalled for aromatics aud unguents
and hiEh-mettled horses with groOms by
their side, and thyme wood, and African
evergreen, and Egyptian linen, and all
styles OF costly textile fabric, and raTeSt
puppies extracted from shell-tSh on the
iJterTanean coast, and rareSt scarle.s
taken from brilliant insects in Spain,
and worries brought from successful
elephant hunts In India, and diamonds
whose fash was a repartee 10 She sun.
Fortress within fortress, Jembatt,e-
ment rising above embattlement.
Great capital Of the ages. But one
night, while honest citizens were asleep,
but all the saloons Of fsaturnalia were
in full blast, and at the kings castle |
they had flied tAe tankards for the /
tenth time, aud Feeling and gutTawing |.
and hiccougbin2 around the state table /
we've ~" pf the land, General /,
.,ytus ordered his beSieging army 10 |
take shovels and spades, and they d.
verted the river from It's usual channel /
into another direction so that the Tor |
saken bed of the river became the patn |
on which the besieging army entered. |
When the morning dawned the con
ouerers were Inside the outside trenches.
Babylon has fallen, and hence the SUD
lime threnody OF the text: Alas, alas, |
the great city Of Babylon, the mighty !
city, for in one hour is thy judgment |
come"
BUT DO NATIONS DIE?
oh. YES. there is great mortality among
monarchies and republics. They are
like individuals iG the fact they are
horn. they have q middle life, they have
q decease. they have q cradle, and a
grave. Some OF them are asaSsinated,
some destroyed by their own hand. Let
me call the roll OF some OF the dead civ
ilizatious and some of the dead cities
and let some one answer for them.
Eqvptian civilization, stand up.
"Desdr' answered the ruins OF hurnaS
and Luxor, and from seventy pyramids
on the east side of the Nile there comes
uD a great chorus, crying: dead,
deadr Assyrian Empire, stand up aud
answer ''Deadw CRY the charred ruins
OF Nineveh. After six hundred years
OF magnificent opportunity, dead.
Israelitish Kingdom, stand up. After
Two hundred end fifty years or divine
iuterpOsitiOn and OF miraculous yiclSsl-
tudes and Of heroic behavior and OF APP
palling Gepravity, dead. Ph9uicla,
stand uD. After inventing the al
phabet and giving 10 the world, and
sendirg out her merchant caravans
in ong direction TO Central Asia, aud
sending out her navigatOrS to the At
lantic Ocean in another direction, dead.
pillars OF Hercules and rocks on which
the Tyrian fisherman dried their nets,
all answer. Dead PhRnicis. Athens,
after Phldias, after Demosthenes, after
MiltiadeS, dead. Sparta, after Leoni-
das. after EurybiadeS, alter Salamis,
after Thermopyle, dead. Roman Em-
pire. stand up and answer. Empire
once bounded by the British Channel on
the north, by the EupbrateS on the
east. by the great Sahara Desert In Al
RIGA on the south, by the Atlantic Ocean
on the west. Home of three great civ
ilizatlons, owning ali the then discovered
world that was worth owning, Roman
Empire, answer. Gi0bOn, in MS "Rlse
and Fall OF the Roman Empire" says
'sDeadrn and the forsaken seats OF the
ruined Coliseum, and the skeleton OF
he aQueducts, and the miasma OF the
ampagna, and the fragments OF the
qrble baths, and the useless piers Of
Bridge Triumphalis, and the
tine prison, holding no more
prisoners, and the silent
------1ds Basilica of Constantine,
ygrch. Of Titus, and the Pantheon
ne in -